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MUSIC IN MEDIEVAL BRITAIN

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC

EDITED BY EGON WELLESZ

C.B.E., F.B.A., Hon. D. Mus. Oxon.

Fellow of Lincoln College

MUSIC

IN MEDIEVAL

BRITAIN

WIM»M»lllllll«MHIIIIKIt> IHIK >lll « (MIIHIIIIMHIIIMIIIIIIII

by
FRANK LI. HARRISON

Senior Lecturer in Music in the University of Oxford

FREDERICK A. PRAEGER
NEW YORK

Cl. ol

Published in the United States of America

in ig$g by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.

Publishers, 15 West 47th Street,

New Tork36,JV.T.

321091

BOOKS THAT MATTER

MUSIC LIBRARY

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Printed in Great Britain

by Butler & Tanner Limited

Frome and London

TO NORA

CONTENTS

PREFACE Xlll

I THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS I

Secular Cathedrals 2

Collegiate Churches and Household Chapels 1 7

Colleges 30

Monasteries 38

II THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG 46

Ordinal and Customary 47

Psalm and Canticle 58

Antiphon 58

Respond 61

Tract 64

Hymn, Sequence and Prose 64

Lesson 70

Ordinary of the Mass; Tropes 72

Benedicamus Domino 74

Commemorations and Memorials 76

Votive Mass 77

Votive Antiphon 81

Processions 88

Ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter 97

Plainsong Books; the Tonale 99

III THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

FROM I IOO TO I4OO 104

Ceremonial in Choir 104

Polyphony and the Ritual 109

Polyphony in the Twelfth and Thirteenth 1 1 5

Centuries

Benedicamus and Conductus; Clausula and 122

Motet

vii

CONTENTS

Characteristics of English Polyphony 128

Rofidellus-motet and Rondellus-conductus 141

Descant in the Fourteenth Century 149

Polyphony to English Words 153

IV THE INSTITUTIONS AND THE CULTIVA-
TION OF POLYPHONY FROM I4OO TO
THE PREFORMATION 156

Colleges

157

Household Chapels

170

Collegiate Churches

174

Secular Cathedrals

177

Monasteries

185

Cathedrals of the Mew Foundation

194

Parish Churches

:97

The Medieval Organ

202

The Ritual Use of the Organ

214

Polyphony and Devotion

218

V MASS AND MOTET 220

French and English Style in the Fourteenth

and Early Fifteenth Centuries 222
The First Group of Composers in the Old Hall

Manuscript 228
English and French Style from 1413 to c. 1430 243
The Later Composers in the Old Hall Manu-
script 245
Dunstable and His Contemporaries 250
The Development of the Festal Mass 257
The Festal Mass in the Sixteenth Century 262
The Shorter Mass 274

VI VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT 295

Origin and Development of the Votive Antiphon 295

The Eton Antiphons 307

The Votive Antiphon in the Sixteenth Century 329

The Shorter Votive Antiphon 337

The Magnificat 344

VII OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL 353

Ritual Antiphon 353

Respond 366
viii

CONTENTS

Tract

Hymn

Sequence and Prose

Lesson

Processional Music

Apostles' Creed and Lord's Prayer

Benedicamus

Carol

The Break with Medieval Tradition

381
381

39i
400

403
4J3
4i5
416

423

appendix I Deed of Appointment of Richard
Hygons as Master of the
Choristers at Wells {1479) 425

appendix 11 Deed of Appointment of Thomas
Ashewell as Cantor at Durham
{1513) 429

appendix hi Extract from a Magdalen College

Inventory {1522) 431

appendix iv Extract from a King's College

Inventory (1529) 432

appendix v Extracts from a Winchester Col-
lege Inventory (1531) 434

appendix vi Extracts from the Statutes of the
New Foundation of Christ
Church Cathedral, Dublin
{1539) 437

BIBLIOGRAPHY 440

INDEX OF TITLES 466

GENERAL INDEX 476

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing page

1. Salisbury Cathedral in 1754 12

From P. Hall, 'Picturesque Memorials of Salisbury , 1834

2. Wells Cathedral: stairway from the Cathedral to the
Chapter-house and Vicars' Hall 12

Photograph by Exclusive News Agency

3. Archbishop Talbot with his minor canons and chor-
isters 1 3

Brass in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin: reproduced by permission
of the Very Rev. W. C. De Pauley, Dean of St. Patrick's

4. John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, 1 327-1 369 13

Contemporary boss in Exeter Cathedral. From C. J. P. Cave, 'Roof
Bosses in Medieval Churches', 1948: reproduced by permission of the
Executors of the late C. J. P. Cave

5. Robert Hacomblene (Hacomplaynt) (d. 1528) 13

Brass in the Hacomblene chantry chapel, King's College, Cambridge.
From H. J. Clayton, ' The Ornaments of the Ministers as shown on
English Monumental Brasses', igig: reproduced by permission of the
Alcuin Club

6. New College and its members c. 1463 28

From Thomas Chandler's Manuscript {New College Library, MS.
288) : reproduced by permission of the Warden and Fellows of New
College

7. Illumination of the Consolidation Charter of Eton
College 29

Reproduced by permission of the Provost and Fellows of Eton

8. Lincoln Cathedral: the choir in 181 9 60

Engraving by J. Le Keux (1783-1846): reproduced by permission
of the Rev. Canon A. M. Cook, Subdean of Lincoln

9. Henry VI and a Bishop at service in the King's
Chapel 61

Psalter of Henry VI (British Museum, Cotton MS. Domitian A.
xvii),fo. ij6: reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the British
Museum
10. Melodies for Agnus Dei, Ite missa est and Benedicamus
Domino in an Exeter Gradual of the thirteenth
century 76

Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS. Lat. 24, fo. 14: reproduced
by permission of Professor Edward Robinson, Librarian

ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing page
ii. Page from a Book of Hours of c. 1350-60 77

Carew-Poyntz Book of Hours (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum,
MS. 48), fo. 180: reproduced by permission of the Syndics of the
Fitzwilliam Museum

12. Exeter Cathedral c. 1820 124

Drawing by James Leakey (1775-1865) in the Cathedral Library:
reproduced by permission of L. J. Lloyd, M.A., Librarian

13. Rondellus sections of Salve mater misericordiae 125

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Printed Book Wood $gi, fly-leaf a: re-
produced by permission of the Curators of the Bodleian Library

14. Countertenor and tenor parts of Omnis terra — Habenti
dabitur 125

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. e Mus. 7, p. 531: reproduced by
permission of the Curators of the Bodleian Library

15. Ottery St. Mary: pulpitum in the Lady-chapel 140

Photograph by courtesy of Lt.-Col. R. F. Crookshank, Colestocks,
Devon

16. Positive organ of the early fourteenth century 140

Peterborough Psalter (Brussels, Royal Library, MS. gg6i),fo. 66:
reproduced by permission

17. Plymtree Parish Church, Devon: chancel screen and

loft 140

Photograph reproduced by permission of the Rector of Plymtree

18. King Henry IV (1367-1413) 141

Electrotype of the early fifteenth-century effigy in Canterbury Cathedral:
reproduced by permission of the National Portrait Gallery

19. Cantus part of Roy Henry's Gloria in excelsis 141

Old Hall Manuscript, fo. I2v: reproduced by permission of the
President, St. Edmund's College, Ware

20. Tenor and bass parts of the Hosanna in excelsis from the
Benedictus of John Lloyd's Mass 0 quam suavis 284

Cambridge, University Library, MS. Nn. 6. 46, fo. 14: reproduced
by permission

21. First page of Richard Sampson's Psallite felices 284

British Museum, MS. Royal 11 E. xi, fo. $v: reproduced by per-
mission of the Trustees of the British Museum

22. Antiphons Paradisi porta and Sancta Maria 285

Cambridge, University Library, MS. Kk. i.6,fo. 246V. reproduced by
permission

23. First page of John Browne's 0 Maria salvatoris 285
mater

Eton College, MS. iy8, opening 02, left: reproduced by permission
of the Provost and Fellows of Eton

24. First page of William Cornysh's Salve regina in the
Carver choirbook 300

Edinburgh, National Library, MS. Adv. 5.1.15: reproduced by
permission

ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing page

25. First page of En rex venit for the Palm Sunday
procession 300

British Museum, MS. Egerton 3307, fo. 8: reproduced by permis-
sion of the Trustees of the British Museum

26. Highest part of John Sheppard's three settings of

In manus tuas 301

British Museum, MS. Add. 17803, fos. 112V-113: reproduced by
permission of the Trustees of the British Museum

LIST OF LINE DRAWINGS IN
THE TEXT

Page

Map of the British Isles xviii

Plan of Salisbury Cathedral 89

Station at the Font at Vespers in Easter Week 94

Plan of Durham Cathedral 1 88-9

Wells Cathedral: original arrangement of the choir 203

Ottery St. Mary: original arrangement of the screens 211

Diagrams of three antiphons in the Eton choirbook 316

Xll

PREFACE

A he period covered by this book begins with the establish-
ment of Norman constitutions and liturgies following the Con-
quest and ends with the liturgical and institutional changes
brought about at the Reformation. The last two decades of
this period saw the end of the monastic orders in Britain, the
destruction of many of their houses and the secularization of
the rest. The Latin liturgy of the secular churches survived
until the Edwardian Prayer Book of 1549, and had a brief
revival during the reign of Queen Mary. Both in liturgy and
music the end of the Latin rite marks the close of the medieval
period, for English music was intimately bound up with the
ritual tradition and held to its established styles and functions
as long as the medieval liturgy remained. Though Renaissance
features began to appear in English music, particularly in its
secular forms, in the early sixteenth century, the transition
from medieval to Renaissance concepts of structure and style,
which took place on the continent in the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries, was not fully accomplished in England until
after the mid-sixteenth century. This is not the division be-
tween the Middle Ages and Renaissance usually adopted by
musical historians, but I believe it to be justified in the case
of the English ecclesiastical arts, both visual and musical, in
which medieval styles showed no fundamental change until
the new religious ideas became established.

In style and function the secular music of the early Tudor
courts was the vanguard of the spirit of the Renaissance in
England, and so does not come within the scope of this book.
Its early history was cut short by Henry VIII's preoccupation
with weightier matters of state after c. 1 530, and its place in
English music is that of a harbinger of developments to come.
Earlier examples of secular music are few and of minor
importance, and I have not dealt with them here. Nothing

xiii

PREFACE

identifiable as minstrel music has survived, and the history of
minstrelsy belongs to the study of social life and customs rather
than of actual music. The history of musical instruments other
than the organ is in much the same case, for there is no evidence
that any instruments but the organ were normally played in
church, and the musical remains are restricted to a small group
of instrumental dances. I have touched only briefly on the
subject of musical theory in connection with the education of
singers in descant, and the history of notation needs more
detailed and specialized study than could be given it in a survey
of this kind.

On the other hand, I have gone more fully into the history of
choirs and their liturgical customs than is usual in writing on
medieval music. Although records of local institutions have in
recent years become an important part of the study of social
history and of the history of the visual arts, little use has yet
been made of the records of the musical side of medieval institu-
tions. Besides being the chief sources of biographical informa-
tion, these records throw light on the place of musicians in the
varied communities which made up the medieval church, and
on the opportunities which life in these communities gave to
composers and singers. The demands of institutional life have
in their turn a direct bearing on changes and developments in
musical style and practice. The history of choral foundations
also serves to show how much the musical life of Britain owes
to such great patrons of the ecclesiastical arts as Grandisson,
Wykeham, Wayneflete and the Lancastrian kings, whose names,
apart from the royal composer who goes under the name Roy
Henry, do not normally figure in histories of music.

Because the polyphonic music of the Middle Ages was the
ancestor of all the techniques of composition which have been
developed since the sixteenth century, there is a tendency to
overestimate its place in the liturgy and in the musical life
of the time, as distinct from its historical importance from our
point of view. It is not always realized that ritual plainsong
was the staple fare of the medieval musician, the material of
his musical education and the basis of his professional qualifi-
cations. The place of polyphony among the liturgical arts of
poetry, music, ceremonial, vestment and ornament cannot be
seen in its true proportion apart from the order and forms of

xiv

PREFACE

the liturgy, nor can the special characteristics of its style and
design be understood apart from the ritual which was its fount
and origin. Viewed as a whole, the liturgy had a devotional
function and a didactic purpose which resembled and comple-
mented those of the buildings in which it had its place. As the
Gothic cathedral was both 'a strictly architectural monument
of the spirit of its age' and a 'Summa, another Speculum, an
encyclopedia carved in stone',1 so the yearly cycle of the
liturgy was both a Gesamt-kunstwerk of the liturgical arts and an
aural and visual representation of Christian doctrine and his-
tory. The place of polyphony in this union of the liturgical
arts and crafts is analogous to that of the finer carving of an
image, a chantry chapel, a choir-stall or a fan-vault in the
Speculum which was the medieval cathedral.

Since the greater part of the English polyphony of the
medieval period is still unpublished, most of my musical
examples have been transcribed from the manuscripts. At the
same time the debt of such a survey as this to previous musical
scholarship is bound to be a large one. More than fifty years
ago W. Barclay Squire did pioneer service in giving detailed
accounts of the contents of the Old Hall and Eton manuscripts.
Among writing on medieval music in general, H. W. Wool-
dridge's volumes in the original Oxford History of Music were a
remarkable achievement for their time, and still have value.
The researches of Friedrich Ludwig and Heinrich Besseler on
the manuscript sources of medieval music, and those of Jacques
Handschin on many details of medieval style and practice
remain indispensable, while Gustave Reese's Music in the Middle
Ages and Music in the Renaissance are mines of information and
marvels of thoroughness. In the publication of English medieval
music little was done until the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music
Society brought out editions of the Mass 0 Quam Suavis by
H. B. Collins, of a selection of the Worcester remains by Dom
Anselm Hughes, and of the Old Hall manuscript by A. Rams-
botham (completed by Collins and Hughes). The support of
the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust made possible the issuing
of ten volumes of Tudor Church Music under a group of editors,
making available from among pre-Reformation composers

1 N. Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture 1953, p. 79.

PREFACE

the complete works of Taverner, Aston and Merbeck and the
Latin music of Tallis, but leaving a great quantity of early
Tudor music still in manuscript.

With the launching of the series Musica Britannica publica-
tion of some of the hitherto unrevealed monuments of English
music has been undertaken in a systematic way. In medieval
music there have appeared editions of the Mulliner Book by
D. Stevens, of the complete corpus of fifteenth-century carols
by J. Stevens, and of the complete works of Dunstable by
M. F. Bukofzer, whose lamentable death in mid-career has
taken away one whose exact and wide-ranging scholarship had
illuminated some of the obscure phases of English medieval
music. With the study and publication, now in progress, of
the Eton Choirbook it has become abundantly clear that a new
assessment of the work of English composers in the later Middle
Ages is necessary and overdue. It has been part of my purpose
to attempt this reassessment and to place it in the larger con-
text of the history of medieval music in Britain.

For the history of musical foundations I have drawn on a
variety of printed sources, most of which are in the publications
of societies concerned with local and county history, as well
as on the manuscript archives of institutions. For permission
to study and transcribe from their archives I have to thank
the institutions concerned and their curators. I am grateful
to Mr. L. S. Colchester, Mrs. Audrey Erskine, Mr. John
Harvey and Dr. Albert Hollaender for bringing useful docu-
mentary sources to my notice, and to Dr. Jocelyn G. Dickinson,
Mme. Solange Doumic, Mr. A. B. Emden, Dr. J. R. L. High-
field, Dr. R. W. Hunt, Mr. Neil Ker, Dr. A. R. Myers, Mr.
R. L. Rickard, Mr. John Saltmarsh, Dr. B. Schofield, Sir Wasey
Sterry, Dr. Frank Taylor, Canon J. E. W. Wallis and Mr.
W. L. Webb for information or help on special points.

My chief sources for liturgical history have of course been
the publications of the Henry Bradshaw Society and the
editions of and articles on the English uses by Christopher
Wordsworth, W. H. Frere and others. On the musical side the
published material has been supplemented by manuscripts and
early prints of service-books, for some important sources of the
music of the English liturgies are still unpublished. It is to be
hoped that the splendid lead given by Frere in his facsimiles

xvi

PREFACE

of the Sarum Gradual and Antiphonal will be followed up, and
that we may soon have similar publications of the Hymnal,
Sequentiary and Processional.

I am indebted to Professor J. A. Westrup for kindly reading
through my typescript and making suggestions, to Miss
Margaret Nielsen for invaluable help with proof-reading and
indexes, to Dr. Egon Wellesz, to whose initiative is due the
launching of the series of which this is the first volume, and to
Mr. Colin Franklin, whose interest and encouragement have
attended it at every stage.

F. LI. H.

M.M.B. B XV11

50 100

XV111

KEY TO MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES

i . Aberdeen

2. Abergwili

3. Abingdon

4. London (and West-

minster)

5. Oxford (and

Oseney)

6. Armagh

7. Arundel

8. Bath

9. Beverley

10. Bishop Auckland

1 1 . Bishop's Waltham

12. Bristol

13. Bury St. Edmund's

14. Cambridge

15. Canterbury

16. Carlisle

17. Cashel

18. Chester

19. Chester-le-Street

20. Durham

21. Chichester

22. Dublin

23. Coldingham

25. Coventry

26. Crail

27. Crediton

28. Exeter

29. Plymtree

30. Ottery St. Mary

31. Dover

32. Dunkeld

33. Edington

34. Elgin (and Spyny)

36. Ely

37. Eton

38. Windsor

39. Evesham

40. Ewelme

41. Far n ham (and

Waverley Abbey)

42. Fotheringhay

43. Ripon

44. Fountains Abbey

45. Glasgow

46. Wells

47. Glastonbury

48. Gloucester

49. Hereford

50. Higham Ferrers

51. Highclere

53. Ipswich

54. Kenilworth

55. Leicester

56. Leominster

57. Lichfield

58. Lincoln

59. Llangadoc

60. Louth

61. Malmesbury

62. Manchester

63. York

64. Meaux Abbey

65. Muchelney

66. Northampton

67. Norwich

68. Salisbury

69. Old Sarum

71. Peterborough

72. Pontefract

73. Ramsey

74. Reading

75. Rievaulx Abbey

76. Rochester

77. Rotherham

78. St. Alban's

79. St. Andrew's

80. St. David's

81. Sandwich

82. Scone

83. Selby

84. Shrewsbury

85. Sibthorpe

86. Southampton

87. Southwell
89. Stirling

91. Tattershall

92. Tewkesbury

93. Tuam

94. Waltham Holy Cross

96. Whitby

97. Whithorn

98. Winchcombe

99. Winchester (and

Hyde Abbey)

100. Woodstock

1 01. Worcester

102. Edinburgh

103. Barking

104. Dartmouth

105. Kilkenny

XIX

THE INSTITUTIONS AND
THEIR CHOIRS

mMMIIIIIMIMIIIMIIIIMIMII IMIIMHIIIIIIIIIIIMI4 tltmilMIIIIIIIIIIIIIM

nlike their modern counterparts, the medieval composer
and performer did not purvey their talents to an anonymous
public as private individuals. The life of a medieval musician
was always that of a member of a community which existed
for a wider purpose than a purely musical one, and which im-
posed definite rules and requirements not only on his musical
activities but also on the form and manner of his daily life. If
he were a member of a monastic community, the rule and duties
of the order applied to him no less than to its other members,
and the musical traditions and customs of his community deter-
mined the scope of his creative work. Membership in a secular
community brought demands and opportunities of a different
kind. The singers in a secular cathedral or minster, though
not living a cloistered life under strict vows, were the ministri
inferiores of their institution, bound by its statutes to be in holy
orders and to live as members both of the community as a
whole and of their particular corporation or collegium within
that community. Since, however, their duties were concerned
only with the observance of the ritual and its plainsong, they
had greater opportunities than members of a monastic com-
munity to develop their musical talents and to contribute to
the elaboration of the liturgical music. The enlightened patron-
age and support of some of the Bishops and higher clergy

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

brought about a gradual improvement in the organization and
musical standards of the secular cathedral choirs, and enabled
them to play a large part in the growth in the practice of
polyphony which took place in the later Middle Ages.

The leadership in this development, however, lay neither
with the monasteries nor the secular cathedrals, but with the
more recent foundations of collegiate churches, colleges and
private household chapels. In many of these newer institutions
the singing of polyphonic music was a daily observance rather
than, as hitherto, the special mark of great festivals. Conse-
quently the composition and balance of their choirs took on a
different aspect, the qualifications of their singers were more
exacting, provision was made for training their boy choristers
in polyphony, and the demands on their composers increased
significantly. With these new foundations came changes in the
social position of musicians. This is especially true of household
chapels, where the singers ranked in the household organization
as 'gentlemen' (generosi) and were no longer required to be in
lower orders, as were singers in most of the collegiate churches
and colleges. Curiously enough, the monasteries, too, were
responsible for the increase in the number of lay singers in the
later Middle Ages, for many of the larger abbeys supported
choirs of laymen and boys who were put under the charge of a
lay cantor. This multiplicity and variety in the character of
the choral foundations — secular and monastic, cathedral and
collegiate, royal and aristocratic, educational and charitable —
which participated in the cultivation of polyphonic music is
the most striking feature of the rich pattern of English musical
life in the centuries before the Reformation.

Secular Cathedrals

When the Normans came to England they found little uni-
formity in the constitutions and organization of the cathedrals
and larger churches. Some cathedrals were served by Benedic-
tine monks, under an abbot who was also the bishop of the
diocese. This was the case at Winchester, where the Benedic-
tine rule was adopted by St. Ethelwold in 964, and at Worcester,
where it had been established by St. Oswald (d. 992). The
clergy of some other cathedrals lived under the rule of St.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz from 742 to 760 and the founder
of its famous school of plainsong, which bound them to live in
common without the right to own personal property, though
not by a strict monastic rule. Bishop Leofric (d. 1072), who
moved his see from Crediton to Exeter c. 1050, required his
canons, a term which originally meant clergy who lived under
some rule or 'canon', to follow the rule of Chrodegang, as did
Bishop Giso of Wells (d. 1088) about the same time. The
canons of the northern minsters of York, Southwell, Beverley
and Ripon also lived in common, while those of St. Paul's,
London, observed their own Regula Sancti Pauli, which was
similar to the rule of Chrodegang.1

1 The Normans were accustomed to a cathedral chapter (so
called from the capitulum or head of the eastern end of the church
where originally the bishop sat surrounded by his clergy) in
which the canons were secular, not monastic, priests who lived
in separate houses and had individual incomes from the endow-
ments of the church. As a result of reorganization by Norman
bishops this type of cathedral government was adopted at Salis-
bury, York, Wells, St. Paul's, Lincoln, Exeter, Hereford, Lich-
field and Chichester, which became the nine secular cathedrals
of medieval England. During the same period nine cathedrals,
some of which were new foundations, came under Benedictine
rule, chiefly through the influence of Lanfranc, the first Arch-
bishop of Canterbury under the Normans, and his successor
Anselm (1093-1114). These nine, Canterbury, Bath (under the
Bishop of Wells), Coventry (with Lichfield), Durham (founded
1083), Ely (separated from Lincoln c. 1109), Norwich (1096),
Rochester (1077), Winchester and Worcester remained mon-
astic cathedrals until they were refounded with secular chapters
by Henry VIII in 1 540-1. The house of Augustinian canons at
Carlisle, which observed the rule of St. Augustine of Hippo in
a form approved by the Pope in 1 1 1 8, became a cathedral when
the diocese was formed in 1133, and was the only English
cathedral run by the order known as Austin or Black Canons.
The new constitution of the chapters of York and Lincoln was
completed in 1090, and in the following year St. Osmund
(Bishop of Salisbury, 1078-99) laid down for his cathedral the
pattern of organization which York and Lincoln had adopted
1 Edwards, English Secular Cathedrals, pp. 9-10.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

and which was followed in due course by the other secular
cathedrals. At the head of the chapter were the four 'principal
persons' or 'dignities' of Dean, Precentor, Chancellor and
Treasurer. As defined in St. Osmund's Institutes, 1 the functions
of the dean were to govern the canons and vicars in all that
concerned their spiritual and moral welfare and conduct, of the
precentor to supervise the choir and direct their singing of the
liturgical music (potest cantus elevare et deponere), of the treasurer
to keep the plate, ornaments and other contents of the treasury
and provide candles for the services, and of the chancellor to be
responsible for teaching, apart from music, and for the care of
non-musical books. In later and more detailed constitutions the
precentor was given the duties of regulating the admission and
instruction of the boy choristers, of providing and caring for the
books of chant, and of entering the singers on the tabula or
board on which the names and duties of singers and readers
were posted, while the chancellor was made responsible for
entering on the tabula the names of readers of lessons and assist-
ants at the altar.2 It became customary to appoint one of the
canons sub-dean to act as the dean's deputy, another as succen-
tor to carry out the routine duties of the precentor, and others
to be sub-treasurer and vice-chancellor.

St. Osmund's Institutio required the four dignities to be in
continuous residence, and allowed other canons to be absent
only to study at the schools, to serve the king or bishop or to
attend to the affairs of the cathedral or of his prebend. Non-
residence, however, became the rule rather than the exception,
and only the comparatively small number of canons necessary
to maintain the services and carry on the business of the chapter
resided in the cathedral close. The system of absenteeism, which
led to pluralism, the holding of a number of canonries simul-
taneously, was made possible by dividing the church's income
and endowments into a part reserved for the common fund and
an amount assigned to each of the canons as a prebend (prae-
bere, to supply), while the maintenance of the services was
ensured by the provision of canons' vicars, or deputies. Vicars
are mentioned in the Institutio Osmundi and were a part of the
Norman constitutions from the beginning. With the recognition

1 Use o/Sarum, i, pp. 259-61; Lincoln Statutes, ii, pp. 7-10.

2 Ibid., i, pp. 283-5.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

of non-residence it became the general practice to require every
canon, whether resident or not, to provide the stipend for a
substitute (vicarius), nominally to carry out his duties in choir.
In the course of time the vicars-choral developed their own
independent organization within the framework of the cathe-
dral constitutions, and eventually formed themselves into self-
governing colleges.

The admission, duties and conduct of the vicars-choral were
regulated by statutes drawn up from time to time by the
cathedral chapters. At Salisbury Richard Poore (Dean, 1197-
12 15; Bishop, 1217-28) ordered that vicars should serve for a
year on probation and learn the Psalter and Antiphonal by
heart. Richard de Kareville (Treasurer of Salisbury, 1246-67)
gave money to increase the stipends of the vicars and to ensure
that there would always be at least thirteen vicars on each side
of the choir.1 Salisbury had already won special renown for its
music, for Bishop Giles de Bridport began his statute of c. 1256
on the admission of vicars with a tribute to its pre-eminence.

'The church of Salisbury', he wrote, 'shines as the sun in its
orb among the churches of the whole world in its divine service
and those who minister in it, and by spreading its rays every-
where makes up for the defects of others. Therefore, lest through
our neglect its splendour should be diminished by the unworthi-
ness of its ministers, we ordain that hereafter none shall be
presented to the office of vicar in this church unless he has a
good and musical voice and skill in plainsong, besides the merits
of character required in such ministers.'2

In 1472 Bishop Richard Beauchamp laid down new rules
for the examination of Salisbury vicars, which required them to
know by heart before their admission the first and last 'noc-
turns', or groups of psalms, in the Psalter, the Commune Sanc-
torum, the antiphons of the Temporale and the Sanctorale and the
Commemorations of the Virgin and of St. Osmund, and to
learn the remaining nocturns of the Psalter during their year
of probation.3 By the Lincoln statutes of 1236 every vicar was
to be examined in reading and chanting before being admitted

1 Statutes of Sarum, pp. 54, 56.

2 Statutes and Customs of Salisbury, p. 88.

3 Ibid., pp. 212-14; also in Ceremonies of Salisbury, pp. 274-5.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

on probation for a year, during which he was to learn by heart
the Antiphonal and the Hymnal. This achieved, he was to serve
a second year of probation and memorize the Psalter.1

Vicars were expected to be in deacon's or sub-deacon's orders
at least, and most of the older vicars were priests. In addition
to the vicars and below them in rank there were singers known
as clerks of the choir {clerici chori), who could not be priests,
but must be in lower orders. Besides singing in choir they
helped the chantry priests, some of whom were vicars, in serving
Mass and took care of the altars at which chantry masses
were celebrated. At Salisbury they were called 'altarists', at
Exeter 'secondaries' and at Lincoln 'poor clerks', but the usual
name for them was 'clerks of the second form', in reference to
their place in choir. They were expected to be competent in
reading and plainsong.

All the colleges of vicars-choral and the college of minor
canons at St. Paul's were incorporated by royal charter during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.2 The charters confirmed
the rights of inheriting and administering property, electing
their own officers and making their own 'domestic' rules which
most of them had already exercised. In 1252 the vicars of
York were given the right to administer property by the Arch-
bishop and the Dean and Chapter, and this was confirmed by
a charter of Henry III in 1268, though their college was not
formally incorporated until 142 1.3 In the meantime they had
acquired their own buildings, having been given land for their
house in 1268, built their hall by 1328-9 and dedicated their
chapel in 1349.4 Similar developments took place elsewhere.
At Lincoln the 'poor clerks' were given a house towards the
end of the thirteenth century and Bishop Oliver Sutton ( 1 280-
1300) made provision for the building of the Vicars' Court,
which was begun after his death and finished in 1328.5 Bishop
Walter Langton gave a house to the vicars of Lichfield in
1315,6 and Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Wells, built and

1 Lincoln Statutes, ii, p. 145.

2 For dates of incorporation, see Edwards, English Secular Cathedrals,
pp. 290-1.

3 Ibid., p. 281. 4 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, pp. 29-38.

5 Lincoln Statutes, i, p. 349; ii, p. 1.

6 Edwards, English Secular Cathedrals, p. 283.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

endowed the vicars' close and hall at Wells c. 1350.1 John
Wylliot (d. 1369), Chancellor of Exeter, left money to provide
a house for the vicars of Exeter, and Thomas de Brantyngham
(Bishop, 1369-94) gave them a hall.2 The vicars of Hereford
had a common hall by 1375, while the college of vicars at
Chichester was built between 1394 and 1403. Some of the
vicars of Salisbury lived in separate houses in the close, and
there is evidence that they had a common hall in 1409.3

In some cases the colleges came to assume responsibility for
the standard of admission of their members. At York the
elected head of the college, who was called the succentor vicari-
orum as distinct from the succentor canonicorum or succentor major,
and five of his colleagues formed a committee which conducted
the examination of new vicars.4 Probationary vicars of Wells
were presented to the chapter on the recommendation of the
permanent vicars, one of whom was appointed supervisor
(ascultor) of the new vicar during his trial year.5 Under an order
made c. 1343 by the Bishop of Lincoln three 'knowledgeable and
skilled' vicars were deputed to test candidates and were required
to swear to the faithfulness of their examination when they
presented a new vicar to the chapter.6

Most of the colleges had a code of domestic statutes which
governed their organization and discipline. The vicars of York
imposed fines on their own members for absence from service
as well as for such offences as brawling in hall, chattering in
church, stealing from the college buttery, absence from college
meetings and failure to read at dinner. The court of the Dean
and Chapter dealt with neglect of chantry duties by vicars
who were also chantry priests, with immorality and habitual
drunkenness and, in general, with offences against Canon
Law.7 Irregularities of various kinds were also brought before
the bishop at his visitation. It was reported to Bishop Chandler
at his visitation of Salisbury in 141 8 that the vicars sang

1 Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, p. xxix; Palmer, Collectanea I, p. 55.

2 Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, pp. 450, 9 1 .

3 Edwards, English Secular Cathedrals, pp. 283-4.

4 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, pp. 53, 63.

5 Dean Cosyn and Wells Cathedral Miscellanea, p. 5.

6 Lincoln Statutes, i, p. 396.

7 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, pp. 60-2, 67-72.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

'balades and cantalenes in their divine services',1 and to Bishop
Beauchamp in 1454 that three vicars were in the habit of
'running off into the town to play tennis and go to taverns,
where they sat drinking and singing'.2

Disputes between the vicars and the residentiary canons,
some of whom disliked the increasing independence of the
singers, were fairly frequent during the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries. The vicars defended their privileges with some
success, so that such principles as permanency of appointment
and the right to nominate vicars as chantry priests, who had
additional payments, when it was so provided by the founder
of the chantry, became generally recognized. Cases of dis-
missal were quite uncommon, and occurred only after a period
of suspension and refusal to submit to public penance. In 1 504
John Braddon, a vicar of Wells, who had been suspended for
six weeks two years before, was accused of neglecting to cele-
brate the morning Mass, keeping company with Johanna Mill-
ward, speaking disrespectfully to the Sub-dean and Chapter
and entering the choir without his habit and there insulting
the Sub-dean. He pleaded guilty and submitted to correction.
His punishment was that

'with bare feet and head and only a surplice over his gown,
and with a candle of one pound weight in his hand more
poenitentis, he should go before the procession of the church on
two days, the sixth and thirteenth of October, and when the
procession entered the choir he should stand in the choir and
say the psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the seven peni-
tential psalms, which devoutly said he should offer his candle
to the image of St. Andrew'.

This penance could be remitted if he found an acceptable
surety for his future conduct. Braddon did not appear to do his
penance, pleading in a letter 'it is soo I have a litill besinesse to
do', and after further charges and further postponements was
formally dismissed by the Dean and Chapter with the signed
consent of five of his colleagues.3

As a general rule the statutory number of vicars was the

1 Robertson, Sarum Close, p. 97.

2 Statutes and Customs of Salisbury, p. 332.

3 Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, pp. 213-15.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

same as the number of canons in the chapter. Lincoln, where
only non-residentiary canons were bound to provide vicars,
and St. Paul's, where the constitution differed from that of the
other cathedrals, were exceptions. In the thirteenth century
the numbers of canonries established were fifty-four at Wells
and Lincoln (where there were thirty-four vicars in 1437), *
fifty-two at Salisbury, thirty-six at York, twenty-eight at Here-
ford and Chichester, twenty-four at Exeter and twenty-one at
Lichfield.2 In the fifteenth century some cathedrals were
having difficulty in keeping the number of vicars at the statu-
tory figure. The value of endowments was falling, and in some
cases the vicars themselves took steps to keep their numbers
down.3 There were only thirty-one vicars at Salisbury in 1468,4
and at Bishop Beauchamp's visitation in 1475 it was observed
that enough skilled and worthy men could not be found to
maintain the statutory number, and that the Bishop's recent
statute on the requirements for admission was not being
observed.5 The ever-increasing demand for competent singers
for the new university colleges, collegiate churches and house-
hold chapels may have been one of the reasons why the cathe-
drals were unable to attract enough good men to their choirs.

Boys are mentioned in the Institutio Osmundi, and had impor-
tant functions in the liturgical customs of the secular cathedrals.
The precentor was responsible for their musical education,
although the direct control of the schola cantus was in the
hands of the succentor or his official, who taught the boys to
memorize their parts in the services. The succentor also super-
vised the boys who carried candles, a cross or a censer when
they conducted the reader of the Gospel to the lectern, while
the chancellor or his deputy rehearsed them in the reading of
lessons. The writer of the York statutes observed that a boy
who was musical and had a good voice could in the course of
time become a censer-bearer (thurifer), a sub-deacon, a deacon
and, if he were worthy, a vicar.6

Until the fourteenth century the choristers lived in the houses

1 At the examination by the Bishop's Commissary. Lincoln Statutes, hi,

pp. 392-4I4-

2 Edwards, English Secular Cathedrals, p. 33. 3 Ibid., p. 288.
4 Ibid., p. 274. 5 Ceremonies of Salisbury, pp. 157, 154.
6 Lincoln Statutes, ii, p. 103.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

of the canons and acted as their personal and domestic servants.
The change to a new arrangement was made, perhaps for the
first time, at Lincoln in 1 264 when Bishop Richard de Graves-
end ordered that the choristers, who had hitherto existed on
the charity of the canons, should in future live in one house
under the supervision of a master, who would administer the
income the Bishop had assigned to them and render an annual
account to the Dean and Chapter, and that their number
should be twelve, including two thurifers.1 In 1322 Bishop
Roger de Mortival of Salisbury, who had been Dean of Lincoln
from 1 3 1 o to 1 3 1 5, observed that the boys of Salisbury were
'compelled of necessity to go round nocking to crave a beggar's
dole each day in the dwellings of resident canons', and ordered
that they should no longer be used as servants but should 'give
themselves to the ministries of the church and to liberal studies
only'. They were put under the charge of a residentiary canon,
who should act as their warden (custos) and control the use of
their income, including the rentals which Bishop Simon of
Ghent had given in 13 14 'for the sustenance of fourteen chorister
boys of the church and of a master to instruct them in gram-
mar'.2 Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury found a similar situation at
Wells in 1349, where there were 'boys called choristers serving
in divine offices ... at the day and night hours, for whose meat
and raiment no rents have been assigned, so that by reason of
indigence they must absent themselves to seek a living else-
where'. He gave the choristers a yearly income and built a
house for them and their master.3

In some cases the housing of the choristers was looked after
by a canon-master and their musical training by the succentor
or a vicar, while in others the posts of master and informator
were combined. After 1400 the formal appointment of one of
the vicars as instructor of the choristers became more common,
and usually included the duty of teaching polyphonic music.
At Lincoln, where the posts remained separate, John of Thet-
ford was magister choristarum in cantu et musica in 1395.4 J. Retford
is referred to as magister sive informator vicariorum et choristarum
in cantu in 1429, and W. Foukys, a vicar, was put in charge of

1 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 162. 2 Robertson, Sarum Close, pp. 39-40.

3 Palmer, Collectanea I, pp. 55-6.

4 Maddison, Vicars-choral of Lincoln, p. 29.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

the scholae cantus et grammatices in 1431.1 The composer William
Horwood was appointed instructor in 1477, with the specific
duty of teaching the choristers polyphonic music.2 Horwood's
successors in this office before the Reformation included the
composers Thomas Ashewell and Thomas Appleby. At Wells
the duties of master and instructor were combined, and were
set out in full and interesting detail in Bishop Bekynton's
Regulae et ordinationes pro virtuose regendis et dirigendis pueris
Ecclesiae nostrae Choristis of 1460.3 The Master of the Choristers
was to be a priest, knowledgeable in grammar, and skilled in
plainsong and polyphonic music (in cantu tarn piano quam organico) .
In the preamble to his formulation of the rules Bekynton ob-
served that they had been instituted by Robert Catour (Catur),
whom he refers to as choristarum praeceptor ac magister, and who
appears in the cathedral records as vicar-choral and organist
between 1445 and 1462. When the composer Richard Hygons
was appointed Master in 1479 the duties of his position were
put down in even more detail in a lengthy indenture,4 which
granted him, in addition to his stipend, a quarterly sum for
the support of the choristers and the occupation of one of the
houses Bekynton had built on the south side of the cathedral
close. In a Salisbury Chapter Act of 1462 John Thatcher or
Catherow is referred to as instructor choristarum in cantu, and John
Kegewyn was appointed to the position in the following year.5
The composer Thomas Knyght was one of Thatcher's suc-
cessors in the sixteenth century, and the teaching of polyphony
was prescribed among his duties.6 Provision for an informator
at Chichester was made in Bishop Sherborne's 'Donations' of
1 53 1 -4, 7 and a surviving account of 1544 records a payment
to William Samford pro informatione choristarum.8

At some cathedrals the number of choristers was increased
in the later Middle Ages. Wells had six choristers and three

1 Lincoln Statutes, hi, p. 470. 2 Lincoln Chapter Acts 1536-47, p. 31, n.

3 English translation in Dean Cosyn and Wells Cathedral Miscellanea.

4 Printed as Appendix I below, p. 425.

5 Salisbury Muniments, Newton Register, pp. 39, 57 (January 9, 1462;
May 7, 1463).

6 See below, p. 1 79.

7 Copies in the County Hall, Chichester, in Winchester College, and in
New College, Oxford.

8 County Hall, Chichester, Chapter Act Book C.L.12, fo. 57.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

'tabulars', a term used there for older boys who recorded
attendance, in 1 430-1, and twelve choristers in 1 534-5. x The
Chichester constitutions of 1232 provided for ten pueri in tertia
forma',* in 1481 Bishop Storey increased the number to twelve,
eight of whom were singers and the four oldest thurifers.3
York had seven choristers according to statute, twelve by 1472.4
Under Bishop Grandisson's statutes of 1337 there were to be
twelve choristers at Exeter from that time on;5 Lichfield also
had twelve, while five was the number laid down by the
Hereford statutes of 1280.6 Comparison of these figures with
the numbers of vicars given above makes it clear that the singers
in a medieval cathedral were not thought of as a balanced
choir in the modern sense. Their numbers were determined by
the size and history of the particular institution, and their
primary function was the rendering of the plainsong chants and
lessons of the ritual. Polyphony was used to add distinction to
the ritual of festivals and was sung by a small group of expert
singers, while the regular teaching of polyphonic music to a
larger group of vicars and choristers was a development of the
later Middle Ages. The discussion of these points and their
relation to the form and history of the liturgy will be taken up
in subsequent chapters.

The constitution of St. Paul's differed from that of the other
secular cathedrals in several ways, and seems to have retained
some pre-Norman features. The 'great chapter' consisted of
the bishop, dean and thirty canons, and there was also a
college of twelve minor or 'petty' canons, all priests, which was
presided over by a custos and was endowed and incorporated
in 1394. The most skilled musician among the minor canons
was chosen as sub-dean, and was in charge of the choir, while
the second and third minor canons, who were called 'cardinals',
a name which existed at St. Paul's before the conquest and is
not found elsewhere, were responsible for the discipline and
order of the singers.7 Richard Cotell, who is known as the

1 Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, p. lxxxv.

2 Statutes and Constitutions of Chichester, pp. 3 sqq.

3 Early Statutes of Chichester, p. 41.

4 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, p. 102.

5 Ordinale Exon, i, p. 7. 6 Lincoln Statutes, ii, p. 83.

7 Statutes of 1 386 in Charter and Statutes of the Minor Canons of St. Paul's,
p. 23; also in Registrum Statutorum Ecclesiae S. Pauli, pp. 329 sqq.

Plate I

c S

-a -°

v -a

Plate II

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

writer of a short treatise on descant, 1 appears as a member of
the college in the charter of 1394, and as cardinal in a docu-
ment of the following year which signified the acceptance by
the minor canons of their obligations under the charter.2 In
addition to the minor canons there was a body of thirty vicars-
choral, inferior to them in rank, who took part in the work of
the choir and, as elsewhere, served for their first year on pro-
bation. The statutes and customs drawn up by Ralph de
Baldock (Dean, 1 294-1 305) and carried down to his own time
by Thomas Lisieux (Dean, 1441-56) mention boys both as
pueri elemosinarii and as garciones, the latter being helpers about
the church under the direction of the sacrist. 3 The proposed
statutes of John Colet (Dean, 1505-19), though never adopted,
probably represent arrangements for the choristers which had
been in force for some time. He provided for eight boys to
be under the supervision of an almoner (elemosinarius) , who
was to see that they were taught singing and reading 'so that
they can be in every way fit for the service of God in the choir'.4
The most famous holder of this post was the composer John
Redford (d. 1 547) . Philip Ap Rhys, a composer of organ music
of the same period as Redford, is described in a musical manu-
script as 'off saynt poulls in london'.

A grammar school attached to the cathedral was founded
by Richard de Belmeis, who became Bishop of London in 1 108.
The statutes refer to a magister de artibus scholis grammaticis who
acted under the chancellor, and also to a magister scholae cantus
in ecclesia Sancti Gregorii, which was at the south-west side of
the cathedral. In Colet's statutes the duties of the master of the
song school were 'to instruct those who cannot sing and dili-
gently to teach the boys'.5 Colet's foundation of St. Paul's
School was a new and separate institution, which he put under
the control of a lay body, the Mercers' Company, while the
almonry and choristers' school of the cathedral continued to
exist through and after the Reformation. By the early sixteenth
century the number of boys had been increased to ten, though
there were now only six vicars-choral, for the grant approved

1 In Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 842, under the heading
'Opinio Ricardi Cutell de London'.

2 Registrum Statutorum Ecclesiae S. Pauli, p. 362.

3 Ibid., p. 109. 4 Ibid., p. 228. 6 Ibid., pp. 22, 226.
M.M.B. — C 13

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

by Henry VII in 1507 for the foundation of the Guild of Jesus
provided that 'twelf Petichanons if there be so many, viii
Chauntry Preestis, six Vicars and tenne Queresters' should
attend the services on the feast of the Name of Jesus.1 However,
the choir was supplemented by sixteen chantry priests, accord-
ing to the numbers given in the statutes drawn up by Wolsey
after he became Cardinal in 15 15, which are twelve minor
canons, sixteen chantry priests who also served in choir (ad
qfficium et sectam chori adstrictus), six vicars and ten choristers.2

All but two of the Scottish cathedrals adopted constitutions
similar to those of the English secular cathedrals before the
end of the thirteenth century. The exceptions were St. Andrew's,
which was a community of Augustinian Canons, and Whithorn,
the cathedral of Galloway, which was run by canons of the
order of St. Norbert of Premontre, called Premonstratensians
or White Canons.3 The diocese of Moray formed its chapter
on the model of Lincoln in 12 12 when its cathedral was at
Spyny, some twelve years before the new cathedral of Elgin
was begun. Elgin had seventeen vicars-choral in 1489.4 The
chapter of Glasgow cathedral, which was dedicated in 1 1 36,
adopted the 'liberties of the cathedral church of Salisbury' in
1258,5 and St. Machar's cathedral, Aberdeen, adopted the
English form of constitution in 1256. At Aberdeen there were
four boys to assist in the services of Matins and High Mass,
two as taperers (ceroferarii) and two as thurifers.6 In 1506 Robert
Blacader, Archbishop of Glasgow, assigned a vicarage to main-
tain six boys whose voices had broken (puerile sua voce jam
destitutos) so that they could continue to serve in the choir of
his cathedral.7

Contemporary with his founding of Aberdeen University in
1495 Bishop William Elphinstone drew up some new statutes
for Aberdeen cathedral. He ordered that there should be

1 Registrum Statutorum Ecclesiae S. Pauli, p. 435.

2 Ibid., p. 253. There were fifty-four chantry priests in St. Paul's when
chantries were suppressed in 1547- Cook, Mediaeval Chantries, p. 114.

3 Dowden, The Medieval Church in Scotland, pp. 58-9.

4 Use o/Sarum, i, pp. xxiii-xxiv; Dowden, The Medieval Church in Scotland,

PP- 56, 59-

6 Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, 1, p. 166.

6 Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, ii, p. 49.

7 Liber Protocollorum, ii, pp. 133-4.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

twenty priest-vicars 'skilled and learned in Gregorian chant at
least', two deacons and two sub-deacons, eleven boys who were
to be maintained only as long as their voices were unbroken,
and a sacristan. * A song school for the choristers was probably
founded about the same time, for in the title of an agreement
of 1537 William Myrtone is referred to as praeceptor scholae
cantationis Aberdonensis, and in the body of the agreement he is
called 'maister of the sang schuyll of the cathedrall kyrk of
Aberdene'.2 At Dunkeld cathedral Bishop George Brown en-
dowed c. 1 500 an altar of the Blessed Virgin, and chose seven
vicars-choral to serve seven altars which were to be founded
later. Alexander Myln {c. 14.74.-c. 1549), who wrote the lives
of the fifteenth-century bishops of Dunkeld, records that in his
day several of the canons were skilled in music, particularly
John Stevenson, who excelled 'in music and in the playing of
the organs', and Thomas Bettoun, who was 'highly trained in
the theory of music as well as in the art of singing'.3

The Bishop of St. David's, the foremost cathedral of Wales,
was the actual president of the chapter, there being no dean,
and he was also the head of the collegiate churches which were
founded by Thomas Beck (Bishop, 1280-93) at Llangadoc,
which had twenty-one canons and twenty-one vicars, and
Abergwili, where there were twelve canons and twelve vicars.4
Beck built a house for the cathedral vicars, who numbered
thirteen in the fourteenth century, and Adam Houghton
(Bishop, 1362-89, and previously Precentor) founded c. 1382,
with the help of John of Gaunt, the College of St. Mary, which
formed a part of the cathedral buildings and establishment.
He ordered that the Master and seven priests 'should live
together in a collegiate manner and perform the Divine Offices
in their Choir according to the Salisbury Missal', and that they
'should assist on Sundays and double festivals at High Mass and
Vespers in the Cathedral among the Vicars there'. Houghton
also made provision for 'two choristers under the Precentor's

1 Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, ii, pp. 92-101 (May 7, 1506). The
term cantus Gregorianus seems not to have been used in England.

2 Ibid., ii, p. 412.

3 Rentale Dunkeldense, pp. xxxix, 302 sqq. Other musicians mentioned are
James Lawder and William Martin, chaplains, Stephen Yong, John Penni-
cuke, John Martyn, John Leslie and William Scherar.

4 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, p. 291.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

care, who was to instruct them in grammar learning and
singing', and left in his will two pence to each of the four
choristers of his cathedral. * Bishop John Morgan added two
more choristers in 1501, and in 1504 there were sixteen vicars
and seven choristers in the cathedral, and a master and six
fellows, three of whom were also vicars, in the college. Accord-
ing to an account of the history of St. David's written in the
eighteenth century, 'Mr. John Norman, a skilful and learned
musician, was organist and Master of the Choristers' in the
time of Bishop Edward Vaughan (1509-22).2 This is probably
the composer John Norman, who was later a clerk at Eton.

In 1 152, eighteen years before the Norman conquest of
Ireland, the Synod of Kells established the four archiepiscopal
sees of Ireland at Armagh, the seat of the Primate, Dublin,
Cashel and Tuam. Two years after the Norman occupation a
council of the Irish bishops summoned by Henry II at Cashel
decreed that the liturgical use of England, that is, of Salisbury,
should be observed in Ireland.3 The episcopal seat of Dublin
was the cathedral priory of the Holy Trinity, later called
Christ Church, where St. Laurence O'Toole (Archbishop,
1 161-80), the last Irish-born occupant of the see until the
seventeenth century, brought the canons, who had been
seculars, under a form of the Augustinian rule. John Comyn,
the first Anglo-Norman Archbishop of Dublin (1180-1212),
moved his palace from the precincts of the priory to a new
palace of St. Sepulchre outside the city wall, beside the ancient
church of St. Patrick, which he rebuilt and founded as a
collegiate church with thirteen canonries. His successor Henry
de Loundres, who had experienced the unfortunate results of
the Bishop of Coventry's attempt to replace monks by secular
canons, gave St. Patrick's in 1220 a constitution modelled on
that of Salisbury, and thus brought about a unique solution
of the conflict between the secular and regular foundations by
providing the city of his see with two cathedrals, one of each
kind. Thereafter the Archbishop of Dublin was both 'Regular

1 Yardley, Minevia Sacra, pp. 371-2.

2 Ibid., pp. 383, 86. William Warryn received payments as organist
from 1490-3. Jones and Freeman, History and Antiquities of St. David's,
pp. 326, 377, 380.

3 Wilkins, Concilia, i, p. 473.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Abbot of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity and Bishop
of St. Patrick's'. Under Henry's foundation the Cathedral and
Collegiate Church of St. Patrick had twenty-two canons and
a college of vicars.1 The further development of the choir of
St. Patrick's was due to Richard Talbot (Precentor of Hereford,
1407; Dean of Chichester, 141 5; Archbishop of Dublin, 141 8-
49), who founded in 1431 a college of four minor canons {parvi
canonici), intermediate in rank between the canons and vicars,
and six choristers.2

Collegiate Churches and Household Chapels

A collegiate church was similar to a cathedral in its constitu-
tion, being a collegium or brotherhood of priests presided over
by a warden, dean or provost, but was distinct from a cathedral
in having no necessary connection with a bishop. Among the
oldest of such churches were the three great northern minsters
(the term was used in Anglo-Saxon times) of Ripon, Beverley
and Southwell. The titular head of all three was the Arch-
bishop of York, while the working head of Beverley was a
provost, and Ripon and Southwell were in the curious position
of having no designated head, the president of their chapter
being the senior residentiary canon. In Archbishop Kemp's
injunctions to Ripon in 1439 the number of members is given
as seven canons (personae), one of whom acted as precentor
(rector chori), six vicars, six deacons, six thurifers and six
choristers. All were to be competent in reading and singing.
Archbishop Corbridge had ordered in 1303 that each canon
should pay an annual stipend to his vicar, but neither this
order nor that of Archbishop Melton (1317-40) that the vicars
should be paid out of the common fund can have worked well,
for Archbishop Kemp (1426-52) directed that they should be
paid under the Archbishop's supervision and not by the
chapter.3

The foundation at Beverley consisted of nine canons, a pre-
centor and seven singing clerks who rejoiced in the name of
berefellarii or clerici berfell, probably because they wore bearskin

1 Stokes, Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church, pp. 272, 266.

2 Mason, History and Antiquities of St. Patrick's, pp. 84, xxxiii.

3 Memorials of Ripon, pp. 44, no, 149.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

collars. In 1320 the chapter added an indefinite number of
'clerks of the second form', eight boys 'apt in singing and filling
the office of choristers' and two thurifers. Archbishop Arundel's
statutes of 1391 observed that no proper provision had been
made for the maintenance of these people, so that many of
them went elsewhere and others were reduced to begging,
which brought 'disrepute to the clergy and dishonour to the
church'. He decreed that the Archbishop and canons should
each pay his own clerk, and that the clerks of the precentor
and of the clerici berfell, with the choristers and thurifers, should
be paid out of the canons' revenues.1 The existence of a song
school at Beverley is recorded in 1423-4. At Southwell there
were sixteen vicars, who received their statutes in 1248, six
choristers and two thurifers. Attached to the minster were
schools of song and grammar, each with a vicar as its master. 2
The church of the Holy Cross at Crediton, which had been
the episcopal see before c. 1 050 and became a collegiate church
in 1304, was enlarged in 1334 by Bishop John Grandisson of
Exeter, who added four young clerks with changed voices
{virilem vocem habentes) and four boy-clerks to the foundation.
The boys, who were to occupy themselves alternately in school
and in choir, were to be trained in singing by one of the clerks.3
Grandisson's own foundation, the raising in 1337 of the parish
church of Ottery St. Mary near Exeter to the status of a
collegiate church, is one of the most interesting of the century
from the musical point of view because of the detailed nature
of his statutes.4 The establishment included a warden, minister,
precentor, sacristan and four other canons, eight priest-vicars,
eight clerks called 'secondaries' as at Exeter, eight choristers
and a grammar master. The choristers were to be admitted as
secondaries when their voices changed [cum ad virilem vocem
pervenerint) , and secondaries, if competent, were to be promoted
to vicars in preference to outsiders. The qualification for ad-
mission as a vicar or secondary was ability to read and sing the
Tonale with the differences and the Venitarium, and vicars were
then required to memorize the melodies of the Commune

1 Memorials of Beverley, i, pp. 380, 277, lxv.

2 Visitations and Memorials of Southwell, p. lxv.

3 Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis, pp. 415, 81.

* Printed in Dal ton, The Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Sanctorum. Secondaries and choristers had to memorize the
Venitarium and all the usual melodies for the Benedicamus within
a month after admission or lose half of their stipend. A separate
statute on the teaching of polyphonic music decreed that the
precentor and the 'Chaplain of the Blessed Mary', that is, of
the Lady-chapel, should see that the boys and secondaries
who were sufficiently musical were taught to sing and play
polyphonic music (in cantu organico et organicis instrumentis) and
that they attended the daily Mass of the Virgin. Among the
other matters which Grandisson, with characteristic thorough-
ness, dealt with in his statutes were the proceedings at the
annual feast on the festival of the Assumption, the parts of the
services which were to be sung without books (extra librum),
the numbers of each kind of service book and of candles to be
provided for each side of the choir, and the proper way to
handle books and turn pages.1

The same period saw the incorporation by royal charter of
two important collegiate churches of royal foundation, the
chapels of St. Stephen at Westminster (1348) and of St. George
at Windsor (1352).2 The building of a royal chapel at West-
minster was begun under Edward I in 1292, perhaps in rivalry
with Sainte Chapelle, the private chapel of the French kings,
and was completed by Edward III in 1347. Sainte Chapelle
had thirteen canons, one being treasurer and head of the chapel
and another precentor, thirteen priest-chaplains, thirteen clerk-
deacons and six boys under a master.3 Edward Ill's foundation
of St. Stephen's provided for a dean and twelve canons, thirteen
priest-vicars, four clerks and six choristers. In 1396 the vicars,
clerks and choristers were given the right, for the purpose of
owning property, to style themselves 'the college of vicars,
clerks and choristers of the chapel royal of St. Stephen in the
palace of Westminster' and to elect their own warden. In the
first year of Edward VI (1547-8) the chapel of St. Stephen
was handed over to the Commons for their use, and in 1834 it

1 '. . . non cum digitis sputo tinctis, ut sutores, nee plicando quasi per
aures caperent, set cum digitis incipiendo in superiore parte, descendendo
vertant'. Ibid., p. 162.

2 The letters patent for both foundations are dated August 6, 1348.
Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1348-50, pp. 144-7.

3 Brenet. Les Musiciens de la Sainte-Chapelle, p. 13.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

was destroyed by fire.1 It has been established that the com-
poser Nicholas Ludford was a member of the chapel at its
dissolution. 2

The chapel in Windsor Castle goes back to the reign of
Henry I, when it was dedicated to St. Edward and endowed
with eight canonries. With the rise of the cultivation of chivalric
pageantry under Edward III it was refounded as the chapel of
the order of the Knights of St. George, with a warden and
twelve other canons, thirteen priest-vicars, four clerks and six
choristers. The statutes provided that one of the vicars was to
instruct the choristers in grammar and singing,3 and the
Treasurer's rolls show that his usual title was Master of the
Choristers. The composers Thomas Damett (d. 1437) and
Nicholas Sturgeon (d. 1454) were both granted prebends in
Windsor after serving as clerks in the Royal Household Chapel,
Damett in 1431 and Sturgeon in 1442.4 In 1474-5 Edward IV
began the building of his new chapel of St. George, and in
1483 his 'new' foundation was incorporated by an Act of
Parliament, which noted that the King had 'now greatly
encresed the noumbre of Ministres daily serving Almighty God
in the said Chapell'.5 This increase can be traced month by
month in an attendance book of the chapel which runs from
June 1468 to July 1479. Two clerks were added in 1475-6,
and in 1477-8 we find four clerks, described as 'of the first
foundation', being paid four pounds each, plus an extra pay-
ment of two pounds thirteen shillings and four pence ex gratia
superadditione domini regis Edwardi quarti fundatoris nostri,* while
three others, described as 'of the new foundation', were paid
eight pounds each. In 1479-80 there were twelve clerks receiv-
ing ten pounds each and eleven boys, and by 1482-3 the
complement was the 'symmetrical' one of the new foundation,
which matched the original thirteen canons and thirteen vicars
with thirteen clerks and thirteen choristers. While previously
the musical instruction of the choristers had sometimes been

1 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1391-96, p. 669; Hastings, St. Stephen's Chapel,
pp. 2, 41, 44.

2 According to a broadcast talk by Hugh Baillie.

3 Fellowes, Windsor Organists, p. xiii.

4 Ollard, Fasti Wyndesorienses, pp. 91, 117.

6 Fellowes, Vicars and Minor Canons of Windsor, p. 7.
6 Treasurer's Roll No. XV.34.54.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

entrusted to one of the clerks instead of to a vicar, this now
became the regular practice, and at the same time the post of
'supervisor' of the choristers, held by a vicar, was instituted.
The composer Walter Lambe was informator in 1479-80 jointly
with William Edmunds, later (1490) a gentleman of the Royal
Household Chapel,1 and Lambe was sole informator in 1483-4.
Other composers who filled this post were Richard Hampshire
in 1492 and from 1496 to 1499,2 and John Marbeck, whose
name first appears in 154 1-2 as an organ player, in 1 558-9. 3

Besides these two permanently endowed royal foundations
there was also a chapel of the Royal Household which has not
always been clearly distinguished from them by writers on
English medieval music. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
the royal 'chapel' consisted of the chaplains and clerks of the
household whose duties included ministering to the king's
private devotions and attending him at special ceremonies
outside the court. Henry Ill's extreme piety caused him to
hear Mass several times a day and his love of liturgical cere-
mony to have the royal Laudes {Christus vincit, etc.) sung before
him on all important festivals. Three, and sometimes four,
clerks of his chapel were paid twenty-five shillings each for
chanting the Laudes, and later were granted five pounds a
year each.4 It may have been Edward III (r. 1327-77) who
first put the household chapel on a more formal basis, for in
1349 John Wodeford was 'a king's clerk and dean of his
chapel'.5 The Wardrobe Account of 1393 gives the names of
eleven chaplains and clerks, among them William Excestre,6
and six clerks who appear in that list, together with the dean
(John Boor), went to Ireland with Richard II in the following
year.7 The music by Excestre in the early fifteenth-century
choirbook of the Household Chapel, now known as the Old Hall
manuscript, has been credited to William Excestre, but one

1 Calendar of Patent Rolls 14.88-94, p. 309. 2 Treasurer's Rolls.

3 Fellowes, Windsor Organists, p. 14.

4 Harvey, The Plantagenets, pp. 25, 29, 56; Kantorowicz, Laudes Regiae,
pp. 98, 175-6. The period covered by these payments for the Laudes is
1227 to 1241.

5 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1348-50, p. 285.

6 I owe this information to John Harvey, who has kindly allowed me to
use his lists of chapel members from the Wardrobe Books of 1393- 1450.

7 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1391-6, p. 473.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

of the three pieces is marked J. Excetre, and all three are
probably by a clerk of that name who was in the king's retinue
going to Ireland, and who was connected with the chapel from
c. 1374 toe. 1396.1

Under the Lancastrian kings the Household Chapel began to
play a more important part in the musical life of the kingdom.
Two years after his reign began Henry IV engaged a chaplain2
to teach grammar to the boys of the chapel. In 1402 there were
eighteen chaplains and clerks under Richard Prentys, formerly
one of the clerks, as dean, while in the first year of Henry V's
reign (141 3) there were some twenty-seven. Four of these,
John Burell, John Cooke, Thomas Damett and Nicholas
Sturgeon, were composers, as was Robert Chirbury, who had
joined the chapel by 142 1. In 1420 the composer John Pyamour,
who may have acted as master of the choristers, though he is
called merely 'one of the clerks of the chapel of the household',
was commissioned to impress boy choristers and bring them
to the King in Normandy,3 where his chapel had been with
him since 141 7. The excellence of Henry V's chapel music
was thus celebrated in a contemporary poem:4

Psallit plena Deo cantoribus ampla capella:
Carmine sidereo laudabilis est ea cella.

In his will Henry left two hundred pounds to the clerks of his
chapel, and steps were taken in 1432 to distribute this sum 'to
the clerks of the chapel of the household before they separate'
and in the following year to decide the proportion to be paid
to each.5

In the last complete year of Henry V's reign (142 1-2) there
were sixteen choristers in the chapel, but within a year their
number had fallen to six,6 and it is likely that the numbers in
the chapel were reduced during Henry VI's minority. In 1437

1 Calendars of Patent Rolls, passim.

2 John Bugby, who 'had to wait at least three years before he got a
penny of his salary'. Wylie, England Under Henry IV, ii, p. 487.

3 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1416-22, pp. 127, 272.

4 De Honestate hospitii domini Regis et ministrorum eius, printed in Memorials
of Henry V, p. 68.

6 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1429-36, pp. 205, 349.

6 Acts of the Privy Council, iii, p. 104. The date is June 15, 1423, and the
names are given.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Henry assumed the rule of his kingdom and household, and in
1440 the dean was commissioned to impress choristers.1 The
Wardrobe Accounts show seven members of the chapel in 1436,
twenty-six in 1441, in which year the composer John Plummer
was granted ten pounds, perhaps for instructing and super-
vising the choristers.2 The first definite evidence of the appoint-
ment of a master is the grant in 1444 of forty marks a year to
Plummer for the 'exhibition' of eight boys of the chapel and
for his reward. 3 Subsequent masters of the children who are
known as composers were Gilbert Banester (1478-86), William
Newark (i486- 1509) and William Cornysh (1509-23). A com-
plete list of the King's 'honeurable household' in 1454 gives
the numbers in the chapel as twenty chaplains and clerks and
seven children,4 while ten children are mentioned in the grant
of the mastership to Henry Abyngdon from Michaelmas of the
following year.5 In August of that year the priests and clerks
petitioned the Privy Council 'to consider their great labour
because their number was less than formerly', to authorize
that there should be at least twenty-four singing men, to retain
the 'poor priest' William Stevyns to say the daily Mass of Our
Lady, keep the vestry and read the Gospel, and to provide a
man to read the Epistle. Stevyns was confirmed in his post and
an epistoler was provided, but there was no response to the
other part of the petition.6

In 1483 Edward IV incorporated the Royal Free Chapel of
the Household with a dean and three canons who were to act
as sub-dean, treasurer and precentor, and gave it the endow-
ments of the chapel of St. Peter in the Tower of London.7
Under Edward's ordinances for his household the chapel com-
prised twenty-four chaplains and clerks, the latter being referred
to as 'gentylmen clerkes'. While the terms 'gentleman' and
'yeoman' were used in other branches of the household, and
defined the rank of the singers among its members, they seem
also to have implied that the clerks of the Household Chapel

1 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1436-41, p. 452. 2 Ibid., p. 519.

3 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1 441-6, p. 311.

4 Acts of the Privy Council, vi, p. 223.

6 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1452-61, p. 279.

6 Acts of the Privy Council, vi, p. 256.

7 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1476-85, p. 341.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

could be lay-clerks, and were no longer required to be in orders.
They should be 'endowed with vertuuse morall and speculatiff
as of theyre musike, shewing in descant, clene voysed, well
releesed and pronouncynge, eloquent in reding, sufficiaunt in
organes pleyyng'. There were also two yeomen of the chapel
'called pistellers groweing from the children of the chappell by
succession of age and after that theire voices change', and eight
children under a master chosen by the dean from the members
of the chapel to teach them 'as well in the schoole of facett as
in songe, organes and such other vertuous thinges'. If no pre-
ferment were found in the chapel for a chorister when he
reached eighteen and his voice had changed, then 'the King
assigneth every suche child to a college of Oxenford or Cam-
brige of the King's foundation, there to be in finding and study
sufficiauntly, tyll the Kinge otherwise list to advaunce him'.1

The number of gentlemen in some lists of between 1504 and
1548 varies between eighteen and twenty-one. A list for 1525-6
has nine priest-chaplains and nineteen gentlemen besides the
master, whose grant was raised in that year to forty pounds,
Henry VIII having increased the number of children to
twelve.2 Besides the masters of the children already mentioned,
the following composers were members of the Royal Household
Chapel: John Fowler, Robert Fayrfax, John Cornysh, Henry
Prentyce, Robert Jones, John Lloyd, Thomas Farthyng,
Avery Burton, Richard Pygot, Richard Sampson (Dean of St.
Stephen's, Westminster, 1520; Dean of the Household Chapel,
1523), Robert Okeland, Thomas Tallis and Thomas Wryght.

Household chapels were also maintained from time to time
by great lords and prelates, though these chapels did not have
the continuity of the royal chapel, for obvious reasons. The
chapel of John of Gaunt, Henry IV's father, who was created
Duke of Lancaster in 1 362, had four chaplains and two clerks
between 1371 and 1374,3 and by 1 380-1 it was under the
control of John Grantham as dean,4 and had been increased

1 A Collection of Ordinances, pp. 50-1.

2 Roper, 'The Chapels Royal', p. 25; Lafontaine, The King's Musick,
pp. 2-5.

3 John of Gaunt' 's Register, 1372-1376, pp. 88, 132, 231, 327.

4 In 1 353 the principal chaplain of the household of Henry, Duke of
Lancaster, John of Gaunt's father-in-law, is referred to as 'dean' of his
chapel. Calendar of Papal Registers, Petitions, i, p. 238.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

by three choristers. The chapel was normally at Leicester, but
moved with the Duke for extended stays elsewhere, as in 1381,
when the dean and one of the clerks were ordered to pack the
jewels, vestments and ornaments ready to be carried to Ponte-
fract Castle, and to go there with all the chapel clerks and
ministers. In 1383 William Excestre, who may well be identical
with the William Excestre of the royal chapel in 1393, was one
of the clerks of the Duke's chapel.1 During the reign of Henry VI
his uncle Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (d. 1447) maintained
a chapel, for at his death Eton and King's Colleges petitioned
the King that they should have 'the ferste choise ... of all
maner bokes, ornementes, and other necessaries as nowe late
were perteynyng to the Duke of Gloucestre'.2 In 1445 the Duke
gave a grant of eight pounds a year for life to 'his servitor'
Henry Abyngdon, who may therefore have been in charge of
his chapel,3 and who became a clerk at Eton in the year of
the Duke's death. Gloucester's brother John, Duke of Bedford,
had his chapel, of which John Dunstable was a member, in
Paris as Regent of France from 1423 to 1429 and in Rouen as
Governor of Normandy from 1429 to 1435. William Courtenay,
Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1396), left sums of money in his
will to two clerks and the boys of his chapel,4 and there is
evidence that Queen Catherine, Henry V's widow, and Car-
dinal Beaufort also kept private chapels during this period.5

Edward IV maintained a household and chapel for his
elder son Edward (b. 1470), who was murdered in the Tower
after his accession in 1483.6 There are indications of a chapel
in the household of Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort,
Countess of Richmond and Derby (d. 1509), to which the
composer Thomas Farthyng probably belonged,7 and in that
of Henry VIII's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of

1 John ofGaunt's Register, 1379-83, pp. 41, 90, 177, 278.

2 Lyte, History of Eton, p. 27.

3 Calendar of Patent Rolls 14.4.6-52, p. 2 1 ; Calendar of Patent Rolls 1461-67,

P-94-

4 The clerks were Salesbury and William Motte. Duncan, 'The Will of
William Courtenay', p. 63.

5 Calendar of Papal Registers, Letters, viii, p. 486, and see below, p. 173.

6 See below, p. 1 70.

7 Henry VIII granted him an annuity in 151 1 'in consideration of his
services' to the Countess. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i, p. 443.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Richmond (15 19-36). x An account begun in 151 2 of the chapel
of Henry Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland, at his castles of
Wresile and Lekingfield in Yorkshire shows that it had a dean,
sub-dean, Lady-Mass priest, gospeller, a number of gentlemen
varying from eight to eleven and five or six children. 2 Cardinal
Wolsey's private chapel comprised a dean, gospeller and epis-
toler, ten chaplains, twelve clerks and ten choristers, whose
master was Richard Pygot, later of the royal chapel. 3

The history of the chapel of the Scottish kings goes back to
1 1 20, when Alexander I founded a chapel in Stirling Castle
dedicated to his mother, Queen Margaret. Its establishment
was enlarged by James III (r. 1460-88), and there are records
of payments to the clerks of James IV's chapel between 1488
and 1490. In 1501 the 'Chapel Royal of St. Mary and St.
Michael within the palace of the castle of Stirling' was made
a collegiate church, with a dean, sub-dean, sacristan, sixteen
canons, sixteen prebends 'skilled in singing' and six boy clerks
'competently trained in singing or fit to be instructed therein'.4

Ottery St. Mary was an example of a collegiate church
founded by raising a parish church to collegiate status. Simi-
larly, Manchester parish church was made the collegiate church
of St. Mary the Virgin, with a warden, four fellows, four priests
and six choristers, by Thomas Delawarr in 1421.5 After re-
establishments under Mary, Elizabeth I and Charles I it
eventually became a cathedral in 1847. In other cases collegi-
ate churches had a close connection with the family and estates
of the founder, like the college founded at Arundel (Sussex)
in 1386 by Richard, Earl of Arundel, which consisted of a
master, twelve canons or priest-fellows, six clerks, two acolytes,
two sacrists and seven choristers. Arundel replaced the parish
church of St. Nicholas by a new building, the nave and tran-
septs of which were for the use of the parishioners while the
east end was the collegiate chapel.6 The college of Fotheringhay
Castle (Northants), which was endowed in 1 410- 11 by

1 See below, p. 173.

2 Regulations and Establishment of the Household of the Fifth Earl of Northum-
berland, pp. 254, 256.

3 Hawkins, History of Music, iii, p. 67.

4 Rogers, The Chapel Royal of Scotland, p. xxvi.
6 Monasticon, vi, p. 1423.

8 Monasticon, vi, p. 1377.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Henry IV and Edward, Duke of York, as the burial place and
chantry college of the house of York, took over the site of the
parish church in 141 5. It had a master, twelve chaplain-fellows,
eight clerks, four of whom are described as gentleman-clerk
(clericus generosus) and four as yeoman-clerk (clericus valetus) , and
thirteen choristers. The statutes provided that the precentor and
three senior fellows should choose a skilled instructor to train
the choristers. When Bishop Alnwick visited the college in 1438
the precentor was William Typpe, who is probably the com-
poser W. Typp who contributed seven pieces to the Old Hall
manuscript. At the visitation of 1442 it was reported that, con-
trary to statute, there were only six clerks and ten choristers
in the college.1 The record of the visitation of 1530, however,
gives the names of the full complement of fellows, clerks and
choristers.2

When Ralph, Baron Cromwell, the king's treasurer, com-
pleted his castle of Tattershall in Lincolnshire, he raised the
parish church there to the status of a collegiate church, with a
warden, six chaplains, six clerks and six choristers, and joined
to it an almshouse for thirteen poor persons.3 In the record of
the visitation by Bishop Longland's chancellor in May, 1525,4
John Taverner is listed as a clerk-fellow (clericus socius); his
submission to the Visitor was: 'est quedam camera magistri
Glercke ruinosa'. In the following year Taverner went, at the
instance of Longland, to be the first informator at Wolsey's
Cardinal College in Oxford, though at first, as Longland re-
ported to Wolsey, he was reluctant 'to give up his living at
Tattessall, and the prospect of a good marriage which he would
lose by removal'.5

Charity was an element in some collegiate foundations, for
Fotheringhay, like Tattershall, included an almshouse. Newarke

1 Thompson, 'The Statutes of the College of St. Mary and All Saints,
Fotheringhay', pp. 244-6, 268 sqq.; Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, ii,
pp. 94, 108.

2 Ibid., pp. 147-8.

3 Monasticon, vi, p. 1432 (patent for the foundation granted in 1439);
Lincoln Statutes, iii, pp. 447-8 (foundation sanctioned by the Bishop and
Chapter of Lincoln in 1441).

4 Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, iii, p. 112.

6 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, B, iv, 2, No. 2604, quoted in Tudor
Church Music, i, p. xlviii.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

College, Leicester, is an example of a collegiate chapel com-
bined with a family chantry in a foundation of which charity
was the chief object. It was originally founded in 1 330-1 by
Henry, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster, as a hospital dedicated
to the Assumption of the Virgin, and was enlarged, probably
in emulation of Edward Ill's colleges at Westminster and
Windsor, by his son Henry, Duke of Lancaster, in 1355 as the
Hospital and College of the Annunciation of St. Mary in the
Newarke, Leicester. The hospital made provision for fifty
poor men and fifty poor women, and the college consisted of
a dean, twelve canons, thirteen vicars, three clerks and six
choristers. The canon who acted as sacrist was in charge of the
choir and received annual payments for the food and clothing
of the choristers, who were to serve in the chapel 'after the
manner of the choristers of the Church of Salisbury', while the
clerks were to ring the bells and assist in the celebration of
Masses at the altars.1 A revision of the statutes which was made
in 1 49 1 seems to imply a development of the music, for the
sacrist became precentor, the clerks came under his charge,
and a fourth clerk was added to help in choir on Sundays and
festivals.2 At Bishop Longland's visitation in 1525 one of the
canons gave evidence that the dean had nominated a fourth
clerk who was incompetent and two choristers who could
neither read nor sing, while two vicars said that the boys were
ignorant of and unfit to learn plainsong and polyphony (in
cantu piano et diviso) . 3

For some time there had been disturbances and quarrels in
the college arising out of the residence there of Mary, Lady
Hungerford, and her second husband, Sir Richard Sacheverell.
There was ill-feeling between the dean, Lord George Grey,
grandson of Edward IV's queen Elizabeth Wydville, and Lady
Hungerford, who proposed to be a patroness of the college and
was said to have given an endowment to add a chorister to the
foundation. The evidence at the Bishop's enquiry shows that
even the services in choir were interrupted by disputes. One of
the charges brought by the dean against one Thomas Cawardyn
and other servants of Sacheverell was that they 'dyd fface the

1 Thompson, Newarke Hospital and College, Chaps. I, II; pp. 45, 52.

2 Ibid., pp. 1 a 1, 124.

3 Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, hi, pp. 138, 14 1-2.

Plate III

6. New College and its members c. 1463, showing the Warden and seventy scholars (twenty-five

senior members, thirty-one fellows, fourteen probationary fellows), ten chaplains, three clerks

and sixteen choristers — one hundred members in all

Plate IV

&*, " z = fc ■• - - < ■" —- --: ^ £ '.'. *2 K & =

r '#» -S , '- *' ' : > S ! i '! H c v : ■

v^^^{f|fiiill|iliifii

ju t3

S3 ? J ^

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

deane at his own stall within the queer dore of the seyd collyge,
laying hondis on theyr swordis and daggers, seyeng they wold
stand their without the deane his leve'. Canon John Dale's
evidence was that

'upon Relique Sonday last at even song oon Thomas Cawardyn
stood in the porche at the chauncell doore in the college, saing
his even song; and this deponent was sensying the highe awter.
And when he cam down, the dean said to this deponent,
Master Dale, I pray you have thies fellowes away: they stand
here facyng and bracyng. And then this deponent cam thudder,
and founde Thomas Cawardyn standyng leanyng on the porch
syde, saying his even song; and he bad hym goo bak, and that
the dean was not content that ye shall stand here. And then the
said Cawardyn said noo worde, but went his waie. And then
oon Wilmer stode behynde the said Cawardyn, and said, We
stand here neyther to face nor brace, but to serve God as other
men have been wonte to doo, and so went their waye. And
after that oon John Haryngton, gentilman, came into the said
porche and stode ther, and then the dean called this deponent
and bad hym goo with hym; and so they went both they to my
lady Hungreford, and sir Weatewod with them, she then beyng
in the lower end off a chapell. And the dean said to hyr,
Madame, is this a fare ruell that your servantis shall comme into
the qwer, and face and brace. And she said agayn to him, I
have seen men comme into the kingis chapell and other greate
chapells, and noo matter made off yt. And aswell may they
doo this, as you to be from service hunting, and comme home
at mydnyght.'1

Among those who gave evidence at this enquiry was 'Hugo
Asseton, magister chorustarurri '. This is undoubtedly the composer
Hugh Aston, about whose identity there has hitherto been some
confusion. His evidence was about the boast of George Villiers,
a Sacheverell man, that he would release a clerk of the college
whom the dean had put in the stocks. 2 In the year following this
enquiry Longland proposed to send a master of the choristers,
presumably Aston, from Newarke College to the post of

1 Ibid., pp. 143, 153-4. There is an extended account of the enquiry
in Thompson, Newark Hospital and College, pp. 143-82.

2 Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, hi, p. 222.
M.M.B. — D 29

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

informator at Wolsey's new college which Taverner assumed in
November of that year.1 Aston remained at Leicester until the
dissolution of the college in 1548, and was still alive at Michael-
mas 1 549, when he is noted as receiving the annuity of twelve
pounds a year which the dean and canons had granted him
in 1544.2

Colleges

At the time when the vicars-choral of the secular cathedrals
were beginning to form colleges and organize their corporate
life, a collegiate community of a different kind was brought into
being by Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester. His statutes
of 1274 for Merton College, Oxford, which he had founded
ten years before, created the pattern of the collegiate life of
the English universities. The scholars of his college were to be
seculars living a corporate life for the purpose of study, forming
a self-governing body, subject only to the visitation of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, of a warden (custos) and fellows
(socii), and having their own chapel, hall and library. The
statutes provided that there should be three or four chaplains
to celebrate the Hours services and Masses.3 At this time
University College existed only as an endowment to support
scholars, becoming a college 'after the pattern of the nephews
and scholars of Walter de Merton' in 1280. Balliol became a
corporate community in 1282, though John de Balliol had given
money to support poor scholars between 1260 and 1269.

The statutes of Exeter College in 13 14, of Oriel in 1326, and
Sir Philip Somerville's statutes of 1340 for Balliol were more
specific than Merton's about the chapel duties of their members,
but as yet no separate provision was made for a chapel choir.
At Oriel Masses were to be said by two priest-scholars or by
two chaplains provided by the college,4 while at Balliol they
were to be celebrated by those of the fellows who were in
orders (capellani intrinseci) .5 On the other hand the statutes of

1 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv, p. 1097.

2 Thompson, Newarke Hospital and College, p. 224.

3 Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College, p. 322.

4 Statutes of Oriel College, p. 12.

5 Statutes of Balliol College, p. xvi.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Robert de Eglesfield for The Queen's College, Oxford, drawn
up in 1340, provided for thirteen chaplains, and for two clerks
skilled in plainsong and polyphony to serve under the chaplains
and teach the 'poor boys' singing. The number of boys was to
be half that of the scholars, and they were to 'minister in the
chapel as choristers'.1 John Wyllyot, Fellow of Merton from
1334 and later Chancellor of Exeter, left money to Merton to
support nine 'poor scholars', called portionistae (later 'post-
masters') because they had a portion of the common goods.
They were required to wait on the fellows in hall, and those
who had good voices were to serve as choristers in chapel. 2

Almost exactly a century after Walter de Merton had estab-
lished his college, William of Wykeham (Bishop of Winchester,
1 367-1 404) took the first steps in a plan which was to have
equally fruitful results. In the words of the preamble to the
statutes (1400) of Winchester College,3 this was the foundation
and endowment of

'two perpetual Colleges, viz., one perpetual College of poor
and indigent scholars in the studium of the University of Oxford
in the diocese of Lincoln, bound to study and pursue the
various sciences and faculties, commonly called "Saint Mary
College of Winchester in Oxford", and another perpetual
College for other poor and indigent scholars bound to learn
grammar, similarly called "Saint Mary College of Winchester",
to the praise, glory and honour of the Crucified one and of the
most glorious Mary his mother, and to the exaltation of the
faith of the Holy Christian Church, the advancing of the divine
ritual, and the increase of the liberal arts, sciences and faculties'.

This idea of the close union of grammar school and university
college was followed in some of the most important foundations
of the next century, and the elaborate statutes of Wykeham for
his twin colleges find many echoes in those of later founders.
It was particularly significant for the musical history of the
colleges that Wykeham counted 'the advancing of the divine
ritual' among his objects.

1 Statutes of The Queen's College, pp. 29-30.

2 Registrum Collegii Mertonensis, p. 515.

3 Kirby, Annals of Winchester College, pp. 455 sqq.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

The statutes of Winchester College provided for a warden,
ten priest-fellows, seventy scholars, three chaplains, three clerks,
and sixteen boy choristers 'bound to serve in the divine offices'.
A knowledge of plainsong was one of the requirements for
election as a scholar, and skill in reading and chant for election
as a fellow or nomination as a chaplain. The choristers were to
be less than twelve years old and 'competent in reading and
singing', and were required to help the servants in hall and
make the beds of the fellows and chaplains. One of the fellows
was to be appointed sacrist, to take charge of the books and
ornaments of the chapel and to fill the office of precentor.
Though the statutes made no definite provision for an instructor
of the choristers, the college accounts show that in 1396-7 this
duty was carried out by 'Edmund, a clerk of the chapel', in the
next year by an anonymous informator choristarum and from 1398
to 1400 by one of the chaplains. As far as can be ascertained
from the muniments of the college there was no separate pay-
ment for this office again until 1541, when Robert Barber, who
is known as a composer, was paid five pounds as informator. In
the following year Robert Godwin (Fellow, 1541-50) acted
as informator and Robert Mos or Moose as organist; from 1555-6
onwards the two offices were held by one person.

In Wykeham's university foundation of New College, Oxford,
which consisted of a warden and seventy scholars, there were
ten chaplains, one of whom acted as precentor and another as
sacrist, while the three clerks and sixteen choristers had serving
as well as chapel duties. The chaplains and clerks were con-
ductitii et remotivi, that is, hired and removable, and not life
members of the foundation like the presbyteri socii perpetui. This
was the first college which required the scholars to attend Mass
every day, Merton's scholars being bound to do so only on
festivals. From 1394-5 the Bursar's Rolls show payments to an
informator choristarum, who apparently taught both singing and
grammar. The names which are recorded do not include any
known composers, though there are many payments for writing
or copying polyphonic music.1

Wykeham's concern was equally for scholarship and for

devotion, and led him to give both the boyhood study of

grammar and the university study of the arts and sciences a

1 See below, pp. 157-9.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

setting in a collegiate community with a permanent chapel
foundation. The effects of his vision became manifest in the
fifteenth century in the lives and work of Winchester and New
College men, and in the new foundations which were modelled
on his ideals. Henry Chichele (Fellow of New College, 1387-93;
Bishop of St. David's, 1408; Archbishop of Canterbury, 141 4)
was the founder of a grammar school at his birthplace Higham
Ferrers (Northants) in 1422, of St. Bernard's College, Oxford,
on the site of which St. John's College was founded in 1 555,
in 1436, and of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1438. Henry VI's
tutor and secretary of state Thomas Bekynton (Fellow of New
College, 1406; of Winchester, 1408-20; Bishop of Bath and
Wells, 1443) played an important part in the founding of Eton
and King's, built the bridge leading to the chapter house from
the vicars' hall at Wells, and was a benefactor of New College,
Lincoln College, and Winchester College. Another of the great
churchmen of the century, William of Wayneflete (Headmaster
of Winchester, 1429; of Eton, 1442; Provost of Eton, 1443;
Bishop of Winchester, 1447), founded Magdalen College,
Oxford, and was mainly responsible for the completion of Eton
College chapel.

Chichele joined to his grammar school at Higham Ferrers a
collegiate chapel with a master and seven other chaplains, four
clerks, one of whom was grammar master and another singing
master, and six choristers.1 At Lincoln College, Oxford, founded
in 1429 by Richard Fleming (Bishop of Lincoln, 141 9-31) with
a rector and seven scholars, no special provision was made for
a choir, but there were two chaplains on the foundation, and
two of the fellows were to act as rectores chori when the rector
officiated at a service.2 All Souls, where the chapel had two
chaplains, three clerks and six choristers, was conceived as both
a Lancastrian war memorial and a centre of study, though
Chichele put more emphasis on the former aspect. Its members
were

'constantly bounden not so much to ply therein the various
sciences and faculties as with all devotion to pray for the souls
of glorious memory of Henry V lately King of England and
France, the Lord Thomas Duke of Clarence, and the other

1 Monasticon, vi, p. 1424. 2 Statutes of Lincoln College, p. 27.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

lords and lieges of the realm of England whom . . . the havoc
of that warfare so long prevailing between the two said realms
have drenched with the bowl of bitter death, and also for the
souls of all the faithful departed'.1

When Henry VI founded in 1 440-1 his 'two colleges Roiall,
one called the College Roiall of our Ladie of Eton beside
Windesor, and the other called the College Roiall of our Ladie
and St. Nicholas of Cambridge',2 he followed Wykeham in
many respects, but made more ample provision for the chapel
services and establishment. Both Eton and King's had a pro-
vost, ten fellows, ten chaplains, ten clerks and sixteen choristers.
The choristers, unlike the Winchester choristers, had no duties
apart from the chapel services. Seven of the clerks at Eton were
to be skilled in polyphonic music, and one at least of the seven
in playing the organ. Two others acted as parish clerk and clerk
of the vestry, and the complement was made up by the in-
structor of the choristers, a clerk or priest qualified in poly-
phonic and other kinds of music (in cantu organico et aliis), whose
appointment was in the hands of the provost. The fellows were
required to have some skill in plainsong, and the chaplains,
who were remotivi, to be graduates in some faculty or else know
plainsong and have good voices.3

Under the King's authority choristers were drafted to Eton
from Salisbury and Norwich, and in 1447-8 the college had its
full number of clerks and choristers. With the deposition of
Henry VI and accession of Edward IV in 1461 both Eton and
King's entered on a critical period. At the King's request the
Pope issued a Bull in 1463 abolishing Eton and annexing its
possessions to St. George's, Windsor, and in 1465 the Provost
was compelled to deliver to St. George's the vestments, images,
jewels, relics, books and furniture of the chapel. The Audit
Rolls show that between 1467 and 1472 there were only four
or five clerks in the choir. Eventually the King relented, and in
1476 Cardinal Bourchier gave a judgement, with papal author-
ity and the King's approval, which reversed the Bull of 1463
and returned to the college its goods and most of its endow-

1 Statutes of All Souls College, p. 2.

2 A Collection of Wills, p. 293.

3 The Ancient Laws for King's and Eton, pp. 513 sqq.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

ments. * However, the number of clerks was reduced to seven
and of choristers to ten. It is not without interest that the King's
decision was given in the year after he had begun to build the
new chapel of Windsor and to augment its foundation. The
names of the instructors of the choristers at Eton, one of whom
was the composer Robert Wylkynson, can be traced with but
few gaps through the first century of its history. Other com-
posers who were members of the college at some time during
this period are John Sutton, William Brygeman, Henry Rysby,
Robert Okeland and John Norman. Oliver Stonyng, who was
precentor from 1533 to 1535, may be the composer Stonings
or Stenings, whose first name is not known.2

At King's the crisis resulting from the deposition of the
founder was reflected, as far as the musical establishment was
concerned, in the dropping of clerks altogether in the years
between c. 1460 and 1481, when the chapel was served by
about seven chaplains and the choristers. Eight clerks were
paid for the memorial services for Queen Catherine and
Henry V in 1466-7, and four clerks for these services and for
the memorial service for the benefactors in 1468-9, but it is
likely that they were engaged specially for these services. In
1 48 1 -2 clerks were engaged again on a regular basis, and the
record of their names has survived with almost complete con-
tinuity during the rest of our period. The earliest recorded
instructor of the choristers was John Halywell, who was paid
from 1449 to 1 45 1 pro doctrina chorustarum. Halywell became a
clerk at Eton at the beginning of 1453 and was informator
choristarum there in 1454-5. During the period when there were
no clerks the choristers were taught by a chaplain, and later
the posts of instructor and supervisor seem to have been separ-
ate, for in 1502-3 John Parker, a clerk, is referred to as in-
formator and in the following year Master Hobbys and Master
Stalys, who were chaplains, received a joint payment pro super-
vision choristarum. The roll of composers who were members of
King's includes the names of Thomas Farthyng, Richard
Hampshire, Robert Cowper, William Rasor, John Sygar,

1 Lyte, History of Eton, p. 75.

2 Names from the Audit Rolls and Books in the College Muniments.
Compositions by Stonings are in the British Museum MSS. Add. 17802-5
and Add. 31390.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Robert Hacomblene or Hacomplaynt (Provost, 1509-28) and
Christopher Tye.1

Wayneflete's collegium beatae Mariae Magdalenae vulgariter dictum
Maudeleyne College in Universitate Oxon2 had a grammar school
joined to it, which did not, however, have a separate chapel
choir. The college consisted of a president, forty scholars, thirty
poor scholars called 'demys', four chaplain-conducts, eight
clerks, sixteen choristers and their instructor. Both scholars and
demys were required to have a knowledge of plainsong, while
the clerks were to be good singers and competent in plainsong
and reading. The president was to appoint one of the chaplains
as sacrist or cantor and a chaplain or clerk to instruct the
choristers in plainsong and other kinds of music (in piano cantu
et alio cantu) . If no one in the college were competent to be
informator he was to appoint one from outside.3 One of the
clerks was paid for this duty from the time of the completion
of the chapel c. 1480, and from 1490 to 1492 the post and that
of organ player were divided between two or three clerks, one
of whom was the composer Richard Davy.4 John Sheppard
was informator at various times between 1 542 and 1 556 but was
not a Fellow of the college from 1549 to 1551, as has been
stated.5 This spelling of his name is the one most often used in
contemporary documents (including the Magdalen accounts)
and musical manuscripts, and will be used here rather than
the later form Shepherd, which has been adopted in modern
writings.

Wolsey's Cardinal College at Oxford (1525) was the most
splendid and comprehensive of this succession of college founda-
tions of the later Middle Ages. It was planned on a vast scale,
having a dean and sixty canons 'of the first rank', forty canons
'of the second rank', thirteen priest-conducts, twelve clerk-

1 Information in this paragraph, except that on Hacomblene, from the
Mundum Books, and F. L. Clarke's lists of names from them, in the College
Library.

2 Instrumentum Fundationis of June 12, 1458, printed in Chandler, Life of
Wayneflete, p. 391.

3 Statutes of Magdalen College, pp. 18, 23-4.

4 Bloxam, Register of Magdalen, ii, pp. 258-62.

6 Following Bloxam, Register of Magdalen, ii, pp. 187-90, due to confusion
of Sheppard with Shepprey, corrected in Macray, Register of Magdalen, i,
p. 121.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

conducts, sixteen boy choristers and a 'very skilled' (peritissimus)
informator to instruct them. This was the post which John
Taverner filled from 1526 to 1530. A companion foundation of
a grammar school at Ipswich, Wolsey's birthplace, was planned
at the same time. Following Wolsey's fall and death both
colleges were dissolved, and in 1532 the King established a new
college on the same site, called 'King Henry VIII's College in
Oxford', with a dean and twelve canons, priest-vicars (pre-
sumably thirteen) and clerks and choristers the number of
which is not given in the statutes. One of the vicars was to be
precentor, another sacristan, and a third was to instruct the
choristers in grammar and music. In 1546 the chapel of the
college became the cathedral of the new diocese of Oxford,
under the title Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxon: ex fundatione Regis
Henrici Octavi.1

Jesus College at Rotherham (Yorkshire) , founded in 1 483 by
Thomas Rotherham (Archbishop of York, 1480- 1500), is an
example of a collegiate chantry associated with a grammar and
song school. It had a provost, three fellows who acted as masters
of grammar, song and writing, and four choristers.2

The first college of a Scottish university to have an endowed
chapel and choir was the College of St. Salvator, founded in
1450 by Bishop James Kennedy in the University of St.
Andrew's, which had been chartered in 141 2. The foundation
comprised thirteen persons, of whom three, including the pro-
vost, were graduates in theology, four were priest-chaplains,
being Masters of Arts who were maintained until they became
Bachelors of Theology, and six were poor clerk-scholars who
were maintained until they were Masters and who served as
singers in the chapel. The number of chaplains, who were
expected to be skilled in plainsong, increased as new prebends
and chantries were founded, and they became a distinct body
electing their own proctor. By 1534 there was a song school
under the control of one of the chaplains.3 St. Leonard's, the
second college of St. Andrew's University, was founded in 1513
by James Hepburn, prior of the Augustinian Priory of St.

1 Statutes of Cardinal College and King Henry VIIFs College, pp. 185, 192,

194-

2 Educational Charters, pp. 424-5.

3 Cant, The College of St. Salvator, pp. 1-12, 27-8, 79.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

Andrew's, primarily for the training of clergy for the priory. It
was styled the 'College of poor clerks of the Church of St.
Andrew's', and consisted of a principal, four chaplains and
twenty students. Those of the students who were sufficiently
musical were required to 'sustain and adorn the divine office
with singing, at least with plainsong and if possible also with
descant'.1 The third and largest college at St. Andrew's, Arch-
bishop James Beaton's College of the Assumption of the Virgin,
was founded in 1 538 but did not assume its final form until the
charter of Archbishop Hamilton in 1 553-4. 2

In 1495 Bishop William Elphinstone founded the College of
St. Mary at Old Aberdeen, later known as King's College, with
a chapel establishment of eight priest-chaplains skilled in plain-
song and polyphony and four choristers (juvenes seu pueri pau-
peres) trained at least in plainsong. The senior chaplain was to
be precentor and teach the boys, the second chaplain was to
act as sacrist, and one of the chaplains was to be a skilled
organist (in ludo organorum peritus) . In his charter of 1529 Bishop
Gavin Dunbar added six further members, including two
choristers, to the foundation.3

Monasteries

The Benedictine houses in medieval England included, be-
sides the nine cathedrals which were under their rule, many of
the larger abbeys in the kingdom. Among these were West-
minster, Chester, St. Alban's in Hertfordshire, St. Edmund's
at Bury in Suffolk, Evesham in Worcestershire, Glastonbury in
Somerset, Hyde in Hampshire, Peterborough in Northants,
Gloucester and Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, St. Mary's at
York, Whitby and Selby in Yorkshire, Reading and Abingdon
in Berkshire and Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. Some of the
more important houses of other orders were the Cistercian
abbeys of Meaux, Rievaulx and Fountains, all in Yorkshire,
and Waverley in Surrey, and the Augustinian abbeys of
Waltham Holy Cross in Essex and Oseney in Oxfordshire. The
community of a monastery was under the direct rule of the

1 Herkless and Hannay, The College of St. Leonard's, p. 117.

2 Cant, The College of St. Salvator, p. 38.

3 Fasti Aberdonenses, pp. 60, 80 sqq.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

abbot or, in the case of a cathedral, where the bishop was titu-
lar abbot, of the prior. Benedictine houses were subject to the
visitation of the bishop of the diocese. Cistercian houses were
independent of the bishop, but were kept in close touch with
the parent house at Citeaux through annual General Chapters,
so that such matters as church design and ritual music were
kept in almost complete uniformity.

The officers ('obedientiaries') under the abbot or prior who
were responsible for the work of the choir were the precentor,
the succentor and the sacrist (secretarius, sacristd). The precentor
took charge of the choir on festivals, and was responsible for
the chant books, while the succentor ruled the choir on ordin-
ary days, taught the younger monks singing and reading, and
rehearsed them in the reading of lessons. The duties of the
sacrist, as far as they related to the choir, were similar to those
of the treasurer of a secular cathedral, involving the care of
non-musical books and the provision of vestments, candles,
incense and other necessaries for the altar and choir. x Naturally,
the monastic rules made no provision for non-residence or for
'vicars'. The entire community, save the sick and those with
special permission to be absent, formed the choir throughout
the daily observance of the liturgy. Plainsong was an essential
part of the training of a novice. According to a statute of the
General Chapter of the Benedictines for the province of Can-
terbury in 1277, novices were required to learn by heart the
Psalter, Hymnal and canticles, the rule of the order, all the
Invitatories, the verses of all the responds, antiphons and can-
ticles at Lauds, and the complete Commune Sanctorum.2 At St.
Augustine's, Canterbury, a young monk who showed special
ability might be given dispensation from his duties in the
monastery and be sent to the university (ad studium), provided
he knew by heart the Psalter, Hymnal and canticles, the
Commune Sanctorum, the week-day antiphons and short responds,
and the verses of the Antiphonal.3

The monastic liturgies, unlike the secular uses, gave no part
to boys. The parts given to them in the secular ritual, and such

1 Customary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, i,
pp. 90 sqq.

2 Pantin, Chapters of the Black Monks, i, pp. 73-4.

3 Customary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, i, p. 157.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

duties as censing and carrying candles, were carried out by
junior monks. In the Norwich Customary of c. 1250, however,
boys are mentioned as taking part in the services on the Eve of
St. John the Baptist, on All Saints, and on All Souls, and also,
accompanied by their masters, in the procession on Palm
Sunday.1 Many of the monasteries maintained a grammar
school, employing a secular clerk as schoolmaster, 2 though song
schools, which were usual in secular cathedrals, seem not to
have been a part of the monastic scheme of things until the
later Middle Ages. Norwich may have been an exception in
this respect.

The establishing of song schools by the greater monasteries
was connected with the late medieval custom of maintaining a
choir to sing services which took place outside the monastic
choir, in the nave or Lady-chapel, and independently of the
monastic liturgy. What may be an early instance of this prac-
tice occurs at Glastonbury, where four 'clerks of the church'
and a 'clerk in the chapel of Our Lady' named William le
Organistre were attached to the monastery in 1322.3 A separate
Lady-chapel establishment, with a monk as warden (custos
capellae Beatae Mariae), secular clerks and boy choristers was
maintained at Worcester from some time in the fourteenth
century. The account rolls of the custos show a payment in 1392
to one clerk, and payments in the following year to three clerks
as well as to 'outside clerks' {clerici extranei) who stayed in the
hostelry and sang polyphonic music in the Lady-chapel. In
1 394-5 there were two pueri de capella and John Ylleway was
given a courtesy payment for teaching them, in addition to his
stipend as clerk. The account for the following year records a
payment of four pence for 'parchment bought for a book of
polyphony made in the form of a roll'. The choir of the
Lady-chapel was endowed in 1478 by John Alcock (Bishop,
1476-86), who gave the Prior and Community one hundred
pounds for the singing of services in the chapel by the master,
clerks and choristers. The composer John Hampton was
appointed in i486 to instruct the eight choristers of Alcock's
foundation in plainsong and polyphonic music, to direct the

1 Customary of Norwich, pp. 135, 187, 76.

2 See Moorman, Church Life in England, p. 362.

3 Palmer, Collectanea I, p. 28.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

services in the new Lady-chapel which Alcock had built, and
to officiate at certain services in the monastic choir. Two years
before this appointment Hampton had succeeded Richard
Grene as organista in the Lady-chapel.1

At Durham Bishop Thomas Langley founded in 141 4 a
chantry of two chaplains to sing services at the altar of St.
Mary, until another altar or chapel should be provided by the
Bishop or his executors. The chaplains were to be competent
to keep schools, one in grammar and the other in song, and
the chaplain who kept the song school was to sing the Lady-
Mass2 with some of his scholars.3 About 1430-5 Langley made
extensive alterations to the Lady-chapel at the west end which
was called the 'Gallilee', and erected a new altar of the Virgin
where the great west door had been. According to a late
sixteenth-century description of the monastery and its services,
the function of the song school was 'to teach vi children for to
learne to sing for the maintenance of God's Divine service in
the abbey church, which children had there meat and there
drink of the house coste amonge the children of thalmarie',
that is, with the poor children of the almonry.4 In 1447 the
monastery appointed John Stele as 'cantor', to teach plainsong
and polyphony to some monks and eight 'secular boys' and to
sing and play at the services in the Gallilee and, when re-
quested, in the monastic choir. The indenture of the appoint-
ment sets out these duties in detail, and similar indentures exist
for the appointments to this post of Thomas Foderley in 1496,
of John Tildesley in 1502 and of the composer Thomas Ashe-
well (here Hashewell), formerly of Lincoln, in 1513.5 John
Brimley was cantor in 1536-76 and remained to be organist
and choirmaster under the New Foundation. Three pieces by
Brimley for the Anglican service have survived.

The chronicles and registers of St. Alban's Abbey record in

1 Atkins, Early Occupants of the Office of Organist of Worcester, pp. 6-13.

2 The Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin, see below, pp. 77 sqq.

3 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1 413-16, pp. 206-7.

4 Rites of Durham, p. 62.

5 Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, pp. cccxv, ccclxxxvi, cccxcviii,
ccccxiii. An account of 'Liberatura Specialis' for 15 10 has under Generosi:
'Roberto Langforth, cantori, 3 [ulnae] et 1 ultra 2s. 8d. In stipendio'; and
under Valecti: 'Roberto Langforth, janitori, 3'. Rites of Durham, pp. 144-5.

6 Durham Account Rolls, p. 703.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

some detail the gifts and good works of John Wheathamstead,
who was Abbot from 1420 to 1440 and again from 1451 to
1464. During his first abbacy he had the Lady-chapel painted
and provided with new ornaments, and instituted the daily
singing in polyphony of the Lady-Mass by singers from outside
the community. He decreed in 1423 that since the community
could not provide qualified singers from its own members at
least two stipendiary singers of polyphony {organistae) should be
engaged, and should sing at the Lady-Mass and at Vespers
and High Mass in choir on Sundays and festivals. In addition
the Master of the Lady-chapel, who was probably one of the
community, should have a clerk skilled in ministering at the
altar and in singing to assist him.1 Robert Fayrfax may have
been master of a choir of stipendiary singers at St. Alban's,
though the nature of his connection with the Abbey has not
been clearly established.

The records of Christ Church, Canterbury, show that Leonel
Power, undoubtedly the composer, was received into the frater-
nity of the monastery in 1423 and died on June 5, 1445. 2
He was not employed by the Priory during all of this period,
however, for his name appears only in the livery lists (which
were made out yearly at Easter) covering the years 1441-5.3
It is among the armigeri or esquires, called generosi in most of
the later lists, who were laymen of relatively high status, such
as the master mason, who worked for the Priory and received
an annual allowance of livery. The chronicle of events at Christ
Church written by John Stone, who was a monk there from
1 41 5 to 147 1, records Power's death in 'the guest-house facing
the court' and his burial 'next to the gate of the cemetery' on
June 6, 1445.4 Stone makes no reference to Power's musical
fame, though he elsewhere pays tribute to the musical ability

1 Amundesham, Chronicle, i, p. 106.

2 British Museum, MS. Arundel 68 (lists of persons received into fraternity
1 290-1 526, and obit days of priors, brethren and benefactors; see The
Chronicle of John Stone, p. xxix), fos. 62V., 29V. (obit date June 6). The redis-
covery of this reference, which was apparently known to Johannes Wolf
(see Moser, Musik Lexikon, p. 979) is due to Prof. Manfred Bukofzer, and
was kindly communicated to me by John Harvey.

3 Bodleian Library, MS. Tanner 165 (Christ Church Livery Lists,
1413-60), fos. 121-176V.

4 The Chronicle of John Stone, p. 37.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

of two precentors of the monastery and gives interesting details
about the music sung there, including the names of composers.1
The first Lady-chapel at Christ Church was built early in the
fifteenth century by Thomas Chillenden (Prior, 1391-1411),
and a new Lady-chapel beside the site of the martyrdom of
St. Thomas was built by the first Thomas Goldston (Prior,
1449-68) and was finished by 1455. 2 Stone mentions 'boys of
the church' in 1446, when Queen Margaret visited the monas-
tery and heard them sing Mass at the altar of the Virgin in the
crypt. 3 They were not provided for in the livery lists until 1 454,
after which they appear regularly as octo pueri cantoris. Though
the cantor is not identified in the lists, it is possible that the
post was held by John de Frenyngham (d. 1470), whose name
first appears among the generosi in 14554 and who composed
polyphony for a special occasion in 1470.5 He seems to have
joined the order in the meantime, for Stone describes him
as a monk of the Priory in deacon's orders. He also tells us that
the singers at Mass when the 'great nave of the Trinity' was
dedicated by the Archbishop of York in 1 469 were three monks
and 'all the boys of the church'.6 At the foot of an inventory of
the books of the monastery of c. 1530 John Wood is referred to
as 'Master off the chyldren in crist's church'.7

The first recorded master of the choristers at Westminster
Abbey was William Cornysh the elder, who filled the office
from 1479-80 to 1 490- 1, and whose appointment may mark
the establishment of a group of singing men and boys. There
were ten choristers at the dissolution of the Abbey in 1 540, and
the same number under the new secular foundation which
followed the dissolution.8 At the Benedictine Abbey of Muchel-
ney in Somerset Ralph Drake was made cantor c. 1500, and
was required to be at the daily Lady-Mass and at High Mass
and Vespers on festivals, and to teach four boys and one of the
monks to play the organ (pulsare organa), as well as any other
monks who might wish to learn.9 Winchester Cathedral Priory

1 See below, pp. 189-90. 2 The Chronicle of John Stone, p. 65.

3 Ibid., p. 39. 4 MS. Tanner 165, fo. 171 v.

5 See below, p. 190. 6 The Chronicle of John Stone, p. no.

7 Legg and Hope, Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 164.

8 Pine, 'Westminster Abbey: Some Early Masters of the Choristers', p. 258.

9 Muchelney Memoranda, p. 42.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

appointed Edmund Pynbrygge in 1510 to officiate at services
in the Lady-chapel, nave and choir, and to instruct the boys,
up to ten in number, in plainsong and polyphony. Thomas
Goodman was appointed to the same duties in the following
year, and Matthew Fuller, 'syngyng-man', in 1538, when there
were eight boys. A grant of the headmastership of the priory
school to John Potingere in 1538 shows that the 'chyldren of
the ChapelP were taught there, as well as the 'chyldren of the
almery' and the junior monks.1

In 151 5 John Tucke, B.A., who was a fellow of New College
from 1500 to 15072 and wrote a treatise on musical theory
dated 1500 which still exists,3 was appointed by Gloucester
Abbey to teach grammar to the young monks and thirteen
boys, to train five or six boys who had aptitude in plainsong
and polyphony and direct the services in which they sang, and
to participate in the more important services in the monks'
choir. The boys are referred to as pueri de camera clericorum, and
apparently lived in a common house [domus capellae) with the
singing clerks.4 Thomas Tallis may have been master of a group
of stipendiary singers at Waltham Abbey, which had five
choristers at its dissolution.5 In 1534 the Abbey of Glastonbury
appointed James Renynger to teach polyphony to six children
and to sing and play the organ in the Lady-chapel and choir. 6
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, was given an endowment
to maintain four choristers in 1480, and its song school was
founded in 1493 by Prior David Winchester.7

The size and balance of the choirs of collegiate churches and
colleges in the later Middle Ages, as well as what the statutes
reveal about the qualifications and training of their members,
show that the performance of polyphonic music was an essen-
tial part of their function. In their establishment of similar
choirs the monasteries followed in the footsteps of the secular
institutions, and at the same time took advantage of the
presence of a qualified master for their stipendiary singers to

1 Winchester Cathedral Library, Enrolment Register 2, fo. 44-44.V;
Enrolment Register 3, fos. 73, 83V.

2 See below, p. 158. 3 British Museum, MS. Add. 10336.

4 Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, iii, pp. 290-1.

5 Tudor Church Music, vi, pp. xii-xiii.

6 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vii, p. 411.

7 Lewis-Crosby, The Annals of Christ Church Cathedral, p. 41.

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CHOIRS

employ him for some of their own services. The institution and
development of balanced groups of singers was the most signifi-
cant feature of the musical history of the later Middle Ages,
and was comparable in importance to the rise of the orchestra
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was closely
related to the origin and growth of choral polyphony, as distinct
from the polyphony of soloists practised in the larger secular
and monastic choirs in earlier centuries. Like the rise of the
orchestra, it was accompanied by the adoption and gradual
expansion of new musical forms, for the earlier of the two main
phases in the history of medieval music was the era of the motet
and conductus, the later that of the festal and votive Masses,
the votive Antiphon and the Magnificat. These changes in the
forms of polyphony correspond, in their turn, to new trends
in the expression of devotion and new movements in the festal
treatment of the ritual which took place within the established
framework of the medieval liturgies.

M.M.B. — E 45

tiimtiminiMniimnt

THE LITURGY AND ITS
PLAINSONG

«tmmimtttiitiMini»nnniMt)iii«iitnmt>mnmnni*t<tm»ttttmmtttitnMniit

,he English secular cathedrals derived their liturgies, as
they derived their constitutions, from Norman models. At the
same time, there was some continuity with earlier Irish and
Anglo-Saxon liturgical traditions, and this may in part account
for local differences.1 The variations of detail, both in constitu-
tions and liturgy, which existed between the Norman cathe-
drals are also reflected to some degree in England. Salisbury
and York, for example, show a relation, not by any means
exact, to Bayeux,2 Lichfield and Hereford to Rouen.3 Some
English monasteries had maintained an earlier form of their
ritual, and they too felt the impact of the Norman conquest.
At Glastonbury in 1 083 the abbot Turstin, who had been trans-
ferred from Caen, attempted to introduce the use of Fecamp,
a revised version of the use of Cluny, which was itself a 're-
formed' Benedictine use brought to Fecamp by William of
Volpiano in 1 00 1 * Turstin's action met with violent opposition
and led to a bloody struggle in the abbey choir.5 Before the

1 For an example, see Frere, 'The Newly-found York Gradual', pp. 24-5.

2 Frere, 'The Connexion between English and Norman Rites', pp. 32-
40; Bishop, Liturgica Historica, p. 300, n. 1.

3 Savage, The Great Register of Lichfield, p. xxvi; Bishop, 'Holy Week Rites
of Sarum, Hereford and Rouen'.

4 Customary of Norwich, p. xiii. 5 Worcester Antiphonary, i, p. 106.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

^jy^fdy^entury, however, Archbishop Lanfranc settled such
differei ctS^wy issuing his Deer eta pro Or dine S. Benedicti, which
began with the rules for the regulation of the liturgy (Ordinarium
totius anni).1

Ordinal and Customary

The Use of Salisbury was the most important of the secular
liturgies of medieval Britain. The earliest version of the Sarum
Customary (Consuetudinarium, Custumarium) , which was drawn
up by Richard Poore about 1210,2 begins with an expanded
form of St. Osmund's Institutes3 and continues with the
arrangement of seating in the choir-stalls, the rules of deport-
ment in choir, and the duties and procedures of those who
carry out the services throughout the year. A Customary pre-
supposes an Ordinal, since 'the Ordinal defines the character,
contents, and method of the Services, while the Consuetudinary
defines the persons who are to conduct them: in other words,
the Ordinal deals with the Rite, and the Consuetudinary with
the Ceremonial'.4 In practice Ordinal and Customary could
be combined to give a running commentary on the ceremonial
as well as the opening words of the chants and lessons, and
could be prefaced by the Statutes, as in Grandisson's Exeter
Ordinal.

Perhaps the earliest reference to the existence of a secular
Ordinal in England is in Bishop Nonant's Lichfield Statutes
(1188-98), which begin by explaining the need for and func-
tion of constitutions and customs, and soon afterwards refer to
the Ordinal and the Customary.5 The Sarum Ordinal is in fact
mentioned in Poore's Consuetudinarium, was revised and added
to during the thirteenth century, and was superseded by a
'New Ordinal' about the middle of the fourteenth century. This
in turn was added to and clarified, and eventually the substance
of the part concerned with the ceremonial of particular days
and seasons was incorporated in the service books as 'rubrics',
and of that concerned with the cycle of feasts and observances

1 Printed in Migne, Patrologia, cl, cols. 446-82.

2 Use of Sarum, ii, p. xx. 3 Ibid., pp. 1-12.

4 Ibid., p. vii. 5 Lincoln Statutes, ii, p. 12.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

in a digest or handbook called the Directorium Sacerdotum.1 In
the meantime the influence of the Salisbury customs and ritual
had been widespread. They were adopted, with variations in
the observances of local saints, in secular cathedrals (except
York, Hereford and London) , in houses of Augustinian canons,
in collegiate churches and colleges, and in all the dioceses of
England, Scotland and Ireland.2 The dioceses which had
monks in their cathedrals turned naturally to the Sarum use,
since the rites of their cathedral churches were those of a
monastic order.

The term 'use' was occasionally applied to a book adapted
from Sarum use to the minor peculiarities of another diocese,
as in the cases of a fifteenth-century Missal secundum usum Lin-
coln3 and an 'antiphonare some tyme of Lyncoln use and now
of the use of Sarum' which belonged to the town of Louth in
Lincolnshire in i486.4 For Exeter Cathedral Bishop Grandisson
in 1337 'made and extracted from the uses of Exeter and
Sarum' 5 an Ordinal-cum-Customary to which he prefixed the
Statutes (status et personarum numerus situatio et officio).6 At the
request of Bishop Brantyngham the Dean and Chapter agreed
to accept the Sarum Ordinal in so far as it was compatible with
their statutory rights and duties. This was not, apparently, far
enough, as the request was renewed by Bishop Oldham in

I505-7

In their travels abroad in the early fifteenth century the

English royal and ducal chapels naturally observed their own

Sarum rites, and the impact of their liturgical customs, as well

as of the style of their polyphonic music, on French composers of

that time had important consequences. The Sarum liturgy was

1 Use of Sarum, ii, pp. x-xxvii. Clement Maydestone's Directorium Sacerdotum
has been edited by Cooke and Wordsworth.

2 Use of Sarum, ii, pp. xxvii-xxxii. When the Archbishop of Canterbury
celebrated Mass in the presence of the college of Bishops, the Bishop of
Salisbury was precentor, 'by ancient observance and custom'. Lincoln
Statutes, iii, p. 844.

3 York Missal, pp. 343-8.

4 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 848. A Sarum Missal used at Lincoln had as later
additions the votive Mass of St. Hugh and some sequences. Ibid., p. 842.

5 'Que eis fecimus et extraximus ex Exonie et Sarum usibus', in his statutes
for Ottery St. Mary. Dalton, The Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary, p. 1 36.

6 Edited by Dalton as Ordinate Exon.

7 Lincoln Statutes, iii, pp. 842, 850.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

carried still further afield when Philippa of Lancaster, daughter
of John of Gaunt and queen of John I of Portugal, introduced
its use in Braga in 1385.1 Some elements of the English rite,
notably certain chants used at the ceremony of the Deposition
on Good Friday, remained in the Portuguese service-books.2
St. Ferdinand Confessor, son of John and Philippa, recited
daily from his fourteenth year (141 5) until his death in 1443
'all the canonical hours according to the use of the Church
of Salisbury. . . . His chapel was fully equipped with vest-
ments and all other necessaries and he had chaplains and
singers competent to carry out the services of the Salisbury
rite.'3

The rites of York and Hereford maintained their standing
as more or less independent uses until the Reformation. York
adopted elements of the Sarum Customary from time to time,
but remained distinct in its Calendar of observances, in the
antiphons and responds of the Breviary, and conspicuously in
its greater number of sequences, many peculiar to itself.4 The
differences between the Sarum and Hereford uses were of the
same kind,5 though less extensive since the Ordinal and service-
books of Hereford borrowed considerably from the New
Ordinal of Salisbury in the later Middle Ages. From the pre-
ferment of a Savoyard, Peter de Egeblank (or Pierre d'Aigue-
blanche, or de Aqua blanca, or de Aqua bella) , to the bishopric
of Hereford in 1240 arose the curious fact that the use of Here-
ford was observed in a collegiate church in Savoy until 1580.
During an absence from Hereford in 1258-62 Egeblank founded
the Collegiate Church of St. Katharine at Aiguebelle in the
diocese of Maurienne with a provost, precentor, treasurer and
ten other canons, four deacons and four sub-deacons. All the
services were to be carried out 'according to the use of the
Church of Hereford', including the graduals and tropes, and

1 Ibid., p. 841.

2 Corbin, Essai sur la musique religieuse portugaise, pp. 302-15.

3 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 843.

4 Frere, 'York Service Books', p. 162; 'The Newly-found York Gradual',
pp. 27-9. See also the list of 'Sequences of the English Church' in Breviarium
Sarum, iii, pp. xcii-xcix; York had one hundred and seventy-two sequences,
Salisbury ninety-four and Hereford eighty-one.

6 The Breviaries of Salisbury, York and Hereford are compared in
Hereford Breviary, iii, Introduction.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

the services of the Virgin and for the Dead.1 In 141 3 Richard
Kyngeston, Dean of St. George's, Windsor, who had been
Archdeacon of Hereford from 1379 to 1404, was granted
permission by Pope John XXIII to continue to say the
canonical Hours according to the Hereford use rather than that
of Salisbury, which was followed at Windsor.2

Some elements of the statutes and customs of Salisbury were
adopted by St. Paul's during the fourteenth century. 3 The usus
Sancti Pauli was discontinued in 1414 in favour of the Sarum
use, but the choir apparently retained something of their older
methods of singing and reading.4 Though Elgin Cathedral had
followed Lincoln in some features of its constitution, it adopted
the liturgical use of Salisbury in 1242.5 Bishop Gervase of St.
David's ordered in 1223 that certain parts of the use of Salisbury
should be adopted in his cathedral, which in other respects
may have maintained an older ordinal.6 Two thirteenth-cen-
tury collegiate foundations, Chester-le-Street and Bishop Auck-
land, both in Durham, were ordered to adopt the modus psallendi
of York or Salisbury.7 This may not have been a real alterna-
tive since the rules for the singing of psalms, traditionally
ascribed to St. Bernard,8 were common to all rites, and were
widely copied.9 Mixtures of use were possible, however, for the
use of the nunnery of St. Mary and St. Ethelburga in Barking
(Essex) 10 combined the Hours of St. Benedict, the Psalter se-
quence of the Roman use, and the Mass of the usus Sancti Pauli.11

Having dealt with the dignities and duties of the chief
officers of the church, the Sarum Customary went on to the
arrangement of the stalls and general rules for deportment and
procedure in choir.12 The ministers of the church occupied in

1 Lincoln Statutes, ii, pp. 40-2.

2 Calendar of Papal Registers, Letters, vi, p. 377.

3 Use of Sarum, ii, pp. xxxi-xxxii.

4 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 843, where the date is given as ? 141 5. Registrum
Statutorum et Consuetudinum, p. lix, gives 1414.

6 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 835. 6 Ibid., p. 833.

7 Ibid., p. 837.

8 E.g., 'teste Barnardo qui ait . . .' Use of Sarum, i. p. 36.

9 Van Dijk, 'Saint Bernard and the Inslituta Patrum of St. Gall',
pp. 103-9.

10 The Ordinale of the Nuns of Barking. n Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 841.
12 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 13-40. Frere suggests the heading 'De Consuetudine

Chori'.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

order of precedence the three rows of seats: a highest row
(gradus superior), a second row (secunda forma) and a lowest row
{prima forma) . In large choirs, including all the secular cathe-
drals except Lichfield, there were 'return-stalls' at the western
end of the choir against the choir-screen and facing towards
the altar. In the nearest stalls to the choir-doors on the south
side sat the Dean and on the north side the Precentor; hence
the south side of the choir (called decani) had precedence over
the north (called cantoris). In the corners at the east end were
the stalls of the Chancellor and Treasurer. Next to the four
'principal persons' were the stalls of Archdeacons, whose func-
tions were mainly diocesan, and of Abbots of monasteries if, as
at Wells, they held prebends.1 After these dignitaries came the
sub-dean on the decani side and the succentor on the cantoris
side, and then the canons, priest-vicars and (at Salisbury) a
few older deacons ex dispensatione. Since comparatively few
canons were in residence at any one time, the greater number
of stalls in the highest row were in practice occupied by priest-
vicars. In the second form were the places of deacons and 'other
clerks', and in the first row of the choristers (canonici pueri) and
probationary choristers in order (ceteri pueri secundum aetatis
exigentium) .

For the weekly assignment of certain duties of singing and
reading the sides of the choir alternated in being the 'duty' or
leading (principalis) side, so that one week was decani week, the
next cantoris week. This alternation was a daily one from the
Sunday before Christmas2 to the Sunday after Epiphany, from
Maundy Thursday to the Sunday after Easter, and from Whit-
sunday to Trinity Sunday.

From this general body of singers (chorus) smaller groups
were taken out at various times to act as 'rulers of the choir'
(rectores chori) or to sing certain parts of the services. The rulers
either assisted the precentor or acted in his place, according
to the festal rank of the day. They carried staves, often elabor-
ately carved and decorated, such as that described in the
Lincoln inventory of 1536: 'Imprimis a staffe covered with
sylver and gylte with one Image of owr lady graven yn sylver
of one end and an Image of seynt hugh yn the other end

1 See the choir-seating plans in Lincoln Statutes, i, pp. 105, 136-8.

2 If a decani week began on that day; otherwise from Christmas Day.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

havyng a bose vi squared with xii Imagies enamelled havyng
vi botteresses wantyng one pynnacle and ii topes of the gyft
of Mr. Alex. Pro well'.1 The rulers sat on short forms on each
side of the middle of the choir with benches in front on which
to place their books. Two rulers (canonici hebdomadarii) functioned
each fortnight, one from each side, taking 'principal' duty for
one week each with their side of the choir. The singers of
special parts of the service went to a lectern at one of three
places, depending on the rank of the day and on the ritual
situation, as laid down in the Customary: at the choir-step
(gradus chori), in the middle of the choir (medius chori), or at the
lectern on the choir-screen [ad lectrinum in pulpito) .

The assigning of singing duties was done by the precentor or
his deputy, of reading duties as a rule by the chancellor or his
deputy. The names were written on a board which was nor-
mally filled out on Sunday for the following week {tabula hebdo-
madaria), or, when the choir alternated daily, on each day
(tabula communis) . 2 The table was read out each day, in Salisbury
by a boy, when the community assembled in the chapter-house
for readings, announcement of obits and prayers. 3

The main part of the Customary and all of the Ordinal were
based on the division of the year into (i) seasons or periods, and
(2) saints' days, and on the division of the day into the two
principal kinds of service, the canonical Hours and the Mass.
The church year began on the first Sunday in Advent, and its
seasons were: (1) Advent, comprising the four Sundays and
odd week-days, if any, to Christmas Eve; (2) Christmas to the
Sunday after the octave4 of the Epiphany (January 6); (3) that
Sunday, called the Sunday Domine ne in ira from the opening
words of the first respond at Matins, to Septuagesima, i.e., the
third Sunday before Ash Wednesday,5 a period which varied
in length according to the date of Easter; (4) Septuagesima to

1 Under the heading 'Baculi pro chori regentibus'. Alexander Prowett
was Precentor from 1448 to 1471. Wordsworth, 'Lincoln Inventories',
p. 21.

2 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 1 05-11.

3 Ibid. p. 5 1 . For an example of the methods of making out a monastic
tabula, see Ordinate of St. Mary's, York, i, pp. 58-67. There the two rulers
were called cantaria and subcantaria.

4 I.e., the day itself and the seven days following.

5 Which was called 'caput jejunii'.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

the Saturday of Holy Week, i.e., Easter Eve, being nine weel
(5) Easter Sunday to Pentecost (Whitsunday), being sevei
weeks; and (6) the first Sunday after Trinity, called the Sunday
Deus omnium from the beginning of the first respond at Matins,
to Advent, again of varying length according to the date of
Easter. The section of an ordinal or service-book dealing with
these seasons, which was called the Temporale, included also
the anniversary of the dedication of the church.1 The section
dealing with the saints' days, including, of course, the feasts of
the Virgin, naturally all fixed in date, began with St. Andrew's
day (November 30), and was called the Sanctorale.

The ranking of festivals varied somewhat in the various uses,
most frequently as it concerned patronal saints and saints
specially venerated in a church, region or diocese. The main
categories were duplex and simplex. Doubles were further sub-
divided into four ranks: principale, maius, minus and inferius.2
The services on principal and greater double feasts were dis-
tinguished by having a procession, two canons and two vicars
to rule the choir, elaborate censing at Matins and Vespers, and
other marks of their dignity. The lesser and inferior doubles
had no procession (unless they fell on a Sunday), two canons
and two clerks of the second form to rule the choir, and less
elaborate ceremonial in other respects. Simple feasts, on which
the choir was ruled by the two canonici hebdomadarii, were sub-
divided at Salisbury into three kinds according as the Invita-
torium at Matins was sung by three or two persons, or by one.3
Sundays on which no special observance fell (dominicae simplices)
were ranked as simple, with the regular addition of a procession
before High Mass and certain other ceremonial. A week-day
on which no feast occurred was called diferia, though the term

1 The 'Festum Dedicationis Ecclesiae', varying with the church, as distinct
from the 'Festum Sancti Loci', the feast of its patron saint.

2 So in Salisbury; Exeter had mains (including principale) , medium, minus,
semi-duplex; Hereford had principale (including the Salisbury maius), duplex,
semi-duplex. Monastic foundations used the terms in capis (in copes) and in
albis (in albs) for feasts corresponding in general to the Salisbury minus
and inferius.

3 At Hereford two kinds, with nine or three lessons at Matins; at Exeter
two kinds, one called simplex and having two rulers, the other profestum
with no rulers (sine regimine chori) and three lessons; in monasteries two kinds,
with twelve or three lessons at Matins.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

might occasionally be used to distinguish a week-day, festal or
not, from a Sunday. The three days after Easter and after
Whitsunday were double feasts. In the octaves of certain feasts
the choir was ruled and the ritual of the Sunday and week-days
was related to that of the feast.1 In all uses, whatever the
differences of terminology, the character of seasons and the
ranking of festal and ferial days were expressed by differences in
ceremonial, e.g., lights, bells, vestments, processions, the ruling
of the choir, the number singing certain chants, and in ritual,
e.g., the number of lessons at Matins, the singing or not of
Te Deum at Matins and of Credo and Gloria, Sequence, Alleluia
and Tract at Mass.

It was the object of the Customary to give specific directions
for the adaptation of the ceremonial to, and the consequent
making out of the tabula of duties for, the various degrees of
feasts and ferias, giving references when necessary to the texts
of the ritual contained in the Ordinal.

In setting out the ritual of the services, with the opening
words of chants, lessons, psalms and prayers, the Ordinal
adopted the following sequence: (i) the offices, i.e., canonical
hours, of the Temporale; (2) the offices of the Sanctorale,
divided into {a) those for specific saints' days, and (b) those for
groups of saints (Commune Sanctorum), e.g., apostles, martyrs,
bishop-martyrs, bishop-confessors, doctor-confessors, etc., and,
here or elsewhere, those for the dead;2 (3) Masses of the
Temporale (Proprium de Tempore) ; and (4) Masses of the Sanc-
torale (Proprium de Sanctis and Commune Sanctorum) and votive
Masses, i.e., occasional and recurring Masses such as those for
the Christian community,3 for peace, the nuptial Mass, and
the Mass for the dead.4

For 'festal' purposes the liturgical day was conceived as be-
ginning with Vespers followed by Compline, and the offices
continued with the 'night-hours' of Matins and Lauds and the
'day-hours' of Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.

1 E.g., in the octaves of the Epiphany (Use ofSarum, ii, pp. 45-6) and the
Ascension (ibid., p. 82); cf. Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 162-6.

2 Vespers in vigilia mortuorum were called Placebo from the opening of the
first antiphon; Matins of the Dead were called Dirige (whence 'dirge') for
the same reason.

3 Called Salus populi from the opening of the Introit.

4 Called Requiem from the opening of the Introit.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

On Sundays and greater doubles both first and second Vespers
(utraeque vesperae) were related to the day, first Vespers being
more important, while on lesser feasts Vespers on the evening
before, and not those on the day, were proper to the feast. The
most important of the offices, musically and otherwise, were
Vespers, Matins and Lauds. The choir was not ruled at the
other hours,1 which were called 'little'.2

The ringing of the bells which signalled the times of the hours
and of the principal Masses was just as carefully ordered to con-
form with the dignity of the day and the service as was every
other detail of custom and ritual. 3 Bells were also rung during
processions, during the singing of the Sequence and of the Te
Deum on feasts, in the last case with a clashing (classicum) of all
the bells from the verse per singulos dies until the beginning of
Lauds. The instructions to the ringers show that the time of
Matins varied with the seasons and feasts, beginning immedi-
ately after midnight on doubles in winter and summer until
August, and otherwise at midnight in winter and at such a time
as to end at dawn in summer.4 The exceptions were Christmas,
when Matins was finished before midnight, Easter Day and
the following week, when it was begun at first daylight, and
certain festivals in midsummer, when it was allowed to be sung
in the evening (in sero) after Vespers and Compline.5 When
Matins was sung in the evening, Lauds, which normally fol-
lowed it, was sung on the following morning. There was no
significant variation in the times of the other offices. Prime
was about nine, Terce about ten, Sext and None about eleven,
Vespers and Compline about three.6

1 Use of Sarum, i, p. 188.

2 At Lincoln Prime was counted among the horae majores. Lincoln Statutes,
i, p. 376.

3 Use of Sarum, i, p. 220; Lincoln Statutes, i, pp. 364-88, passim; Ordinale
Exon, ii, pp. 535 sqq.

4 Ordinale Exon, ii, p. 539. In Benedictine communities the bell for Matins
was rung at midnight all the year round and that for Prime at seven a.m.
Ordinale of St. Marfs, York, iii, pp. vi sqq.

6 Use of Sarum, i, p. 221; Ordinale Exon, ii, p. 539. At Ottery St. Mary
Grandisson ordered Matins on the three days before Easter (Tenebrae) to
be sung 'de sero, propter parochianos'. Dalton, The Collegiate Church of
Ottery St. Mary, p. 135.

6 Though the Hours services were not necessarily sung at the 'true'
times of first hour, third hour, etc., they represented the times at which

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

The elements common to all the offices, which may be seen
in their simplest form in the 'little' hours, consisted of opening
sentences, a hymn, psalms with an antiphon, a lesson and
prayers. At Compline the order was psalms, lesson, hymn and
canticle {Nunc dimittis) with antiphon. At Prime the Athan-
asian Creed (Quicumque vult) was added as a 'canticle' before
the final prayers. Lauds and Vespers contained sentences,
psalms with antiphons, a lesson, a hymn, a gospel canticle
(Benedictus at Lauds, Magnificat at Vespers) with antiphon, and
prayers. All of the Hours services normally ended with the
versicle Benedicamus Domino and the response1 Deo gr alias.
Matins was the most variable in length of the offices, and even
in its shortest form was longer than any other. It consisted of
sentences, Invitatorium (a respond with the Venite), the Venite
(Psalm 942), a hymn,3 and one or three Nocturns, each con-
sisting of psalms with antiphons and three lessons each followed
by a respond. The Te Deum was sung at the end of Matins on
Sundays and most feasts, except in Advent and Lent. One of the
convenient marks of the ranking of a feast was the number of
lessons in its Matins, three (one nocturn) or nine4 (three nocturns) .

Each of the canonical hours was celebrated once a day. Mass,
on the other hand, was celebrated several or many times,
according to the size of the church and the number of its altars
and chantries,5 between dawn and eleven o'clock. The most

the events of Christ's Passion took place. See De Horis Canonicis Hymnus
from the Primer of 1532 in Breviarium Sarum, iii, p. cxxxii.

1 A response (responsio) to a short versicle (versiculus) is to be distinguished
from a respond (responsorium) , which is a comparatively lengthy text, alter-
nating with a verse (versus), normally sung after a lesson.

2 The numbering of the medieval Latin Psalter is used here. It corresponds
to the Anglican numbering (after the Hebrew Psalter) thus: Pss. 1-9 and
148-50 are the same; Ps. 10 (Latin) is Pss. 10 and 11 (Anglican); Pss. 11-
145 are numbered one higher in the Anglican; Pss. 146 and 147 (Latin) are
Ps. 147 (Anglican). In medieval Ordinals and service-books psalms are
given by their opening words, with a number in cases of identical openings,
e.g., Domine ne in furore i is Ps. 6.

3 Except in the Easter Octave.

4 Twelve in the monastic liturgies, each nocturn having four lessons on
the festivals concerned. In both secular and monastic uses Matins on
Easter Day and Whitsunday had three lessons only.

5 In Lincoln, for example, there were thirty-eight Masses daily in 1506,
forty-four in 1531. Lincoln Statutes, ii, p. cclxv.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

important of these celebrations was that of Mass of the day,
which normally took place immediately after Terce. All the
others were votive Masses of various kinds.

In setting out the ritual of the Mass of the day through the
year, and of the votive Masses, the Ordinal gave the opening
words of the following variable items: the Introit (called Officium1)
and its psalm-verse, the prayer or collect (Oratio), the Epistle (i.e.,
a reading from the Epistles, or on certain days from the Acts
of the Apostles) , the Gradual, the Alleluia and its verse (or, from
Septuagesima to Easter, the Tract), the Sequence (on Sundays
during Advent and on most festivals except during Lent), the
Gospel (Evangelium) , the Offertory and the Communion. These
form the Proper of the Mass, though the term is generally used,
and will be used here, of the chanted parts of the Proper,
excluding the collect and lessons.

As to the invariable parts of the Mass which formed the
Ordinary, the Ordinal referred to them only in connection with
the omission of some of them on certain days or with festive
additions to their texts in the form of tropes. A trope consisted
of words set syllabically to that part (called a neuma) of a
melody which had previously been sung to one syllable, or of
new words and music inserted into certain parts of the ritual.
The Gloria in excelsis was omitted in Advent and from Septua-
gesima to Easter, and the Credo was omitted on ferias and lesser
festivals.2 Mass ended with Ite missa est and its response Deo
gratias when the Gloria was sung, and with Benedicamus Domino
and the same response when the Gloria was omitted. On days
when the Kyrie was troped Ite missa est was sung to the music
of the first Christe of the particular Kyrie trope which had been
sung at the beginning of the Mass. In the celebration of Mass
the items of the Proper and Ordinary succeeded one another
in the following order: Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Epistle, Gradual,
Alleluia, Sequence, Gospel, Credo, Offertory, Sanctus with Bene-
dictus, Agnus Dei, Communion and Ite missa est or Benedicamus.

1 It had this title in the Mozarabic rite also; see Angles, 'Latin Chant
before St. Gregory', p. 75.

2 Use of Sarum, i, p. 9 1 ; ii, p. 1 50.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Psalm and Canticle

For liturgical purposes the one hundred and fifty psalms were
divided into eight sections,1 sometimes called 'nocturns', in
order that the complete course would be sung once in the
Matins and Vespers of each week, assuming that all the week-
days were ferias. In practice, however, the course was virtually
never an uninterrupted one, since festivals had special psalms.
On ferias the Gloria patri was sung after a group of psalms, other-
wise after each psalm. When sung in choir the psalms were
chanted verse by verse 'antiphonally', i.e., with the two sides
alternating. When a Canon died, the choir kept watch over
the bier through the night, singing the whole of the psalter. At
Lincoln the decani side kept the vigil before Matins and the
cantoris side continued it after Matins.2 At Norwich the com-
munity sang the psalter in the cloister on the morning of the
anniversary (July 23) of Bishop Herbert Losinga, under whom
the building of the Cathedral was begun in 1 096. 3

In addition to the Gospel canticles, there were seven can-
ticles from the Old Testament which were sung daily in turn
at Lauds.4 All of these were sung alternatim, in the same fashion
as psalms.

Antiphon

The term antiphona was not used in the ordinals for singing
in alternation, which was expressed by alternatim or alternis
vicibus, but to indicate a chant sung with a psalm, group of
psalms or canticle at the Hours, or without a psalm in proces-
sions and memorials. In the early centuries of the Christian
liturgy the antiphon was sung before and after the psalm and
also between each verse.5 This practice survived to later times
only in such special cases as the antiphon Asperges me Domine,
sung with two verses of Psalm 50 [Miserere mei) and the Gloria
patri at the sprinkling with holy water before the procession

1 Wordsworth and Littlehales, Old Service Books, p. no.

2 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 343.

3 Customary of Norwich, pp. xiv, 152.

4 Wordsworth and Littlehales, Old Service Books, p. 109.

5 Wagner, Introduction to the Gregorian Melodies, pp. 141 -2.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

on Sundays,1 and the antiphon Lumen ad revelationem to the
Nunc dimittis at the distribution of candles before the procession
on the Purification (February 2).2 Normally only the opening
notes of an antiphon were sung before the psalm, and the
person who was 'tabled' to do this continued to the end of the
first half-verse of the psalm {usque ad metrum), the choir on his
side taking up the chanting from the second half of the verse.3
A different treatment of the beginning was needed when the
antiphon used the same words as the opening of the psalm.
In such cases these words were not repeated at the beginning
of the psalm,4 and the Ordinal and Antiphonal showed the
psalm as Ipsum. After the Gloria patri the antiphon was again
announced and then continued to the end by the choir. At the
end of the last antiphon at Vespers and Lauds and in each
nocturn of Matins, and of all antiphons to the Magnificat, Bene-
dicts and Quicumque vult, the neuma5 of the mode was added as
a sort oijubilus on the last vowel, except from Passion Sunday
(the fifth Sunday in Lent) to the Sunday after Easter and in
services for the dead.6 On the more important double feasts the
antiphon to the Magnificat was 'doubled', that is, sung complete
both before and after the canticle.7

A small group of antiphons had an exceptional form resem-
bling that of a respond, for they included a verse which was
sung after the psalm, before the antiphon was sung complete.
This was true of all the antiphons at Matins on the feasts of
St. Paul and St. Laurence.8 A further development of this form
is seen in the antiphons to the Nunc dimittis for the last four
weeks of Lent, Media vita, which a tradition originating in the
seventeenth century has credited to Notker Balbulus of St.

1 Replaced by the antiphon Vidi aquam egredientem with one verse of the
psalm Confitemini Domino from Easter to Trinity. Missale Sarum, col. 33**.

2 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 342. Other examples are the psalms during the pro-
cession to the Font after Eastertide Vespers, and the psalm at the Adora-
tion of the Cross on Good Friday. See below, pp. 94-7.

3 Use of Sarum, i, p. 36; ii, p. 209. See also Van Dijk, 'Saint Bernard and
the Instituta Patrum of Saint Gall', p. 109, and the texts printed there, p. 105.

1 Use of Sarum, ii, pp. 208-9.

5 A short piece of vocalized melody; there was one for each mode, given
in the Tonale. See below, p. 102.

6 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 209.

7 Ibid., i, p. 31; Ordinate of St. Mary's, York, ii, p. 199.

8 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 209, 247.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Gall,1 and 0 rex gloriose, each of which had three verses. Media
vita was used during the two weeks before Passion Sunday, and
its complete form, with the verses, on the Saturdays, Sundays
and festivals within that period. After the complete antiphon
was sung by the choir the verses were sung as solos, each being
followed by one of the three phrases of the second half of the
antiphon in order, thus: ~fi. Ne proicias nos . . . Choir Sancte
Deus;2 ~f. JVoli claudere . . . Choir Sancte fortis; y. Qui cognoscis . . .
Choir Sancte et misericors salvator amarae morti ne tradas nos. 3 The
verses of 0 rex gloriose, which was used from Passion Sunday
to the Wednesday in Holy Week, were likewise sung on Satur-
days, Sundays and feasts. In this case, however, the partial
repetitions were carried to the end of the antiphon each time.4

The Introit of the Mass was originally a complete psalm
with antiphon.5 In the English uses the term introitus missae was
applied to the entrance of the clergy rather than to the chant
which accompanied it, which was called qfficium. It consisted
of an antiphon, one psalm-verse and the Gloria patri, sung in
the order antiphon, verse, antiphon, Gloria patri, antiphon. The
rulers began the antiphon and the Gloria, which were then taken
up by the choir, the verse being sung by the rulers only.6 In the
threefold singing of the antiphon of the Introit the English rite
held to an earlier practice; elsewhere the antiphon after the
verse had either been dropped or shortened by half.7

Like the Introit, the Offertory and Communion had each
originally been a complete psalm with antiphon, and although
by the Middle Ages they were independent melodies, they still
kept some traces of their earliest form.8 In some Offertories, for

1 See Clark, Abbey of St. Gall, p. 191.

2 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 120, adds 'et non ulterius'. In Hereford the choir
sang to the end of the antiphon each time ('semper repetitiones post versus
usque ad finem dicuntur'). Hereford Breviary, i, p. 274.

3 Music in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 1 70.

4 Ordinale Exon, i, pp. 125-6; Hereford Breviary, i, pp. 289-90; Breviarium
Sarum, i, col. dccxvi. Music in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 190. Neither of
these antiphons appears in the monastic liturgies.

6 Wagner, Introduction to the Gregorian Melodies, pp. 54 sqq.

6 Use of Sarum, i, p. 38; ii, p. 149; the Gloria patri was not sung between
Passion Sunday and Easter, except on Holy Thursday if the Bishop cele-
brated. Ibid., ii, p. 161.

7 Wagner, Introduction to the Gregorian Melodies, pp. 59-60.

8 Ibid., pp. 93-9, 102-5; Smits van Waesberghe, Gregorian Chant, pp. 23-6.

Plate V

8. Lincoln Cathedral: the choir in 1819. The carved stalls were the gift of John
de Welbourne, Treasurer, 1350- 1380

Plate VI

9. Henry VI and a Bishop at service in the King's Chapel

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

example, the first sentence was repeated.1 Since repetition of
words, unless as a part of the liturgical text, was otherwise
unknown, this suggests that the original antiphon and psalm-
verses had been fused into one continuous chant. The only
Communion chant which kept the form of antiphon and verse
was that in the Mass for the dead.2

Respond

Though the antiphon and the respond both had their origin
in the early forms of psalmody, they had, in general, distinct
forms and ritual functions in the Middle Ages. While the anti-
phons were choral chants sung with a psalm the responds were
more elaborate chants sung after lessons. Hence Matins with
nine lessons had also nine responds. In its normal form a
respond was begun by one or a few singers and continued by
the choir; then the verse was sung by the soloist or soloists and
the respond was repeated from mid-point by the chorus. The
third, sixth and ninth responds at Matins, i.e., the third respond
of each nocturn, were distinguished by the singing of the first
half of the Gloria patri (to the same music as the verse) after
the repeat, followed by the same or a still shorter repeat.3 On
Trinity Sunday all the responds at Matins were sung with the
Gloria. The first respond at Matins on the first Sunday in
Advent, Aspiciens a longe, which began the liturgical year, had
a still more extended form, with three verses and the Gloria,
each answered by successively shorter portions of the respond.4
The ninth respond, Libera me, in Matins for the dead had also
on occasions three verses: Dies ilia, Quid ergo and Nunc Christe te
petimus.5

The Invitatorium, with which the office of Matins began, kept

1 E.g., Jubilate Deo omnis terra (First Sunday after Epiphany), Jubilate
Deo universa terra (Second Sunday after Epiphany), Benedictus es Domine
(Quinquagesima), Precatus est Moyses (Thursday after the Second Sunday
in Lent and Twelfth Sunday after Trinity).

2 See Missale Sarum, col. 868*.

3 When Te Deum was sung the last repeat was omitted from the ninth
respond.

4 Music in Grove, Dictionary, vii, p. 131.
6 Breviarium Sarum, iii, col. 983.
M.M.B. F 6l

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

the ancient form of a responsorial chant1 sung between each
of the verses of a psalm, in this case the Venite. Depending on
the rank of the day the Invitatorium was sung by one to four
singers, and this was one of the ways of indicating rank in the
calendar. The entry in the calendar for January 2, for example,
was : Octava S. Stephani, invitatorium duplex, Hi lectiones cum regimine
chori. On feasts of highest rank it was sung by four canons and
repeated complete by the choir. The Venite was then sung
alternatim by the two canons of each side, the choir, led by the
precentor, singing the whole Invitatory after the odd-numbered
verses and its second half after the even-numbered verses. When
the Invitatory was sung by two or three its first part was sung
by the rulers and its second part by the choir, both before and
after the psalm. The psalm was sung throughout by the rulers,
the choir interposing the Invitatory in the same fashion as
before.2

A respond was sung after the lesson at Vespers on double
feasts (with some exceptions) and on week-days in Advent and
Lent. 3 Compline had a respond only in Lent, In pace in idipsum
with Gloria patri being sung from the first Sunday in Lent to
Passion Sunday, and In manus tuas Domine from Passion Sunday
to Maundy Thursday. The respond Jesu Christe fili Dei with a
varying chant and verses changing with the seasons was sung
at Prime, except from Passion Sunday to 'Low' Sunday.4

The responsorial chants of the Mass, the Gradual and the
Alleluia, were sung between the Epistle and the Gospel. The
performance of the Gradual was carried out in the same way
as that of the responds at Matins, except that the repeat was
complete and, like the opening, was begun by soloists.5 The
repeat of the Gradual was omitted on double feasts, except at
the second Mass of Christmas Day, and on a few other occa-
sions.6 The Alleluia was sung from the beginning by the choir

1 See Grove, Dictionary, iv, p. 527. Wagner, however, regards it as an
antiphonal chant; Introduction to the Gregorian Melodies, p. 23, n. 5.

2 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 212-13; Ordinate Exon, i, p. 30.

3 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 45, 117, 147.

4 The Sunday after Easter, called Dominica in albis. The respond was,
however, sung on the Annunciation. Use of Sarum, ii, pp. 222-4; Ordinate
Exon, i, p. 219.

6 In the Gradual, the ending of the verse, i.e., usually the last word or
two, was sung by the choir. 6 Missale Sarum, col. 8.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

after it had been begun by the soloists, l and the neuma at the
end of the verse was also sung by the chorus. Then the repeat
of the Alleluia was begun by the soloists and its neuma, which
was the same melody as the neuma of the verse, was sung by
the choir. 2 Neuma in this case means the melody of the last
vowel of Alleluia, which was also called, and is now generally
called, the jubilus.3

On Easter Day and during its octave the Gradual and
Alleluia of the Mass of the day were sung at the day hours in
place of the hymn.4 At Vespers the Gradual was sung with a
verse and without neuma, at the other hours without verse or
neuma.5 Here again neuma means the melody of the last
syllable of the text, which in the Gradual of Easter Day was
(laetamur in e)a.6 The Gradual was omitted and two Alleluias,
each with verse, were sung at Mass from the octave of Easter
to the day before Trinity Sunday.7 From Septuagesima to the
Saturday of Holy Week the Alleluia was not sung; the repeat of
the Gradual was omitted, and its verse was followed by a Tract.
The two feasts of the Virgin which might fall between Sep-
tuagesima and Easter, the Purification and the Annunciation
(March 25), were special cases. Whether infra Septuagesima or
not, each had a Sequence; between Septuagesima and Easter
the Sequence was sung after the Gradual, and the Tract was
then said privatim by the celebrant and his ministers.8

1 It seems to be the only chant in which this was done; see Use of Sarum,
i, p. 36.

2 Missale Sarum, col. 10; Ordinate of St. Mary's, Tork, p. 132.

3 In the secular Ordinals it was always called neuma. Grandisson uses the
verb jubilare in the sense of singing in a festive manner, i.e., in polyphony;
Ordinate Exon, i, p. ig. The Ordinal of St. Mary's, York, discusses 'neuma
seu jubilus quod idem est' as exemplified 'in e ut in Kyrieleyson vel in a
ut in Alleluia'. Ordinate of St. Mary's, Tork, i, pp. 14-15.

4 Not in the Benedictine use; see Ordinate of St. Mary's, Tork, ii, pp.
299-301; Customary of Norwich, pp. 94-7.

5 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 140-1.

6 As may be seen by comparing the Gradual as written in the chant
books for Mass and for Vespers in Graduate Sarisburiense, pi. 1 1 7, and Anti-
phonale Sarisburiense, pi. 238.

7 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 342; Missale Sarum, cols, 381-418, with the direction
(col. 379): 'Nunquam enim repetatur primum Alleluya post suum Versum
quando duo Alleluya habentur'.

8 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 132-3; Ordinate Exon, i, p. 342.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Tract

A Tract was sung in the Mass for the dead, on Ember Satur-
days, x on the Vigil of Whitsunday and on Mondays, Wednes-
days and Fridays in Lent, as well as on Sundays and feasts of
nine lessons between Septuagesima and the end of Holy Week.
In form it was a varying number of verses from a psalm, sung
alternatim without antiphon. Four singers from the senior row of
stalls, standing two at each end of the choir-step, began the first
verse, which was completed by the two from the 'duty' side.
The rest was sung alternatim by these four, all singing the last
verse. In the two longest Tracts, those for the First Sunday in
Lent and for Palm Sunday, the choir on the 'duty' side took up
the Tract after its beginning, and it was sung alternatim through-
out by all.2

Hymn, Sequence and Prose

A hymn was sung at each of the hours, except from Maundy
Thursday to the Saturday after Easter.3 The words of the
hymns sung at the 'lesser' Hours remained constant throughout
the year,4 and were: Jam lucis orto sidere at Prime, Nunc sancte
nobis Spiritus at Terce, Rector potens verax Deus at Sext and
Rerum Deus tenax vigor at None. The tunes, however, varied with
the season, Jam lucis, for example, being sung to the tune of the
Christmas hymn Christe redemptor omnium at Christmas, to Hostis
Herodes impie at Epiphany, and so on. For this reason Jam lucis
was sung to about twenty different tunes during the year, Nunc
sancte to four, and the others to three each.

The hymn at Compline changed with the season. In Advent,
from the Octave of Epiphany to Lent and from Trinity to

1 Ember days, called Quatuor Tempora because they occurred four times
in the year, were days of special penitence.

2 Use ofSaram, i, pp. 72, 92. For the early history of the Tract, see Wagner,
Introduction to the Gregorian Melodies, pp. 86-8; Wellesz, Eastern Elements,
pp. 127-40.

3 For the processional hymn (or prose) Salve festa dies and the hymn
Cruxfidelis see below, pp. 90, 97. Lists of hymns in the secular uses are given
in Breviarium Sarum, iii, pp. c-cxx.

4 The only exception was the hymn at Terce on Whitsunday, which was
Veni creator Spiritus.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Advent it was Te lucis ante terminum, which had two tunes, its
cantus festivus being the tune of the Easter season hymn Jesu
salvator saeculi. From Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany,
and on double feasts and through their octaves from Epiphany
to the First Sunday in Lent and from Whitsuntide1 to Christ-
mas Eve, it was Salvator mundi Domine, which in the English
secular uses was sung to the tune of Veni creator Spiritus. There
was a special Compline hymn during each of the periods from
Passion Sunday to the Wednesday in Holy Week (Cultor Dei
momento), from the Octave of Easter to the Ascension (Jesu
salvator saeculi) and from Ascension to Whitsunday (Jesu nostra
redemptio) .

The hymns at first Vespers, Matins and Lauds were proper
to a day, de Tempore or de Sanctis, or to a season, e.g., Advent,
the post-Trinity period, or to a group of saints, e.g., Apostles,
Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins. Some of the hymns in this last
division which were used quite frequently had two or more
tunes so as to provide simpler settings for use in octaves or com-
memorations. Thus Exsultet caelum laudibus for Apostles at Lauds
had five tunes.

A hymn was begun by the two decani rulers, 'turning towards
the vicars on that side', when there were four rulers, by the
principal ruler when there were two, and by one from the
senior stalls when the choir was not ruled.2 The beginners sang
the first line, and the hymn was continued alternatim, verse by
verse, by the choir. The last verse, or 'doxology', was sung by all.

The Te Deum, on account of its venerable age, its curious
combination of various textual and musical elements and its
extra-liturgical use and associations, has a special place among
hymns.3 The first thirteen verses, a hymn to the Trinity (in
prose, as is the whole text), are set in psalm-tone style in the
fourth mode ending on G; verses fourteen to twenty are in
praise of Christ, with a different melody in the fourth mode

1 Except that on Whitsunday and the three days following the sequence
Alma chorus Domini was sung in place of the hymn.

2 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 35-6; Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 42, 63.

3 For a discussion of the earliest versions, see Julian, Dictionary of Hymno-
l°iy> PP- 1119-27, 1547-8. Besides its ritual use, the Te Deum was sung at
coronations, at the enthronement of a bishop, immediately after the election
of a bishop, dean or abbot, and on occasions of national or communal
rejoicing.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

ending on E; verse twenty-one (Aeternafac) is a short antiphon,
also in the fourth mode, and was probably the ending of the
Te Deum in one of its earlier forms. The rest is a series of five
verses to the same melody as the second part, preceded by two
antiphons {Salvumfac and Et rege eos) and followed by a more
extended antiphon {In te Domine speravi), all set to melodies
similar to that of verse twenty-one:1

Ex.i.

1. Te Da - urn Lui- do. - mot : te Tk> - ml - nam COn-fC - te - -

2. Te ae-fer-num Th. - trem otn-nis ter-ra ve-ne - ra, - tur

Similarly verses
3, 4, 6 - io and 12

I Similarly
I verses li
5. Son -etus, son - etus, s&n -etus, Do-mt-nue De-ut Sc-ba,- oth. a/,d' i3

Similarly verses

15. Tu, Th, - tris sem - pi - isr - nus as FC-Lu-us

♦=3 I6-20 and 24 -28

21. Qe-ter - no, fox. cum san-ciis tu-is ui gio-ro-a nu-me-ro, - re

22. SoA-vum fac po-pu-Lum tu-usn Do - mo- ne,

23. Et re - ge e-os

et ex - toL-Le U -Los us -que ui ae-ter- num.

* — • — v — * — ^ — v — ■ — " — " — * — r+r

?. In te. Do-mi - ne spe - ra - - - v i : non con - fun - dar

(Neumtt of Mode IV)

1 Chant from the Sarum noted Breviary, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

The Te Deum was always begun by the senior person present,
who sang from his stall Te Deum laudamus; the two rulers on the
'duty' side completed the first verse (te Dominum confitemur), and
the rest was sung by the choir alternatim.1 Since it was not
sung on ferias, its performance always ended with the neuma
of the fourth mode.

A hymn used the same melody for every verse; the melody
of a sequence changed with each pair of verses. In the early
medieval sequences the verses of each pair had the same number
of lines and syllables, but the pairs did not necessarily corre-
spond to each other, and in many cases the first and last verses
were unpaired. In the twelfth century the sequence became
regular in rhythm and rhyme; the established metre of
the later medieval sequence is exemplified in Stabat mater
dolorosa.2

The sequence had developed from the troping of the neuma
of the Alleluia of the Mass, 3 and when it was sung the neuma of
the repeat of the Alleluia after its verse was omitted.4 The rulers,
standing in mid-choir, sang the opening phrase, and the choir
continued alternatim.5 In the Sarum use a sequence was sung
on double feasts, on saints' days on which the choir was ruled
(except from Septuagesima to Easter) and on Sundays in
Advent and from Easter to the Ascension.

The term prosa was used in France in the early Middle Ages
as a synonym for sequence.6 It was occasionally used in that
sense in England,7 but as a rule the two terms were kept dis-
tinct. A prose was in the same form as a sequence, and was
sung at Vespers on certain feasts, at Matins on St. Nicholas's
Day, and in some processions. If the church had an altar

Laud misc. 299 (XV cent., first half); neuma from Use of Sarum, ii, p. lxix.
The plainsong symbol [" has been transcribed as a tied note. In polyphonic
settings it is normally treated as a note of double length.

1 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 66.

2 See Raby, History of Christian Latin Poetry, Chapter XI.

3 For a discussion of its early history, see Handschin, 'Trope, Sequence
and Conductus'; for a summary of the literature of the subject up to
1944, see Apel, Harvard Dictionary, p. 674.

4 Missale Sarum, col. 10. 5 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 296, 71.

6 It may be an abbreviation for 'pro sequentia'; the eleventh-century
Gradual of St. Yrieux (Paleographie musicale, xiii) has prosula.

7 E.g., Use of Sarum, i, p. 92 ('prosa ad missam'); Ordinate Exon, i, p. 19.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

dedicated to the saint concerned, the prose was sung there
on the arrival of the procession after first Vespers.1 If not,
it was sung in choir, as an interpolation in the respond after
the lesson. St. Nicholas's feast was unique in having two
proses, one (Oportet devota mente) with the respond Beatus Nicho-
laus at first Vespers, and the other (Sospitati dedit aegros) with
the ninth respond (Ex ejus tumba), at Matins. Some of the
proses, possibly the oldest group, are clearly tropes, being either
the addition of words to the last neuma of the respond or of
new music and words towards the end of the respond. They are
interesting survivals in the English secular uses of the early
practice of troping a respond.2

An example of the former kind of addition is the prose
Aeternae virgo memoriae in the respond 0 mater nostra at first
Vespers on the feast of St. Katherine, where the words of the
prose are set to the neuma of the word suscipe of the respond.
The complete scheme of the respond, verse, prose and Gloria
patri is as follows:3

Ex2

(Three clerks)

(Choir)

stra, ter san-cta,,qua.-ter- que

(Three clerks} \p. Jam Christo junda sponsoque too socoaicL.

1 At Sarum, but not at Exeter, the prose O morum doctor was sung in choir
at second Vespers on St. Andrew's day. Breviarium Sarum, iii, col. 18.

2 See Handschin, 'Trope, Sequence and Conductus', pp. 133-5. Proses
were rare in the monastic rites; the Worcester Antiphonal {Paleographie
musicale, xii) has two: Inviolata, and Hodie prodit virga Jesse for the Nativity
of the Virgin, which is not in Sarum.

3 Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. liturg. d. 4 (fourteenth-century Sarum
Processional), fo. 187.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

(Choir)

&. Cum pre-ae

da vo — to. fa-mu-Lan - turn

(The rulers, the three clerks and others who wish)

The resjxmd is sung no farther, and
the prose is begun immediately:

8 l. Oe-ter-nae, vlr-go me-mo-ri-ag guamsi-bi de-spon-dit Rex gto-rC - ae.
(Choir)

2. Virginia proles egreglae sponsusgue virqinis cccLesiae (same music),(Cboix)/E .

(Choir)

: 3. Tu qau-des ho- dl-e de do -no gra-ti- ae. /E

4. Et Cartas In caelo carmen laetltlae (same music). (Choir)/E

5. 7e laudantes in terra, resplce (to the music of verse 6).(Choir)v£

(Choir)

— - ■w- — —

6. Qi- que nostra cle-men-ter sus-cL-pe vo - to.
Gloria, patriet filio et sptrltul sancto.^Three clerks, to the music of the Verse, Jam Christo)
(Choir) W. Cum prece vota. (as ot first).

The choir repeated the melody of each verse of a prose to its
final vowel in this way whether or not the melodies were paired
as they are in Aetemae virgo memoriae, which was normal in both
sequence and prose.1 Sospitati dedit aegros2 seems to be the only
exception to this rule, for both the verse (Catervatim ruunt
populi) of the respond and the prose were sung by the whole
choir, the prose being sung alternatim.3 Sospitati is an example
of the second kind of prose, in which the music is not based on
the neuma it replaces. The words are an insertion between
Et debilis quisque (sospes) and (sospes) regreditur, and as in Aetemae
virgo memoriae the ending of the respond completes the sense of

1 At Exeter the verse of the respond and the prose were sung 'ab omnibus
qui voluerint'. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 196. For the Sarum method of announcing
the prose to each member of the choir, see Breviarium Sarum, iii, col. 1 7.

2 Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 360; Breviarium Sarum, iii, col. 36.

3 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 201; the Sarum Ordinal (Use of Sarum, ii, p. 105) does
not give the details. This seems to have been the practice with other proses
in Hereford; see Hereford Breviary, i, p. 145, and compare Ordinate Exon,
i, p. 201.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

the last verse of the prose. Similarly, the prose Inviolata Integra
et casta es Maria, sung in choir at second Vespers on the Puri-
fication, was a trope of the respond Gaude Maria virgo, and its
last verse, 0 benigna quae sola, was completed by the final words
inviolata permansisti of the respond.1 Other, presumably later,
proses are poems complete in themselves which were inserted
between the first repeat of a respond and the Gloria patri.
Though the form with paired verses was the usual one, the
prose for Holy Innocents, Sedentem in superne, is irregular, and
Oportet devota mente, of which the melody, as in Aeternae virgo
memoriae, is exactly that of the neuma of its respond, has only
three verses in the form AAB.

Lesson

Lessons at Matins were normally chanted to a simple reading
tone. The lessons at 'Tenebrae', known as the 'Lamentations',
since they were from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the first
nocturn on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Satur-
day, were sung to a simple reciting tone with inflections. The
introductory formula Incipit (or De) Lamentatio Jeremiae Pro-
phetae of the group of three lessons and the closing sentence
Jerusalem Jerusalem convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum of each
lesson were also sung to this tone. The Hebrew letters Aleph,
Beth, Gimel, etc. at the beginning of each section of each lesson
were sung to a simple melodic cadence, and each lesson was
followed by a respond and verse in the normal way. In Sarum
use the Lamentations were sung by a boy.2

Immediately before the Epistle at the Mass of Christmas Eve
and at each of the three Masses of Christmas Day3 there was
a lesson from the book of Isaiah, chanted on one note with a
fall of a fifth at the end of each verse.4 Where there were com-

1 Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 403; Breviarium Sarum, hi, col. 145.

2 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 66 ('a tribus pueris'); Hereford Breviary, i, p. 309 ('a
tribus pueris singulis per se cantando').

3 Midnight Mass (Missa in gallicantu), Mass at Dawn {Missa in aurora)
and the 'Third Mass'.

4 Use of Sarum, i, p. 272. This tone was used for all lessons sung at Mass,
e.g., during Holy Week, when lessons from the Old Testament replaced the
Epistle.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

petent singers the lesson at Midnight Mass was sung to a
special chant, and was also troped.1 Two singers took part
alternately, one singing the words of the prophet and the other
the text of the trope. Before the lesson they sang together Laudes
Deo dicamper saecula, etc., and after it they sang Ab ortu solis usque
occiduos, etc. The chant of the trope is quite varied in style and
contains at least two quotations of words and music; one is a
verse (Fulserunt) from the sequence Nato canunt omnia of the
same Mass, the other a verse (Messias . . . Adonay) from the
sequence Alma chorus Domini for the Thursday after Whitsunday. 2

The Epistle was chanted to a less simple tone than was a
lesson, and the usual Gospel tone was similar, with a slight
change on double feasts. 3 On Palm Sunday and on the Tuesday,
Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week the Gospel was the story
of the Passion of Our Lord according to St. Matthew, St. Mark,
St. Luke and St. John respectively. The Passions were sung to
the Gospel tone for simple feasts, with special formulae added
for two other ranges of voice, at a high pitch for the words of
the Jews and the disciples and a low pitch for the words of
Christ. The three parts were distinguished in the Missal by
the letters a(lta), b(assa) and m(edia), the last being the part
of the Evangelist-narrator.4

Between the ninth respond and the Te Deum at Matins of
Christmas Day and of the Epiphany was sung the Genealogy
of Christ. On Christmas Day the text (beginning Liber gener-
ations) was taken from St. Matthew; the text for the Epiphany
(Factum est autem) was from St. Luke. These were the most
elaborate of the Gospel chants. The Liber generationis was set to
eight recurring melodies for forty verses and two other melodies

1 The untroped form is given after the troped form, and is headed 'Ubi
non habetur cantus legitur Lectio Esaiae Prophetae'. Missale Sarum, col. 51.

2 Missale Sarum, col. 439. It was also the sequence for the votive Mass
of the Trinity. Ibid., col. 837*.

3 The tones are printed in Use of Sarum, i, p. 265.

4 'Et est notandum quod triplici voce debet cantari aut pronunciari;
scilicet voce alta, bassa, et media'. Missale Sarum, col. 264, where it is noted
by the editor that in the printed Missals of 1494 and 1497 the words of
Christ were marked with a cross. In other cases, e.g., the Gospel Lectionary
in Chetham's Library, Manchester (MS.A.6.1), one finds C for Chronista
and S for Synagoga. In the printed Gradual of 1527 the voices are distin-
guished by numbers.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

for the announcement and the last verse, and the Epiphany
Genealogy was made on similar lines.1

Ordinary of the Mass; Tropes

The only invariable chant in the Ordinary was that of the
Creed, which was a plain and almost entirely syllabic setting
using a limited number of recurring phrases and motives.2
There were a number of settings of the Agnus Dei, which were
allotted, with some alternatives pro dispositione cantoris, to the
various ranks of festival.3 The music followed the tripartite
form of the words by using the scheme AaBaAa or the simpler
plan AAA. The chants of the Sanctus were more varied in form,
though the same music was almost invariably used for the two
Hosanna endings. Neither the Creed nor the Agnus Dei was
troped. The only trope of the Sanctus consisted of the two
words {Benedictus) Mariae filius [qui venit); this was sung at the
Saturday Lady-Mass in the Lady- Chapel and on four occasions
in choir, viz., at the last Lady-Mass before Advent and before
Lent, and at the Masses on the octave of the Assumption
(August 15) and of the Nativity (September 8) of the Virgin.
At the same Masses the Gloria in excelsis from the words Jesu
Christe to the end was troped with a series of insertions be-
ginning Spiritus et alme orphanorum. In the octaves of the As-
sumption and Nativity of the Virgin this trope was sung at the
choir-step by three from the senior stalls.4

The Kyrie was sung in one of three forms, in accordance with
the rank of the day: (1) 'with verses' (cum versibus), i.e., with
the complete words and music of a trope; (2) 'without verses'
(absque versibus), i.e., with the same music as that of a trope but
without its words, though referred to by its name; or (3) in

1 Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pis. 51, 88.

2 Music from the Sarum Ordinal in Use of Sarum, i, p. 267.

3 The chants of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Benedicamus and Ite
missa est are in Graduate Sarisburiense, pis. 1 *— 19*.

4 Missale Sarum, col. 768*, which uses the words prosa and farsura in
referring to this trope (cols. 585, 796) . As Frere notes in his Introduction to
Graduate Sariburiense, p. xlix, the Gloria trope Regnum tuum solidum is not
included there. It was common in early Graduals and is met with in poly-
phonic settings before 1400, but seems not to have been in common use
in the secular rites later.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

simple form without name or trope. In Sarum use there were
ten of the first kind,1 of which three, Deus creator, Rex genitor
and Fons bonitatis, were never used without verses : on the other
hand four of the Kyrie chants with a name, Rex semper,* Rex
summe,3 Deus sempiterne and Rex clemens,* were no longer used
with the verses of the tropes from which they derived their
names.5 The chants of the Kyrie, like those of the Agnus Dei,
reflected the tripartite form of the words. Several, both troped
and plain, have the plan AaaBbbCcc, e.g., Deus creator omnium;
other schemes used are ABA CDC EFE, e.g., Omnipotens pater
and Rex semper; and ABA CBC DCD, e.g., Conditor. The last
Kyrie is usually extended, as in Conditor, where the last D is
actually in the form DDC, and the endings of phrases frequently
correspond though the rest of their music differs.

The secular uses exercised a stricter control over the use of
tropes than was customary in the monastic uses. The old use
of St. Paul's may have been an exception to this, for an inven-
tory of the books of St. Paul's in 1295 includes a Missal and a
Troper both containing Epistolae farcitae, and a Troper contain-
ing an Agnus cum versibus In Egiptum*

1 In his Introduction to Graduate Sarisburiense, p. xxxiii, Frere says nine,
but this does not include Rex virginum (which was sung to the melody of
Cunctipotens genitor) for feasts of the Virgin. See Use of Sarum, ii, p. 207.
Ordinate Exon, pp. 463-71, gives a complete scheme for the Ordinary
throughout the year, which differs considerably from the Sarum Ordinal
and from Graduate Sarisburiense, which are not identical. The last has been
used as the basis of this discussion. The Exeter Ordinal also gives the opening
notes of a Kyrie ('quod non est in libris Sarum') and of an Agnus Dei which
were special to Exeter. The beginning of the Agnus corresponds to that in the
modern Roman Mass XVII {Liber Usualis, p. 59).

2 Not in Exeter.

3 Ordinate Exon (ii, p. 468) expresses a strong objection to one of the Kyrie
tropes which Sarum used for simple feasts: 'Et dimmitatur penitus illud
dissonans Kyrie quod habet unum longum nimis, et aliud curtum nimis,
quia non valet, licet inter cetera soleat dici Sarum.' This was probably
Rex summe, which has very short phrases in the second Christe and fifth
Kyrie.

4 See Graduate Sarisburiense, p. xlix; Ordinate Exon (ii, p. 463) has 0 Rex
clemens, which is not in Sarum.

6 For a discussion of York tropes of the Ordinary, see Frere, 'The Newly-
found York Gradual', pp. 23-7. For the texts of Hereford Kyrie tropes, of
which there were sixteen, see Missale Herfordensis, pp. xxxviii sqq.

6 Dugdale, History of St. Paul's, p. 324.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Benedicamus Domino

The melody of the Benedicamus Domino at the end of Vespers
and Lauds on a feast day was drawn from a neuma of one
of the responds of the feast. This procedure is an interesting
parallel to the use of the melody of the Christe eleison trope for
the Ite missa est at the end of Mass, but for the latter a complete
phrase was used while for the Benedicamus a neuma was taken
out of its melodic context and given a separate existence. The
Sarum Customary gives a very simple melody for the Bene-
dicamus on ferias and a less simple one, ending with Alleluia,
for the second Benedicamus1 during the weeks after Easter.
Either of these, the former with Alleluia added, could be used
for the first Benedicamus during the Easter season. On important
feasts at other times of the year the Benedicamus could be taken
from a respond of the day, or else replaced by some piece
appropriate to the occasion.2 As might be expected, the selec-
tion of melodies varied considerably, even as late as the time
of the printed service-books, 3 and they soon lost any indication
of their original source. A rare instance of such indications in
a thirteenth-century Gradual from the diocese of Exeter4 en-
ables us to establish the source of many of the Benedicamus
melodies, for all but two of the seventeen given for double
feasts and feasts when the Invitatory was sung by three singers
show the words of the neuma to which they originally belonged.
The melody marked in perenni, for example, was taken from
the neuma on those words in the Trinity respond Honor virtus:5

Ex.3.

Sob- cu- to - - - rum — tern- - po - re.

1 The first Benedicamus was sung at the end of the service, the second after
the memoria which followed the service.

2 'Dicitur aliquod proprium Benedicamus de historia festi de quo agitur
vel aliquod aliud quod festo conveniat.' Use of Sarum, i, p. 254. Historia
was used of the lessons and responds at a particular Matins, as well as of a
single lesson or cycle of lessons; see ibid., p. 135.

3 See Missale Sarum, col. 636, n.

4 Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS. Lat. 24.

5 Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 290; Rylands Library, MS. Lat. 24, fo. 14.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

mu - no. CLL - Le - Lu - ia..

Other Benedicamus melodies the source of which is indicated in
the Exeter Gradual1 are in saecula, from the Trinity respond
Benedicamus patrem; hodie processit, Jios Jilius and Judea Mariam,
from the responds for the Nativity of the Virgin Solem justitiae,
Stirps Jesse and Ad nutum Domini respectively; praeconia, from the
Assumption respond Candida virginitas; clementiam, from the
respond of St. Nicholas Qui cum audissent; gladio and et egrediens,
from the responds Misit impius Her odes'1 and Dixit angelus ad
Petrum for the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula; contra inimici jacula,
from the antiphon Crux Jidelis,3 sung in the procession to the
Rood on Saturdays in summer; Eructavit, from the respond
Regnum mundi for feasts of a Virgin; commutans lutea and vel
carnis opera, from the responds Jacet granum and Christe Jesu at
Matins of St. Thomas of Canterbury; and in odorem, from the
respond Beatus Laurentius dixit at Matins on the feasts of St.
Laurence.

A fourteenth-century Ordinal in Salisbury Cathedral Library
contains twelve melodies for Benedicamus and twelve for Ite
missa est, for days on which the Kyrie was not troped, eight
melodies being common to both sets.4 Salisbury and Exeter had
six Benedicamus melodies in common, while the Hereford Bene-
dicamus for the Purification, which was based on the neumae at
the beginning and end of the verse Haec speciosum of the respond
Videte miraculum at Matins on that feast, does not appear in
Salisbury or Exeter.5 The Customary of c. 1 260 in the Black
Book of Lincoln gives not only the names of the Benedicamus
melodies for double feasts but also the name of the respond

1 The manuscript gives the word(s) of the neuma, but not its original
source in a respond, which must be searched for. The only neuma I have
not traced to its respond is marked quern suscita.

2 The word 'Benedicamus' has the music of 'Misit', and 'domino' of
'gladio', the last word of the respond.

3 Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 535 (not in the Index).

4 MS. 175, fos. 135, 173.

5 It is printed in Missale Herfordensis, p. 138.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

from which each was drawn. The In perenni melody was sung at
first Vespers, the flos filius melody at Lauds, and the clementiam
melody at second Vespers.1

Commemorations and Memorials

In addition to the canonical hours, the Hours of the Virgin
(Commemorationes beatae Mariae Virginis), which were invariable,
were said daily. Originally monastic, they were widely observed
by secular communities and, from the late thirteenth century,
by individuals.2 It was for this devotion that the medieval
Books of Hours, the finest examples of which were adorned
with the most beautiful work of the illuminators of the age,
were written, though the later Books of Hours also contained
other votive offices. From the earliest period of the English
uses a special office of the Virgin was sung instead of the ferial
office on Saturday. Its ritual had three sets of texts, one for
Advent, one for Christmas to the Purification, and one for the
Purification to Advent, with some changes during the Easter
season. 3 By the later Middle Ages the offices of one or two other
days were replaced by commemorations devoted to a saint,
normally the patron saint of the church. This second commem-
oration was devoted to St. Thomas of Canterbury in Salisbury,
to SS. Peter and Paul in Exeter, to St. Andrew in Wells, to
St. Ethelbert in Hereford, and to St. Chad in Lichfield.4

Commemorations were complete offices in the usual forms.
Memorials, on the other hand, were miniature services added
at the end of Lauds and Vespers, and consisted of an antiphon
without psalm followed by versicle, response and collect.5
Some memorials, for example those of the Virgin, of All Saints

1 'In secundis vesperis cantetur Benedicamus a regentibus chorum prin-
cipalibus in loco ubi stant sicut canitur clemenciam in fine quinti Respon-
sorii hystorie beati Nicholai.' Lincoln Statutes, i, p. 381. For the other pas-
sages, see below, p. 1 1 1 .

2 Their origins and early history are discussed in Bishop, 'The Prymer',
pp. 224-37.

3 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 49, 85-7, 155.

4 Ibid., pp. 46-7; Breviarium Sarum, iii, pp. lxix-lxxvi; Hereford Breviary, ii,
pp. 22-39; iii, pp. 82-3.

6 For their early history, see Batiffbl, History of the Roman Breviary,
pp. 147-9. Memorials at Mass consisted of collects only.

Plate VII

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Plate VIII

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1 1 . Page from a Book of Hours of c. 1 350-60, showing choristers singing at the Lady- Mass

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

and of the patron saint of the church, were observed through-
out the year, * and were called memoriae consuetae. Others, which
might be described as 'short-term' memorials, were sung during
their appropriate season or week, for example those of Advent,
of the Resurrection, of the Trinity, of the Cross, or of a par-
ticular saint or day. The special musical interest of memorials
is that, like processions, they provided a liturgical situation in
which an antiphon was sung without a psalm, thus establishing
itself as a separate item of the ritual.

Votive Mass

The Mass of the Virgin was commonly celebrated weekly as
part of her commemorative office on Saturday. From the early
Middle Ages this celebration was treated as one of special im-
portance, and from the thirteenth century onwards it became
a daily observance in many places. At Salisbury the daily cele-
bration of the Lady-Mass2 in her chapel by four clerks and
choristers (in addition to the Saturday Mass in choir) was in-
stituted by Bishop Poore on the completion of the Lady-chapel
in 1225.3 Bishop Brewer of Exeter (1224-44) gave the choir
an endowment so that five vicars, five clerks of the second form
and four choristers, on a weekly roster, should celebrate the
Mass of the Virgin daily in her chapel.4 These examples were
followed by most of the secular cathedrals and new collegiate
foundations, for example by St. Elizabeth's, Winchester, in
1300,5 by The Queen's College, Oxford, in 1340,6 and by Clare

1 Except from Ash Wednesday to Low Sunday; Ordinale Exon, i, p. 27.

2 This term will be used for the votive Mass of the Virgin, as distinct
from Mary-Mass, a Mass sung on one of the festivals of the Virgin. This
corresponds to the usage of the period, and is also a useful distinction for
musical purposes.

3 Valor Ecclesiasticus, ii, p. 85. Bishop Mortival's statutes of 13 19 required
the attendance of a sufficient number of vicars at the weekly Mass of the
Virgin at the altar of the Holy Trinity. Dayman and Jones, Statutes of
Sarum, p. 69. The altar in the 'Lady-chapel' was dedicated to the Trinity
and All Saints, the cathedral itself, and therefore the high altar, being
dedicated to the Virgin.

4 Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 417.

5 'Cum nota et solempnitate decenti secundum usum et consuetudinem
Sarisburiensis ecclesie.' Monasticon, viii, p. 1340.

6 Statutes of The Queen's College, p. 27.
M.M.B. — G 77

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Hall, Cambridge, in 1359 {cum nota on Saturdays, Sundays and
feast-days).1 If there was a separate Lady-chapel, as was usually
the case in cathedrals and larger collegiate churches, the daily
Lady-Mass was celebrated there. In his Exeter Ordinal, Gran-
disson gave a more than usually comprehensive order for the
daily Mass in the Lady-chapel2 which he had reconstituted
1336.3 He sanctioned the singing in polyphony of at least part
of the Ordinary, and in setting down the distribution of the
various chants of the Gloria through the week he ordered that
the 'simple chant in ferial style with few notes should never be
sung at the Mass of the Virgin'.4 In his college of Ottery St.
Mary the 'clerk of the chapel of the Virgin' played the organ
at the daily Lady-Mass {sollemnis missa de beata Maria), which
was celebrated by all the clerks and choristers with at least one
canon and two vicars.5

The daily Lady-Mass may have been customary in some
other places before its institution in the new building at Salis-
bury. At St. Paul's, for example, provision was made by Bishop
Eustace de Fauconbrigge c. 12 10 for one priest, probably a
minor canon, and six clerks to be at the Lady-Mass and hours
every day,6 and Abbot William de Trumpington of St. Alban's
(1214-35) ordered the celebration of the Mass by six monks,
observing that 'in all the noble churches of England a Mass of
the Blessed Mary is solemnly sung by note daily'.7

In 1439 Archbishop Kemp of York decreed that the missa
sollemnis de beata Maria virgine should be celebrated at Ripon
at least on Saturdays, Sundays and feasts, since it was the
'laudable custom' to celebrate it daily in York Minster and in
the collegiate churches throughout the province.8

At Westminster the daily celebration in the Lady-chapel was
established by c. 1260, and the Customary of St. Augustine's,

1 Heywood, Early Cambridge Statutes, pp. 138-9.

2 The Saturday Mass of the Virgin was sung in choir. Ordinate Exon, ii,
p. 464.

3 Ibid., pp. 465, 472-5.

4 'Ita quod illud simplex et quasi feriale paucarum notarum nunquam
dicitur ad Missam beate Marie.' Ibid., p. 465.

5 Dalton, Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary, p. 142.

6 Dugdale, History of St. Paul's, p. 13.

7 Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, i, pp. 284-5.

8 Memorials of Ripon, ii, pp. 148-9.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Canterbury, speaks of it as an 'old' observance, sollemniter per
notam, at the altar of the Virgin in the crypt. The Customary
notes that it was moved to the altar of St. Stephen and St. Mary
Magdalene in the north aisle of the nave in the time of Abbot
Nicholas Thorne (i 273-83). * At St. Mary's, York, the Lady-
Mass at her altar was also the daily Missa familiaris, the Mass
for the friends of the community.2

The ritual of the Sarum Lady-Mass changed with the prin-
cipal periods of the year. In the longest of these, from the
Purification to Advent, the Introit was Salve sancta parens, and
the Mass was often referred to by this title, or simply as Missa
Salve. Similarly the Lady-Mass of Advent was called Missa
Rorate and that of Christmas to the Purification Missa Vultum
tuum.z Since it was treated as a festival Mass a troped Kyrie was
always sung, though absque versibus, in a given order throughout
the week, and the Alleluia and Sequence were always sung,
even in Lent; consequently a Tract was never sung in the
Lady-Mass. For the Missa Salve a different Alleluia was sung
on each day of the week. Eleven sequences were provided for
the Lady-Mass, three for Advent, one for Sundays at other
times, and seven from which a free choice could be made on
week-days outside of Advent. In addition, the printed Missal
mentions that another chant or piece of music could be sung
in the Lady-Mass instead of the sequence.4 As in other masses,
the Gloria was omitted in Advent and Lent and the Creed was
omitted on days on which it was not sung at the principal Mass.

In the secular cathedrals the number of perpetual votive
Masses for the dead provided by private endowment grew con-
stantly. They were said at lower altars or in their particular
chantry chapels by chantry priests or by vicars-choral who
held chantry chaplaincies. Another Mass celebrated daily was
the Chapter-Mass (missa in capitulo) or Mass of the community,
which was said at one of the side altars for the departed mem-
bers of the chapter after the daily meeting in the chapter-house.

1 Customary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, ii,
p. 91; i, p. 144.

2 Ordinal of St. Mary's, York, i, p. 56. The date of this Ordinal is c. 1400.

3 Missale Sarum, cols. 75g*-82*.

4 'In missis vero quotidianis de sancta Maria sufficit quod habeatur
Cantus loco Sequentiae, scilicet in Capella ejusdem.' Ibid., col. 9.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Most of the new collegiate foundations of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries had no chantry obligations, or rather, were
themselves single chantries on a larger scale; hence their daily
Masses, apart from the Mass of the day, were votive Masses
of various kinds. At Eton, for example, seven Masses were sung
daily, beginning with the Lady-Mass per notam et cum cantu.
Then came Mass for the Safety of the Realm (Missa Salus
populi) > the Mass of the day, and a different votive Mass for
each day of the week in the order (beginning with Sunday)
de Trinitate, de Angelis, de S. Thoma martyre, de Sancto Spiritu, de
Corpore Christi, de Cruce and de Nomine Jesu.1 The last three were
the Chapter- Mass, the Mass of the Assumption of the Virgin,
being the dedication of the college, and a Mass to be decided
by the celebrant. The third, sixth and seventh Masses were
celebrated by a fellow, the others by a chaplain, and the clerks
and choristers tabled for the day attended the first three.2

By the terms of Bishop John Alcock's grant to the Priory of
Worcester in 1478 one of the monks was to celebrate a Mass
daily in the Lady-chapel in the nave: on Easter Day, Whit-
sunday, Christmas Day or a feast of the Virgin falling on
Sunday the Mass of that day, otherwise the Mass of the Trinity
or of the day; on Monday the Mass of the Holy Spirit; on
Tuesday the Mass Salus populi; on Wednesday Requiem aeternam;
on Thursday the Mass of Corpus Christi; on Friday the Mass
of the Name of Jesus, of the Five Wounds, or of the Holy Cross;
and on Saturday the Mass of the Virgin. In addition, the
Master, clerks and boys of the chapel were to sing every day,
after Vespers had been sung in choir, the respond 0 Maria et
Johannes with its verse and Gloria patri, or the antiphon Stellae
claritatis3 with certain prayers.4

In prescribing the Mass of the Name of Jesus for Saturday
the Eton statutes observed that it was to be celebrated in the
form specially written into the Missals of the college. At that
time the Jesus-Mass, which was either de Nomine Jesu or de

1 The printed Sarum Missals have the same plan, except on Thursday
{Salus populi) and Saturday (de nostra Domina). See Missale Sarum, col. 735*.

2 Ancient Laws of King's and Eton, pp. 562-5.

3 These texts are not in the Worcester Antiphonal (Paleographie musicale,
xii), nor in the Sarum liturgy.

4 Atkins, Early Occupants of the Office of Organist of Worcester, pp. 6-7.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Quinque vulneribus,1 was beginning to assume a new importance,
and from the latter part of the fifteenth century was celebrated
in many places on Friday of every week. It was not celebrated
in choir but, like the Lady-Mass, in a place where a congrega-
tion could attend to the ritual; in larger churches this was
usually at the altar before the crucifix which was at the east
end of the nave.2 William Booth (Archbishop of York, 1452-64)
made provision for a daily Jesus-Mass at Southwell for the
repose of his soul, and at Lichfield Dean Hey wood (1457-92)
endowed a Jesus-Mass and Antiphon to be sung by eight
choristers for his obit.3 The Jesus-Mass became an object of
popular devotion, as had the Lady-Mass, not only in cathedrals
and abbeys but also in parish churches.4

Votive Antiphon

The singing of antiphons without psalms has been noted in
connection with memorials. In the Roman rite an antiphon
to the Virgin (Regina caeli, Alma redemptoris mater, Ave regina
caelorum or Salve regina according to the season) has been sung
at the end of Compline since the Middle Ages.5 According to a
letter written in 1254 by John of Parma, Minister-General of
the Franciscan order, the Franciscans had adopted these four
antiphons by then.6 In most of the English monastic uses an
antiphon was sung after Compline, though not necessarily
according to the modern arrangement of a different one for
each season. The General Chapter of the Benedictines held
at Northampton in 1343 ordered the saying of an antiphon
and collect in honour of the Virgin daily immediately after

1 See Bishop Smyth's will of 1513 establishing it at Lincoln in Lincoln
Statutes, ii, p. lxxii. The texts are printed in Missale Sarum, cols. 846 and
751*.

2 In Lincoln 'on the south side of the church'. Loc. cit.

3 Cited from Valor Ecclesiasticus in Rock, Church of Our Fathers, iii, p. 92.

4 Some examples in Rites of Durham, pp. 220-1. See also Duncan and
Hussey, Testamenta Cantiana, passim.

5 All four were originally attached to psalms in the Office. Wagner,
Introduction to the Gregorian Melodies, pp. 140-1.

6 S. J. P. Van Dijk, review of J. Maier, Beitrdge ur Geschichte der Marien-
antiphon Salve Regina (Regensburg, 1939), in Ephemerides Liturgicae, lv, 1941,
P-99-

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Compline,1 though as early as c. 1260 the singing of Salve regina
at the end of Compline was customary at Westminster, being
described as ex moderno et non ex veteri usu.%

At St. Mary's, York, Salve regina was sung immediately after
Compline of the Virgin with the trope of three verses,3 one
before each of the exclamations 0 clemens, 0 pia and 0 dulcis
Maria. The singing was begun by the precentor and continued
by the choir, and the verses were sung by single members of the
community in ascending order of rank.4 In the Dominican rite
Salve regina was sung in procession after Compline,5 and in the
English house of the Briggitine nuns at Syon, Middlesex,
founded by Henry V in 141 4, Salve regina, Regina caeli and 0
mitissime,6 the last in Lent, are mentioned in the directions for
singing the 'antem of our lady'. In each antiphon the verses
of the trope were sung by a single sister standing at the lectern,
while the others knelt.7 In the use of the Premonstratensians
Salve regina was sung in procession on leaving the Chapter-
house each morning after Chapter.8

In the English secular uses the evening antiphon, though
sung after Compline, did not become a part of the office, but
was treated as a separate devotion. It is not mentioned in the
Sarum Ordinal. The Exeter Ordinal directed that the psalm
De profundis, the Kyrie eleison, and some versicles, responses and
prayers were to be said by all, standing at the choir-step and
around the presbytery, at the end of Compline. Then follows:
'Afterwards those who are assigned to the Office of the Virgin
for the week shall go to her altar and there sing her Vespers and
Compline, as they are contained in the Ordinal of Bishop John
Grandisson. Meanwhile the boys shall go to the altar of St.
Paul and there sing the antiphon of the Virgin with the other
things which are customary'.9 At Lincoln Bishop John de
Bokingham appropriated to the choristers in 1380 the income

1 Monastic Breviary of Hyde Abbey, vi, p. 131.

2 Customary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, ii,
p. 201.

3 See below, p. 301. 4 Ordinate of St. Mary's, York, i, p. 27.
6 Bonniwell, History of the Dominican Liturgy, p. 161.

6 An antiphon of Jesus.

7 Aungier, History of Syon Monastery, pp. 333-4. This order was founded
by the Swedish saint Birgitta (1303-73).

8 Customs of Augustinian Canons, p. cii. 9 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 29.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

of a church, ordering that they should gather 'at the place of
our tomb in the choir of our church of Lincoln every day,
Compline being finished', and sing 'to the praise and honour of
God and of the glorious Virgin his mother and in our perpetual
memory both in life and after death' the antiphon Nesciens mater
from Christmas to the Purification, Mater ora Jilium from the
Purification to Easter and from Trinity to Christmas, and
Regina caeli from Easter to Trinity. Then they should say Psalm
129 (De profundis) and prayers for the souls of the Bishop, of
Edward III, of the Bishop's parents, of the benefactors of the
cathedral and of other faithful departed.1 The gathering of the
singers at an altar, before an image or in some other designated
place was the regular manner of singing the evening votive
antiphon from the mid-fourteenth century to the Reformation.

The choristers of St. Paul's were bequeathed ten shillings by
Sir John Pulteney (d. 1349) so that every evening after Com-
pline they should go into the chapel he had built and sing an
anthem of the Virgin 'solemnly with note' before her image. At
St. Paul's a votive antiphon was also sung 'after mattens cele-
brated in the quire every day, and those present thereat gone
out', for it was ordered in 1365 that at that time 'an anthem of
Our Lady, sell. Nesciens mater, or some other solemn one suit-
able to the time should be sung before the said image'. This
observance was endowed with property given by John Barnet,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, 2 and the image was at the second
pillar on the south side of the nave, close to the tomb of Sir
John Beauchamp.3 Richard Martin, Bishop of St. David's
(1482-3), who was buried before the crucifix near the north
door of St. Paul's, settled an annual sum on the choristers in
1482-3 for singing before the crucifix Sancte Deus, [sancte] fortis,
which was commonly used as an antiphon of Jesus.4

In 1395 William Courtenay (Archbishop of Canterbury,
1381-96) decreed that the choristers of Salisbury should gather
before the high altar each day after Compline, 'and there kneel-
ing should sing in a loud voice (alta voce) the antiphon Sancta

1 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 177.

2 Dugdale, History of St. Paul's, pp. 22, 14.

3 Milman, Annals of St. Paul's, p. 150.

4 Vallance, Greater English Church Screens, p. 1 76; Yardley, Minevia Sacra,
P- 77-

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Maria virgo> with a versicle and prayer, to show their gratitude
for a bequest of money left to them by Bishop John Waltham
of Salisbury (d. 1395).1 After 1540 this bequest to the choristers,
which had been made over to the monastery of Edington in
return for an annual payment, appears as a payment by the
King for 'the singing of an antiphon Sancte Deus before the
Great Cross in the Nave of the Cathedral'. In this case
Henry VIII changed the terms of an endowment for a Mary-
antiphon into one for a Jesus-antiphon. 2 In 1396 property in
York was given to the support of the vicars-choral of the
Minster by letters patent of Richard II. In return, the vicars
undertook to sing daily after Compline an antiphon and collect
of St. John Baptist, the King's patron saint, before his image in
the church of St. Sampson, which had been given to them by the
King two years before. 3 It appears that at some time later the
choristers began to take part in the singing of an antiphon, for
the accounts of the vicars for 1474 record a payment of six
shillings and eight pence to them 'for the antiphon', and the
same payment appears in 1506-7 and 1518-19.4 At Chichester
Bishop John Arundel (1459-78) founded an altar of the Virgin
'at the choir door', i.e., against the stone screen which he is
said to have built at the east end of the nave,5 and probably at
its south side, at which an antiphon was sung every evening.6
At his visitation in 1481 Bishop Storey ordered that the anti-
phon should be sung 'before the image of the Virgin next to
the choir-door at the accustomed times' by the vicar most
recently installed during his first year, and then by the hebdo-
madary vicar until another new one was appointed.7

The votive antiphon of the Virgin was an almost invariable
observance in colleges and collegiate churches. Under Robert
de Eglesfield's statutes the chaplains of The Queen's College,
Oxford, were to sing the antiphon Ave regina caelorum, ave
domina angelorum immediately after High Mass. A canticum de
beate Virgine was also sung alternatim by the chaplains, clerks and
'poor boys' immediately after Compline every day. Gaude virgo

1 Salisbury Muniments. 2 Robertson, Sarum Close, pp. 60-1, 68.

3 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, pp. 32, 98.

4 York Minster Archives. 5 Bond, Screens and Galleries, p. 156.

6 Early Statutes of Chichester, p. 28.

7 Statutes and Constitutions of Chichester, p. 21.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

salutata was sung from Monday to Thursday, Salve regina (cum
versibus, that is, with the trope) on Friday, and Benedicta es
caelorum regina 'solemnly' in the presence of the fellows on
Saturday. The antiphon was followed by prayers for Edward III
and for Queen Philippa, foundress and patroness of the col-
lege.1 Sir Philip Somerville's Balliol College statutes mention
the singing of an antiphon on Fridays, and the statutes of 1507
required that all the members of the college should sing
Benedicta es regina caelorum (sic) in chapel at five o'clock on that
day.2 The students who lived in the Oxford Halls, the houses
of scholars who were not in colleges, were bound to go to the
University Church of St. Mary the Virgin on the vigils of
the five feasts of the Virgin, immediately at the ringing of the
curfew, for the singing of the Mary-antiphon.3 The antiphons
mentioned in the statute are Ave regina [caelorum, mater regis
angelorum]* Benedicta [es caelorum regina], Stella caeli and Sancta
Maria [virgo intercede].

The whole community of Magdalen College, Oxford, was
ordered by the statutes to assemble in hall after Compline on
Saturdays and on vigils of the Virgin, and sing devote per notam
some antiphon in honour of the Virgin.5 For this purpose the
college had two antiphons written out on a board by John
Wymark, a fellow, and the capital letters written and painted
by John Lylly in 1485-6. Two more boards on which were
written the notes of Stella caeli were bought in the following year,
and in 1538 the 'boards hanging on the wall with antiphons'
were repaired and Thomas Lees was paid pro modulatione duarum
antiphonarum.6 At a visitation by the Bishop in 1520 five
bachelors of arts were deprived of commons for a day for mono-
toning instead of singing, and four for being absent from the
singing of the antiphon.7 On the same days as at Magdalen
the members of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, sang a

1 Statutes of The Queen's College, pp. 27, 33.

2 Statutes of Balliol College, pp. xvi, 9.

3 Fifteenth-century statutes in Gibson, Statuta Antiqua Universitatis
Oxoniensis, p. 575.

4 The context, in which a fine of a farthing was imposed for late arrival,
in this case 'post inceptionem clausulae Funde preces etc.', shows that it
was this antiphon and not Ave regina caelorum, ave domina.

6 Statutes of Magdalen College, p. 54.

6 Macray, Register of Magdalen, i, p. 6; ii, p. 18. 7 Ibid., i, pp. 71, 74.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Mary-antiphon in chapel.1 The members of Brasenose College
sang two antiphons, one (Te Deum patrem) to the Trinity and one
to the Virgin, after the Mass which the members attended daily. 2
The latest instance of the prescribing of the evening antiphon
in a college statute occurs in Sir Thomas White's statutes of
1555 for St. John's College, Oxford, where it was to be sung
by the whole college on Saturdays and vigils of Our Lady. 3

The singing of a Mary-antiphon after Compline is mentioned
in the statutes of Grandisson's Collegiate Church of Ottery
St. Mary. In addition, the two clerk-watchmen who slept in the
building were to sing each night after curfew a short antiphon
of the Virgin before her altar, and Mater ora filium was sug-
gested.4 At the chantry colleges of Sibthorpe, Notts (1342-3),
and Cotterstock, Northants (1343-4), Mater ora filium was sung
nightly; at Cotterstock it was replaced by Regina caeli during
the Easter season.5 Salve regina was sung every evening at
Thomas Elys's chantry of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Sand-
wich (1392)6 and at seven every evening at Fotheringhay.7
The chaplains, clerks and choristers of Whitington College,
London, sang an antiphon of the Virgin at nightfall, 'when the
poor artisans and neighbours living around the church came
from their work and duties'.8

At Jesus College, Rotherham, the music master and the six
choristers sang a Mass and antiphon of Jesus daily; they sang
an antiphon of the Virgin on Saturdays at her altar in the
parish church, and on the vigils of her feasts at her altar in the
chantry chapel on the bridge in the town.9 In making provision
for the master and choristers the founder of the college ex-
pressed the hope that the parishioners of the church and 'people
from the hills' would be led to 'love Christ's religion the better,
and the more often visit, pay honour and cleave in affection

1 Statutes of Corpus Chrisli College, p. 45.

2 Sir Richard Sutton's Statutes of 152 1; Statutes of Brasenose College, p. 19.

3 Statutes of St. John's College, p. 48.

4 Dalton, Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary, pp. 235, 238.

5 Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, ii, p. 135, n.

6 Boys, History of Sandwich, p. 192.

7 Thompson, 'The Statutes of the College of St. Mary and All Saints,
Fotheringhay', p. 241.

8 Monasticon, vii, p. 741.

9 On bridge-chapels, see Cook, Medieval Chantries, pp. 44-5.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

to His church'.1 In 1532 Thomas Magnus directed that the
schoolmaster and six children of his new free school of grammar
and song at Newark (Notts) should recite every night the anti-
phon of the Virgin and the antiphon of Jesus in front of the
Rood, 'kneleyng in the manner and forme as . . . hath and ys
used before the Roode of the north dore in . . . Seynt Paule in
London'.2

In the later Middle Ages the corporate devotion of parishes
and communities was expressed through fraternities and guilds,
many of which supported the singing of votive Masses and
antiphons. An early example is the Mary-guild of St. Magnus
the Martyr, London Bridge, which was founded in 1343 by
'the better folk of the parish', who 'caused to be made a chantry
to sing an anthem of Our Lady called Salve regina every even-
ing' to which they each paid a halfpenny a week.3 From the
mid-fifteenth century onwards craft guilds in many places built
chapels in the larger churches and supported priests to sing
votive Masses and antiphons.4 The merchants' guild of Chiches-
ter, for example, was refounded in 1446 as a fraternity of
St. George and sang an antiphon on St. George's day in the
cathedral, where a Mass of St. George was celebrated daily.5

It is clear that there was a wide range, and sometimes com-
plete freedom, of choice of text for a votive antiphon, and con-
siderable variety of time and place in its observance. When

1 Educational Charters, pp. 425, 432.

2 Quoted in Vallance, Greater English Church Screens, p. 76. Thomas
Damett's will has: 'Also I will that a priest of virtuous repute shall celebrate
before the Crucifix called "le Roode at the Northdore" for my soul for
three years if my goods bequeathed shall be sufficient for this.' Harvey,
Gothic England, p. 183.

3 Cook, Medieval Chantries, pp. 40-1. The author suggests (p. 136) that
'Pewe' in the term 'St. Mary of the Pewe' for a Lady-chapel may mean
enclosure. It is likely that it refers to the antiphon Salve regina, which was
probably written by Aimar, Bishop of Le Puy (b. c. 1050), and not, as was
formerly believed, by Hermannus Contractus; see H. Leclerq's article 'Salve
Regina' in Dictionnaire d'Arche'ologie chrelienne. It was called 'the antiphon
of Le Puy' (Raby, History of Christian Latin Poetry, p. 227), so that a chapel
'of the Pewe' may be the equivalent of the frequent term 'Salve chapel',
which could, however, be derived equally from the Lady-Mass Salve sancta
parens and the Mary-antiphon Salve regina.

4 Cook, Medieval Chantries, pp. 22-4.

6 Statutes and Constitutions of Chichester, p. 67.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

there was a specific direction it was contained in a statute and
not, except in the comparatively late instance of the Brigittine
nuns, in an Ordinal. Of the eleven antiphons so far mentioned
four (Nesciens mater, Sancta Maria, Te Deum patrem and 0
mitissime1) were psalm-antiphons sung out of their normal con-
text in the ritual, four (Salve regina, Regina caeli, Mater orafilium
and Ave regina) were processional antiphons, two (Gaude virgo
salutata and Stella caeli) were devotional poems not found in
liturgical books but in Books of Hours for private devotion, and
one (Benedicta es) was a sequence.2

Processions

Processions of great splendour and elaborate ceremonial were
a characteristic element in the customs of the English secular
churches.3 Departing from and returning to the choir, they
always had some definite object or station, whether an altar,
the rood, the font, a designated point outside the church
where a distinguished visitor was to be received, or a neigh-
bouring church where Mass was to be celebrated. They used no
distinct ritual forms but adapted to their purposes such forms
as the respond with verse, the antiphon, generally without
psalm but sometimes with verses, and the hymn with refrain.
The procession before Mass on an ordinary Sunday went out
of the choir through the north door, around the presbytery on
the outside, along the south aisle and around the font, and up
the centre of the nave to the rood. During Advent, from
Septuagesima to the fourth Sunday in Lent and on the five
Sundays after Easter an antiphon was sung during this part
of the procession, and at other times a respond and verse. At
the rood a station was made, where, from the first Sunday after
Trinity to Advent, there was an antiphon of the Cross, and
during Advent and from Septuagesima to Passion Sunday, a

1 In the Brigittine use only, where it was the antiphon to the Nunc
dimittis on Fridays. When sung as an antiphon after Compline in Lent it
was combined with verses beginning O benigne creator, which follow it in a
manuscript of Brigittine Masses and Offices in Trinity College, Dublin
(MS. L.i. 13).

2 Of York and Hereford use, not of Sarum.

3 For the processions in a Benedictine house, see Ordinate of St. Mary's,
York, i, pp. 91-5.

"£3CVhP^

w
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL

KEY

A. Tomb of Bishop
Simon of Ghent
(d. March 31, 13 15)

B. Tomb of Bishop
Roger de Mortival
(d. March 14, 1330)

C. Choir-screen

D. Choir-step

E. Presbytery-step

F. Bishop's Throne

G. Dean

H. Precentor
J. Chancellor
K. Treasurer
L. Archdeacon of
Dorset
LN. Lectern

M. Subdean

N. Archdeacon of
Berkshire

O. Succentor

P. South Choir-door

Q. North Choir-door

R. Rood

S. Canons' Cemetery

T. Sacristy (Muni-
ment Room over)

U. Chapter House

V. Cloister

W. West Door (the
Blue Porch)

X. The Beautiful Gate
(Speciosa) (1443)

Y. St. Thomas's Porch
YY. St. Stephen's Porch

Z. Font

AA. Senior Stalls
BB. Second Form
CC. Third Form

(Choristers)

Altars

1 . High Altar

2. St. Osmund (1456)

3. St. Martin

4. St. Katherine

5. St. Peter and the
Apostles

6. Salve, All Saints
(Trinity)

7. All Saints (c. 1460)

8. St. Stephen

g. St. Mary Magdalene

10. St. Nicholas

11. St. Margaret

12. St. Laurence

13. St. Michael

14. St. Andrew

15. St. Denis

16. Parochial (Holy
Cross) (on the
screen, or at the
north side of the
choir-door)

1 7. St. Thomas of Can-
terbury

18. St. Edmund, Arch-
bishop and Con-
fessor

19. St. John Baptist
(Relics)

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

sermon in place of the usual prayers.1 As the procession
re-entered the choir a respond was sung if an antiphon
had been sung in the first part of the procession, and vice
versa.

The three antiphons for the procession during Lent, Ecce
carissimi, Cum venerimus and In die quando, were peculiar to it,
and are not to be found elsewhere in the ritual. On the Sunday
after Easter and the Sunday before Ascension Day the antiphon
was Sedit angelus with verse,2 while on the Sundays between it
was Ego sum alpha et omega with verse. For ordinary processions
before Mass and at Vespers an antiphon of the Virgin was sung,
which was either a psalm-antiphon from the offices, such as
Beata Dei genitrix, Tota pulchra es, Ascendit Christus super caelos et
preparavit, Anima mea liquefacta est or Descendi in ortum meum,3 or
one of the processional antiphons which were not sung in the
ritual in connection with a psalm, such as Ave regina caelorum ave
domina, Alma redemptoris, Speciosa facta es . . . in deliciis virginitatis*
Ibo mihi ad montem myrrhae and Quam pulchra es.5

On the more important double feasts the procession before
Mass went out of the choir by the west door and around the
choir, presbytery and cloisters before arriving at the rood. On
about eight of these days, including Easter, Ascension, Whit-
sunday, Corpus Christi and the Dedication of the Church, but
not Christmas or Trinity, the procession was begun with the
prose Salve festa dies* The verses, which differed with the day7

1 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 148; Ordinale Exon, i, pp. 293-4.

2 It is called Responsorium in the York Processional, but the Sarum books
always call the Easter processional chants antiphons.

3 The last four were sung only between the octave of the Assumption and
the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin.

4 Speciosa facta es et suavis in deliciis tais, with different words and music,
was the third antiphon at Matins in the weekly commemorative Office of
the Virgin.

5 Use of Sarum, i, p. 179; Ordinale Exon, i, p. 177.

6 The form is processional hymn with refrain (see Raby, Christian Latin
Poetry, pp. 92-3), but the ordinals and service-books are unanimous in
calling it prosa.

7 Breviarium Sarum, iii, p. xcviii, lists eight sets of verses for Sarum and one
peculiar to York; Frere (Hymns Ancient and Modern, p. 205) mentions seven
feasts, including the late medieval additions of the Visitation and the Name
of Jesus. Local saints also had their versions of the processional Salve,
for example Hereford for St. Ethelbert (Hereford Breviary, iii, p. 76) and

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

though the music was invariable, were sung by the rulers, and
the refrain Salve festa dies, with a varying second line, by the
choir. The procession was completed to the singing of two
responds, or two antiphons (on Easter Day Sedit angelus with the
verse Crucifixum in came1 and Christus resurgens with the verse
Dicant nunc Judei), or a respond and antiphon (on Corpus
Ghristi).

The procession on Christmas Day was begun to the respond
Descendit de caelis, and as it proceeded around the cloisters to the
font and rood three proses were inserted into the respond. This
resulted in the following scheme, the respond and its partial
repeats being sung by the choir, and the verse, Gloria patri and
proses by two or three clerici,2 with the chorus repeating each
line to its final vowel: R7. Descendit; Prose Felix Maria; R7. from
fabrice; "f. Tanquam; R7. from Et exivit; Prose Familiam custodi;
R/. from fabrice; Gloria patri; R7. from Luxetdecus; Prose Te laudant
alme; R7. from fabrice. 3 For re-entering the choir the antiphon
Hodie Christus natus est was sung, and was repeated from Hodie in
terra if necessary. Two or more responds were sung during the
procession on certain other feasts, for example on the Circum-
cision (with the prose Quam aethera), on the Epiphany (three
responds), on Passion Sunday, on the Sunday after the Ascen-
sion and on Trinity Sunday.

The procession on Palm Sunday had special features of its
own.4 The palms were first distributed to the singing of two
antiphons. At Salisbury the procession then went through the
west door of the choir and around the cloisters to the first
station near the south-east corner of the church,5 one or more
antiphons being sung on the way. Meanwhile two clerks of the
second form had carried the relics and the Blessed Sacrament

Lichfield for St. Chad (Shrewsbury School MS. Mus. iii. 42, fo. 23V; see
below, p. 99, n. 1).

1 Crucifixum in came was sung in the pulpitum by three from the senior stalls,
turning towards the people. Use of Sarum, ii, p. 168.

2 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 53; Ordinate Exon, i, p. 65.

3 This as in Ordinate Exon; the Sarum plan differs slightly. See also Hereford
Breviary, i, p. 145; iii, p. 68. These proses do not appear in the Benedictine
rite; cf. Ordinal of St. Mary's, York, ii, p. 90.

4 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 59-61 ; ii, pp. 161-2. On Holy Week ceremonies, see
also Bishop, 'Holy Week Rites of Sarum, Hereford and Rouen'.

5 'In extrema orientali parte cimiterii laicorum.'

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

to the first station. There a lesson from the Gospels was read,
and the antiphon1 En rex venit was sung for the adoration of the
Sacrament.2 The form of this antiphon was: En rex venit sung
by three clerici turning to the people; Salve quern. Jesum sung by
the principal officiant turning to the relics; the continuation
Testatur plebs sung by the choir, with a genuflection to the relics;
and the verses Hie est qui de Edom and Hie est ille by the clerks,
each being followed similarly by another Salve sung by the
officiant and continued by the choir. Two antiphons and, if
needed, two responds accompanied the procession to the
next station at the door of the north transept where seven boys
in a high place (in eminentiori loco) sang the prose Gloria laus et
honor.3 This refrain was repeated by the choir below, and also
after each verse of the prose had been sung by the boys. Then
with the antiphon Collegerunt the procession continued along
the north side of the church to the third station before the north-
west door, where the verse Unus autem ex ipsis was sung by three
from the senior stalls turning to the people.4 From there a
respond brought the procession through the west door to the
fourth station at the rood. The cross, which had been covered
since the first Monday in Lent, was uncovered,5 and the
officiant began the antiphon Ave, the choir singing rex noster,
with a genuflection to the rood. These three words were sung

1 So called in Missale Sarum, col. 261; it is actually a set of antiphons, as
in Missale Herfordensis, p. 80.

2 Among the monastic uses this appears only in the Norwich form of the
Benedictine rite, which was derived from Fecamp and has other similarities
to the secular uses. See Customary of Norwich, pp. xiv-xvi, 77; the distribution
of the parts of the chant differs from Sarum.

3 At Lincoln the church servants prepared seats for the canons at the
first station, and hung a pall at the 'Bail Gate* or wherever the boys were
to sing Gloria laus (Lincoln Statutes, i, p. 292). At York the boys sang from a
temporary gallery over the church door (York Missal, i, p. 87). At Hereford
(as at Rouen) this ceremony took place at the closed gate of the town,
the boys being on top of the gate (Bishop, 'Holy Week Rites of Sarum,
Hereford and Rouen', p. 284).

4 Use of Sarum, i, p. 61; ii, p. 162.

6 At St. Mary's, York, this was done during the singing of the antiphon:
'Cum autem pronuntiari ceperit Ave, unus serventium ecclesie in absconso
trahet per longam cordulam velum crucifixi usque ad genua eius; in secunda
pronuntione usque ad latus; et in tercia totaliter denudetur, et sic nuda
maneat ilia et magna crux super altare usque post Vesperas hujus diei.'
Ordinate of St. Marys, York, ii, pp. 265-6.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

twice more at a higher pitch each time, and at the third time
the antiphon was continued and completed by the choir. Then
the crucifix on the high altar was uncovered, and the pro-
cession entered the choir to the singing of a respond.

During Mass on Maundy Thursday the Bishop blessed the
oil for the sick and the oil for the chrism, for consecrations,
ordinations and baptism. The chrism was carried in solemn
procession from the sacristy to the high altar, and before it went
three choristers singing the hymn 0 redemptor sume carmen and
its verses, while the choir responded with 0 redemptor after each
verse.1 On the afternoon of Holy Saturday all went in proces-
sion through the west door of the choir to a column on the
south side of the church for the blessing of the New Fire, saying
the psalm Dominus illuminatio mea (Ps. 26) as they went, and
singing as they returned the hymn Inventor rutili. 2 Then followed
the blessing of the Paschal Candle and the lighting of the other
candles from it, to the singing of the ancient prose Exsultet jam
angelica turba, which consisted of six verses to the same melody
with considerable variations, and the long preface Vere quia
dignum etjustum est by a deacon.3 After several lessons separated
by tracts, and the singing of the sevenfold Litany Kyrie eleison,
Christe eleison, Christe audi nos, etc. by seven choristers, the pro-
cession went by the north door of the choir to the font, to the
singing of the fivefold Litany by five deacons of the second
form. The font was blessed, and as the procession returned the
metrical Litany Rex sanctorum angelorum* was sung by three from
the senior stalls, the choir repeating Rex sanctorum after each
verse.5 Then followed Mass and Vespers in succession, as on
the previous two days of the week.

A procession to the font in the same order as that on Easter
Eve but with different ritual took place after Vespers from

1 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 203-4.

2 In Salisbury two of the second form sang the verses, in Exeter two
boys, the chorus always responding with Inventor. Use of Sarum, i, p. 146;
Ordinate Exon, i, p. 322.

3 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 146-7; Ordinate of St. Mary's, York, ii, p. 293. For a
discussion of the chants of Exsultet, see the article in Die Musik in Geschichte and
Gegenwart.

4 'A doggerel which hardly deserves the name of litany or hymn.' Bishop,
'Holy Week Rites of Sarum, Hereford and Rouen', p. 296.

5 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 149-51.
M.M.B. — H 93

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Station at the Font at Vespers in Easter Week, from the printed
Sarum Processional

I. Cross-bearer. 2, 2. Taperers. 3. Thurifer. 4, 5. Oil and Chrism. 6, 6. Subsidiary rulers
(rectores secundarii). 7, 7, 7. Three boys singing Alleluia. 8. Boy carrying book. 9, 9. Principal
rulers. 10. Officiant. 11. Font.

Easter Day to the Friday of Easter week. * On Easter Day, as
the procession began, a senior person began the antiphon
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia and the rulers on the decani side
began the psalm Laudate pueri Dominum (Ps. 112), the choir on
that side completing the first verse Laudate nomen Domini and
repeating the first Alleluia of the antiphon. This single Alleluia
was joined similarly to the end of each verse of the psalm, being
sung by the side singing the verse, not by the whole choir.2

1 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 157-9; "j P- 725 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 142-3. The
chants are in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 239; the chant of the psalm only
in Use of Sarum, ii, p. lxxv.

2 'Alius versus ex alia parte chori dicatur cum Alleluya in fine versus,
quasi Alleluva esset de eodem textu versus cuiuslibet.' Ordinale Exon,\, p. 142.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

After the Gloria patri all the rulers began the antiphon again
and it was completed by the choir. At the font three boys,
turning to the east, sang an Alleluia, which was repeated, with
the neuma, by the choir. The boys then sang the verse Laudate
pueri Dominum as far as the last word domini, which was sung by
the choir with the neuma, and then the Alleluia was repeated
by all without the neuma.1 Going to the rood the psalm In exitu
Israel (Ps. 113) was sung, its antiphon Alleluia being treated in
the same way as that of the psalm Laudate pueri, 2 and the pro-
cession re-entered the choir to an antiphon of the Virgin.3
During the week the ritual was changed, the antiphons Sedit
angelus and Christus resurgens, without their verses, being used
for going to and returning from the font. The Easter Eve ritual,
with litanies and procession to the blessing of the Font, was also
carried out before Mass on the vigil of Whitsunday.

On Easter Saturday and every Saturday thereafter until
Advent (except on the vigils of Whitsunday and Trinity) and on
the feasts of the Holy Cross (the Finding, May 3; the Exalta-
tion, September 14), the procession to the rood took place after
Vespers. Until Ascension week the ritual consisted of the anti-
phons Christus resurgens and Regina caelif the verse Dicant nunc
was sung before the rood by three from the senior stalls on
Easter Saturday and the Saturday before the Ascension and by
two priests of the second form on the other Saturdays. After
Trinity an antiphon of the Holy Cross, Crux fidelis, 0 crux
gloriosa or 0 crux splendidior, and on the feasts of the Holy Cross
the antiphon 0 crux gloriosa with verse, accompanied the

1 This Alleluia was also sung, with two verses, Laudate pueri and Sit nomen
Domini, at Mass on the Saturday after Easter and on the feast of the Seven
Martyr Brothers (July 10). Antiphonale Sarisburiense gives the two verses with
the Easter Eve procession, but the ordinals give only Laudate pueri. Ordinate
of St. Marys, York (ii. p. 301), has no procession at this point; the Customary
of St. Augustine's, Canterbury (i, p. 38), mentions processions, not described,
at both Vespers of Easter. The Alleluia was not sung at Hereford, which used
Christus resurgens, its verse being sung at the Font, and Sedit angelus, its verse
being sung in the pulpitum (Hereford Breviary, i, p. 331). Norwich (Customary,
p. 96) agrees with Hereford, not with the other Benedictine ordinals.

2 'Quasi Alleluya foret de textu versus in fine cuiuslibet versus.' Ordinate
Exon, i, p. 143.

3 Use of Sarum, i, p. 158. Exeter specifies Regina caeli, the special Mary-
antiphon of the Easter season.

4 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 148; Use of Sarum (i, pp. 163-4) does not specify.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

procession to the rood, and an antiphon of the Virgin was sung
while re-entering the choir.1

A procession took place after first Vespers of a saint's day if
the church had an altar dedicated to that saint. On the way a
respond was sung, and for the return an antiphon of the Virgin,
except in Advent, when the All Saints antiphon Salvator mundi
salva nos omnes was used. On some of these days a prose was sung
before the altar of the saint. In the secular uses the rites of
St. Stephen's day were carried out by the deacons, headed by
an 'archdeacon', on St. John's day by the priests, under a
'dean', and on Holy Innocents' day by the boy choristers,2
ruled by a 'bishop'.3 In each case the ceremonies began with
the procession after first Vespers. On St. Stephen's eve the
'archdeacon' began the respond Sancte Dei pretiose for the pro-
cession and all the deacons sang sollemniter et concorditer the verse
Ut tuo propitiatus. At the altar the prose Te mundi climata was
sung by the deacons, the choir responding on the vowels. The
boys began their day with ceremonies which included a pro-
cession to one of the altars and the singing of the prose Sedentem
in superne, and ended it with the blessing of the people by the
boy-bishop after second Vespers.

Processions on days of intercession or penitence were accom-
panied by antiphons, psalms and responds as they proceeded
to a neighbouring church for the celebration of Mass. On the
way back one or several litanies were sung by two singers with
the choir responding. Processions of this kind with the 'greater
Litany' took place on the three Rogation days, which were
the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the Ascension,4

1 The antiphon was chosen from those given above, p. 90. Use of Sarum, i,

P- 179.

2 At Eton and King's College the boy bishop's day was the feast
of St. Nicholas, December 6; Ancient Laws of King's and Eton, pp. 112,
560.

3 Grandisson was careful to point out that the leaders signified respec-
tively St. Stephen, St. John and 'Christum puerum verum et eternum
pontificem'. Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 68-74. See also the Sarum text in Chambers,
Mediaeval Stage, ii, pp. 282-7.

4 For a full account of the order on these days, see Ordinale of St. Mary's,
York, ii, pp. 318-21. The community went to the Minster on Monday, to
the Hospital of St. Leonard on Tuesday and to St, Mary's Chapel 'juxta
portam' on Wednesday,

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

on St. Mark's day,1 which was observed on April 25 (unless
that day fell in Easter week or on a Sunday), and in times of
trouble.2

Ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter

Nine antiphons were sung during the ceremonial washing
of feet on Maundy Thursday in the Sarum rite, beginning with
Mandatum novum, from which the day has taken its name, and
ending with Venit ad Petrum.3 The monastic uses differed con-
siderably from that of Sarum in the number and order of the
antiphons.4 The ceremonies of the Adoration of the Cross and
the Deposition into a symbolic sepulchrum of the Cross and Holy
Sacrament during the combined Mass and Vespers of Good
Friday, and of their Elevation before Matins on Easter morn-
ing, were virtually the same in all the secular and monastic
uses.5 After the St. John Passion and prayers two priests, holding
the cross and standing at the south side of the high altar, began
the Improperia ('Reproaches') with the words Popule mens, etc.
After each verse two deacons standing at the choir-step sang
Agios 0 Theos, and the choir continued with Sanctus Deus . . .
miserere nobis. Then, as they unveiled the cross, the priests sang
the antiphon Ecce lignum. While the community made their
adoration the choir sang the psalm Deus misereatur (Ps. 66),
interposing the antiphon Crucem tuam adoramus after each verse,
and the two priests, sitting on the altar step one on each side
of the cross, sang the hymn Cruxjidelis, the choir repeating the
refrain Cruxjidelis after each verse. As the cross was carried to
another altar for the adoration of the people the choir sang the
antiphon Dum fabricator with its verse.

1 St. Mark's Day 'was commonly fasted thorowe all the countrie & no
flesh eten upon it'; Rites of Durham, p. 104. For descriptions of some of the
processions of the year as carried out at Durham, see ibid., pp. 104-8.

2 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 172-4; Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 11-12, 327-8.

3 The last four were optional, 'si necesse fuit'.

4 See Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 230-8, for some comparisons.
At St. Mary's, York {Ordinate, ii, pp. 280-3), Ante diem festum was sung
slowly immediately before the entrance of the Abbot and Venit ad Petrum
does not appear.

6 For their history, see Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii, Chap. XVIII; for
a description by one who had probably seen them, see Rites of Durham,
pp. n-13, which is reprinted in Chambers, op. cit., pp. 310-11.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

After further ceremonies at the high altar and the saying
privatim of Vespers came the Deposition of the Cross and Sacra-
ment in the sepulchrum, with the responds Estimatus sum and
Sepulto Domino, in both of which the choir sang the verse. Finally,
with the closing of the sepulchrum the choir sang three antiphons,
In pace in idipsum, In pace f actus est and Caro mea.1 At dawn on
Easter morning all gathered in choir for the opening of the
sepulchrum, and the two senior dignitaries present placed the
Sacrament on the altar and carried the Cross in procession
'to the place provided'. As they did so, they began the antiphon
Christus resurgens and the choir sang both the antiphon and the
verse Dicant nunc.z The Ordinals make no mention of the Visita-
tion, but it is contained, with the music, in two fourteenth-
century Processionals of Sarum use which belonged to the
church of St. John the Evangelist, Dublin.3 This is the famous
play of the three Maries, the Angel and SS. John and Peter,
which takes its name from the first words of the Angel (Quern
queritis ad sepulchrum, 0 christicolae?) .* It included the singing
of the sequence Victimae paschali laudes, divided between the
Maries and the saints and accompanying their actions, the last
verse being sung by the choir. The Visitation began after the
third (and last) respond of Easter Matins, Dum transisset sab-
batum, the words of which introduced the story, and ended
with the singing of the Te Deum.

The Lichfield statutes of c. 1 1 90 contain references to the
Easter play, a Christmas play and a play on the Monday of
Easter week.5 In the library of Shrewsbury School there is an

1 The Sarum directions are printed in Chambers, op. cit., pp. 312-15.
See also Missale Sarum, cols. 328-33, and (for the Good Friday music)
Graduate Sarisburiense, pis. 101-3; Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 138-9, 320-1; Ordinate
of St. Mary's, York, ii, pp. 286-9, 296-8 (where the Elevatio was after Matins).
For the directions for the Adoration in the York Gradual, see Frere, 'The
Newly-found York Gradual', p. 29.

2 Use of Sarum, i. 153. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 139. On the following three days
the procession took place after Lauds, the verse was sung by two clerks of
the second form (three from the senior stalls in Exeter) at the station before
the cross from the sepulchrum, and a Mary-antiphon was sung in returning.
On the last three days of the week the verse was omitted. Use of Sarum,
i, pp. 1 60-1; Ordinate Exon, i. p. 144.

3 Dublin, Archbishop Marsh's Library, MS. Z4.2.20, fos. 59-61; Oxford,
Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. liturg. d.4, fos. 130-2.

* Text in Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii, pp. 315-8. 6 Ibid., p. 36.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

actor's part in the vernacular, with some music to Latin words,
for each of these plays.1 At Rouen the Christmas Officium pas-
torum was played after the Te Deum of Christmas Matins, and
included the singing of Gloria in excelsis by boys from the vaults
of the church.2 It is possible that the manner of singing the
first respond of Christmas Matins in the English secular uses
is a relic of this drama.3 The Easter Monday play (Peregrini) of
the meeting with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus was
acted during the procession to the font at Vespers.

In some places a dove was made to descend from the roof of
the church at the beginning of the hymn Veni creator Spiritis
at Terce on Whitsunday. An eye-witness of this curious piece
of liturgical symbolism at St. Paul's has described the descent
of a white pigeon and of a censer that 'reached at one sweep
almost to the West gate of the church and with the other to the
choir stairs'.4 A description of the reception of Henry VII at
St. Paul's tells how 'at his entrie into the Chirche his Grace
was senserde with the great Senser of Powles by an Angell
commyng oute of the Roof, During which Tyme the Quere
sange a solempne Antyme and after Te Deum Laudamus for
Joy of his late Victory and prosperous Comyng to his saide
Citie'.6

Plainsong Books; the Tonale

The plainsong of the liturgy was written in a number of
separate books, the contents of each kind of book being directly
related to the function of its user. By the early thirteenth cen-
tury the ritual of the hours services, in their order during the

1 In the same manuscript as the Salve festa dies of St. Chad mentioned
above, p. 90, n. 7. See ibid., p. 90; Smoldon, 'Liturgical Drama', p. 189;
Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church, ii, pp. 514-20.

2 Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii, p. 41. 3 See below, p. 107.

4 Simpson, History of Old St. Paul's, p. 79. The Lichfield Statutes of
c. 1 190 have: 'Die vero Pentecostes et tribus diebus sequentibus dum can-
tatur sequencia nebule consueverunt dispergi' (Lincoln Statutes, ii, p. 15),
while at St. Mary's, York (Ordinale, ii, p. 332): 'Si ad representandum
adventum Spiritus Sancti alba columba sive viva, sive ymaginaria, in in-
ceptione ympni Veni creator cum nebulis descendat, et septem cerei in sig-
num septem donorum ejus cum beata Virgine et apostolis intendentibus
in celum accendantur, bene licet.'

5 Leland, Collectanea, iv, p. 218, with 'sensende' for 'senserde'.

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

day and in the divisions of the Temporale and Sanctorale, was
organized into a collection known as the Breviary. Though
voluminous, it was, as its name indicates, an abbreviation,
because such parts as the psalms with their ferial antiphons and
the hymns, which all knew by heart, were not included, but
could be found in the separate Psalter and Hymnal. Neverthe-
less, the Breviary with music, or 'noted' Breviary, of the later
Middle Ages attained a very large size. The Antiphonal, also a
large volume, was particularly for the use of singers, and con-
tained the antiphons, responds, invitatories, x proses, genealogies
and some hymns of the Breviary, while the lessons were written
in separate Lectionaries.2 The Missal was for the use of the
celebrant, and normally included music only for the items
which were sung at the altar, such as the opening of the Gloria,
the Prefaces, and the Ite missa est and Benedicamus domino. The
choir's chants of the Mass were written in the Gradual, the
Epistles in the Epistolarium and the Gospels in the Evangelarium.
A separate Troparium (Troper) was necessary for rites which
had many tropes, but in the secular uses the tropes of the
Ordinary of the Mass were generally put at the end of the
Gradual with the other chants of the Ordinary. Sequences were
sometimes written into the Gradual and sometimes into a
separate Sequentiarium. From the fourteenth century onwards
the chants for processions were written in a Processional, which
usually included also the music for votive Masses. The Manual
of occasional services and the Pontifical containing services
carried out by the bishop were of minor musical importance.

The Tonale served as a handbook and directory of the ritual
music, as the Ordinal and Customary did of the rites and
customs.3 Its chief function was to show the beginner of an anti-
phon and psalm how much of the antiphon he should sing
before the psalm, and to indicate which intonation (intonatio,
now generally called psalm-tone) and variety of ending (differ-
entia) should be used for chanting the psalm. The antiphons

1 These were sometimes written, with the corresponding chants for the
Venite, in a separate Invitatorium, also called Venitarium.

2 The whole body of Lessons was called Legenda, and was subdivided into
separate volumes, e.g., the Homilarium with patristic homilies and ex-
positions, the Legendarium with acts of the saints, and the Passionarium or
Martyrology with sufferings of the martyrs.

3 The Sarum Tonale is printed in Use of Sarum, ii, Appendix.

IOO

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

were grouped initially according to the eight modes1 (toni), or
melodic types, and there was one psalm-intonation in each
mode. The Tonale explained the grouping of the antiphons
into their modes by the practical criteria of their last note2 or
'final' and their range.3 Naturally an antiphon and psalm sung
together had to be in the same mode, but since the antiphon
was sung after the psalm a further subdivision (called variatio)
of the antiphons was made, according to the note and type of
melodic idiom with which they began.4 Each psalm-intonation
was provided with a suitable number of differences, so that a
smooth connection could be made between the ending of the
psalm and the beginning of the antiphon.

In the Sarum Tonale the psalm-intonation of the fourth
mode, for example, is provided with nine differences, and the
variation of the particular group of antiphons with which
the second of these differences must be used is described in the
following terms: 'Every antiphon of the fourth mode which
begins on C and immediately or gradually rises through D to
F, or repeats the C before thus rising to F, has the second
difference, in this way':5

Ex.4.

' m * I ■ * I at the end the dii ferencS:)

A. Beth - U. - em. A. Do - mi-ne. dmen

The actual procedure may be illustrated in the case of the anti-
phon Lucem tuam, which was sung with the Nunc dimittis at
Compline on double feasts from Trinity to Advent and from

1 A mode may be defined as a set of melodic idioms which formed the
'raw material' of composition.

2 D in Modes I and II; E in modes III and IV; F in modes V and VI;
and G in modes VII and VIII.

3 This and other criteria could be used to correct errors in chant books,
e.g., in the first mode: 'Si autem inferius quam quartam vocem descenderit
vel superius quam decimam vocem ascenderit, tunc cantus falsus erit.' Use
of Sarum, ii, Appendix, p. i.

4 E.g., in the first mode: 'In quatuor autem locis regulariter incipit: id
est in cefaut Desolre Efaut gravibus [i.e., C, D or F in the bass clef], et in
alamire acuta [i.e., A below middle C]. In elami vero gravi [i.e., E in the
bass clef] non inveniemus in antiphonis, sed in missarum officiis sicut patebit
inferius'. Loc. cit. 'Variacio' is called 'inceptio' in the Hereford Tonale.
Hereford Breviary, iii, p. Ii.

6 Use of Sarum, ii, p. xxvii.

IOI

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

Epiphany to Lent. It is in the fourth mode and its beginning
shows that it has the variation which our quotation from the
Tonale describes. Hence it will be sung with the second differ-
ence of the psalm-intonation, and its performance with the
canticle will proceed thus:1

Ex.5.
(Beginner)

Lu- cem tu. - - -am. Hone dL-mlt-tis ser - vum tuu-am,
(Choir)

Do-mL-ne: se-cun-dum ver-bum tio-am In pa.

Three further verses and |
CLorua patri, ending :

Sic-ut e-rat in prln-ci-pi-o et nunc

et setn-per: et en sae-cu-Ux, saB-cu-Lo-rum CL - - man
(Beguiner) ^, ^ (Choir)

am, Do- mi- ne, no - bis con - ce - cte,

at de-stl - tu, - tis cor - di - am te - ne - bris

per- ve - no - re pos-sl- mas ad Lu-men quod est ChrC-stuS.

Besides arranging the antiphons according to mode and varia-
tion, the Sarum Tonale gave for each mode a complete verse
of its psalm-intonation and of its intonations for the Benedictus
and Magnificat, its neuma, its chants for the Venite, its Gloria
patri for ferial responds, and its Introits with their psalm-
intonations, differences and chants for the Eastertide Alleluia.

In the earlier Middle Ages much of the ritual music was
sung from memory. At St. Alban's Abbey, for example, before
Abbot John de Marinis (1302-8) ordered sconces to be placed
in front of those who wished to sing the night office from books,
the only books used in the choir were the Lectionary and the
Collectar, the book of special prayers.2 Grandisson's statutes

1 Antiphon and difference in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 287.

2 'Quod prius non erat usitatum praeter Legendam et Collectarium;
unde multi minus bene reddere servitium curaverunt, et minus sciverunt.'
Gesta Abbatum Monasterii S. Albani, ii, p. 106.

102

THE LITURGY AND ITS PLAINSONG

for Ottery St. Mary give more than usually detailed informa-
tion on this point. Three was to be the usual number to sing
from one book,1 and the statutes provided for three Anti-
phonals, three Psalters and three Graduals on each side of the
choir, a book at the choir-step with the music to be sung there,
and one in mid-choir for the rulers at Mass. Every canon and
vicar was to have a Processional, so that they should not be
inconvenienced by having to share a book when singing in
procession. At Matins there were to be three candles on each
side (the canons being obliged to supply their own), but on
simple feasts and ferias the boys and secondaries were to sing
the Invitatory and the Venite and the boys were to sing the
beginning of the respond and its verse 'without book or light'.2
The entrance test for the vicars and secondaries of Ottery
St. Mary, requiring that they should be able to read and sing
the Tonale with the differences and the melodies of the Venite,
marks a change from the memorizing by rote laid down by the
cathedral and monastic statutes and rules to a test of actual
musical ability. In later foundations the requirement to
memorize was dropped in favour of a general qualification in
reading and singing. The few inventories of the later period
which give the place of books in choir as well as the number of
each type3 suggest that Grandisson's ideas became accepted
practice in colleges and collegiate churches during the fifteenth
century.

1 In 1484 Thomas Beylby of Southwell complained that 'Dom. Nicholaus
Knolles ad antiphonare coram eodem et Domino Thoma Beylby et Domino
Thoma Tykhyll jacens non permittit dictos suos consocios habere libri
aspectum ut ceteri, sed se totaliter divertit ad illud alios impediendo ne
videant'. Visitations and Memorials of Southwell, p. 51.

2 Dalton, Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary, pp. 158, 160, 140.

3 See the Winchester College Inventory printed as Appendix V, p. 434
below.

I03

Ill

THE POLYPHONY OF THE
LITURGY FROM 1100 TO 1400

Xlainsong was an integral part of the Christian liturgies
from the beginning of their history. Polyphony, on the other
hand, gained a place in the liturgy by its ability to lend cere-
monial distinction to the performance of the established plain-
song. Its function, therefore, was analogous to that of the many
other forms of ceremonial by which the more significant parts
of the ritual were distinguished from the less significant, the
more important services of the day from the less important, and
the services of the various ranks of festival from each other and
from ferias. The earliest period in the history of polyphony,
from c. 900 to the twelfth century, was also the period of exten-
sive troping of the ritual. While polyphony often went hand in
hand with ritual tropes, it also had the faculty, which verbal
additions could not match, of incorporating the plainsong as
the basis of its design without changing the ritual text or music.
It was in these two forms, the setting of ritual plainsong and the
setting of tropes, that polyphony became accepted as an addi-
tional element in ceremonial, and as a further means of festive
adornment and elaboration of the ritual.

Ceremonial in Choir

As far as the musical ceremonial was concerned, the most
important means of distinguishing festivals was the method of

104

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

ruling the choir. On double feasts there were four rulers.1 On
the most important festivals all four were chosen from the senior
stalls, while on other doubles the two principal rulers (princi-
pales) were from the senior stalls, and were canons if two canons
were present, and their assistants (secundarii) were from the
second form.2 The precentor took part in ruling the choir on
principal and greater double feasts, at least at Mass, and re-
hearsed the rulers in the chants they had to begin, or to 'inti-
mate' (injungere) to the beginners, on other doubles. On greater
doubles the precentor began the repeat of the Invitatory and
of the antiphons after the psalm was sung (Exeter), the first
chant in processions (York and Hereford) , the sequence at Mass
and the prose at Vespers (Hereford), and the Introit at Mass
(York). He also intimated to the Bishop any chants which the
Bishop began. 3 Injungere meant to set the pitch of a chant by
singing quietly its opening (its variatio in the case of an antiphon)
to the beginner. The two hebdomadary priests acted as rulers
on ordinary Sundays and on simple feasts; on ferias and feasts
without ruling of the choir (sine regimine chori) the beginning of
chants and the singing of solo parts were done by the vicars,
clerks and two boys who were tabled for the week.

The beginning and singing of solo parts in the series of re-
sponds at Matins was carried out according to the understood
principles that the sides of the choir alternated, beginning with
the 'duty' side, and that the order of persons went from lower
rank to higher.4 The chief function of a ruler, besides beginning
or singing certain parts of the ritual as laid down in the Cus-
tomary, was to ascertain from the precentor or his deputy the
beginnings of antiphons and responds and in what rank they
were to be begun, and to intimate the beginning to the person
concerned on his side. The following table shows by whom and
where the principal chants were begun and sung on double
feasts when there were four rulers, according to the Sarum
use.

1 At Exeter there were five for Mass on Whitsunday. Ordinate Exon, i,
p. 1 68.

2 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 29-33.

3 Use of Sarum, i, p. 3; Ordinate Exon, i, p. 3; see also Lincoln Statutes, ii,
pp. 17, 63, 94.

4 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 93-107.

105

6ERVICE

PART OF RITUAL

BEGUN BY1

WHERE

Vespers

Antiphons

One from senior stalls in de-
scending rank

Stalls

Antiphon to Mag-

Person of highest rank on duty

StaU

nificat

side

Respond after Les-

Three from senior stalls, two

Choir-step

son

from duty side

Hymn

Two rulers

Mid-choir

Versicle after Hymn

Two boys

Choir-step

Benedicamus I

Two of second form, being
rulers; Deo gratias by two
rulers from senior stalls

Before altar

Benedicamus II,

Two boys

33 33

after memorials

Matins

Invitatory and Ven-

Rulers

Mid-choir

lte
Hymn and Versicle

As at Vespers

Antiphons

One from senior stalls in de-
scending rank

Stalls

Versicle before the

Two boys

Choir-step

first Lesson of each

Nocturn

Lessons

In ascending rank from a clerk
of second form

Pulpitum

Responds i, 2

Two clerks of second form

Choir-step

„ 3> 6> 9

In ascending rank from three of
second form to three from
senior stalls

4> 5, 7, 8

Two from senior stalls in
ascending rank

Te Deum

Senior person present

Stall

Lauds

Antiphons

One from senior stalls in de-
scending rank

Stalls

Hymn and Versicle

As at Vespers

Antiphon to Bene-

Person of highest rank on duty

Stall

dictus

side

Benedicamus I and

II
Introit

As at Vespers

Mass

Two rulers

Mid-choir

Kyrie

33 33

Gloria

Officiant

Mid-altar

Epistle

A sub-deacon

Pulpitum

Gradual

Three of second form, two from
duty side

Alleluia

Three from senior stalls

Sequence

Two rulers

Mid-choir

Tract

Four from senior stalls

Choir-step

Gospel

A deacon

Pulpitum

Creed

Officiant

Mid-altar

Offertory

Two rulers

Mid-choir

Sanctus

33 33

Communion

33 33

Agnus Dei

33 33

Ite missa est or Bene-

Officiant

Mid-altar

dicamus

Deo gratias

Choir

1 In responsorial chants the beginners also sang the verse. The Epistle,
Gospel, Versicles, Ite missa est, Benedicamus and Deo gratias were sung
throughout by those indicated.

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

On some of the principal feasts certain chants were distin-
guished by unusual treatment; thus the respond at first Vespers
on Christmas Day, Judea et Jerusalem with the verse Constantes
estote, was sung by four from the senior stalls.1 Another special
event of Christmas was the singing of the first respond at Matins,
Hodie nobis caelorum rex de virgine nasci dignatus est. The Sarum
Ordinal directed that the verse of this respond, Gloria in excelsis,
should be sung by five boys standing in a high place above the
altar and holding lighted candles,2 while at Exeter this was
extended into a little play carried out in mime. There the first
eight words of the respond were sung by a boy with 'a good and
clear voice', who came from behind the altar holding a lighted
torch (torticium) in his left hand. At the words caelorum rex he
pointed with his right hand to heaven, at de virgine he turned to
the altar and held out his hand towards the image of the Virgin,
and at dignatus est he genuflected. While the choir sang the rest
of the respond, three boys came from the south door of the
choir and three from the north door and stood at the choir-
step. The solo boy joined them and all sang the verse, turning
towards the choir, and then walked slowly through the choir
and out by the main choir-door.3

At Matins of All Saints the general rule of ascending rank in
the singing of the responds was reversed — servatur ordo prepos-
terus, as the Customary expresses it. The first respond was begun
by a person of high rank and the others were begun in descend-
ing order of precedence until the eighth respond, Audivi vocem
. . . y. Media nocte. This was begun and its verse was sung by five
boys at the choir-step facing towards the altar, each holding a
lighted candle, and turning towards the choir when they came
to the words Ecce sponsus*

The Benedicamus at the end of first and second Vespers and
of Lauds on Christmas Day, and at the end of Vespers of the

1 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 28; Ordinate Exon, i, p. 61 (by four canons).

2 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 30. The Audit Roll of Eton College for 1479-80
(the chapel had just been completed) has: 'Et xviiid solutis Thos Hall pro
quinque hopis ponis summi altari pro candelis fusendis in mane Nativitatis
Domini ubi pueri cantant Gloria in excelsis deo.'

3 Ordinate Exon, i, p. 64.

4 Use of Sarum, i, pp. 120-1. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 270, has: 'Tunc conveniant
quinque pueri in superpelliciis, capitibus velatis amictis albis ad modum
virginum feminarum tenentes cereos ardentes in manibus.'

107

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

three following days, was also specially treated.1 On Christmas
Eve it was sung by four boys standing at the farthest end of the
choir (in extrema parte chori). The first Benedicamus of Lauds
on Christmas Day was replaced by the Benedicamus trope2
beginning Verbum patris hodie. The first two verses, which ended
with cum canoro jubilo benedicant Domino, were sung by two3 from
the senior stalls at the choir-step, instead of at the usual place
before the altar, and the other two verses, with the ending
redemptori debitas jubilando gratias, by two from the senior stalls of
the other side of the choir.4 After the memorial of the Virgin,5
the second Benedicamus6 was sung by two boys7 in mid-choir.
Verbum patris was also sung instead of the first Benedicamus at
second Vespers on Christmas Day by the four rulers or four
other singers at the choir-step, and again at Lauds and Vespers
on the following three days — on St. Stephen's day by the
deacons, on St. John's day by the priests, in this case before the
altar, and on Holy Innocents' day by the boys. After the first
Benedicamus at Vespers on Christmas Day the deacons formed
in procession to begin their services of St. Stephen,8 and after
their procession they sang the second Benedicamus 'solemnly'
at the altar-step in whatever kind of musical setting they might
choose.9 Similarly the priests sang 'any Benedicamus solemnly
at will' 10 after their procession on the eve of St. John, and the
boys likewise on the eve of Holy Innocents. u The last Benedica-
mus on Holy Innocents' day, after the procession to St. Thomas's
altar on the eve of his feast, which was the day after Holy
Innocents, was sung by three singers of the second form, since
the boys, as Grandisson's Ordinal observes, would very likely

1 Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 63-77.

2 The Exeter Ordinal calls it an antiphon, the Hereford Breviary (i,
p. 148) a prose.

3 By four in Exeter. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 67.

4 By the whole choir in Exeter.

5 Which was sung 'excelsa et clamorosa voce, ad consummacionem tocius
misterii Incarnacionis'.

6 Its melody (Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 54) was In perenni.

7 Four in Exeter. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 67.

8 In Exeter they were attended by nine boys. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 68.

9 'Prout eis placuerit.' Ibid., p. 69.

10 ' Benedicamus aliquod solempne ad placitum.' Ibid, p. 72.

11 'Aliquod Benedicamus solempniter prout eis placuerit, sed non Verbum
patris.'' Ibid., p. 74.

108

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

be in bed.1 The Benedicamus substitutes sung at Hereford at
Lauds on the Circumcision (the prose Mirabile misterium) and
on the Epiphany (the prose Puer natus in Bethlehem) seem to have
been peculiar to the use of Hereford.2

Polyphony and the Ritual

The Sarum Customary notes that on Christmas Day and the
four following days the Benedicamus was always sung dupliciter.
Although the usual meaning of duplex is 'sung by two persons',
there seems no doubt that in this case it means 'sung in two-
part music'. The other feasts on which polyphonic singing of
the Benedicamus was usual are given as the Circumcision, the
Annunciation when it fell after Easter, and the Finding of the
Holy Cross. But the Customary points out that the setting on
those days must always be based on the plainsong of the Bene-
dicamus, and at Eastertide must include the Alleluia.3

The most comprehensive directions for the use of polyphony
in a secular liturgy are contained in Bishop Grandisson's
Exeter Ordinal.4 Like all Grandisson's liturgical provisions
they are detailed and specific, but the surprising thing about
them in this case is their liberality, for they include several parts
of the ritual of which there are no known polyphonic settings
either in the fourteenth century or later. The ranks of festivals
and the parts of the ritual for which Grandisson permitted the
singing of polyphony may most conveniently be seen in the
table on page no.

This section of the Exeter statutes also provided that in proces-
sions plainsong and polyphony should be employed (cantent et
discantent) according to the rank of the festival and the nature
of the chant. In addition, if those in authority approved, poly-
phony could be performed by voices or the organ in place of
the Benedicamus at Vespers and Matins (i.e., Lauds), and after

1 'Propter absenciam forte puerorum tunc in dormitorio.' Ibid., p. 77.

2 The former consisted of three verses ending with Benedicamus domino to
which the choir responded Deo gratias. Hereford Breviary, i, pp. 183, 197.

3 'Et semper cum tali cantu Benedicamus domino: et in tempore paschali
cum Alleluya.' Use of Sarum, i, p. 255.

4 'De modo psallendi et modulandi discantandi aut organizandi.' Ordinale
Exon, i, pp. 19-20. Besides discantare and organizare, the term jubilare is used
here for polyphonic singing.

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THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

the Sanctus at Mass.1 The singing of a polyphonic substitute
for the Benedicamus was also specifically allowed in the body of
the Ordinal at Lauds and Vespers on Easter Day and at first
Vespers of Trinity Sunday.2 Curiously, the Ordinal allowed the
polyphonic singing of a respond but not of its verse and Gloria,
though it is clear from surviving examples that it was the normal
practice to set the opening, verse and Gloria in polyphony. In
the later Middle Ages it was usual to set the sequence in the
Lady-Mass, on which Grandisson wrote a special section in the
Ordinal, but settings of the sequence for other occasions are
very rare. At the Lady-Mass in the Exeter Lady-chapel the
Kyrie could be sung either in polyphony or to a chant, with or
without trope, proper to the Lady-Mass, and the Gloria could
be sung if desired in plainsong and polyphony alternatim. 3

The Customary contained in the Black Book of Lincoln
Cathedral explained the procedure to be adopted if the Bene-
dicamus were replaced by a polyphonic piece at the end of
first Vespers and Lauds on greater doubles, when it was sung by
some of the vicars, and on lesser doubles, when it was sung
by boys. At Vespers the duty side of the choir, and at Lauds
the rulers, responded with Deo dicamus gratias sung to the
melody of the Benedicamus which had been replaced, which
was in perenni at Vespers and flos filius at Lauds.4 The Lincoln
Customary makes no mention of polyphony in the Mass, but

1 'Ex licencia, si placet senioribus, loco Benedicamus ad Vesperas et ad
Matutinas et ad Missam post Sanctus, poterunt organizare cum vocibus vel
organis.'

2 'Vel aliquis cantus organicus in pulpito, loco Benedicamus, cantetur'; 'Vel
in pulpito cantetur aliquod canticum, si placet, organicum, loco Benedicamus.
Et respondeatur a choro Deo gracias. Alleluya,\ ''Benedicamus a tribus more
solito vel organicum loco Benedicamus? Ibid., pp. 140, 142, 171.

3 'Dicantur Kyrie organici vel proprii si habeantur de sancta Maria cum
versibus vel sine ad placitum . . . Potest semper a clericis responderi aliquod
organicum vel quod magis placet.' Ibid, ii, p. 465.

4 'Unde oracione finita eant aliqui bene cantantes cum premunicione
magistri scolarum cantus et organizent ad lectrinam predictam. . . .
Cantu finito debent illi qua parte chorus est respondere cantando et stando
Deo dicamus, et cantatur eodem modo sicut In perhenni seculorum tempore in
fine vi responsorii sancte trinitatis et illo modo cantantur omnes Benedicamus
in duplicibus et semiduplicibus in primis vesperis excepto tempore paschali'.
And: 'Unde organizent vicarii sive pueri de choro disposicione succentoris
et respondent regentes chorum cantando sicut c&nitur flos jilius in fine versus
qui vocatur virga [recte virgo] dei.' Lincoln Statutes, i, pp. 369, 373.

Ill

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

another part of the Black Book records an order of the Dean and
Canons in 1322 that certain payments should be made out of the
offerings of the worshippers at the tomb of Robert Grosseteste
(Bishop of Lincoln, 1235-53) on nis annual commemoration on
the eighth of October to those who took part in the Mass on
that day, including three pence to each singer of the organum.
The same order provided payments to the organ blower (trahens
organa) of six shillings and eight pence from the offerings at the
shrine of St. Hugh and of the same sum from the offerings at
Grosseteste's commemoration.1

An inventory of the books of Exeter Cathedral in 1327 men-
tions a liber pro gradu chori et pulpitis which may have been a
book of polyphonic music, among later additions of books and
ornaments, most of which were given by Bishop Grandisson. 2
The practice of polyphonic singing at York is recorded in a
somewhat negative way by the refusal of the vicars in 1375 to
sing polyphonic music in the pulpitum on festivals unless the
canons recompensed them with wine, which they justified by
an appeal to the custom of the church.3 Surviving inventories
show that in 1384 St. George's, Windsor, possessed a roll of poly-
phonic music bequeathed by John Aleyn,4 who became a canon
in 1362 and died in 1373,5 and who may have been the com-
poser of a notable motet which has been preserved in a con-
tinental manuscript,6 and that Lichfield Cathedral had a book
of polyphonic cantilenae in 1345.7 The musical life of both places
owed something to the work of Adam Pentrich who, as a vicar
of St. George's, went to Salisbury in 1362-3 to copy music,8
and who taught the choristers of St. George's for the first six

1 A payment was also provided 'capellano custodi inferiori excitanti
populum'. Ibid., p. 337.

2 Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 301.

3 'Vicarii in diebus solempnibus nolunt organum cantare in pulpito
nisi canonici dicte Ecclesie eis conferant vinum, quod vendicant ex
consuetudine.' York Fabric Rolls, p. 243.

4 'Item unus rotulus de cantu music' ex legato Johannis Aleyn'; and in
1409-10 the same 'ex legacione domini Johannis Aleyn'. Bond, Inventories
of St. George's, pp. 34, 103.

5 Ollard, Fasti Wyndesorienses, pp. 65, 136.

6 See below, pp. 224 sqq.

7 'i liber organicus de cantilenis'. 'The Sacrist's Roll of 1345' in Catalogue
of Muniments of the Lichfield Vicars, p. 204.

8 Fellowes, Vicars and Minor Canons of Windsor, p. 1 7.

112

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

months of 1366.1 He was Succentor of Lichfield from c. 1370
and died in that office in 1378.2 The practice of polyphony at
St. Paul's is attested by an inventory of the books of the choir
made in 12953 and by the fact that Richard Cotell, one of the
minor canons at the end of the fourteenth century, wrote a brief
summary of the new method of teaching elementary polyphony.4
The most active centres of the cultivation of polyphony until
the mid-fourteenth century were undoubtedly the greater Bene-
dictine abbeys. There are actual musical remains from Reading,
Worcester and Bury St. Edmund's, while the Customaries of
Westminster Abbey and St. Augustine's, Canterbury, both men-
tion, in identical terms, that the sequence (prosa), Benedictus
and Magnificat were sung in two-part polyphony (sollemniter in
duplum) on principal feasts.5 The Westminster Customary,
which was written during the abbacy of Richard de Ware
(1259-83), gives detailed instructions to the precentor about
the performance of the hymn Aeterna Christi munera, which was
sung in three parts (sollemniter in triplum) by both sides of the
choir together, and not apparently alternatim, on the two feasts
of St. Peter,6 the patron saint of the Abbey, and on the feast of
Relics. It also observes that the verse of the respond at Vespers
on Christmas Eve, that is, the verse Constantes estote of the re-
spond Judea et Jerusalem, was sung in three-part polyphony
(in triplis sollemniter) J References to polyphony in the Norwich
Customary (c. 1260) occur in connection with the verse Vidit
beatus Stephanas of the respond Eccejam coram8 for the procession
to St. Stephen's altar after Vespers on Christmas Day, and the
verse Stephanas Dei gratia of the respond Impetum fecerunt at
Vespers on St. Stephen's day. The former was sung in three

1 Fellowes, Windsor Organists, p. 1 .

2 According to a document of 136 1 he was sub-chanter at Lichfield then;
see Catalogue of Muniments of the Lichfield Vicars, p. 168. John Codyngham was
succentor in the following year, however. Ibid., p. 178.

3 See below, p. 132.

4 See below, pp. 149 sqq.

5 Customary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, i, p. 94;
ii, p. 32.

6 Cathedra S. Petri (February 22) and Ad vincula S. Petri (August 1).

7 Op. cit., ii, pp. 33-4.

8 This is not in the Worcester Antiphonal nor the Ordinal of St. Mary's,
York, nor in the secular uses.

113

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

parts by the whole choir (triplici cantu ab omnibus) and the latter
by several singers, also in three parts {triplici cantu). The Alleluia
Angelus Domini on the Sunday after Easter might also be sung
triplici cantu at the discretion of the cantor. 1

The practice of a large Benedictine community in the four-
teenth century, as far as it concerns the Temporale, may be
gathered from the Ordinal and Customary of St. Mary's, York,
written c. 1400. Polyphony was expressly permitted for the be-
ginning and verse oijudea et Jerusalem,7- for the hymn Nunc sancte
nobis Spiritus at Terce on principal feasts,3 and for the verse In
principio of the respond Verbum caro factum est, which was sung
before the rood in the procession before the third Mass on Christ-
mas Day.4 The two-part setting of Nunc sancte is given in the
Ordinal.5 It uses the same music four times, with a short exten-
sion of the upper part at the end, and the parts exchange in
rondellus fashion with each line.6 Some parts of the Ordinary
of the Mass, and the Gradual, the verse of the Alleluia, the
Sequence, the Offertory and the Communion might also be sung
in polyphony on high festivals.7 Durham Cathedral paid three

1 Customary of Norwich, pp. 34-5, 99.

2 This beginning and verse and the Benedicamus were sung at the choir-
step if in plainsong, at the lectern in mid-choir in front of the rulers' form if
in polyphony {cantu organi). Ordinate of St. Mary's, York, p. 179.

3 'Canatur secundum duplicem melodiam et incipitur a duobus in medio
chori.' Ibid., p. 189.

4 'Coram cruce Iy\ Verbum caro. Quinque fratres de medio conventus
cantant versum aut certe organiste, si sint, triplici melodia.' Ordinate of St.
Mary's, York, p. 190.

5 Cambridge, St. John's College, MS. D.27, fo. 141. The music is not
printed in the Henry Bradshaw Society's edition.

6 See also a setting in this style in a Hymnal of the early fourteenth century
written for Coldingham Priory, Berwick, a dependency of Durham (British
Museum, MS. Harley 4664; facsimile of the page in Early English Harmony,
pi. 39). For transcriptions and discussion of these and similar examples,
see Handschin in ^eitschrift fiir Musikwissenschaft, xvi, p. 119, and Acta
Musicologica, vii, pp. 67-71 ; also Monumenta Monodica Medii Aevi, i, pp. 532-8.

7 'Ad Kyrieleyson, Gloria in excelsis, Credo, OfFertorium et Communionem,
preterquam ad Adoramus Te, Suscipe deprecationem nostram [these when the
Gloria was sung in alternating plainsong and polyphony], et cetera hujus-
modi, quando ab organistis cantantur. Ad Gradale etiam et versus de
Alleluia et Sequentiam dum sic cantantur chorus sedet'. And under Christ-
mas Day: 'Talibus diebus quando Abbas celebrat Missam, solet mittere
Capellanum suum custodibus ordinis ad ostium refectorii pro ministrantibus

114

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

shillings and four pence for a liber organi in 1387-8, and in the
same year there were payments 'to the singers at Christmas'
and to 'Nicholas the singer'.1 At a visitation of Durham made
c. 1390 it was observed that it had been the custom to have
clerks who sang polyphony [cantantes organum) to help the monks
by singing the treble part (adjuvantes monachos in cantu qui dicitur
trebill), but there were now none, and the singing of the
brethren in choir was much hampered.2

The musical theorist and astronomer Walter Odington came
to Oxford from the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary's, Eve-
sham. Two treatises on astronomy under the name Walter
Evesham now in the Bodleian Library are dated 1 3 1 6, and his
important treatise De Speculatione Musicae3 was probably
written about this time. This Walter Odington, monk of
Evesham, has been incorrectly identified with Walter de
Evesham, fellow of Merton.4 The Franciscans also pursued
musical studies at Oxford, for the treatise Quatuor Principalia
Musicae5 was written in 1351 by a friar while Simon Tunsted,
'skilled in music and also in the seven liberal arts', was Regent
of the Franciscans there. The section on polyphony in the
Quatuor Principalia discusses the simpler kinds of polyphonic
technique, while Odington's treatise deals more fully with the
chief polyphonic forms of his time.

Polyphony in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

The only collection of pre-Norman polyphony which survives
in England is contained in one of the two Tropers from Win-
chester which were written in the first half of the eleventh
century.6 It comprises more than one hundred and fifty two-
part settings of Invitatories, antiphons and responds for the

sibi in Missa, pro Precentore et Organistis si qui sint, ut prandeant secum
in aula, vel in camera sua,' Ordinate of St. Marys, York, pp. 134, 191.

1 Durham Account Rolls, i, p. 1 34.

2 Pantin, Chapters of the English Black Monks, ii, p. 84.

3 Printed in Coussemaker, Scriptores, i, pp. 182 sqq.

4 In 1330; he was still fellow in 1346.

5 Printed in Coussemaker, Scriptores, i, pp. 182 sqq.

8 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 473; the companion book in
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 775, contains only monophonic music.

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

offices, of troped Introits, of Kyries and Glorias both with and
without tropes, and of Alleluias, Graduals, Sequences and
Tracts.1 Unfortunately, the music cannot be reliably transcribed
since it is written in neumes without lines. Between this Win-
chester Troper and the Old Hall manuscript of the early
fifteenth century no collection of English part-music has sur-
vived in anything like complete form. Here we except the St.
Andrew's manuscript, a collection of French music, with local
additions, made in the thirteenth century. What remains con-
sists of fly-leaves and paste-downs, often cut and otherwise
mutilated, short pieces written into plainsong service-books,
examples in the writings of theorists, and a few pieces preserved
in non-musical manuscripts. The oldest of these fragments,
which is decipherable because it was written in letter notation,
is a two-part setting of the verse Ut tuo propitiatus of the respond
Sancte Dei pretiose for the feast of St. Stephen. 2 It was written
c. 1 1 oo, probably at Canterbury for the monastery of St.
Augustine, on a page at the end of a school book, together with
some lines in honour of St. Augustine, a Benedicamus with
neumes, a rhymed antiphon, and a prose for the Dedication of
a Church.3 A two-part piece of something less than a century
later, the verse Dicant nunc of the antiphon Christus resurgens,* is
found in a less unexpected place, namely in its liturgical posi-
tion in a Gradual,5 which otherwise contains only plain-
song, and which came from a cathedral in Ireland.6 In these
pieces the parts have an approximately equal range and

1 Texts and some facsimiles in Frere, Winchester Troper; other facsimiles in
Early English Harmony, pis. 2-6. See also Ludwig, Repertorium, pp. 268-9;
Handschin, 'The Two Winchester Tropers'; Wellesz, Eastern Elements,
pp. 192-201.

2 In the later secular rites this respond was sung by the deacons in their
procession to St. Stephen's altar; it is not in the Worcester Antiphonal, nor
is it mentioned in the English Benedictine Ordinals or customaries.

3 Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 572, fo. 49V; facsimile in Early English
Harmony, pi. 1, and Early Bodleian Music, ii, pi. xvi; transcriptions in Historical
Anthology, i, p. 22; New Oxford History of Music, ii, pp. 308-9.

4 Which had an important place in the monastic as well as the secular
rites of Eastertide. See Ordinale of St. Mary's, York, ii, p. 300; Customary of
Norwich, p. 96.

8 Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. c. 892, fo. 67V; facsimile in Early Bodleian
Music, iii, pi. lxiv.

6 Van Dijk, Liturgical Manuscripts, p. 1 9.

Il6

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

cross quite frequently, the added voice going higher in both
cases:1

Ex.6.

Platnsong

Dl-cant nunc.

Ju.- de

quo

mo- do mi - Li - tes.

During the twelfth century a new and large repertory of
polyphonic music for the liturgy was created in France, largely
at two centres, the Benedictine monastery of St. Martial at
Limoges and the secular cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
The four manuscripts from St. Martial which have survived2
are mainly concerned with music for the great winter feasts of
St. Nicholas (December 6), Christmas, Holy Innocents, the
Circumcision (January i) and the Epiphany. Some of the pieces
appear to be intended for the plays which were inserted into the
services on those days, and which, like the Visitation and
Peregrini plays at Easter, were dramatic tropes which expanded
and illustrated a particular point in the story unfolded by an
office or, less frequently, by a Mass. Parts of the ritual itself,
including the Christmas Gradual Viderunt omnes fines terraez and
the Benedicamus, were also troped and set in polyphony.

The earliest of the polyphonic Benedicamus tropes in these
manuscripts is a poem of five verses beginning Jubilemus exsul-
temus and ending Benedicamus Domino ,4 and is thus, like Verbum

1 'Bar-lines' as in manuscript; plainsong from Antiphonale Sarisburiense,
pi. 242. This piece also appears, with variants, in Chartres, Bibl. de la Ville,
MS. 109, of c. 1 100.

2 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MSS. lat. 1139, 3719 and 3549; British
Museum, MS. Add. 36881. See Adler, Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, i, pp.
177-80; Reese, Music in the Middle Ages, pp. 266-7.

3 Facsimile in Apel, Notation of Polyphonic Music, p. 211; transcriptions in
Adler, op. cit., pp. 179-80, and Historical Anthology, i, p. 23.

4 Transcription in Handschin, 'Die mittelalterliche Auffuhrungen', pp.
13-14. The first verse of a similar trope from the St. Martial music, Prima
mundi seducta sobole, is transcribed in New Oxford History of Music, ii, p. 297.

117

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

patris hodie, practically a substitute for the Benedicamus rather
than a trope of it. Another setting of the Benedicamus, which is
not troped and is based on the jlosfilius melody, has a very florid
upper part with as many as twenty or so notes to one note of
the tenor.1 As in all polyphony until the late twelfth century,
both parts are free in rhythm, and must therefore have been
mutually adjusted in performance. The singing of Viderunt ap-
parently called not only for the accommodation of a single note
to a group of notes, but of group to group in such combinations
as two or four notes against three. Both kinds of movement were
organum as defined by the theory of the period, 2 and the method
of performance must have been well understood at the time.
On the other hand, when the words are in regular metre the
music of the Viderunt trope has basically note-to-note movement,
a style which was termed discantus. The piece ends with a neuma
on the penultimate syllable.

Between the St. Martial music and the Notre Dame corpus
comes the Codex Calixtinus, a collection of plainsong and poly-
phony for the services on the feasts and octaves of St. James
at his shrine at Santiago de Compostela,3 then as later the
object of innumerable pilgrimages. The manuscript is called
after Pope Calixtus II (i 119-24), who before his elevation was
Guy of Burgundy, Archbishop of Vienne. His name appears as
the compiler of the ritual of the services, and that of Bishop
Fulbert of Chartres (d. 1028) as the writer of tropes for the
Mass. There are clear affiliations with the French style of St.
Martial in the polyphonic music, and the ascriptions show that
some of the composers were French. It is here that we first meet
the word conductus (actually conductum in the manuscript) applied
to polyphonic music. The second of the four pieces for which
the name is used, In hac die laudes cum gaudio, is set in two parts,
and three of these pieces end with the words Lector lege et de
rege qui regit omne die Jube domne, sung in plainsong. These pieces
are clearly intended to precede the reading of a lesson or Gospel

1 The beginning is printed by Adler (i, p. 179) and Reese (p. 266).

2 Handschin, 'Zur Geschichte der Lehre von Organum', p. 321.

3 Compostela, Cathedral Library, Codex Calixtinus, written (?) c. 1140.
Transcriptions in Liber Sancti Jacobi, a complete edition of the manuscript,
and Wagner, Die Gesdnge der Jakobusliturgie, an edition with commentary of
the liturgical part.

Il8

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

and to be sung before the reader asks the blessing of the officiant
with the usual words Jube domne benedicere and receives it in the
words Domine sit in corde tuo, etc. They probably accompanied
the procession of the reader and his ministers to the lectern.
Under the words of the last verse of the first piece is written
Quapropter regi regum benedicamus domino, presumably as an
alternative to the 'Lector lege' ending, so that it could also serve
as a troped Benedicamus.

The polyphonic pieces in the Codex Calixtinus comprise a
group of eight Benedicamus tropes and substitutes, five responds
for Matins, a prose for one of the responds, two troped Kyries, *
a Gradual, an Alleluia and three untroped settings of the
Benedicamus. Five of the first group end, like the Jubilemus
exsultemus in the St. Martial collection, with some form of the
words benedicamus (or benedicat) domino or of its response Deo
gratias. Congaudeant catholici, 2 for example, has benedicamus domino
die ista at the end of the sixth verse, and solvamus laudes gratias die
ista at the end of the seventh (and last). The others do not
contain these words, but take advantage of the licence by which
a piece suitable to the day could be sung instead of the Bene-
dicamus. The prose Portum in ultimo da nobis judicio, which seems
to be the earliest surviving polyphonic setting of this ritual form,
is an expansion of the last word (due nos ad salutis) portum of the
twelfth respond, 0 adjutor omnium saeculorum, at Matins of St.
James. Its three verses were set, with one syllable to each note,
to each of the three sections into which the neuma on the word
portum was divided, and are thus a trope of the same type as
Aeterna virgo memoriae, discussed in the previous chapter. As
usual, the plainsong is in the lower part. The untroped Bene-
dicamus settings were written with several notes, or rather
neumes,3 to one note or neume of the plainsong, that is, in
organum. The upper part of the first, which is by Magister
Gauterius de Castello Rainardo (of Chateaurenard) and is based

1 Cunctipotens genitor is transcribed in Historical Anthology, i, p. 23; the
opening of Rex immense is printed in New Oxford History of Music, ii, p. 300.

2 A middle part was added later to Congaudeant catholici; see the trans-
criptions in ibid., p. 305.

3 The term neume (i.e., sign; Latin, figura) , meaning a symbol in musical
notation for a note or group of notes, is to be distinguished from neuma,
a passage of melody on one syllable, for which the term melisma is commonly
used in modern writings.

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

on the flos filius melody, shows a very sensitive feeling for
melodic design and contour.1 Of the other two, both by Magister
Droardus Trecensis (of Treves), one is on the clementiam melody
and the other on one of the simplest of the plainsongs of the
Benedicamus.

In these continental collections fewer parts of the actual ritual
were set in polyphony than in the Winchester Troper. If the
Codex Calixtinus may be taken as representative of the general
practice of French churches for the feasts of their patronal saints,
that practice was to set chiefly the responsorial chants of the
office and the Mass, treating only the beginning and the verse,
the Benedicamus both with and without trope, and the con-
ductus. The composition of polyphonic responds for two voices
for the ritual of all the great feasts of the year was the achieve-
ment of Magister Leoninus of Notre Dame, who worked there
from c. 1 1 60 to c. 1180. The responds which are generally
attributed to him were laid out on a larger scale than hitherto,
and he treated some of the neumae in a slightly elaborated
descant style in measured rhythm (perhaps for the first time) ,
and other parts of the chant in organum fashion.2 The Easter
Gradual Haec dies, for example, was composed on the following
scheme; the words sung in organum style are underlined, those
in descant style are in capitals, and those not included in the
polyphonic setting, because sung by the choir in plainsong, are
in brackets:3

Haec dies (quam fecit Dominus: exsultemus et laetemur in ea).
y. Confitemini DOMINO quoniam bonus: quoniam IN
SAEGULUM (misericordia ejus).

The sections in the new kind of descant, which was ordered in
continuously recurring rhythmic patterns or 'modes',4 occur
more frequently in the responds of the Mass than in those of the
office. Among the responds of the office which contain descant

1 It is transcribed in Historical Anthology, i, p. 24.

2 On the rhythmic interpretation of these sections, see Apel, 'From St.
Martial to Notre Dame', and Waite, Rhythm of Twelfth-Century Polyphony.
The latter contains transcriptions in modal rhythm of the two-part responds
in the St. Andrew's manuscript (see below, p. 130).

3 Music in Historical Anthology, i, p. 27.

4 See Reese, Music in the Middle Ages, pp. 207-10.

I20

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

sections are the two responds for Christmas Judea et Jerusalem
and Descendit de caelis.1 Of the settings of the Benedicamus which
were composed by Leonin or in his style, some are entirely in
organum and others, in which the word Domino is in descant,
have the same division of method as the responds.2

According to an English student, probably from Bury St.
Edmund's, who was at Paris in the thirteenth century,3 Leonin's
collection of polyphony, the Magnus Liber Organi de Gradali et
Antiphonario pro servitio divino multiplicando, was used at Notre
Dame until the time of Magister Perotinus, who was there from
c. 1 1 80 to c. 1220. Perotin, according to Anonymous IV,
'abbreviated' the Magnus Liber and 'composed many better
clausulae or puncta, since he was optimus discantor and better than
Leonin', whom he calls optimus organista. He also tells us that
Perotin wrote many very fine Tripla, or pieces for three parts,
and excellent Quadrupla such as Viderunt and Sederunt, com-
posed ''cum abundantia colorum harmonicae artis'.*

It is not unlikely that the occasion of the composition of these
four-part pieces of Perotin was a new set of statutes for the
services of the days after Christmas which were laid down by
Odo de Sully, Bishop of Paris, in 1 198. The Bishop had decided
that something must be done to restrain the excesses (enormitates
et opera flagitiosa) indulged in by the sub-deacons in the church
on the day, traditionally the feast of the Circumcision, known
as the 'Feast of Fools', on which they took charge of the services.
He ordered that the dominusfesti should begin his rule with the
singing of a prose before Vespers and that the services should be
carried out with the normal ceremonial of a feast. He allowed
that the respond and the Benedicamus at Vespers, the third and
sixth responds at Matins, and the Gradual ( Viderunt, as at High
Mass on Christmas Day) and Alleluia at Mass could be sung
in triplo vel quadruplo vel organo. In the following year an order
was made along the same lines for St. Stephen's day, the day
of the deacons, and payments were provided on both days for

1 See Ludwig, Repertorium, pp. 17-21, 65-7.

2 Ibid., pp. 40, 67. For an example, see Historical Anthology, i, p. 24.

3 He is known as Anonymous IV, since his treatise beginning 'Cognita
modulatione melorum' was printed fourth among the anonymous treatises
in Coussemaker, Scriptores, i, pp. 327 sqq.

4 Ibid., p. 342.

121

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

the clerks and boys who attended, and for the clerks who sang
the Gradual [Sederunt principes on St. Stephen's day) and Alleluia
at Mass. Similar provision was later made for St. John's day,
when the priests took charge of the services. x

Benedicamus and Conductus; Clausula and Motet

Perotin's Viderunt and Sederunt are the only surviving four-
part responds of his period,2 and may in fact have been the
only ones composed until the mid-fifteenth century. Besides
these compositions, the English Anonymous mentions by name
two three-part Alleluias (Nativitas and Posui adjutorium3) and
three conductus, for one (Beata viscera), two (Dum sigillum*)
and three voices (Salvatoris hodie5), all by Perotin. In each of a
group of five three-part Benedicamus settings which can prob-
ably be attributed to Perotin6 the word Benedicamus is set in a
long section of organum and Domino in descant. Both styles, as in
all his music, were definitely in measured rhythm, to be sung in
conformity with the practice of the rhythmic modes. It has
been generally assumed, from the reference of Anonymous IV
to Perotin's 'abbreviation' of the Magnus Liber, that his new
treatments of the neumae (i.e., his clausulae or puncta)7 were
sung in place of the corresponding sections of Leonin's music

1 Handschin, 'Zur Geschichte der Notre Dame'.

2 For published transcriptions, see Reese, Music in the Middle Ages, p. 302.
Perotin's other four-part work, Mors, is a clausula on a neuma from the
Easter Alleluia Christus resurgens; transcription in Die Mittelalterliche Mehr-
stimmigkeit, p. 24.

3 Transcriptions from the Montpellier MS. in Polyphonies du XJIIe siicle,
ii, pp. 16, 31.

4 Transcription in El Codex musical de Las Huelgas, iii, p. 337.

5 Facsimile of one page and transcription of the whole in Wooldridge,
Oxford History of Music, 1st. ed., i, pp. 292 sqq.

6 Ludwig, Repertorium, p. 43.

7 A clausula is a short phrase; a punctum is a single note, and hence a
passage of organum written on a single note. Punctum was also used of each
section in the estampie, a medieval dance similar in form to the liturgical
sequence. Anonymous IV observes that instrumentalists used punctum for
a phrase: '. . . et hoc plane patet in Alleluia, Posui adiutorium, in loco post
primam longam pausationem. Et quidam dicerent post primam clausulam
notarum, quod alii nominant proprie loquendo, secundum operatores
instrumentorum, punctum.' Coussemaker, Scriptores, 1, p. 347.

122

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

and that Leonin's organum sections were eventually dropped.
There are, for example, among the two cycles of clausulae,
both arranged in the order of seasons as used in the Ordinal,
which were written by Perotin or in his style, a Haec dies, a
Domino, a Quoniam and three In saeculum settings for the gradual
Haec dies. If these clausulae were to be inserted in Leonin's
setting of the gradual it would be performed thus, the words
over a broken line being sung in plainsong, or in Leonin's
organum, if it were still used:

HAEC DIES (quam fecit, etc.) f. Confitemini DOMINO
QUONIAM bonus: quoniam IN SAECULUM (misericordia
ejus).

This 'replacement' theory of the use of the clausulae1 is far
from convincing, for if the words not set as clausulae reverted to
plainsong the organum parts of the responds, which were writ-
ten in the same manuscripts as the clausulae, would have been
put out of use. This is unlikely, since compilers of manuscripts
for use in choir were not given to including items which had
only an antiquarian interest. Alternatively, if the organum sec-
tions were retained and the clausulae substituted for the descant
sections musical difficulties would arise. From the musical point
of view the responds form a continuous texture, in spite of the
juxtaposition of organum and descant styles, and almost every
attempt at replacement raises some problem of detail in actual
fitting. The clausulae, in fact, are not really capable of being
inserted in this way. Finally, there is no definite evidence, apart
from the pieces of Perotin cited by name by the English Anony-
mous, about the composers of any of the 'Notre Dame' pieces.
Perotin's three-part responds do not differ essentially in form
from the two-part responds in the manuscripts, though in
rhythmic and melodic style the upper parts of his three-part
organum are necessarily closer to descant than is organum in
two parts. Whatever share in the composition of this music

1 Ludwig, whowas the first to outline this theory, called them Ersatzstucken;
see his 'Uber die Entstehung der Motette', p. 516. In an article 'Zur Melodie-
bildung Leonins und Perotins', H. Schmidt suggested that Perotin com-
posed the descant sections of the two-part responds as we have them to
replace parts of hypothetical settings in continuous organum by Leonin.
See also Handschin, 'Zur Leonin-Perotin Frage'.

123

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

may have been taken by these or other composers, it must be
assumed that it constitutes a coherent body of ritual polyphony,
written in the forms of respond, clausula, Benedicamus and con-
ductus, each with its own function in the adornment of the
services.

The adoption of a neuma from a respond of a feast-day as the
melody of the Benedicamus on that day, whereby the melody
of the neuma achieved an independent place in the ritual, has
already been noticed. In addition, troped settings of the Bene-
dicamus not based on plainsong, as well as substitutes which
omitted the ritual words entirely, had won admission to the
ritual of certain feasts before the period of the Notre Dame
music. Its corpus includes a relatively small number of un-
troped Benedicamus settings on the plainsong, a few descant-
style pieces which include the ritual words, x and a large number
of conductus, none of which contain the Jube domne formula.
It seems clear that the chief liturgical function of a conductus
was now to act as a substitute for the Benedicamus, and that the
term was applied to these substitutes because their metrical
form and musical style, which was descant, though not their
ceremonial function, were the same as those of the earlier Jube
domne conductus. As an element in the ritual the conductus
should almost certainly be grouped with the Benedicamus and
the Benedicamus tropes and be regarded as a Benedicamus
substitute.2

There is a striking parallel between the use of the neumae
of the office responds for the melodies of the Benedicamus and
the use of neumae from the responds of the Mass as the plain-
song basis of the clausulae. If the 'replacement' theory of the
function of the clausulae be rejected, it must follow that they

1 E.g., Deus creator omnium, Naturas Deus regulis, Ista dies celebrari (also in
the fly-leaves of the printed book Wood 591 in the Bodleian Library),
Serena virginum (actually a conductus derived from a motet by omitting the
tenor, the motet in turn having been derived from a set of clausulae; see
New Oxford History of Music, ii, pp. 365-7). Leniter ex merito a Columbae
simplicitas and Relegata vetustate end with 'Benedicamus Domino'; see also
Bukofzer, 'Interrelations between Conductus and Clausula'.

2 The subject matter of the conductus covers a very wide range; see
Schrade, 'Political Compositions in French Music'. What is suggested here
is the probable ritual position of those conductus which are related to the
seasons and feasts of the church.

124

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THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

were from their origin self-sufficient compositions, either descant
sections detached from existing responds (a comparatively small
number, perhaps representing the earliest procedure) 1 or new
pieces composed on the same and other neumae. As extra-
ritual items, their performance during the Mass would have
been permitted by a licence analogous to that which allowed
Benedicamus substitutes at the end of the office. The most
likely place in the ceremonial of the Mass to be open to such a
licence was the period during the officiant's ritual of the Canon.
Since the Sanctus and Benedictus, which preceded the Canon,
were sung in plainsong, the time was available and could be
filled in with music appropriate to the day.2

Clausulae were written down as one piece or set of pieces
on each neuma, and hence their performance could easily have
been adjusted to the length of time the ritual allowed.3 The
syllable or word(s) of the neuma were written at the beginning
of each clausula under its tenor, which consisted of one, or
occasionally two, statements of the neuma disposed in a regu-
larly recurring rhythm. The upper part or parts moved in a
quicker rhythm ordered, like the tenor, according to one of the
rhythmic modes. Both the dance-like rhythm of the clausulae,
which was their most noticeable characteristic, and the fact
that the term puncta was applied to them by the English Anony-
mous suggest a relationship to the instrumental estampies of the
period. A suite of clausulae performed in succession were, in
fact, virtually a set of puncta rendered liturgically relevant by
being based on one or more of the plainsong neumae of the day.
They could be played on instruments, most likely with the

1 The second Potentem clausula on fo. 6 1 v of the St. Andrew's manuscript,
for example, was taken out of the Alleluia verse Posui adjutorium super potentem
on fo. 47.

2 'Pour la messe celebree avec chant, on a renonce completement au
silence du canon et libre carriere a ete donnee, non pas sans doute a la
voix du pretre, mais au chant du choeur': Jungmann, Missarum Sollemnia,
p. 47. The later separation of the Sanctus from the Benedictus came about,
according to Jungmann, because the greater length of the polyphonic
Sanctus caused it to last until the Consecration, the Benedictus being sung
during the rest of the Canon.

3 There are over five hundred extant, all in two parts except about twelve,
which are in three. The most comprehensive anthology of sacred music of
the period (Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Pluteus 29, Codex 1) con-
tains four hundred and sixty-two.

M.M.B. — K 125

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

tenor part played on an organ, or vocalized to the syllable of the
neuma, or performed by a combination of voices and instru-
ments. The choice would no doubt depend on the resources and
customs of the particular church.

This theory of the 'independent' origin and use of the clausu-
lae and of the place of their performance in the ritual makes
it unnecessary to assume that at some later time the clausula
and its successor the motet ceased to be inserted in the responds
and entered on a separate existence. Having established its
musical method and style and its position in the liturgy, the
clausula could pass quite naturally to the next stage in its
history, in which it became a motet by the addition of words
to its upper part or parts. This development presented no new
problem to the inheritors of the technique of writing sequences,
proses and tropes to pre-existing neumae. The effect was to
give a clausula closer relevance to the feast by enlarging on
some aspect of its subject in poetic form. The Notre Dame
corpus includes examples of the motet in this first period of its
history, when it was a two-part clausula rewritten with words
added to the upper part (duplum) , or a three-part clausula with
words added to the duplum or different words to both duplum
and triplum. The simultaneous singing of two sets of words1
became a characteristic of the motet of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries, and this, together with the fact that it was
based on a plainsong neuma which was rhythmically contrasted
with the upper parts, distinguished it from the conductus, which
always held to the descant style. In the course of the thirteenth
century the use of both genres was extended to extra-liturgical
and to secular spheres.

The manuscripts of the second half of the thirteenth century
on the continent contain many new motets, but no new clausu-
lae, unless one includes in that category an interesting group of
apparently instrumental 'motets',2 one of which bears the title
lIn saeculum veillatoris'.3 On the assumption that the sacred
motet inherited directly the place in the ritual which has been

1 The idea had been anticipated in a Benedicamus in the St. Martial
music in which the upper part was given its own words. See Reese, Music
in the Middle Ages, p. 266.

2 Cent Motets du XIIP Stick, Nos. CIII-CVIII.

3 I.e., 'of the viol-player'.

126

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

proposed for the clausula, the place of the various forms of
polyphony sung on festivals in the thirteenth century could be
tabulated thus:

SERVICE

FORM OF POLYPHONY

PLACE IN RITUAL

Vespers

Respond

After Lesson

Benedicamus, or Benedicamus

At end of service

trope, or Benedicamus substi-

tute, i.e., Conductus

Matins

Third or Ninth respond

Lauds

Benedicamus, etc., as at Vespers

As at Vespers

Mass

Gradual

Between Epistle and Gospel

Alleluia

?> 3? 33

Clausulae and/or Motets

After Sanctus

Although this scheme may be valid as a general framework,
it is almost certainly too rigid to comprise the diversities of
actual practice. For example, a certain number of clausulae
and motets were composed on neumae from the responds of
the office. The clausulae on office responds form a comparatively
small proportion of the clausula repertory, amounting to about
sixty of the four hundred and sixty-two in the Florence manu-
script. x The neumae of these 'office' clausulae could have been
derived either from the neumae of responds of the office, or
from those Benedicamus melodies which had earlier been
derived from the same neumae.2 The clausulae, and later the
motets, whose tenors were taken from office responds were
probably sung as Benedicamus substitutes on feasts to which
they were appropriate. It is remarkable that no clausulae were
derived from the office responds of the three days after Christ-
mas, of the Circumcision or of the week after Easter, perhaps

1 Ludwig, Repertorium, pp. 79, 83, 84, 90, 92. In the two cycles attributed
to Perotin or his time only one office respond appears as a source of a neuma.
This is the Christmas respond Descendit de caelis, and it may be noted that
Midnight Mass followed directly after Matins, separating it from Lauds,
and that the Notre Dame corpus has no settings of the Gradual or Alleluia
for that Mass.

2 Clausulae on the flosfilius melody did, in fact, arise in both of these ways;
in the Florence manuscript there is one flos filius clausula in a series derived
from the Stirps Jesse respond, grouped in the manuscript with the Mass
clausulae (Ludwig, p. 83), and eight, which are cued Domino, in a group
of Benedicamus settings (ibid., p. 67). See also the transcriptions in Historical
Anthology, i, pp. 24-7.

127

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

because the services on these days were already well provided
with Benedicamus tropes or substitutes.

The extent of the interchange of Benedicamus substitutes of
the offices with clausulae and motets of the Mass hinges in part
on the practical difference, which is bound up with the stylistic
difference, between a conductus and a clausula or motet. A
conductus was primarily intended for vocal performance and
was therefore better adapted to singing in choir, which was
normal, though not invariable, for the Benedicamus. All the
parts of a clausula or motet could also be sung, the parts with-
out words being vocalized, but the style was better suited to
performance by instruments in the case of a clausula, and by
voices and an instrument, normally an organ, in the case of a
motet. It may be assumed that instruments would not be intro-
duced into the actual choir, and that music which included
instruments would be performed in a gallery or pulpitum. In
England, and possibly also in France,1 the most important
musical items of the Mass, the Gradual and Alleluia, were sung
in the pulpitum, and this would naturally follow for the motet
also. Grandisson's licence to the musicians of Exeter to perform
polyphony in place of the Benedicamus at Vespers and after
the Sanctus at Mass lends support to our table. On the other
hand, references in the body of his Ordinal show that poly-
phony in place of the Benedicamus on Easter Day was per-
formed in the pulpitum.2

Characteristics of English Polyphony

Remains of English polyphonic music during the period of
these important developments in France are extremely scant.
Apart from the setting of Dicant nunc already mentioned, the
only twelfth-century polyphony is a group of pieces3 whose
musical style and liturgical types seem to belong to a stage of

1 The use of the pulpitum at Bayeux was similar to that in the English
secular rites. See Frere, 'The Connexion between English and Norman
Rites', p. 36.

2 See above, p. 1 1 1, n. 2.

3 On fly-leaves in Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ff. 1.17; fac-
similes in Early English Harmony, pis. 25-30. The contents are described
in Ludwig, Repertorium, pp. 328 sqq.

128

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

development between the St. Martial music and that of the
Notre Dame corpus, and to derive from the French tradition
rather than the earlier English one of the Winchester tropes.
It includes three conductus to precede a lesson,1 a three-part
Verbum patris humanatur 0 0 2 which would make a particularly
joyful substitute for the second Benedicamus when Verbum patris
hodie was sung for the first, and three Benedicamus tropes, one
of which, Regis civis potentia, is for St. Stephen's day. Another
is remarkable for the breaking of the word Domino by the trope,
thus: Benedicamus domi Spiritus almi gratia renovati Spiritus alme
illustrator omnino, while the third is a very curious experiment in
the form of a quodlibet in which a number of plainsong extracts,
with their words, are quoted in the course of an upper part to
the flos jilius melody of the Benedicamus. The quotations are
so arranged that each syllable of Benedicamus Domino is matched
by the same syllable occurring at the same time in the upper
part.3 The same pages also contain the earliest known version
of the Christmas song Adcantus laetitiae, which was widely known
throughout the Middle Ages. It is an early example of exchange
of parts, for the melody of the lower part is the same for two
lines and the parts exchange for the third line.4

There are many indications that French and English poly-
phony in the thirteenth century were closely associated, and
that some English churches adopted French music of the time.
The secular motet, however, found no place in England, and
there is no trace of any anthologies corresponding to the great
Montpellier manuscript in France, in which secular motets are
greatly in the majority.5 The chief surviving evidence of the
wholesale adoption of French music is a collection made for

1 Exsultemus et laetemur Nicholaum (which is transcribed in Oxford History of
Music, ist ed., i, p. 313) has the words 'iube domne dicat lector' and a
refrain with French words; In natali novi regis ends with 'Data benedictione
lectionem incipe'; and Hoc in sollemnio ends with 'die iube domne'.

2 The beginning is transcribed in New Oxford History of Music, ii,

P- 304-

3 They include Amborum sacrum spiramen . . . (from the Kyrie Cunctipotens
genitor) , Lux et decus . . . (from the respond Descendit de caelis) , 0 crux ave (from
the hymn Vexilla regis) , the opening of the hymn Veni creator Spiritus, and the
beginning of Verbum patris hodie.

4 As in the sixteenth-century version, printed in Piae Cantiones, No. XIII.

5 Facsimile, transcriptions and commentary in Polyphonies du XIIIe siecle.

129

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

the Augustinian Priory of St. Andrew's,1 which contains a con-
siderable proportion of the Notre Dame corpus but no motets.2
This exclusion of motets may well have been deliberate, be-
cause the writer included six motets without their tenors, thus
effectively turning them into conductus capable of purely vocal
performance.3 At the end of the office responds there are
domestic items in the form of two responds of St. Andrew,
Vir perfecte and Vir iste, and at the end of the manuscript there is
an indigenous section of music for Masses of the Virgin, com-
prising Alleluias (but no Graduals),4 Sequences, Offertories,
and settings of troped parts of the Ordinary. These pieces are
of great interest as the first comprehensive scheme, and the only
surviving scheme until some two centuries afterwards, of part-
music for the Lady-Mass.5 Elsewhere in the manuscript there
are other settings of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei which are
probably also 'insular', since there is nothing to correspond to
them in the French music of the period.

The St. Andrew's music for the Lady-Mass, which is all for
two voices with the plainsong in the lower part, may be illus-
trated by the Alleluia Post partum6 (see facing page). The style
is modelled on that of the French responds in the earlier
part of the manuscript, though it is less elaborate, while the
treatment of the neuma on genitrix shows the same impulse
towards rhythmic order in the tenor as did the descant sections

1 Now in Wolfenbiittel, Ducal Library, MS. 677; facsimile in An Old
St. Andrew's Music Book. Catalogue of its conductus in Groninger, Repertoire-
Untersuchungen, pp. 64-87.

2 Anonymous IV, writing c. 1275, did not mention motets, though he
cited several clausulae by name; Walter Odington, writing c. 13 16, discussed
the motet with an example.

3 Ludwig, Repertorium, p. 35; New Oxford History of Music, ii, p. 359.

4 Gf. page 286, n. 3, below.

5 It does not agree with the later Sarum ritual for the Lady- Mass, though
there are features in common. Only one of the Kyrie tropes, Rex virginum
(which is transcribed in Historical Anthology, No. 37), is also in Sarum, but
the melodies of four others correspond thus: St. Andrew's No. 3, Lux et
gloria, to the Sarum Lux et origo; St. Andrew's No. 4, Kyrie virginei lux, to
the Sarum Rex genitor; St. Andrew's No. 6, Kyrie virginitatis amor, to
the Sarum Fons bonitatis; and St. Andrew's No. 7, Conditor Mariae, to the
Sarum Conditor Kyrie. Four of the nine St. Andrew's Alleluias are in the
Sarum Lady-Mass cycle, while seven of the fifteen sequences are also in
Sarum, and two others are in the York use.

6 An Old St. Andrew's Music Book, fo. 181, which also gives the plainsong.

130

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

(Choir)

sti\ De - t oe - ni - trtx.

(Choi-r)

ff^. 5 | CUleLula. (Soloists as before); then Sequence.

of the French responds. This manner of disposing a neuma in a
recurring rhythmic pattern was adopted in the clausula and
continued in the motet, and thereafter until the mid-fifteenth
century one of the distinguishing features of a motet was a form
based on the rhythm and proportion of the tenor.

131

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

Other evidence of the importation of French music in the
thirteenth century includes a few leaves containing known
French pieces which have chanced to survive,1 and inventories
of the service-books belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral and to
the chapel of Edward I. The St. Paul's list, which was made in
1295, contains four books of polyphonic music and gives a
word-cue from the beginning and end of each by which it
could be identified.2 One of the four began with Viderunt, which
was the first of the responds of the Mass in the French series,
and another began with Austro terris and ended with Transgressus
legem Domini, two conductus in the French corpus, both of
which are in the St. Andrew's manuscript. A note of the con-
tents of Edward I's chapel in 1 299-1 300 has two books of
polyphonic music (de cantu organi), one of which began with
Viderunt and the other with Alleluja.3

In one instance the adoption of French music took the form
of the incorporation of a French motet in an Alleluia written
by an English composer. In a setting of the Alleluia JVativitas
which is presumed to be the Perotin setting mentioned by
Anonymous IV there is a descant section on the words ex
semine, which was abstracted and made into a motet by adding
a text beginning Ex semine Abrahae divino moderamine to the
duplum and one beginning Ex semine rosa prodit spine to the
triplum. When the English composer of a setting of the same
Alleluia, which is in the surviving fragments of a collection of
polyphony associated with Worcester Cathedral,4 came to the
words ex semine, having worked independently of Perotin's setting
up to that point, he copied the music of the motet and put the
Ex semine Abrahae text under his score, intending it to be sung
to the duplum or, more probably, to both of the upper parts.
It has been suggested that he was the first to put words to the

1 Two leaves bound in at the front of the printed book Wood 591 in the
Bodleian Library contain two conductus and portions of a third which are
also in the St. Andrew's manuscript. Two leaves bound in at the back of
the book contain English music; see below, p. 139, n. 3.

2 Printed in Dugdale, History of St. Paul's, pp. 310-35. A St. Paul's
inventory of 1245, printed in Simpson, 'Two Inventories of St. Paul's',
contains no books of polyphony.

3 Cited from the Wardrobe Book in Stevens, The Mulliner Book, p. 12, n. 7.

4 See Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, pp. 80-1. The complete page is repro-
duced in Cent Motets du XIIIe Siecle, ii, pi. II.

132

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

ex semine passage,1 but in view of the date (c. 12 75- 1300 or
later) and style of the Worcester music this does not seem likely.
The case is rather one of quotation from the point of view of the
music2 and of troping with an existing text from the point of
view of the ritual.

In his discussion of contemporary methods of musical nota-
tion Anonymous IV gave the names of the foremost composers
and teachers in France, including among them an Englishman
(alius ANGLICUS) who 'used the English method of notation
and also, to a certain extent, of teaching'.3 After mentioning
other French masters he went on to say that 'there were good
singers in England, and they sang exceeding sweetly, among
them Master Johannes Jilius Dei, Makeblite at Winchester and
Blaksmit at the court of the last King Henry'.4 The name of
Johannes jilius Dei appears in the St. Paul's inventory, where one
of the Tropers was noted as having been willed by him.5

Although England took so much from France in the thir-
teenth century, the cross-channel traffic in music was not alto-
gether a one-way affair. The Montpellier manuscript contains
a pair of motets6 which were almost certainly written by an
English composer, and which have survived in part in the re-
mains of an English manuscript.7 They are based on a tenor
from the sequence Epiphaniam Domino canamus gloriosam8 for the
Epiphany, the words of the part from which the melody was
taken being Balaam de quo vaticinans . . . and, continuing for the

1 Aubry (op. cit., ii, p. 15, n. 2) cited the Worcester piece as confirmation
of Wilhelm Mayer's thesis of the origin of the motet from the neumae of
organum. It cannot, however, be considered as evidence for the replacement
of sections in organum by clausulae (or motets) written later.

2 Instances of quotation in the composition of conductus have been
discussed in Schrade, 'Political Compositions in French Music', and in
Bukofzer, 'Interrelations between Conductus and Clausula'.

3 Coussemaker, Scriptores, i, p. 344. 4 Henry III (d. 1272).

5 'Item Troperium bonum quod legavit Johannes filius Dei.' (His 'ligavit'
amended to 'legavit' by Bodleian MS. Ashmole 845.) Dugdale, History of
St. Paul's, p. 324.

8 Transcriptions in Polyphonies du XIIIe sihle, iii, pp. 258-62.

7 Oxford, New College, MS. 362 has the duplum part of the two motets
written as for a single piece. See El Codex de Las Huelgas, i, pp. 229-31;
Polyphonies du XIIIe siecle, iv, p. 90, n. 4. For a discussion of the contents of
this manuscript, see New Oxford History of Music, iii, Chap. 4.

8 Music in Handschin, 'Trope, Sequence and Conductus', pp. 156-7.

133

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

second motet, Huic magi munera. ... It was quite unusual to
use the chant of a sequence for the tenor of a motet, 1 but the
reason in this case may be that the melody of the Balaam verse
from this sequence was used for the singing of the Benedicamus
with Alleluia at both Vespers and at Matins of the Epiphany
in the Sarum use.2 Hence the motets were probably used as
Benedicamus substitutes at those services. For their musical
design both pieces make use of the rondellus technique in the
upper parts, whereby one singer repeats the words and melody
of the other.3 Thus one poem served for both singers, which
was abnormal in the motet. This kind of continuous interchange
between parts has long been recognized as an English trait.
It is found also in another Montpellier piece, Alle psallite cum
luya* which occurs in the Worcester collection with words
beginning Ave magnifica Maria.5 The tenor is not a plainsong
neuma, though it has a rather vague connection with the
Alleluia Post partum for the Vigil of the Annunciation.6 The

1 Other cases are the Easter sequences Mane prima sabbati (Montpellier
No. 51; the text of its triplum is in the Worcester music at fo. 27V) and
Victimae paschali laudes (Montpellier No. 174). There may be some connec-
tion between these choices and the fact that there was a Balaam episode
in the Epiphany Prophetae play (Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii, pp. 54-5)
and that the two Easter sequences were sung in some forms of the Easter
Visitation play (Polyphonies du XIII6 siecle, iv, p. 186, n. 3).

2 'Et cantus hujus versus Balaam dicatur super Benedicamus cum Alleluya
ad utrasque vesperas et ad matutinas secundum usum Sarum Ecclesiae.'
Missale Sarum, cols. 85-6, n. The melody appears as Benedicamus No. 21
in Rylands Library, MS. Lat. 24. The words of an earlier motet on this
tenor, the opening of which is transcribed in Besseler, Musik des Mittelalters,
p. 122, are a satire on English ways; the text of the duplum begins: 'Balaam!
Goudalier ont bien auran Lour tuns pour la goudale Ke chascuns embale
Ke en sont engliskeman.' Raynaud, Receuil de Motets, ii, p. 68.

3 Odington defined rondellus thus: 'Et si quod unus cantat omnes per
ordinem recitent vocatur hie cantus Rondellus, id est, rotabilis vel circum-
ductus; et hoc vel cum littera vel sine littera sit'. Coussemaker, Scriptores,
i, p. 245. Odington's example may be seen in the facsimile in Early English
Harmony, pi. 41.

4 Montpellier No. 339; transcription also in Historical Anthology, i, p. 35.

5 Facsimile in Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 71. A descriptive catalogue
and complete transcriptions of the Worcester music have recently been
printed in The Worcester Fragments.

6 Dittmer, 'An English Discantuum Volumen', p. 3 1 . See also Handschin,
'The Summer Canon', for a discussion of these pieces and of a number of
English 'suspects' in Montpellier.

134

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

piece is followed in the manuscript by a setting of a troped form
of that verse, and was most probably written as a 'prelude trope'
to the Alleluia. As we shall see, there are other examples in the
Worcester music of this treatment of the beginning of the
Alleluia.

An index to a lost collection of polyphonic music which
belonged to Reading Abbey, contained in the same manuscript
as the famous canon 'Sumer is icumen in', is a further indica-
tion that English composers were creating their own liturgical
polyphony in the second half of the thirteenth century. x The
heading of the index contains the name W. de Winton, who in
1276 was a monk of the Priory of Leominster (Herefordshire),
a dependency of Reading Abbey, and was later (1284) at
Reading. He was probably the composer of the first group of
pieces, with the exception of the initial item, a setting of the
Gloria trope Spiritus et alme which has the name of R. de
Burg[ate] , Abbot of Reading from 1 268 to 1 290, as its composer. 2
The other pieces in the group are two settings of the Gloria
trope Regnum tuum solidum, one of a trope of Virgo Dei genitrix
(probably the verse of the Gradual Benedicta et venerabilis es for
the Vigil of the Assumption), and four troped Alleluias for
Commemorations of the Virgin. The second group of pieces
consisted of Alleluias for various feasts and for Commemora-
tions of the Virgin, at the head of which is the name W. de
Wicumbe. William de Wicumbe, or de Winchecumbe,3 was a
monk of Reading who spent four years at Leominster, where he
was precentor for part of that time, and where he wrote a
number of manuscripts for the library and choir, including
a treatise on music, a book of Lady-Masses, and two rolls, one
containing polyphony in three parts, the other containing two-
part music.4 The third section of the Reading index lists the

1 Printed with commentary in Ludwig, Repertorium, pp. 267-78. The pro-
venance and date of the manuscript (British Museum, Harl. 978) were
further discussed in Bukofzer, 'Sumer is icumen in'; Schofield, 'The Proven-
ance and Date of "Sumer is Icumen in"'; and Handschin, 'The Summer
Canon'.

2 Schofield, 'The Provenance and Date of "Sumer is Icumen in" ', p. 83.

3 See Dittmer, 'An English Discantuum Volumen', p. 37. At Winchcombe
(Gloucestershire) there was a small Benedictine Abbey.

4 'Scripsit eciam librum ad Missam de Sancta Maria super proprium
pergamenum suum. Scripsit eciam compotum optimum cum quodam

135

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

conductus,1 and the last four sections the motets, which are
divided into Moteti cum una littera et duplici nota, presumably for
tenor and a duplum with words, and Moteti cum duplici littera,
for tenor and both duplum and triplum with words. As far as
can be judged from their titles, the conductus and motets in
this lost manuscript were indigenous compositions, and had
little or no connection with the French repertory of the
period.

The surviving music of the Worcester collection comes into
the same general categories as those of the Reading index. For
the Ordinary of the Mass there are settings of troped forms of
the Kyrie, Gloria (Regnum tuum is the only one remaining) and
Sanctus, and of the Gloria and Agnus Dei without tropes. Music
for the Proper includes troped settings of the Introit Salve sancta
parens, of the Gradual verse Virgo Dei genitrix, and of a number
of Alleluias. From the evidence of the Worcester and other
fragments2 and the Reading index it is possible to distinguish
three stages in the elaboration of the polyphonic Alleluia.
William de Wicumbe's Alleluias in the Reading list were ap-
parently settings of the soloists' parts of the chants, as in the
earlier French examples and the St. Andrew's Lady-Masses.
The Worcester fragments have several Alleluias in which words
are added to the upper parts, a procedure which may be
termed 'parallel' troping since the words of the trope are
sung simultaneously with the words of the ritual.3 An ex-
ample is the Easter Day Alleluia Pascha nostrum, where the
plainsong of the verse is set out motet-wise in the tenor in

tractatu de musica. . . . Scripsit eciam duas rotulas unam continentem
triplices cantus organ' numero. Aliam continentem duplices cantus
numero.' Schofield, 'The Provenance and Date of "Sumer is Icumen in" ',
p. 84.

1 This section does not contain the titles of the conductus which have sur-
vived in the fly-leaves of a Reading manuscript (Bodley 257) in the Bodleian
Library.

2 E.g., Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. c.400*. For the most recent discus-
sion of possible concordances between these and other contemporary sources,
see Dittmer, 'An English Discantuum Volumen', pp. 36-45.

3 The beginning of a Sanctus set in this way is printed in Walker, History
of Music in England, p. 12. Another example in the Worcester collection is a
setting of the prose Inviolata, itself a trope of the respond Gaude Maria virgo;
transcription in Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 95.

136

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

the same pattern as was the neuma genitrix in our previous
example:1

Ex.8.

(Soloists)

(Soloists.)

strum)

It was this practice, which may be viewed as the application
of the method of the mid-thirteenth century motet to the early
thirteenth century respond, which gave the composer of the Wor-
cester Alleluia Nativitas the opportunity of quoting the French
Ex semine motet in the course of his setting. While the quoting
seems to be unique the method of troping is a special case, and
perhaps an earlier stage, of this English practice.

The final stage of troping elaboration, which like the 'motet'
stage seems to be a peculiarly English and monastic practice,
involved the composition of prelude tropes to the soloists'
beginning of the Alleluia, prelude and parallel tropes for the
verse, and sometimes a 'substitute' trope for the soloists' repeat
of the Alleluia. 2 The prelude trope to the Alleluia commonly

1 Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. liturg. d.20, fos. 13V-14; transcription in
Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 73. I have treated the rhythm as first mode.

2 In the only case of a substitute trope noted so far, the trope is a rondellus,

137

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

used rondellus technique, as in Ave magnified Maria, the tenor
of which has the cue Alle. Another instance is the rondellus
Alleluia psallat,1 also in the Worcester fragments, which appears
to be a prelude trope to the Alleluia Virga Jesse floruit virgo,
for it leads into a setting of the opening notes of that Alleluia,
which would be followed in turn by the choir's singing of the
complete Alleluia in plainsong. The prelude trope to the verse
was usually brief, though it could be somewhat extended and
also take the form of a rondellus.2 In the tenor of the verse the
plainsong could be treated in a freely-conceived rhythm, rather
than in a repeated pattern as in Pascha nostrum. While the most
elaborate forms of troping seem to have been reserved for the
Alleluia, parallel troping was applied to the Introit Salve sancta
parens, to the Gradual Benedicta et venerabilis, possibly to the
Offertory Felix namque,3 to the Gloria and Sanctus, and in one
surviving case to the Christmas respond Descendit de caelis.*

Motets are the largest single group in the Worcester collec-
tion, and the orthodox method of composition may be exem-
plified in Virginis Mariae laudemus praeconia — Salve gemma virginum
— Veritatem:5

Ex.9.

(Veritatem)

The rhythmic pattern (ordo) of the tenor, which is the neuma

and an alternative setting of the Alleluia 'In Fine' is provided, marked 'vel
si brevitas ipsare deposcit dicatur sic'. The piece, the Christmas Alleluia Dies
sanctificatus, is transcribed in Dittmer, 'An English Discantuum Volumen',
where a number of Alleluias of this kind in MS. Rawl. c.400* are recon-
structed and discussed.

1 Transcribed in Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 83, and in Historical
Anthology, p. 61.

2 As in the Alleluia Assumpta est, transcribed in Dittmer, 'An English
Discantuum Volumen', p. 53.

3 See Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 86.

4 Transcription in Dittmer, 'An English Discantuum Volumen', p. 55.

6 Worcester, Chapter Library, MS. Add. 68, No. xiii; transcription in
Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 107.

138

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

veritatem from the Gradual Propter veritatem for the feast of the
Assumption, is the same as in the two previous examples, and
was one of the commonest ordines of the period. There are some
four-part motets; either two or three parts have words, and in
the former case the quartus cantus, without words, is structurally
an auxiliary part to the tenor. Among the Worcester conductus
are some in simple descant style1 and others in more extended
form and less simple style, usually with vocalized sections. Ron-
dellus technique was commonly used in vocalized sections, and
might also be applied to the setting of a verse.2 Salve mater
misericordiae, a conductus of the second half of the thirteenth
century,3 shows a variety of treatments of this kind. The first
verse is set in normal conductus style, without extension,
beginning:

£x.io.

r 1 /T] J

h J J

~m- F — r

f r^-

-r

t= *■ 71

■ Sal - ve ma, ~ ter mi-se - ri - - cor - ctf - ae,

while the second begins with an introductory rondellus on the
first syllable:

Ex.11.

-pi m- — iy : —

• rj. — U— i — l*—

T J v

_c 1

% Oiiof.

t a i i i

', y. J :U 1 L

. 1.

j n

J- ♦ V

" F

r v r •

p- — i-r

vn J W J,

rF m *' '.

L J V ■

1 See below, p. 150. 2 Asm De supernis sedibus, ibid., p. 135.

3 On end-leaves in the binding of the printed book Bodleian Library
Wood 591, a copy of William Painter's The Pallace of Pleasure Beautified
(London, Thomas Marsh, 1569), which belonged to Anthony Wood. The
piece is incomplete at the beginning, but fortunately the missing opening
is in Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS. 489, No. 22.

139

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY
Each of its first two lines is a rondellus:

Ex.12.

Quae for - ta

sti re - gem jus ti - ti

r 0 i J.

J>J ^

J >J f

J J>J J>

8 (oe)

+- ■■■% T

-• Y—\

T \ y~~

% f

(ae)

r 0

Li -N-. •

■—

Quae

(x>r-

Stfr

re - £©»?

>5 -

■ tc -

k jr

Quae par- ta.

stl re -gem Jus - ti - ti

the second ending with a short cauda, and the other two lines
are a rondellus of two phrases ending with a longer rondellus-
cauda:

Ex. 13.

mi - se - re - re ha-j'us fa, -mi - LL-ae,

Et a.

0 j jrn.

rt — Jn

,j Jj j>,

H Pr p

r pr

F \ *

8 ., , mn-l,is Ser

■va. nos ho - di -

140

Plate XI

■V?

III

15. Ottery St. Mary: pulpitum in the Lady-chapel

qliamtffitrfflcol "_ 9%

16. Positive organ of the early fourteenth century

;

%o'

17. Plymtree Parish Church, Devon: chancel screen and loft

Plate XII

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

r 0 r

M_J Y

J J-

J J>J J>

L-L-T r

H1 *— *-

r 0 r 1 -i

it y

r± h 1

[jf J' —

rj J J>J j>

' * :l . * <-

rH f— ¥-

ntf ^ Jj ,j-|,

] r t v

hr^-J-

f — i-y

I J ' " ' [r

'■*■

Although its texture is continuous this last section is, in fact,
designed as a rota (canon),1 since the parts enter successively
with a melody which overlaps in rota fashion.2

Rondellus-motet and Rondellus-conductus

The persistence of rondellus technique is one of the most
characteristic features of English polyphony of the thirteenth
and early fourteenth centuries, and the variety of its applica-
tions led to composition in forms which lie on the border-line
between motet and conductus. In such cases it seems to have
acted as a catalyst which broke down the traditional distinc-
tions and brought about new combinations of technical and
formal methods. Its origins may possibly have some connection
with the form of troping common to both sequence and prose,
in which each phrase of a melody was repeated to supply the
music for paired verses. It may well be that it became customary
for the singers to exchange parts in the paired verses when

1 This term does not appear in extant treatises, but was used in the
manuscript of 'Sumer is icumen in'; see below, p. 142.

2 Compare the opening section of Fulget caelestis curiae, an extended rondel-
lus-conductus, transcribed and discussed in Bukofzer, 'Sumer is icumen in',
pp. 98 sqq.

M.M.B. — L 141

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

such forms were set in two-part polyphony, but at present this
can only be surmise. Examples of interchange of parts within
the verse of a hymn have been referred to in the cases of Nunc
sancte nobis spiritus and Ad cantus laetitiae. In the pair of pieces
on the tenor Balaam rondellus technique was applied to the
composition of a motet. The tenor of such a piece must be set
out in the form of repeated phrases a a b b c c . . . in order to
allow for the interchanging of the upper parts. The Balaam
melody was in that form as it stood, being part of a sequence,1
but in such Worcester examples as Ave magnifica Maria the tenor
is generally in shorter phrases, and must either have been
adapted from plainsong or composed for its purpose, as in a
conductus.

The most famous piece of English thirteenth-century music,
'Sumer is icumen in',2 is written in the form of a four-part rota
superimposed on a two-part rondellus. Its composition involved,
in effect, the writing of twelve separate melodies over the
'ground' sung by the two-part pes.3 When the canon is sung
by four singers, as the manuscript suggests, these melodies
form nine successive two-bar phrases from the time all the
singers have entered until they begin to drop out. Hence the
first four melodies must be independent, while the others may
be variations or combinations of these four provided that two
close variants of the same melody do not fall in the same group
of four. In addition, each melody and variation must be a good
counterpoint to the lower part of the pes, and the variations
must be so ordered that their performance makes a satisfactory
melody as a whole.4 It is a measure of the composer's artistry
that he succeeded in realizing these technical requirements in a
piece of such enduring charm and attractiveness.

The 'Summer Canon' is the only known six-part piece earlier
than the fifteenth century and the only known example of the
combination of rota and rondellus. Though long regarded as

1 The composer used the melody of each verse four times, rather than the
twice of the sequence itself.

2 Facsimile as frontispiece to Grove, Dictionary of Music, vii.

3 This term is sometimes used in the Worcester music for the tenor.

4 No part makes parallel octaves or unisons with the lower part of the
pes. The form of the melody is 4 + 4 + 2+4 + 4 + 6 = 24 bars; with
three two-bar sections for entering the length of the complete piece is 30
bars.

142

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

something of a miracle, its position is rather that of a special
case of a peculiarly English technique. The manuscript has a
sacred poem celebrating the Resurrection, Perspice christicola,1

Ex.1*.

tea

1 The Easter Day sequence Fulgens praeclara contains the verse 'Perspice
christicolas, qualiter laeti canunt inclyta redemptori carmina'. Missale
Sarum, col. 361.

143

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

written in red ink below the secular words, which are written
in black ink. It has generally been assumed that the secular
text is the original one, though there is no trace of any estab-
lished art of secular composition to which such a piece could
have belonged. It has not, however, been noticed before that
the lower part of the pes is the first five notes of Regina caeli,
the special Mary-antiphon of the Easter season, in the same
notation as they are written in the plainsong. This cannot easily
be coincidence, for it is safe to say that no medieval musician
hearing or seeing these notes under an Eastertide poem would
fail to connect them with the beginning of the antiphon. From
the points of view of its technique and its character as a sacred
piece the 'Summer Canon' could properly be described as the
rota-rondellus-motet Perspice christicola — Pes duplex Regina caeli
(see Ex. 14).

Thomas gemma Cantuariae — Thomas caesus in Doveria,1 a some-
what later work (c. 1300), written in praise of St. Thomas of
Canterbury and Thomas de la Hale (d. 1295) of Dover Priory,
has an ingenious combination of rondellus and variation tech-
niques. In its general style it is a motet, but it is not based on
plainsong. In form it consists of twenty-seven sections, each a
variant of a basic phrase, with an introduction and a coda.
The phrase is varied by interchange between the two tenors and
between the two upper parts, by simple ornamentation, and
by the writing of new melodies:2

Ex.15.

( Introduction)

77)0 - mojoem - mo. Can - tu. - a - rl - qb

1 In Princeton University, MS. Garrett 1 19, and, in part, on leaves which
have been considered to belong to the Worcester collection; see Hughes,
Medieval Polyphony, p. 38. Discussion and transcription in Levy, 'New
Material on the Early Motet in England'.

2 Transcription from ibid., pp. 234-6; a few notes in the parts on the
second staff have been supplied by the transcriber.

144

(Section 1)

prt - mu - La.

fnip

fi - tie pro tu, - en - da

j J I J 1 j,^

r r r

Oe - mu-lc

Je - sus

etc

(Section Y)
r A ma - tu- ti - na

ves - per-tl - na

to.

- cis to

ere

- a - te

-j J

J fir

£• a

el. „..

f r

i... i .

r
j

Si- nr

*■}: 0'

i" ig

a, ^=

^ [

. — =1

f J?

(Section Yl)

gra, - tl - a

La. - te

7 r r f

a. - mu.-Lo

rJ J- J.

/xr

-F— %■ —

■ tu,- Lo

(Section YII)
t no • va, re

pa. - ra - ta

(Section VIIl)
. Sub - U'-ma -ris ca- rl - a re - gls pro fc-de - li - ta-te

J45

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

A more extended use of the method of rondellus may be
seen in one of a pair of pieces of the early fourteenth century,
presumably from the Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury, both of
which are based on the antiphon of St. Edmund Ave rex gentis
Anglorum. x One of the pair is in the normal form of a motet,
having two parts with different texts, Deus tuorum militum (not
identical with the hymn which has that beginning) and De
fore martyrum, over the first two phrases of the antiphon sung
twice in the same rhythm. 2 The other, which is for four voices,
is a Benedicamus substitute3 written in a form which may be
called rondellus-motet since it is based on plainsong, though it
has the equalized rhythm of all the parts and the single set of
words which are characteristic of a conductus. The two tenor
parts sing in rondellus fashion the successive phrases of the anti-
phon, which has the same melody as the Mary-antiphon Ave
regina caelorum, mater regis angelorum, while the upper parts alter-
nate with the sections of the poem Ave miles, set in sequence
fashion. The joins between the sections are most cleverly
managed, and the piece ends with an 'Amen' based on the
first difference of the first mode.4

This application of rondellus technique to the design of a
piece based on plainsong arrives at a style which is virtually
indistinguishable from that of the extended conductus of the
same period. In Ovet mundus laetabundus,5 for example, the ron-
dellus idea is applied to each verse of the poem by means of an
interchanged repeat of each verse in the upper parts, while the
lower parts repeat their music, indicated by recita in the manu-
script, without interchange. Here it is evident that the principle
of composition based on the lowest part no longer holds, for the
setting of the words must have preceded the writing of the
other parts:

1 Discussion and transcriptions in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music,
Chap. I.

2 The tenor part 'is noteworthy for the incipient isorhythmic structure'.
Ibid., p. 22.

3 The penultimate verse ends 'Benedicamus devote Domino', and the
last verse ends 'dignas laudes referre Domino'.

4 Written in the manuscript as Euouae, the vowels of saeculorum Amen,
which were used as an abbreviation under the notes of a difference.

5 Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 8i, fos. iv, 44.

146

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY
Ex.16.

0 - vet

mun-dus

tae-ta -

bun-dus

¥* |J f*

r r &

r r

$jftj.

- ■■ — -

r r r

. 7tT/77 - /JO- -

ni - zans

car- mi -

ne ,

J —

tit r

r ^ *

r LLLT

8 "~~

i r

—

r r 1

r » Ros rus

et ftt

- mC -

Furst verse ends

yf ^

r r

-H$—

?r !•

i f

Re]?eat wtth

In contrast to the cultivation of border-line forms in England,
the motet in France pursued a consistent course from its origins
in the thirteenth century to the adoption of isorhythm in the
early fourteenth and the full mastery of isorhythmic design in
the motets of Guillaume de Machaut (d. 1377) and his suc-
cessors. The appearance of isorhythmic motets in England in the
second half of the fourteenth century is sure evidence of re-
newed contact with French music, and from the early fifteenth
century to the death of Dunstable in 1453 forms based on iso-
rhythm were constantly practised by English composers. The
main features of the isorhythmic motet were the use in the upper
parts of a wide range of note-lengths (large, long, breve, semi-
breve and minim) and the development and expansion of the
lay-out of the tenor, which was now a phrase of plainsong
rather than a neuma. It was disposed in a correspondingly

147

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

longer rhythmic scheme (talea) which was repeated once or
more in shorter notes of the same relative lengths as those of the
first statement, that is, in isorhythm with diminution. While in
the thirteenth century the rhythmic order of the tenor had been
the basis of a single section in which one or more statements of a
neuma were set out in short patterns of equal rhythm, it now
became the basis of a form in which the several sections, each
based on a plainsong phrase (color), were of proportionate
lengths, governed by its progressive diminution. The former
principle might still operate within the latter, the lesser
rhythmic order continuing to exist within the greater, as may be
seen in the first section of Omnis terra — Habenti dabitur — Tenor
(unidentified):1
Ex.ir.

f o

O - mnia

ter -

rn - Ij> -n>. rn.

Ha -
(a)

•

I J

f 0

ne •

tur

De - um ve - tub

pen - tent o - mnC-

ben

lr?~

(Tenor continues)

1 In a group of leaves in the same binding as Ave miles, Bodleian Library,
MS. e Mus. 7, pp. 530-1. The music in this second group of leaves may

148

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

The tenor is divided into nine phrases which use three rhythmic
patterns arranged in the order abababcbc. In the second sec-
tion the tenor is repeated in the same rhythms diminished by
half, so that the lengths of the sections are in the proportion two
to one. The upper parts move throughout with clearly defined
rhythms in notes ranging from semibreves to quaver triplets,
and in the second section they enhance the quicker movement
of the tenor with the mutual stop-and-go device known as
hocket,1 which was commonly used in the final section of a
motet:2

Ex- 18.

Descant in the Fourteenth Century

Richard Cotell ended his summary of the rules for improvis-
ing a descant on a plainsong3 with the observation that it was

be of French origin, for several of the texts are French and one of the pieces
appears with different words in manuscripts in Ivrea and Cambrai; see
Hughes, Medieval Polyphony, p. 29.

1 Or truncatio; 'ita quod dum unus pauset, alius non pauset, vel e contrario
. . .; unde truncatio idem est quod hoketus'. Quatuor Principalia, in Cousse-
maker, Scriptores, iv, p. 296.

2 I have discussed some other examples of rondellus and isorhythm in
'English Church Music in the Fourteenth Century', New Oxford History of
Music, iii, Chap. 4.

3 Printed in Bukofzer, Geschichte des englischen Diskants, pp. 141 -3.

149

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

'feyr singing to syng many imperfite acordis togedyr descend-
ing or ascending with the playnsong and a perfite acorde
folnande, as for to synge 3, 4 or 5 thyrdis togedyr with a 5
folnande'. When composers used this recipe for making the
simplest kind of two-part setting of a melody they used
sixths ending with an octave rather than thirds followed by a
fifth, and for a third part completed the sixths with a third and
the octaves with a fifth. This method is found in a setting of
the last verse In te Domine and final neuma of the Te Deum,
in which the plainsong is in the lowest part.1 Until the late
fourteenth century, however, writing in simple descant style
normally used parallel fifths and thirds as well as parallel sixths
and thirds. The Worcester music contains examples of this
method in a Gloria (beginning Et in terra since the celebrant
began the Gloria) 2 and a conductus Beata viscera (not the same
text as the Communion Beata viscera),* neither of which is
based on plainsong, while the composer of a setting of the hymn
0 lux beata Trinitas of the second half of the fourteenth century
put the plainsong in the highest part, slightly changed and
ornamented:4
Ex.i*

Plainsong

0 lux-

Et prin

be-a-ta. TrC - ni, - tas
cC-pa-Us 11 - ni - tas,

de Lumen cor - di

1 Geschichte des englishen Diskants, Ex. 18, and Reese, Music in the Middle
Ages, p. 399, dated thirteenth century, but fourteenth is more likely. The
previous verse has the plainsong in the middle voice.

2 Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, pp. 39-40, and Historical Anthology, i, p. 62.

3 Worcester Mediaeval Harmony, p. 108.

4 British Museum, MS. Sloane 12 10, fo. 140.

150

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

Jam sol re - ce-dlt Ig

ne -us

8 In fun - de lu - men cor - di - - bus.

In the late fourteenth century this technique was also being
used in a less obvious way, in which the melodic line of the
plainsong was shared by all the parts. This setting of the hymn
Conditor alme siderum includes the neuma of the fourth mode:1

Ex.20.

Plaunsong

Condo-toral-me si- de-rum, Qe-ter-ne Lux cre-den-tu- urn,

Chri-ste re-dem-ptor om-nl-um, Ex-aiucU pre-ces suppUcum .

tLpf fvi-p fe,pT

Con - cU - tor at - me so - de- rum, Qe - ter - ne Lux ere -

t i5?T r.

um, Chri-ste re - dem-ptor om- nl-um, Ex - cm. - di

1 Written c. 1400 in a Psalter, Collectar and Hymnal of c. 1200, Bodleian
Library, MS. Laud lat. 95, fo. 133V. The book was probably of secular use,
since the hymn Salvator mundi has the tune of Veni creator.

151

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

f |5#

pre - ces sap - pLL

Gotell remarked that 'the old techy ng was that a man shal
never take none imperfite acord bot if he hade a perfite after
him, as after a 3 a 5 and after an 8 [rede 10] a 12 and after a
13 a 15, bot now it is levyd the techers of descant that after a
3 a man may take a 6 or after a 6 a man may take a 10'.
Here Cotell was recalling a commonplace of the teaching of the
thirteenth century, the working of which in composition may
be seen in the Alleluia Postpartum from the St. Andrew's manu-
script quoted above (p. 131). The writer of Quatuor Principalia
(1351) taught the use of both perfect and imperfect intervals,
so long as the general principle of movement by contrary
motion was observed iita quod quando tenor ascendit discantus
descendet, et e contrario) , and forbade consecutive perfect intervals
except when a rest intervened, or when writing in three parts
{nisi pausa intervenit, out quando tres cantus simul modulantur).1
However, composers of descant in the late fourteenth century
began to observe this prohibition in three-part writing, though
consecutive fifths still appear occasionally until the mid-fifteenth
century. The method of setting a plainsong in three-part descant
during this period was to write a lower part ('counter') to
the melody, using contrary motion in mixed intervals and
parallel motion in imperfect intervals, the latter particularly
at the approach to a cadence, and then to add the highest
part.2 An example of this technique is a late fourteenth-
century setting, now incomplete, of the verse Eructavit cor and

1 Coussemaker, Scriptores, iv, p. 281.

2 The view that English descant was characterized by the use of plain-
song in the lowest part (while continental fauxbourdon used it as the cantus),
which was proposed by Bukofzer in his Geschichte des englischen Diskants, is
not tenable. The musical evidence shows conclusively that the plainsong in
English descant was normally the middle part. The descant treatises deal
only with the teaching of extempore descanting by a single singer above or
below the cantus prius /actus according to his voice.

152

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

the Gloria patri of the respond Regnum mundi for feasts of a
Virgin:1

sf>i - ri - tu -

This method was also adopted for treating the ritual chants
of the Mass. A group of settings of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei
which have survived, in curious circumstances, on the back of a
document in the Public Record Office shows that the rhythmic
style could be quite simple, as in Eructavit cor, or moderately
ornamental, with occasional groups of three quavers.2 The
adoption of the new descant style for the Ordinary of the Mass
was an important development in the history of that form,
which leads directly to the descant Mass settings of the Old
Hall manuscript, to be discussed in the following chapter.

Polyphony to English Words

The few examples of early polyphony in the vernacular
which have survived use elementary forms of motet and descant
techniques. 'Worldes blisse have god day' 3 is a two-part
motet in which the poem, a meditation on the Passion, is set

1 From leaves in the fifteenth-century binding of an early fourteenth-
century Psalter from Peterborough Abbey, Bodleian Library, MS. Barlow 22.

2 See Stevens, 'A Recently Discovered English Source of the 14th Century'.

3 Transcription in Bukofzer, 'The First Motet with English Words'
pp. 232-3.

153

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

as a duplum over the clementiam melody of the Benedicamus,
disposed in a recurring rhythmic pattern in the usual way,
while 'Edi beo thu hevene quene' x and 'Jesu Cristes milde
moder' 2 are simple two-part descants. The words of the last
are a free translation of the York sequence Stabat juxta Christi
crucem, which was later used with the Latin text as a votive
antiphon. In all three pieces the parts are in the same range
and cross frequently, and in 'Jesu Cristes milde moder' they
keep very close company and cross continually, so that their
movement is chiefly by alternation of thirds and unisons.

This method of composing a simple descant has usually been
called 'gymel' (gemellus).3 The word does not appear in English
manuscripts until the late fifteenth century, where it marks the
division of a part into two in a 'solo' section; nor was it ex-
plained by a theorist until the same period, when the Italian
Guilielmus Monachus wrote of it (c. 1475) as a modus Anglicorum.
What Guilielmus actually describes is the setting of a melody in
continuous parallel thirds beginning and ending on a unison
and crossing just before the cadence, or in parallel sixths begin-
ning and ending on an octave. In either case a third part
(contra) might be added using the third, fifth, octave or tenth
below the melody, avoiding parallel movement and ending
with a fifth going to the octave.4 On the evidence of English
sources, however, gymel means a pair of voices of equal range,
and therefore written in the same clef. It may be applied to
such early examples as Dicant nunc Judei* as well as to the three
pieces under discussion, and had the same significance in the
later manuscripts, such as the Eton choirbook, where the term
'semeP is also used in this sense. Our definition also holds for
two instances in which the term is used in continental manu-
scripts. One is a two-part setting of the troping section of a
Sanctus by Roullet in a manuscript at Munich.6 In the other

1 Transcription in Walker, History of Music in England, p. 10.

2 Partial transcription in Reese, Music in the Middle Ages, p. 389.

3 See ibid., pp. 388-90.

4 Coussemaker, Scriptores, iii, pp. 289, 292-3; emendations in Bukofzer,
Geschichte des englischen Diskants, pp. 153-4; facsimile in Die Musik in
Geschichte und Gegenwart, v, Tafel 49.

6 See above, p. 117.

9 Quoted in Bukofzer, article 'Gymel' in Die Musik in Geschichte und
Gegenwart.

154

THE POLYPHONY OF THE LITURGY

an anonymous composer added two alternative parts to Dun-
stable's 0 rosa bella. They are marked 'Gimel' and 'alius Gimel',
and each makes a gymel with the original cantus part.1

The normal method of three-part descant with the melody in
the middle voice is used in a fourteenth-century setting of
Angelus ad virginem,2 which is mentioned by Chaucer in 'The
Miller's Tale'. The same melody also exists in a thirteenth-
century manuscript with both the Latin words and an English
version beginning 'Gabriel from evene king'.3

The appearance of simple polyphony in the vernacular may
well be connected with the early period (1224-c. 1300) of the
ministry of the Franciscans in England. By the end of the thir-
teenth century the friars had largely turned from preaching to
university studies and the founding of houses.4 There are no
surviving examples of polyphony to English words between the
pieces we have mentioned and the polyphonic carols of the
early fifteenth century.

1 Transcription in Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, vii, p. 229. There
seems no point in extending the term gymel to a duet of two parts in
different clefs or to the normal English descant of the Old Hall manuscript,
as Bukofzer did in Studies in Mediaeval Music, pp. 49, 135, etc.

2 Transcription in Walker, History of Music in England, p. 1 4.

3 Facsimile in Early English Harmony, pi. 34.

4 Moorman, Church Life in England, Chaps. XXV-XXVI; Knowles, The
Religious Orders, i, Chap. XVIII.

155

THE INSTITUTIONS AND THE

CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

FROM 1400 TO THE

REFORMATION

Xolyphonic music in the early Middle Ages, and until the
late fourteenth century, was sung by solo voices. The respond,
Benedicamus and conductus were ceremonial elaborations or
replacements of soloists' chants in the ritual, while the motet
originated as a troping elaboration of a neuma from the
soloists' part of a respond. The later Middle Ages saw the
development of forms of polyphony in which the whole choir
took part, as in the Mass and the votive antiphon, and of
others in which polyphony sung by one side of the choir alter-
nated with plainsong sung by the other side, as in the Magnifi-
cat and Hymn. The leaders of this movement towards choral
polyphony were the more important colleges and collegiate
churches, and the royal and aristocratic household chapels.
The singers in these institutions formed a balanced choir, and
there is good reason to assume that all of them were expected
to be competent in polyphonic music. Though this was not a
statutory or usual requirement in secular cathedrals, it became
customary to support the singing of polyphonic antiphons and
votive Masses by the more expert of the vicars and choristers
in rotation. The greater monasteries also adopted this idea,

156

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

instituting choirs of monks or clerks and choristers, under a
secular or lay master, to sing votive polyphony in parts of the
building which were open to the laity. In the older foundations,
therefore, a balanced choir and choral music in the modern
sense came into being in connection with the new forms of
polyphony which were sung 'out of choir' in the ritual and
physical sense. Late in the period polyphony on the chief
festivals and in votive forms was cultivated in the larger parish
churches, with singers hired either for the occasion or on an
annual basis. During this period too the organ entered on a
new phase in its history, taking an increasingly important part
in the ritual music. More elaborate instruments were developed,
and the performance of ritual polyphony on the organ became
an established custom.

The musical remains of this period are fortunately more
substantial than those of the preceding period, and include a fair
number of complete, or almost complete, manuscripts. Their
appearance reflects the growth of choral polyphony, for the
more important manuscripts are increasingly larger until the
early sixteenth century, when the Caius College manuscript,
the largest surviving choirbook, measures twenty-eight and a
quarter inches by nineteen inches. Separate part-books began
to be adopted c. 1500-10, and became the normal way of
writing and printing polyphonic music in the sixteenth century.
Though the number of surviving manuscripts and fragments
is not inconsiderable, the losses have been very great. Some
idea of their nature and extent can be gained from inventories
and accounts, while these and other documents help to reveal
the part played by institutions of various kinds in the music
of the time. Such sources also throw light on the place of the
new forms of choral polyphony in the ritual and on the litur-
gical use of the organ, and in other ways help to fill some of the
gaps in the musical history of the period.

Colleges

The statutes of New College, Oxford, did not expressly re-
quire the singing or teaching of polyphonic music, nor did the
chapel books given by the founder include books of polyphony. x

1 They included eleven noted Antiphonals, nineteen Graduals and thirteen
M.M.B. — M 157

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

In preparation for Henry VI's visit to the college in 1442-3
certain Masses, probably for the King's good estate, were added
to the Graduals in the choir, and in the same year the informator
(John Francis) received for the first time an additional payment
for teaching the antiphon of the Virgin, which was followed by
prayers for the King.1 In 4-5 Edward IV (1464-5) the 'King's
Mass' was again 'noted',2 and the Bursars' Roll for 1494-5 a^so
has a payment pro missa Domini Regis. The first definite mention
of polyphonic music is in 1 470-1, when three books of can tus
fractus were repaired, and later entries in the Rolls show the
building up of a considerable repertory. They include payments
to 'Andrew' for noting a Mass and antiphon in 1479-80; to the
informator for noting books of antiphons. proses and responds in
1496-7; to John Tucke (of London; Fellow, 1499- 150 7, when he
left to teach at Higham Ferrers;3 later at Gloucester Abbey)4 for
writing and noting a Mass {pro scriptura et notatione unius missae)
in 1505-6; to Richard Cloterboke for noting a five-part anti-
phon and some music for Christmas in 1 509-1 o;5 to the informa-
tor for setting Masses and antiphons in 1511-12;6 to Nicholas
Hoker for noting the Mass 'popularly called God Save Kynge
Harry' 7 in 1 518-19; to the precentor for noting Stella caeli in
1 527-8; to the informator for four books of sequences for the Lady-
Processionals. Register I (1400-80), fo. 1 in the College Muniments. The
list is printed, without the second folio identifications, in Walcott, William
of Wykeham, p. 285, where 'Antiphonaria, ii' should read 'Antiphonaria, xi\

1 'Et pro diversis quaternis pergameni emptis pro missis scribendis et
notandis in diversis Gradalibus erga Adventum Domini Regis. . . . Et
solutum informatoris Chorustarum per annum una cum vis. viiid. eidem
pro informatione Antiphone beate Marie Virginis xxvis. viiid.'. And in
1444-5: 'Et in stipendio Informatoris Chorustarum ad xxs. per annum una
cum vis. viiid. Allocatis eidem pro supervisione Antiphone beate Marie cum
precibus adiunctis pro bono et salubri statu domini Regis xxvis. viiid.'

2 'Et solutum pro Notacione Misse Domini Regis ixd.'

3 'Assumpto opere docendi in Collegio de Higham Ferrers'. MS. Register
of Wardens, Fellows and Scholars in New College Library.

4 See above, p. 44.

6 'Et solutum Ricardo Cloterboke pro notatione unius Antiphone quinque
partium et quorumdam aliorum cantuum erga festum natalis Christi xxd.'
Notatio may mean composing or merely copying.

6 'Et solutum ad manus Informatoris Choristarum pro modulatione
diversorum missarum et antiphonarum hoc anno viis. viiid.'

7 Two voices of a Mass by Thomas Ashewell with this title are extant.

158

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Mass and some books of cantilenae in 1 529-30; 1 to dominus Myl-
lyng2 in the same year and the precentor in 1532-3 for noting
cantilenae', to Henry Brether for the same on three occasions during
1534-6; to a 'bibliophile' in 1538-9 for making a large book of
antiphons;3 and to dominus Segary in 1 540-1 for twenty-two
books of polyphony containing antiphons, Masses and other
music needed for the choir.4 Other entries concerning the pro-
vision and repair of musical books occur in 1509-10, when
magister Gober was paid for some quartos de cantico which he had
bought, the informator for the materials and binding for a large
book and five other books of cantus fractus,5 John Cornysh and
his son for repairing books in the choir and mending the board
in the nave from which the antiphon was sung,6 and Richard
Cornysh and his father for mending the books of the chaplains
on the precentor's side.

The deed which lists the books given to the choir in 1458
by William Porte, former Fellow,7 also records that he gave
Orgona [sic] magna pro choro.8 This organ was most probably in
a gallery over the north side of the choir, as at Winchester
College, which has since been removed. Entries referring to the
pulpitum occur for the first time in 1 460-1, when John Smith,
'lokyer', supplied various materials pro hostiis ascensorii ad pul-
pitum, and le pavyng introitus chori was also paid for. Repairs
were carried out in 1484-5 on both the organ in choro and the

1 'In primis solutum Informatori choristarum pro 4or libris sequentiarum
pro missa beate marie xs. . . . Et solutum Informatori choristarum pro
libris cantilenarum per eum confectis xiiiis. . . . Et solutum Informatori
pro quatuor libris cantilenarum iiis.'

2 Thomas Myllyng, Fellow 1488- 1509.

3 'Et solutum bibliophole pro constructione unius magni libri antiphonarii
iii mensas vs.'

4 'Solutum Domino Segary per 22 libris simphoniaris habentibus anti-
phonas, missas et alia necessaria ad cantum divinum in choro xiiiis. iiiid.'
John Segar was a Fellow 1537-49.

5 'Et solutum ad manus Informatoris choristarum pro ligatura unius
magni libri cantici fracti et aliorum quinque librorum cantici fracti una
cum pergameno et paupiro deservientibus eisdem libris xxv° aprilis iiis. iid.'

6 'Et solutum Joanni Cornenysch et filio eiusdem laborantibus pro xliiii
dies circa reparacione librorum jacentum in choro et emendacione tabule
deservientis Antiphone cantate in navi ecclesie in to to xlixs.'

7 From 1418 to 1423, when he joined the household of Bishop Beaufort
(MS. Register); in 1417-18 Porte was paid 6s. 8d. 'pro notatione novorum
Antiphonariorum', 8 Register I, fo. 8.

159

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

organ in the pulpitum, and in 1488-9 on the 'smaller organs'
by William Wotton. Others who worked on the organs were
Thurlby in 1496-7, Nicholas Kendall and Richard Borrow in
1 500- 1, and Robert Home in 1524-5. In 1536-7 the sum of
twenty-five pounds six shillings and ten pence halfpenny was
paid for organs made over a two-year period, and three years
later the college possessed four organs, one of which was in a
Jesus-chapel.1 In 1542-3 Gustinian clericus was paid for playing
the organ during two terms.2

The chapel inventories of Winchester College between 1404
and 1432 list a book of polyphonic music beginning with a
setting of the Kyrie,3 which may have been the liber de cantu
organico which was among the books given by the founder
(d. 1404). 4 In 1451-2 a book of polyphony given by Richard
Glyn (Scholar, 1434; Fellow of New College, 1 440-1 )5 was
repaired, and in 1 466-7 material for new books of cantici was
bought. Payments which may concern polyphonic music were
made to dominus John Cote (Chaplain, 1469-72) in 1470-1 for
noting a Mass and some antiphons; to Harris in 1474-5 f°r
noting Masses, antiphons and other cantici in the choristers'
books; to Richard Crow (Scholar, 1466; Fellow of New College,
1473-6) for noting Masses and antiphons and to Edward
Clerke for noting cantus in 1476-7; and to dominus Laurence
(? William Laurance, admitted Fellow, 1478) for noting Masses
and antiphons and Crow for noting cantus in the year following.
In 1 490- 1 John Cornysh supplied 'six new quires of a book for
the choristers arranged for singing responds and antiphons'.6

1 In 1527-8: 'Et solutum pro reparacione organorum in capella Jhesu
viis. vid.'; in 1539-40: 'et solutum confectori organorum pro emendatione
4or organorum xxvis. viiid.'

2 'Solutum gustinian clerico pulsanti organa primo et secundo termino
vis. viiid.'

3 Inventories of 1404-5, 141 2-1 3 and 1432; in 141 2-1 3 it is described
as 'i liber de cantu organico ii° folio e-e-leyson et est ligatus cum tabulis cum
ii clapsulis'.

4 The Founder's book was valued at 6s. 8d.; he also gave seven Anti-
phonals each valued at over nine pounds; Kirby, Annals of Winchester, p. 152.

6 Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 56.

6 'Et in solutis Johannes Cornyshe pro vi quaternis novis unius libri pro
choristis ad cantandum Responsoria et antiphonas ordinati cum xs. vid.
pro Reparacione et notacione antiquorum quaternorum ligacione et
cooperture eiusdem libri xxiiis. viiid.'

160

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

The chapel inventory made in 15311 shows the number and
place in choir of each kind of service-book, and includes a
book of polyphonic music containing Masses, another with anti-
phons, and a book with the Bass part of hymns. One of the
Antiphonals is noted as being for the use of the organista, the
term used at Winchester for the organ-player.

The college had an organ in 1 399, when it was borrowed by
Wykeham and carried by six scholars to Bishop's Waltham.
Bishop Beaufort borrowed an organ to go to Farnham Castle
in 141 5, and again to go to Highclere, one of his houses, in
1420. 2 Robert Derby, clerk of the Prior of Winchester Cathe-
dral, was brought to the college to play the organ in chapel
for the visit on St. Cecilia's day (November 21-2) in 1444 of
Henry VI, who was present at both Vespers and at Mass.3
On Sunday, January 19, 1449, the King attended the installa-
tion of Wayneflete as Bishop at the time of Mass at the Cathe-
dral, and heard both Vespers in the college chapel. On that
occasion John Payne and Henry Abyngdon took part in the
services, and Abyngdon, then a clerk at Eton, was rewarded by
the college with a pair of gloves.4 By 1476-7 there was an organ
in the pulpitum, which was repaired in that year by Robert
Joyner, coming from Salisbury. John Massyngham and William
Dutton repaired an organ in the following year;5 Walter,
organmaker, worked on two organs in 1498; and in 1542
further work was carried out by Edmund Popingay, Nicholas
'joiner' and his family, and William Dore, the organista.6 The
1 53 1 inventory shows that there were then three organs in the
college. One, given by John Webbe (Fellow, admitted 1494),
was in the gallery at the north side of the choir, which is
the position of the present organ and was probably that of the
original organ, as at New College. There was another in the
pulpitum and the third was in the Fromond chantry chapel,
built in the cloister under the will of John Fromond (d. 1420),
and consecrated in 1437. 7

1 Printed below, p. 434. 2 Kirby, Annals of Winchester, pp. 56-7.

3 H. Chitty, 'The Basins given by Henry VI to Winchester College',
reprinted from Notes and Queries, i2S.i, pp. (of reprint) 7-8.

4 H. Chitty, 'The Visits of Henry VI to Winchester College', reprinted
from op. cit., pp. 16-18.

5 These two items from the Bursars' Rolls.

6 Kirby, Annals of Winchester, p. 57. ' Ibid., pp. 164-8.

l6l

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

The books of All Souls College, as listed in an inventory of
1 490- 1 500 and in two earlier inventories, included a 'book of
prykked song' the second folio of which began with descendi in,
certainly the Mary-antiphon Descendi in ortum, and a liber pro
Organo 2 fo habens in utero, words which occur in the antiphon
Spiritus sanctus at Lauds on the first Sunday in Advent. The latter
was probably a plainsong Antiphonal. Two All Souls lists of
1556 have 'a great prickesong book of velame covered with a
shepes skynne', evidently a large choirbook, and 'fyve other
pricksonge bokes', most likely a set of part-books.1

Eton College is the only foundation of the period which has
managed to preserve its own late medieval choirbook, which is
listed in a chapel inventory of c. 1 53 1 as 'a grete ledger of prick
song ii folio turn cuncta\2 a description which identifies it with
the large manuscript of polyphonic antiphons and Magnificats
now in the college library.3 Though about half of its pages
have unfortunately been lost, the Eton choirbook is outstanding
among the surviving manuscripts of medieval music in Britain
in the value of its contents and the beauty of its writing and
illumination. The daily singing of a polyphonic antiphon was
required by the statutes of the college, which said that every
evening the choir, accompanied by the informator, should pro-
cess two by two into chapel, say a Pater noster before the crucifix,
and then sing meliori modo quo sciverint a Mary-antiphon before
the image of the Virgin. Salve regina with the trope [cum suis
versiculis) was to be sung during Lent, and any other antiphon
on feast-days in Lent and during the rest of the year.4 In its
original state5 the choirbook contained sixty-seven antiphons
for from four to nine voices, of which fifteen were settings of
Salve regina, twenty-four Magnificats for from four to seven
voices, a four-part setting by Richard Davy of the Passion
according to St. Matthew, and a setting of the Apostles' Creed
in the form of a thirteen-part rota by Robert Wylkynson, who
was informator from 1500 to 1515.6

1 Unpublished Inventories.

2 The Eton inventories are printed in James, 'Chapel Inventories'.

3 MS. 178.

4 The Ancient Laws of King's and Eton, p. 552; the relevant part of the
statute is reprinted in Harrison, 'The Eton Choirbook', pp. 158-9.

6 Detailed catalogue in ibid., pp. 169-75, and in The Eton Choirbook, iii.
6 Unpublished Audit Rolls.

162

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Earlier the college had owned two 'bokes of prikked song',
one of which began Mud et and the other beata Dei1 on the
second folio, and also a 'boke for organys' beginning laris qui2
on the second folio, which was still in use in 1531. The inven-
tory containing these items is endorsed in a later hand: 'Roll
of what things the Provost was forced to deliver to the Dean
of Windsor in 1465', that is, when the college was threatened
with dissolution. The college accounts show that there were
one or more organs in the chapel from 1496-7 onwards, and
that payments were made in 1498-9 for regulating the magna
organa in choro, for making a lectern near the organ, and for a
door at the foot of the steps leading to the great organ.3 In
1506-7 John Howe, a famous name in organ-building in the
sixteenth century, was paid forty shillings for the carriage of a
new organ and for erecting it in the chapel.4 The college had
'iiii peare of organs, iii lytyl lectorns for orgayns' and 'hi formys
to the orgayns' in 1531, and in 1549 there were 'one little paire
of orgaynes in the Scholars Chamber and one other greate in
the quyar'.5

The choir of King's College also sang a polyphonic antiphon
every evening. The wording of the statute is similar to that for
Eton, though Salve regina was not specified for Lent.6 King's had
a book of cantus fractus in 1448-9,7 and three in 1452. 8 In 1495-6
the composer Thomas Farthyng, then a clerk in the choir, was
paid for writing music for the feast of St. Nicholas,9 and in

1 Probably the antiphon Beata Dei genitrix Maria.

2 The words singularis que occur in the sequence Ave mundi spes Maria.

3 Unpublished Account Rolls.

4 James, 'Organs and Organists in the College Accounts', p. 369. For the
work of the Howe family, see Sumner, The Organ, pp. 104-7.

5 James, 'Chapel Inventories'.

6 The Ancient Laws of King' 's and Eton, p. 107.

7 'It pro emend' unius libri de cantu fracto Et pro pellibus pro eadem
vs.' College Mundum Book.

8 These are described as: 'duo libri de cantu fracto quorum 2m fo unius
incipit Kirieleyson, It' 2m fo alius incipit Nos autem populus, It' alius liber de
cantu fracto emptus de Boston cuius 2m fo incipit fa sol la' (unpublished
inventory) . The words Nos autem populus occur in the Venite. The last item,
which is also in the 1529 inventory, may have been a book for teaching
descant.

9 'Thome ffarthyng pro notacione diversorum cantuum erga festa
Sancti Nicholai iis. Et eidem pro notacione diversorum librorum pro

163

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

1499-1500 payment was made to John Sygar, a chaplain and
the composer of a Magnificat (now incomplete) in the Eton
manuscript, for writing two Masses.1 These entries probably
refer to polyphonic music, and three among later entries cer-
tainly do so: they are payments in 1502-3 for binding and
covering a book of cantus fr actus* in the next year to Jaxson, a
chaplain, for noting Masses called Regali ex progenie and Lux
aeterna,3 and in 1508-9 to Sygar for noting two Masses, one of
which was called Per signum crucis, seven sequences composed
by Fayrfax and Cornysh and three sequences for Advent.4
Regali ex progenie is certainly the Mass by Fayrfax which has
survived elsewhere, and this entry is the first evidence concern-
ing its date to be discovered; no Masses Lux aeterna or Per
signum crucis are extant. Comparison with the Tnventarye of the
pryke songys longynge to the Kyngys College in Cambryge'
made in 15295 shows that Jaxson copied the two Masses named
in the entry towards the end of a set of six part-books on parch-
ment. The lost sequences by Fayrfax and Cornysh were almost
certainly the seven sequences for the daily Lady-Mass and the
others the three sequences for the Lady-Mass in Advent. The
books in which Sygar copied them may have been the 'iiii
bokys of papyr havynge Sequenses and Taverners Kyries'
which appear in the same inventory. There are no identified
survivals of this rich array of polyphonic books, which contained
Masses, antiphons, responds, settings of the Magnificat and Nunc
dimittis and some ritual items which, like many of the Masses,
reflect the dedication of the college to St. Nicholas.

In 1467-8 William Boston was paid for repairing both the

choristis viis viiid' and 'Thome ffarthyngpro notacione diversorum cantuum
viis.'

1 'Domino Johanni Sygar pro notacione duarum missarum pro qualibet
missa xiis. iid.'

2 'Waltero Hatley pro ligacione unius libri fracti cantus et pro coopertorio
ad eundem vs.'

3 'Dno Jaxson pro annotacione duarum missarum unius vocat' Regali ex
progenie et alterius lux eterna viiis.' The same year has also: 'Dno Jaxson
pro Annotacione Misse pro utraque parte chori iis. vid.'

4 'Dno Sygar notatione duarum missarum in librum collegii quarum una
vocat' per signum crucis et cum notacione vii sequentiarum ex compositione
ffayrfax et Cornysshe et iii sequentiarum pro adventu iis iiiid. . . . iiiis.
viiid.'

5 Printed below, p. 432.

164

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

great and small organs at King's,1 and payments for the main-
tenance of organs occur at intervals thereafter. There is an
entry in 1507-8 for mending the new organ, and Thomas
Browne, organmaker, was paid two years later for mending the
great organ.2 The chapel inventories of 1506 and 1529 show
an Antiphonal pro organis beginning at the second folio with
Qui mittendus est. These words occur in Non auferetur, the third
respond at Matins on the fourth Sunday in Advent.

The surviving music of Davy and Sheppard testifies to the
great accomplishments of the choir of Magdalen during the
first half-century of its history, while the accounts of that period3
show how generous was the provision made by the college for
the chapel and its services. Among the early payments referring
to polyphonic books are one in 1484-5 to the instructor of the
choristers for parchment to make books of 'set song' and one
in 1 490- 1 to William Barnard, who shared the post of instructor
with Davy, for new books de cantu fracto. John Cornysh worked
at Magdalen at various times as scribe and binder of chapel
books,4 and in 1502-3 John Shevane was paid for two books
of cantus fr actus. Some books de cantu crispo were bound and re-
paired in 1505-6, and in 151 5-1 6 Dom Newman received a
payment for various books de cantu diviso which he had bought
and given into the care of Robert Perrott, the informator. Further
entries in the accounts record payments in 1519-20 to George
Roper for a Mass de cantu fracto which he got from Master
Skokysley;5 to Master Burges6 in 1 530-1 'pro rescriptione le pryck-

1 'Pro reparacione organorum parvorum viis. iiiid.' and 'pro reparacione
magnorum organorum xxs.'

2 'Uno emendanti nova organa vis. viiid.' and 'pro emendacione mag-
norum organorum xls.'

3 Printed in Bloxam, Register of Magdalen, ii, pp. 258 sqq.; Macray,
Register of Magdalen, ii, pp. 3 sqq.

4 In 1488-9: 'Sol Johanni Cornyshe pro scriptura officii Visitationis
B. Mariae tarn in gradalibus quam in Antiphonariis viis. viiid'; in 1502-3:
'Cornysshe pro hymnali xxviis. viid.' The latter entry may refer to Thomas
Cornysh, who received 6s. 2d. in 1508-9 for writing three tabulae for the
hall, and, with his son, a number of payments for repairing chapel books
in 1511-12. A man who brought some songs from Edward Martyn
(Fellow, 1 495-1 504) in 1506-7 was paid eight pence, and in 1509-10 Turton
was paid three shillings and four pence 'pro notacione diversorum cantuum'.

5 John Stoksley, Fellow from c. 1495 and later Bishop of London.
'John Burgess, a Fellow in 1505.

165

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

song bokys'; to the clerk Wells in 1532 'pro le prykkyng quatuor
missas 8 partium* and 'pro le prykkyng duas missas quatuor partium' ;
to the clerk Noland in the same year 'pro le prykkyng unam
missarrf ; to Sheppard for books of music in 1 547 (twelve books)
and 1548; and to a priest in 1540 for noting the Passion and
some antiphons. The payment made to one or more of the
clerks for playing the organ is described as pro organis or pulsanti
organa or, as in 1 530-1 to Perrott, pro pulsatione organorum diebus
festis per totum annum.

It appears from some entries in the accounts that the Jesus-
Mass on Fridays during Lent was sung by the clerks only, the
daily Lady-Mass being sung by the choristers. These entries
concern rewards in the form of breakfasts (jantaculi), oysters,
bread and drink which were given to the clerks for their singing
of the Jesus-Mass, and also of the Lady-Mass while the choris-
ters were away during the plague, when most of the members of
the college migrated to one of its properties in the country.

The inventories of the chapel books made in i486 and in
14951 give no details about the polyphonic music, merely not-
ing that the libit de cantu diviso were in the custody of the
informator, but the numbers of plainsong service-books are worth
noticing. In 1495 there were fifteen Antiphonals on each side,
besides three other Antiphonals, one of which was for the
organ; thirteen Graduals on the president's side and sixteen on
the vice-president's, of which one was for the rulers and another
for the organ, besides six other Graduals; sixty-seven Proces-
sionals; nineteen Missals; and one or two each of the other
necessary books, including two noted Hymnals and an Ordinal.
In the inventory of 1522-4 the polyphonic music is described
in unusually informative detail in a section which is reprinted
here in full.2 Except for one book called le Base all the music
was in choirbooks, and the nine 'most beautiful' books among
these contained the main items in the choir's repertory, con-
sisting of Masses, antiphons, and settings of the Magnificat and
Nunc dimittis for five to seven parts. The music of the Lady-
Mass, which included settings of the Kyrie, Alleluia and Se-
quence, was sung in four parts, apparently by boys or men only,

1 The Magdalen Inventories are printed in Macray, Register of Magdalen,
ii, pp. 198 sqq.

2 Ibid., pp. 209 sqq.; reprinted below, p. 431.

166

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

and antiphons in four parts were also provided. A printed
Missal and six printed Hymnals 'chained in the choir' were
added to this inventory during the following years.

Payments for organ repairs appear in the Magdalen ac-
counts in 1 48 1 -2 and in 1486-7. The great organ was built by
William Wotton, who was paid fourteen pounds in part pay-
ment in 1486-7 and the balance of fourteen pounds in the
following year. There are many entries concerning organs in
subsequent years. Those named in payments for working at the
organs are Wotton in 1488-9, for mending the small organ;
John Chamberlayn in 1508-9 and the following year; Vicarye, a
clerk, in 1509-10; Simon in 1519-20; magister Barbhye in 1522,
for mending the small organ; John Hanson and John Showt,
the latter for working on the new organ, in 1529-30; John
Sarte (= Showt ?) in 1 530-1; magister Whyte, for mending
three organs, and John Carpenter, for mending the wood {teed)
of the organ in the choir and for work on the small organ, in
1 53 1-2; Whyte, for mending two organs, John Kever, for
mending the bellows of the new organ, and Richard Benton,
for mending the bellows of the organ in the choir, in 1532-3;
Benton (Beynton) in 1535, for mending two organs; Whyte in
1539, 1542 and 1545; and Butson in 1543, for repairing the
organ in the choir.

In i486 Warden Richard Fitzjames, afterwards Bishop of
London, and the Fellows of Merton decided to build a new
rood-loft,1 and when it was finished in 1488 they signed a con-
tract for a new organ to be installed in it. In the contract it was
agreed that ' Wylliam Wotton off the seyde Town off Oxefforde
organmaker . . . schall make or cawse to be made a goode and
suffycyent payr of organs lyke on to the new payr off organs
wych he promysyd to make and sett up withyn Maudelene
College off Oxfforde aforesayde', the cost to be twenty-eight
pounds.2 It was decided in the following year that one of the
chaplains in cantu doctior should act as precentor, and John
Davres was appointed to the office.3 During the following years
the chapel services were elaborated, new choir-stalls were made,
and vestments, ornaments, books and an image and reliquary
for the high altar were given to the chapel by the Warden and

1 See below, p. 209. 2 Registrum Collegii Mertonensis, p. iog.

3 Ibid., p. 121.

167

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

other donors. All the postmasters at this time had to be able to
sing so that they could act as a choir, and in 1507 it was decided
that the eight senior Masters should not accept scholars unless
they could sing plainsong, and that the scholars of the other
Masters and the commoners must be able to sing polyphonic
music ('cantum fractum scilicet pryckdsong', with a few notes in
the margin of the Register for illustration) . x The Fellows also
agreed to provide the stipend for a cantor, presumably to
direct the polyphonic music. However, this attempt to create a
polyphonic choir within the framework of an existing founda-
tion did not meet with success. It proved to be difficult to
find enough scholars with these qualifications and to prevent
them going elsewhere after they were found, and in 1519 the
decree was modified to allow Masters to accept philosophy as
an alternative qualification.2

Under Wolsey's statutes for Cardinal College, three anti-
phons, one to the Trinity, one to St. William of York3 and one
to the Virgin, were sung daily intorto cantu out diviso, after the
chaplains and clerks had sung Vespers and Compline some
time after four o'clock. At seven o'clock all the choristers and
their instructor, with the chaplains and clerks who had been
assigned by the precentor, went into chapel again and sang a
polyphonic setting of Salve regina; then a chorister sang the
versicle Ave Maria and a prayer, and all knelt and sang
solemniter the antiphon Ave Maria, which was divided into three
sections by the ringing of a bell. The informator and the choristers
then went into the nave of the chapel and, kneeling before the
Crucifix, sang the antiphon Sancte Deus, sancte fortis in poly-
phony.4 In Henry VIII's statutes the order of the evening
antiphons was changed, and Sancte Deus, sancte fortis was sung
in the nave after the Mary-antiphon had been sung in the choir;
then three bells were rung three times, and in the intervals
the choristers sang 'intorto cantu quern pricked appellant' the 'salu-
tation of Gabriel', with Ave Maria in the first two intervals and
Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum in the third interval.5

1 Registrum Collegii Mertonensis, p. 352. 2 Ibid., p. 485.

3 William Fitzherbert, Archbishop of York, who died in 1 154 and was
canonized in 1226.

4 Statutes of Cardinal College, p. 57.

5 Statutes of King Henry VllVs College, pp. 188-9.

168

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

The 'bukis for the Quher' of St. Salvator's College at St.
Andrew's are listed in an inventory of the late fifteenth or early
sixteenth century.1 They included 'ane gret prykkyt sang buk
and tua smallar of prekyt senggyn', and as later additions two
sets of part-books described as 'Item off sang bukis with v messis
v bukis' and 'Item iiii bukis with iiii messis and antemnis'. At
St. Leonard's College it was found impossible to carry out Prior
Hepburn's wish that the services should be 'adorned with
descant', probably because provision had not been made for a
definite choral establishment. The statutes of 1 544 ordered High
Mass on festivals to be sung in cantu gregoriano, Vespers in cantu
gregoriano devote non sincopando nee varia out impertinentia colloquendo,
while the Salve and the commemorations of St. Andrew and St.
Leonard in the evening were to be sung by all alta voce. Prior
John Wynram emphasized this return to a simpler ritual at his
visitation in the following year by directing that all members of
the college should learn to sing the chant, so that Mass could
be sung 'without dissonance', and that difficult Masses should
not be attempted.2 At Aberdeen, on the other hand, Bishop
Elphinstone made careful provision for the singing of polyphony
at St. Mary's College by requiring that the eight priests who
held prebendaries should be skilled in 'cantu gregoriano, rebus
factis3 videlicet prik singin, jigurationef faburdon,5 cum mensuris et
discantu\ or at least in ' 'cantu gregoriano, rebus factis, faburdon et
jiguratione' '. Every evening at six, between Vespers and supper,
all the members of the college were to sing sollemniter cum organis
et cantu, in the intervals between twelve strokes of the great bell,
the three antiphons Salve regina, Angelus ad virginem and Sub
tuam protectionem.6

1 Printed in Cant, College of St. Salvator, pp. 152-63.

2 Herkless and Hannay, The College of St. Leonard's, pp. 147, 200.

3 Compare the use of this expression, also as a general term for polyphony,
in a document of the Sainte Chapelle, Paris: 'Et cantabitur dictum respon-
sorium [Gaude Maria] in pleno [sic] cantu duntaxat sine rebus factis . . .
Postea vero in organis cantabitur Inviolata cum versiculo et oratione', etc.;
printed in Brenet, Les Musiciens de la Sainte-Chapelle, p. 43.

4 Probably ornamentation of plainsong for polyphonic setting in faburden
or otherwise. See below, p. 231.

5 See below, p. 249.

8 Fasti Aberdonenses, p. 60.

169

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Household Chapels

The Old Hall manuscript provided music for the singing of
Mass with polyphony in the Royal Household Chapel every
day, including ferias. The daily singing of the Lady-Mass may
have been added to the duties of the singers after Henry VI
reached his majority, contemporary with his founding of Eton
and King's, for a payment was made to John Plummer in
1444 for supervising the 'daily Mass of our Lady and divine
service in our Chapel of the Household'.1 The ordinances of
Edward IV's chapel point out that 'Oure Lady masse preest
and the Gospeller are assigned by the deane, and if the King
be present when he redith the Passion on Palme Sonday, it
hath ben accustomed the gospeller to be served with a lamprey,
and when the chappell synge mattyns overnight, called Blanke
Mattyns, or elles solempne dyryges for the Kinge's fader or
moder, then is there allowed to them comfettes and wine'.2 The
attendance of the choir at Matins at All Saints and Christmas
is confirmed by payments in 15 14 to the choristers for singing
Audivi, and in 1513 to William Cornysh for the singing of
Audivi on All-Hallows Day and for the singing of Gloria in excelsis
on the following Christmas Day. 3 In 1474 Edward IV also made
ordinances for the household of his four-year-old son, Edward,
later the tragic Edward V, in which he ordered that two of
the prince's chaplains should 'save masse and devyne servyce
before our sayde sonne' and that 'every day be sayd masse in the
hall for the offycers of houshoulde to begin at sixe of the clocke
in the morninge and at vii mattins to begin in the chappell,
and at nine a masse by note with children'. The 'sonnes of
nobles lords and gentlemen being in housholde with our sayde
sonne' were to 'arise at a convenyent hower and here theire
masse and be vertuously brought uppe and taughte in grammer
musicke and other cuninge and exercises of humanitye accord-
ing to theire byrthes and after their adges'.4 Henry VII's son
Arthur Prince of Wales (1486-1502) also had his own chapel,
of which John Nele was dean.5

1 Roper, 'The Chapels Royal', p. 22.

2 A Collection of Ordinances, p. 100.

3 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II, ii, pp. 1463-4, 1466.

4 A Collection of Ordinances, p. 29.

6 In 1496. Calendar of Patent Rolls 1494.-1509, p. 83.
170

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

An exchange of letters between Cardinal Wolsey and Richard
Pace, Dean of Henry VIII's chapel, tells of the virtually
enforced transfer of a chorister from Wolsey's chapel to the
King's. Pace wrote to Wolsey on March 25, 15 18:

'My lord, if it were not for the personal love that the King's
highness doth bear unto your grace, surely he would have out
of your chapel not children only, but also men; for his grace
hath plainly shown unto Cornysche that your Grace's Chapel
is better than his, and proved the same by this reason that if
any manner of new song should be brought into both the said
Chapels to be sung ex improviso then the said song should be
better and more surely handled by your chapel than by his
Grace's';

and again on the following day:

'The King has spoken to me again about the child of your
Chapel. He is desirous to have it without the procuring of
Cornish or other.' Three days later Pace wrote at the King's
command to thank Wolsey for the child, and on April 1st to
say that 'Cornyshe doth greatly laud and praise the child of
your chapel sent hither, not only for his sure and cleanly sing-
ing but also for his good and crafty descant and doth in like
manner extol Mr. Pygote for the teaching of him'.1

The excellence of Henry's chapel was remarked on by Sagu-
dino in a letter to the Signory of Venice giving an account of
the reception of the Venetian ambassadors in 1515. On June 6
the King invited the ambassadors and their retinue to Richmond
Palace to hear Mass and dine with him: 'so they went to church,
and after a grand procession had been made, high mass was
sung by the King's choristers, whose voices are more divine
than human; non cantavano ma giubilavano; and as to the counter-
bass voices, they probably have not their equal in the world'.2

In 1526 Henry ordered that only a part of the Household
Chapel should travel with him when he was away from West-
minster 'in his castle of Windsor, his Mannors of Bewlye,
Richmond and Hampton Court, Greenwich, Eltham or Wood-
stock ... at all such tymes . . . the King's noble chappell to be

1 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II, ii, pp. 1246, 1249, 1252.

2 Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, ii, p. 247.

171

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

kept in the same place, for the administration of divine service,
as apperteyneth'. The ordinance continued:

'Nevertheless, forasmuch as it is goodly and honourable that
there should be allwayes some divine service in the court,
whereby men might be elected unto the devotion, and that it
would not only be a great annoyance but also excessive labour,
travell, charge and paine to have the King's whole chappell
continually attendant upon his person when his Grace keepeth
not his hall, and specially in rideing journeys and progresses;
it is for the better administration of divine service ordeyned that
the master of the children and six men, with some officers of
the vestry, shall give their continuall attendance in the King's
court, and dayly, in absence of the residue of the chappell,
to have a masse of our Lady before noone, and on Sundays and
holydayes masse of the day besides our Lady masse and an
antheme in the afternoone; for which purpose no great carriage,
either of vestments or bookes shall be required: the said persons
to have allowance of board wages or bouch of court, with lodge-
ing in or neere to the same, and convenient carriage, as in
such case hath been accustomed.' 1

Henry VIII's Book of Payments shows that he paid Fayrfax
comparatively large sums for books of polyphonic music in
1516 (thirteen pounds, six shillings and eight pence), 15 17 and
1 5 18 (both twenty pounds), and that a priest of London was
paid in 1515 for composing 'an anthem of defuse museke' for
the King.2 In 15 15 Cornysh received a payment for 'Mr. Gyles
who played on the organs in the chapel', and in June of the
following year Benet (Benedictus) de Opitiis, 'player at organs',
was appointed 'to wait on the King in his chamber'.3 Payments
relating to organs include one of twenty-six pounds, thirteen
shillings and fourpence for a new organ at Richmond in 1510,
a year's payment in 15 14 to William Lewes, organmaker and
keeper of the King's instruments, and a payment in 1518 to
'two men of London, for mending the organs at Woodstock,
and transporting the organ of Woodstock parish church to the
manor of Woodstock, and thence back again to the church'.4

1 A Collection of Ordinances, p. 160.

2 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II, ii, pp. 1469, 1473, 1476.

3 Ibid., pp. 1467, 1472. 4 Ibid., pp. 1449, 1478.

172

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

The chapel of Cardinal Beaufort is mentioned in the Canter-
bury Chronicle of John Stone, who records that during the
Cardinal's visit to Canterbury in November-December 1438
John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, the Cardinal's nephew, heard
the Lady-Mass Rorate caeli sung with polyphony [cum organo),
in which the Cardinal's chapel took part.1 About a year before
this the Priory of Winchester wrote to Beaufort seeking a place
in the chapel of the Cardinal for Robert Bygbroke, a priest
who taught the novices singing and played the organ.2 The
chapel of Archbishop Stafford took part in Thomas Goldston's
celebration of his first Mass as Prior of Canterbury on Easter
Tuesday in 1449, when a Gloria by Gydney was sung (Et ibidem
cantaverunt : Et in terra Gydney). A John Gydney was one of the
two masters of the grammar schools of the city of Canterbury
in 1464.3

The household chapel choir of Henry Percy, fifth Earl of
Northumberland (d. 1527), sang music in five parts, for the
gentlemen were divided into tenors, countertenors and basses,
and the children into trebles and second trebles in one list,
trebles and means in another. The whole choir sang Matins,
Mass and Vespers every day, while the Lady-Mass was sung
by the master of the children, who was a countertenor, and
three other gentlemen, except on Fridays and days on which
the Earl was present, when it was sung by the whole choir.4
On the death of the fifth Earl, Cardinal Wolsey demanded and
obtained from his son the books of the Northumberland chapel,
which are described in a letter from the sixth Earl to Wolsey's
gentleman Thomas Arundel as 'iiii anteffonars, such as I
thynk wher nat seen a gret wyll; v grails, an ordeorly, a manual,
viii prossessioners, and ffor all the ressidew, they are not worth
the sending nor ever was occupyed in my lords chapel'.5 The
household of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond (d. 1536),
had four chaplains; the number of singers is not recorded, but
the books of his chapel included 'a boke prykked with keryes'

1 The Chronicle of John Stone, p. 22.

2 Register I (1 345-1 496) in the Cathedral Library, fo. 54.

3 The Chronicle of John Stone, pp. 46, 90.

4 Regulations and Establishment of the Household of the Fifth Earl of Northumber-
land, pp. 367-76.

6 Hawkins, History of Music, i, pp. 385-6.
M.M.B. — N 173

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

and 'a grete Booke of masse, prykked'.1 An inventory of the
books of the Chapel Royal of Scotland in Stirling Castle made
in 1505, two years after James IV's new foundation, includes
two volumes on parchment with notes 'de ly faburdone'.2

Collegiate Churches

At St. George's, Windsor, payments to one of the clerks for
playing the organ at services {pro divinis in organis exequendis
or solempnizandis) are recorded from 1406—7 onwards,3 and
in 1 41 6-1 7 the chapel bought fifteen sheets of vellum for a
book called 'Organboke',4 which was probably a book of poly-
phonic choral music. From 1461-3, in 1469, and again for some
years after 1477 Thomas Rolfe, a clerk, was paid for playing the
organ both in chow and ad missam beate Marie virginis, and from
the time of the refoundation by Edward IV the accounts
record new payments to the informator and to the choristers for
singing the antiphon Nunc Christe te petimus, a part of the text
of Sancte Deus, sancte fortis which was commonly sung as a
Jesus-antiphon. A payment to one or more of the clerks for
playing the organ appears regularly during this period, and
was increased when Richard Woods took over the duties in
1496.5

At the visitations of Southwell Minster in 1481, 1484 and
1490 many of the vicars complained about the quarrels in their
house and the discord in choir due to Thomas Cartwright's
arrogant assumption of superior knowledge of music and his
outlandish way of singing faburden. In 1484, for example, Keyll
deposed that Cartwright sang faburden in so strange a way
that the other singers could not make concord with him, and
Rochell reported that while Cartwright sat by the fire in the
vicars' hall he upbraided his fellows for their singing, exalting
his knowledge above theirs, and his boasts led to brawling

1 Camden Miscellany, III, pp. xxiv, 14.

2 Rogers, History of the Chapel Royal of Scotland, p. 78.

3 Fellowes, Windsor Organists, pp. 4-6.

4 'Et in xv pellibus de velym emptis in Wyndesore pro uno libro vocato
Organboke continento v quaternos quolibet quaterno iii pellium videlicet
xii folia vis. iiid.' Bond, Windsor Inventories, p. 214.

6 Treasurer's Rolls.

174

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

among the others.1 It had been observed in 1478 that the sing-
ing was unsatisfactory because there were no rulers and no suc-
centor, and at the visitation by Dr. Fitzherbert, the residentiary,
in 1503 it was ordered that someone sufficiently skilled should
begin the responds, antiphons and other chants, and that the
music on feasts of nine lessons, in commemorations and in im-
portant octaves should be performed with chant in faburden
and with the organ, so that there would be a distinction between
services cum regimine chori and ferial services.2 A complaint was
made at the visitation in 1508 that Thomas Steill was sometimes
unwilling to sing his part in 'pryksonge' at the lectern, and
either stood in his stall or sat there reading a book.3 All this
suggests that Southwell was being brought up to date in its
musical arrangements, but with some difficulty. In 15 19 the
deacons and subdeacons were reproved for coming late to Lady-
Mass, and George Vincent was reprimanded for being absent
from choir very often 'so that the organ was not played at the
services, which it was his duty to do'.4

There was an organ at Ripon in 1399,5 and there are
records of payments to a vicar for singing Mass in the Lady-
chapel and for playing the organ from the mid-fifteenth century
onwards.6 Lawrence Lancaster was paid as organist {pro lusione
super organa) in 1475-6, and later there was a further payment

1 'Dominus Thomas Cartwright cantat faburdon tali extraneo modo quod
ceteri chorales nequeunt cum eo concordare'; 'Dominus Thomas sedens
prope ignem in domo Vicariorum reprobat consortes suos in cantando et
se prae ceteris in scientia cantus commendat, ut ex jactura sua alii ministri
excitantur ad rixas'. Visitations and Memorials of Southwell, p. 46. Cartwright
moved to York and continued his quarrelsome habits there, for in 1499-
1 500 he and Thomas Becklay, vicars of York, were fined for using 'oppro-
brious words' to one another. Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, p. 73.
Cartwright's name is among the vicars of York in 1492 and 1502-3.
Bursar's Rolls in the Minster Library.

2 Visitations and Memorials of Southwell, pp. 34, 74.

3 'Idem Dominus Thomas non est pronus neque voluntarius interdum ad
cantandum le pryksong ad lectrinum sed aliquando stat in stallo aliquando
sedet legendo super libros et minime cantat'. Ibid., p. 80.

4 Ibid., pp. 85, 87.

6 'Et in ii corriis equinis emptis pro iiii paribus belows organorum de novo
faciendis 2s. 8d.', and other entries. Memorials of Ripon, iii, p. 132.

6 The earliest recorded is in 1447-8: 'Et in solut Thomae Litster capellano
pro missa cantanda in capella Beatae Mariae infra ecclesiam Ripon et ad
ludendum super organicis per annum, 10s.' Ibid., p. 239.

175

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

for 'keeping' the Lady-Mass 'with note and organ' (cum nota et
organis custodienda) . x A new statute of 1 503 ordered that no vicar
or deacon should be admitted unless he could sing plainsong
and polyphony (cantum planum et etiam fraction viz prykesange),
and that the deacons, subdeacons, thuriblers and choristers
should attend the schools of grammar and song. 2 At Beverley
George Morsell was master of the choristers and 'conduct' of
the Lady-Mass and Jesus-Mass in 153 1-2. 3

Polyphonic music was certainly sung at Fotheringhay and
Tattersall, for the composer William Typp was precentor at
Fotheringhay in 1438, and John Taverner was at Tattersall
before going to Cardinal College. Under the revised statutes of
1491 all the vicars of St. Mary Newarke were obliged to sing at
Matins and High Mass, and six vicars or more, as the dean
should decide, at the daily Lady-Mass in the Lady-chapel, un-
less it was sung solemnly, probably meaning in polyphony, by
the boys and two or three vicars, when the other vicars were
excused.4 The books of St. Mary's collegiate church and alms-
house at Ewelme (Oxfordshire), founded in 1437 by William
de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, included a 'large boke of prykked
songe, bounden and covered with rede lether'.5

In 15 1 7 St. Mary's church in Crail (Fifeshire) was raised into
a collegiate church by Sir William Myrton, who provided en-
dowments to maintain a provost, a sacristan, ten prebendaries
and four choristers. He also founded a grammar school and a
song school, where the scholars were to be taught discantus and
precantus, which probably means singing the solo parts in plain-
song. Five years later William Tumour was appointed to the
chaplaincy of the Holy Rood in the rood-loft (in solid), which
carried with it the duty of playing the organ 'according to
usage, in the college kirk, in his habit, in the quire, at daily
mattins, the Lord's mass [recte Lady-Mass ?], Ave gloriosa, high
mass, and vespers'. The antiphon Ave gloriosa was apparently

1 Lancaster was still organist in 1502-3. The names of later organists
recorded are John Watson (1511-12), William Swawe (1513-14), Adam
Bakhouse (1 520-1 and 1525-6) and William Solber (1 540-1).

2 Memorials of Ripon, pp. 276, 280.

3 Memorials of Beverley, pp. lxv, civ.

4 Thompson, Newarke Hospital and College, p. 127.

5 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Eighth Report, 1881, p. 629. The
statutes of Ewelme are in the Ninth Report, 1 883-4, PP- 2 J 7 scVl'

176

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

sung at or before High Mass, and an antiphon was also sung
every evening in the aisle of the church, followed by prayers
for the soul of the founder. x

Secular Cathedrals

A Chapter Act of Lincoln in 1432 refers to four of the vicars
as 'singers at the daily mass of St. Mary called Salve sancta
parens*,* and an entry of two years later shows that this mass
was sung in polyphony. 3 By this time polyphony was also sung
at the regular service in choir, since Dean Macworth com-
plained to the Bishop at his visitation in 1437 that some of the
canons took the best singers of polyphonic music (meliores or-
ganistas) with them when they censed the altars in the cathedral,
to the detriment of the ritual of the choir (in divini cultus diminu-
tionem in chow) . Bishop Alnwick ordered the canons to cease this
practice and to provide themselves at their own expense with a
chaplain or clerk, as laid down in the statutes and customs.4
When William Horwood was appointed instructor of the
choristers in 1477 his duties were defined as teaching them
'playnsong, pryksong, faburdon, diskant and cownter,5 as well
as in playing the organ and especially those whom he shall find
apt to learn the clavychordes'.6 Thomas Ashewell occupied this
post in 1508 and William Freeman was appointed to it in
1524, while on March 25 of the same year John Gilbert
(instructor, 1518-24) was appointed to play the organ at the
Lady-Mass and on Sundays and principal double feasts.7 In
1535 Robert Dove (Dowffe) was receiving payments for playing
the organ at the Lady-Mass and Jesus-Mass, and he was also
being paid, with two other vicars, for singing at the Lady-Mass.8
The posts of instructor and organist were combined in 1539,
when James Crawe became master of the choristers and player
of the organ (pulsans organa) at the Lady-Mass and in the choir

1 Register of the Collegiate Church of Craill, pp. 4, 12, 33, 49.

2 Lincoln Statutes, iii, p. 471.

3 Maddison, Vicars-choral of Lincoln, p. 61.

4 Lincoln Statutes, iii, pp. 366, 200.

5 I.e., improvised descant below the plainsong.

6 Lincoln Chapter Acts 1536-47, p. 3 1 .

7 Maddison, Vicars-Choral of Lincoln, p. 81.

8 Lincoln Chapter Acts 1536-47, pp. 192-5.

177

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

on double feasts, feasts of nine lessons and Sundays, and at
commemorations of St. Mary and St. Hugh. Crawe or his
deputy was to teach the choristers in

'scientia cantus, viz. playnsonge, prykyd song, faburdon, diskante
and counter and also in playing the organs in the cathedral
especially two or three of them whom he or his deputy shall
find fit, docile and suitable to be taught to play on the instru-
ments called clavichordes in future provided always that the
boys to be taught in this science of organ-playing shall have
and find the instruments called clavichordes at their own
proper cost and expense'.1

Thomas Appleby, who had been appointed choirmaster in
1538, was joint informator with 'Master Jaquet' at Magdalen
College in 1 539, 2 but was reappointed to Lincoln on November
26, 1541.3

John Kegewyn's appointment as instructor of the choristers
at Salisbury in 1463 carried with it the duty of 'serving the
Lady-Mass with organ at the same and other antiphons at all
the accustomed times'.4 Thomas Saintwix or Seintjust (d. 1467),
the first recorded Doctor of Music of a university (Cambridge,
before 1463),5 who held many preferments from time to time,
was precentor of Salisbury during the last year of his life.6
A document of 1497 which seems to be the only surviving ac-
count roll of the college of vicars of Salisbury during this period
shows payments to the organist of the Lady-chapel and to
seven vicars for keeping the Lady-Mass.7 John Wever was
instructor of the choristers from c. 1509 to 1528,8 and his suc-
cessor (1529) was the composer Thomas Knyght, whose duties,

1 Lincoln Chapter Acts 1536-47, p. 52.

2 In 1537: 'Solut Mro Jakett Instructori Choristarum hoc anno L8'; in
1539: 'Solut Mro Jaquet et Mro Applebie Informatoribus Chorustarum
L8\ Bloxam, Register of Magdalen, ii, pp. 270-1.

3 Lincoln Chapter Acts 1536-47, p. 56.

4 'Et quod servabit missam beate marie cum organis ad eamdem et alias
antiphonas in omnibus temporibus secundum formam et consuetudinem in
ea parte diucius usitatus et observatus'. Salisbury Muniments, Newton
Register, p. 57.

6 Abdy-Williams, Degree in Music, p. 153.

6 Jones, Fasti Ecclesiae Sarisburiensis, p. 331.

7 Salisbury Muniments. 8 Ibid., Choristers' Accounts.

178

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

as prescribed in a deed of 1538, included playing the organ and
teaching the choristers 'playnsonge, prycksonge, faburdon or
distento'.1 Knyght was appointed sub-treasurer of the cathedral
in 1537, and in 1546 held the prebendary of Ruscombe,2 con-
tinuing his duties as choirmaster, however, at least until 1549.
At Wells annual payments for keeping the organ appear from
1392-3 onwards. Robert Catour, who devised the rules for the
choristers afterwards approved by Bishop Bekynton, fulfilled
this duty for some fifteen years after 1445, and in 146 1-2 he
shared the stipend with four other vicars, one of whom was
Ricardus Hugonis,3 that is, Richard Hygons, who had been a
vicar from 1459. 4 The deed of Hygons's appointment as Master
of the Choristers in 14795 contains the fullest extant statement of
the duties of an informator and organist of this period. Hygons
was to instruct the choristers in plainsong, mensural music and
descant, and to teach playing the organ to those who had the
talent. He was to sing at the daily Lady-Mass in the Lady-
chapel6 behind the high altar (which had been completed in
1477), and at the Mary-antiphon before her image at the north
side of the choir-door on the accustomed days and times.7
Immediately after the Mary-antiphon on Sundays he was to
direct the choristers in singing the Jesus-antiphon before the
great cross in the nave. He was also to be in his place in the
second form in choir on the precentor's side, beside the leader
of that side {prope repetitorem) , at High Mass and Vespers on
Sundays and festivals, and at Matins when sung in the evening
before their proper day. Bishop Bekynton's rules ordered that

1 Robertson, Sarum Close, p. 122.

2 Harward's Memorials, p. 75; Holt Register, p. 17; Choristers' Accounts.

3 Transcripts by W. E. Daniel of Compotus Rolls, in the Cathedral
Muniments.

4 Register of Thomas Bekynton, p. 328: 'Richard Hygons, vicar choral, col-
lated to the sixth chamber on the east side of the Vicars' Close, September 18,

1459'-

5 Appendix I, p. 425 below.

6 Ten vicars, chosen by the 'principals', received seven pence a week for
singing the service of the Virgin in the Lady Chapel. Dean Cosyn and Wells
Cathedral Miscellanea, p. 16.

7 In 1393-4 tne choristers were paid twenty shillings for singing the Mary-
antiphon in the nave, and in 141 7-1 8 the same for singing the Mary-
antiphon 'before the image of the Virgin by the door of the choir'. Manu-
scripts of the Dean and Chapter of Wells, i, pp. 276, 278.

179

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

the master was to begin the day's schooling by instructing the
choristers in plainsong and polyphony, taking care to give them
high or low parts according to the range of their voice.1

In 1507 Hygons undertook to pay Richard Bramston, alias
Smith, for teaching the choristers, and Bramston was also ap-
pointed to 'keep and play the organs' in the choir and Lady-
chapel.2 The act of the Sub-dean and Chapter which ordered
John Clausay (Clavelshay) to take over these duties in the
following year required him to teach the choristers ad cantandum
et discantandum. 3 Clausay died soon afterwards, and in 1 5 1 2 John
Gye received a special payment for his diligent instruction of the
boys and for his music in the services (laudibus organicis).* John
Gaylard was granted permission to be absent from Matins,
except on festivals, for the first quarter of 1 5 1 4 on condition that
he teach the choristers singing,5 but Bramston apparently re-
tained his office in absentia for some time,6 for in 1531 his leave
of absence from the posts of instructor of the choristers and
master of the works was confirmed, and on the same day he
surrendered both offices for a pension of four pounds, the equi-
valent of their combined stipends.7 In 1538 John Smyth was
granted a chantry and leave to be absent from Matins, except
on festivals, in recognition of his diligence in teaching the
choristers and composing music for the services,8 and was re-

1 See page 11, n. 3, above.

2 July 23. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, pp. 223-4.

3 April 1 1. Ibid., p. 225. Clausay was already old enough in 1504 to be
excused from attendance at Matins on account of his age. Ibid., p. 212.

4 Gye was afterwards a Canon and Registrar of the Court of the Arch-
deaconry. Manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Wells, ii, pp. 231, 245, 259.

5 Ibid., p. 236.

6 In 15 10, however, complaint was made in the Chapter that Bramston,
'sometime vicar', had come to the cathedral in disguise to steal Farr, one
of the best choristers, and it was suggested that a move should be made
to obtain the King's protection against 'such unfittyng labours against the
Cathedral Church so sett quasi in culo mundV. It was thought that the oppor-
tunity should be taken of getting royal permission for the cathedral 'to have
any childe in Monasteryes or any other place Withyn the diocese to serve
Seynt Andrewe'. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, p. 231.

7 Manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Wells, ii, pp. 700-1. He is listed
among the vicars in 1542, 1548-9, 1551, and 1553; in 1553-4 Thomas
Hooper was executor of his will. Vicars' Minute-Book 1542-93 in the
Cathedral Muniments.

8 'Nonullos cantus ad divini cultus augmentacionem.'

180

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

quired to provide books of polyphonic music (cantuum crisporum
sive diversorum) , commonly called 'square books1 and pricke
song books', for the principal feasts.2

By 1507 the vicars of York had to undertake to study poly-
phonic singing before they were allowed to share in the college
revenues; each new vicar was to take an oath that he would
learn to sing 'prikson' and faburden if he had a tenor voice, or
descant, pricksong and faburden if his voice was not a tenor.
There is some evidence that from early in the sixteenth
century lay 'singing-men' were employed by the vicars to sing
parts in polyphonic music.3 In 1458 an indulgence of forty
days was offered to those attending the Mass and antiphon of
the Name of Jesus for the well-being of the King and realm
before the crucifix near the south door of the Minster.4 The
payments recorded to the choristers 'for the antiphon' in the
vicars' accounts between 1474 and 15 19 may have been for the
singing of the Jesus-antiphon.5

As part of his donations to Chichester Cathedral, Bishop
Sherborne provided about 1530 a foundation of four lay-clerks.
They were to be singers of polyphonic music, for their voices
were to blend well together, and one at least should be a good
natural bass, while their combined voices should have a range
of fifteen or sixteen notes.6 The duties of the Sherborne clerks
were to sing at High Mass and the Lady-Mass7 in the Lady-
chapel each day, and at Matins on the principal feasts.8
Sherborne also provided for the singing of an antiphon of St.
Katherine by the vicars and choristers on the vigil of her feast

1 See below, pp. 290-1.

2 Manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Wells, ii, p. 248.

3 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, pp. 63, 238.

4 York Fabric Rolls, p. 240. 5 See above, p. 84.

6 'Statuimus ordinamus et volumus quod sint quatuor clerici laici con-
cinuas voces habentes et musica docti. quorum unus ad minus semper sit
basse naturalis et audibilis vocis. aliorum vero trium voces sint suaves et
canore. ita quod a commune vocum succentu possint naturaliter et libere
ascendere ad quindecim vel sexdecim notas'. Sherborne's Donations, Copy 2
in Chichester, Sussex County Library, fo. 18.

7 They were required to meet the choristers and their informator at Sher-
borne's tomb daily on their way to the Lady-Mass, and there sing the psalm
De profundis.

8 These were Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity, Dedication
of the Church, Translation of St. Richard, and Assumption of the Virgin.

181

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

(November 25) at a quarter past seven. In order that the anti-
phon should be sung with due propriety and devotion, the
informator was to see that each singer was provided with his
part written and noted, and with a candle. At seven the follow-
ing morning six vicars with the informator and the choristers
were to attend a solemn celebration of the Mass of St. Kather-
ine. * The informator was to have six shillings, in addition to his
special payment for the services, to be spent on refreshments
for the choristers after the Mass, which were to be prepared in
the vestibule or other place nearby, so that the obsequies which
were then being held for the benefactors of St. Katherine's altar
should not be disturbed.2 A payment to William Samford pro
antiphona choristarum Nunc Christe, that is, for the antiphon of
Jesus, besides his stipend, a payment as informator and an ex
gratia reward, appears in the Chapter Act Book in 1 544. In the
same year William Campyon was paid for playing the organ in
choir and in the Lady-chapel.3

An inventory of the books of the choir at Exeter which was
made in 1 506 shows that Grandisson was still remembered as a
donor, with such later Exeter dignitaries as Bishops Edmund
Stafford and Edmund Lacy and Dean Henry Webber. One of
the polyphonic books, which began with a setting of Deus
creator, the Kyrie trope for greater feasts, was used in choir,
and four others, three of which contained music for the Mass,
were kept in the Lady-chapel. The opening words of the other
book in the Lady-chapel, which was donated by Roger Keyes,4
are not given in the inventory.5 The collection of polyphonic
music in the Lady-chapel at St. Paul's in 1445 comprised two
books, one described aspulcher, a large roll, seven separate quires,
and a small quire for the organ. Some of these began with a
setting of the Kyrie, the Deus creator trope, the Gloria or the

1 'Ad missam dive Katerine hora septima solenniter decantandam.'

2 Sherborne's Donations, fo. 15.

3 Chapter Act Book, G.L. 1 2, fo. 57, in Chichester, Sussex County Library.

4 Canon of Exeter, 1436; Warden of All Souls, 1442; supervisor of the
building at All Souls and later at Eton; Precentor of Exeter, 1468; d. 1478.

5 In the choir: 'i magnus Liber Organicus, 2 fo Deus Creator'; in the
Lady-chapel: 'i liber Organicus cum armis Rogeri Keys in tercio fo
[blank] ; Alius liber Organicus, 2 fo Domine Fill; Alius liber Organicus 2 fo
Et in tend; and 'i liber papiri regalis de prycksong, 2 fo Et in terra'. Oliver,
Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, pp. 330 sqq.

182

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Credo, but the identifying cues of three others (Alma contio,
Salus salvandorem and Vergente soli) have no place in the Sarum
Lady-Mass, and may have been pieces retained from the
earlier Usus Sancti Pauli, or cantica to be sung at the Lady-Mass
instead of the sequence.1

Under the statutes (1507) of the Guild of Jesus at St. Paul's,
which were drawn up by Dean Colet, the warden and members
of the guild undertook to provide payments for the attendance
of the minor canons, eight chantry priests, and the six vicars
and ten choristers of the cathedral at first Vespers, Matins and
Mass on the feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) and the
following day, which was the feast of the Name of Jesus, and
also at a Requiem Mass on the morning of the next day. All
these services were to be sung 'solemnly by note' in the Crypt
('Crowdes') of the cathedral.2 In addition a cardinal was to sing
the Mass of Jesus in the crypt every Friday, and there should be
present 'to syng the same by note solempnely Petychanons
Vicars vii in numbre and ten Queresters' ; 'six of the seid tenne
Queresters' were required also to sing 'the service accustomed'
at a Requiem Mass which was to be celebrated 'incontinently
after the said Masse of Jesu ended'. Under the heading 'For the
Salves to be songen daily', the statutes further ordained that
'after Complyn done in the seid Cathedrall Churche, thre Salves
shalbe songe solemply daily and yerely in the seid Crowdes in
places and dais accustumed, that is to say, before Jesu, oure
Ladie, and Seint Sebastian; oon of the Vicaries, Maister of the
seid Queresters for the tyme being, to have for his labour yerely
xxvis viiid, at iiii termes of the yere by even porcions'.3

1 'Pulcher liber de organico cantu incipiens Salus salvandorum' ; 'liber de
cantu organico ligatus in tabulis iio fo Eleyson'; 'magna pulchra Rotula
cum diversis canticis notatis incipiens Alma concio'; the seven items each
described as 'quaternus de cantu organico' began on the second folio with
Vergente soli, Kirie eleyson (two), Et in terra, Dens creator, Patrem omnipotentem,
and one not given; 'minor quaternus pro organis iio fo Sapiential . Simpson,
'Two Inventories of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul', p. 523.

2 The Chapel of St. Faith in the crypt below the choir was the special
chapel of the parishioners. The Jesus-chapel was at the eastern end, and
there were also small chapels dedicated to St. John the Baptist, St. Anne,
St. Sebastian and St. Radegund. Simpson, Chapters in the History of Old St.
Paul's, pp. 91-2.

3 Charter and Statutes of the Minor Canons of St. Paul's, pp. 435 sqq. The
guild was incorporated by Henry VII; it flourished in the early sixteenth

183

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Two books of polyphonic music appear under the heading
Missalia in an inventory of the books of the choir of Aberdeen
Cathedral in 1436. x The singing of an antiphon of the Virgin
after the Lady-Mass in Aberdeen was provided for in an agree-
ment of 1537 between Alexander Kyd2 and William Myrtone,
master of the song school. Kyd gave a rental of forty shillings a
year

'for the quhilkis the foirsaid sir Wilyame maister of the sang
schuyll of the cathedrall kyrk of Abirdene and his successoris
God weland sail cause sex bernis of the queir in thair honest
surplesis to conveyne at ane alter in the cathedrall kyrk of
Auld Aberdene quhilk alter sal be assygyt and schawyne be the
said maister Alexander to the said sir Wilyame tyme and plais
congruent everilk day bayth feryall and festwall perpetwall
tymis to cum. And thair at ye said alter one thair kneys devotlie
sail syng Ave gloriosa ane anteme3 of our lade in honour and
laud of that glorious lade immediatlie eftir ye lade mess quhene
the lade mess sal be sounge, and quhene the lade mess is
nocht sounge the feirsaid sex bernis in thair honest habetis at
the first bell of the hie mess anent the foirsaid alter sail synge
the said anteme Ave gloriosa on thair kneis devotlie in plaine
singynge one ilk feriall day and in prik singynge one ilk haly day
quhene it is abstenit fra laboris.'

If the song school should be closed and the boys away on ac-
count of 'universall pest', the money was to go to the vicars,
and 'sex of the foirsaid vicaris thair tyme about ilk Saturdaye in
prik syngynge sail syng the foirsaid anteme Ave gloriosa devotlie

century, its income being £144 6s. 8d. in 15 14-15 and £406 os. njd. in
1534-5. Simpson, Chapters in the History of Old St. Paul's, p. 93. Henry VIII
made regular contributions 'to the proctors of Jhesus yelde in powles'.
Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII, pp. 29, 46, 1 14, 196.

1 'Item duo libri organici primus incipiens in secundo folio Plasmati
humani et alius liber incipiens in secundo folio Ghristeelayson.' Registrum
Episcopatus Aberdonensis, ii, p. 136.

2 Kyd was sub-chanter in 1543 and 1556, and left an endowment for the
singing of the Lady-Mass every Wednesday at the altar of St. Michael
which he had built. Ibid., pp. 425-5.

3 In the acceptance of the agreement by the vicars it is called 'hymnus
seu prosa'. Ibid., p. 415.

184

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

one thair kneis at the foirsaid alter at the first bell of the hie
mess'.1

The singing of an antiphon in Glasgow Cathedral was pro-
vided for in the will (1539) of John Panter, who had been
organist and master of the song school there, and who desired
that his three-part setting in 'pryckat synging' of [Ave] Gloriosa
should be sung every evening.2 In 1529 Bishop Gavin Dunbar
founded two chaplainries in Elgin Cathedral, the holders of
which were to be 'expert in Gregorian chant and reasonably
skilled in descant'.3

Archbishop Talbot clearly had the establishment of poly-
phonic singing as one of his objects when he founded the minor
canons and choristers of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. All
the minor canons, with the vicars and choristers, were required
to be at Matins and the hours services on greater doubles and
feasts of nine lessons and at the Commemorations and Masses
of the Virgin on doubles and Sundays, and two of them at least
on other days. One of them was to sing High Mass each day,
unless a 'major' canon were present to do so, and every Friday
one of them with the choristers was to sing {cum nota decantet)
the Mass of the Holy Cross in the rood-loft chapel of the Holy
Cross in front of the Crucifix.4 In 1509 payments were made to
John Russell (dominus, and therefore probably a minor canon)
as magister choristarum, to William Herbit as organista, to Roger
Brown as clerk of the Lady-chapel and for the Mary-antiphon,
and to William Growe, a minor canon, pro scriptura et notatione
lirici cantus. Archbishop Michael Tregury (Archbishop of
Dublin, 1449-71) gave an endowment to the vicars in 1472-3
to ensure that 'the Mass of Jesus should be the more honourably
performed every Friday in the Cathedral for ever'.5

Monasteries

The maintaining of clerks and boys at the cathedral priories
and greater monasteries was always connected with the provi-
sion of music for votive Masses and antiphons. Three clerks

1 Ibid., pp. 412 sqq.

2 Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, s.v. 'Glasgow'.

3 Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, p. 417.

4 'In solio sancte Crucis coram Crucifixo'.

5 Mason, History of St. Patrick's, pp. xxxiii, 90, xxviii-xxx.

185

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

were paid for singing in the Lady-chapel at Worcester at various
times in 1 434-5, x but the singing of polyphony there may have
been occasional rather than regular during the first half of the
fifteenth century, and perhaps until the appointment of John
Hampton in i486. Hampton's duties were to be present in
choir on the important Worcester feasts, 2 to take part in proces-
sions, to supervise (obseware) the singing of the daily Lady-
Mass, of the Jesus-Mass on Friday, and of the Mary-antiphon
Salve regina during Lent and the antiphon of the Name of Jesus
on Fridays in Lent. He was also to instruct in plainsong and
polyphonic music (in piano cantu et fracto viz prykd song) the
eight choristers who sang the Mary-antiphon daily after Vespers
and a Requiem Mass four times a year in the new Lady-chapel
built by Bishop Alcock.3 Hampton's successor, Daniel Boys,
who is called cle Organe pleyr' in the deed of his appointment
(1522), had substantially the same duties, but had also to teach
the choristers to play the organ. He was to keep the daily Lady-
Mass with plainsong, polyphony and the organ (cum canticis
planis fractis et organis), teach the eight choristers plainsong and
polyphonic music, especially that of the Lady-Mass, of the
Jesus-Mass, of Vespers and of the usual antiphons, and train
any chorister who desired it in descant, both vocal and on the
organ,4 for which the chorister was to pay him twelve pence a
quarter.5

The accounts of the Master of the Lady-chapel for 152 1-2
show payments for two Magnificats, two antiphons, a Mass 'de
square note' and a Mass for five voices, and for the writing of a
book of polyphonic music.6 An inventory of the items in the

1 'In expensis circa Dominum Thomam Whyngle et Dominum Thomam
Bryden et Ricardum Synger de Malmesbury cantancium in capelle hoc
anno ad diversas vices xxiiiid.' Atkins, Early Occupants of the Office of Organist
of Worcester, p. 10.

2 Called 'septem festa', a term borrowed from Evesham, where there
were in fact seven such feasts; there were thirteen at Worcester. See
Paleographie musicale, xii, pp. 48-9, where they are given.

3 Atkins, op. cit., pp. 12-13.

4 'Erudicionem canticorum vocatorum Descant, tam in cantacione quam
in ludicione super organum.'

6 Atkins, op. cit., p. 1 7.

6 'Pro factura duorum Magnificat et unius misse de square note et alterius
misse de quinque partibus una cum le prickinge ejusdem xiiis. iiiid.; Pro

186

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

charge of the Master about a year before the New Foundation
of 1 54 1 contains the following:

'a masse boke of [blank] with pryckesong, wheryn is v parts and
iiii parts; iiii pryckesong masse bockes of pawper, ii hother
bockes [blank] on with antems and salmes1 yn hym; iiii lyttle
pryckesong bocks of masses, v masse bockes of v parts, v bockes
with salve festa dies, and scrolls belonging to the ii pawper bockes
yn them be the v parts of other songs; a [blank] note bocke
burdyde; a parchement bocke of salmes burdyde; ii masses of
v parts yn parchement skrowlls; a pawper bocke of iiii parts;
a pawper bocke with the vitatoris benedict te deum yn pryc-
kynge; ther be iii or iiii antems in scrowes'.2

The indentures of the appointments to Durham of John Stele
(1447), Thomas Foderley (1496), John Tildesley (1502) and
Thomas Ashewell (15 13) give the duties of the cantor in con-
siderable detail. 3 They are identical in their general provisions,
but there are some interesting changes and additions. Stele
was to teach 'playnesange, prikenot, faburdon, dischaunte et
countre', play the organ and sing the tenor part in the poly-
phonic music at Mass and Vespers in choir when requested,
and attend the daily Lady-Mass in the Gallilee, singing plain-
song or polyphony according to the singers present. In the later
indentures organ-playing and 'swarenote' were added to the
subjects to be taught, and the Salve regina in choir was added to
the music in which the cantor was to take part. In music sung
in choir 'cum priknote, discant, faburdon et organico cantu
conjunctim et divisim' he was to sing the tenor or the part best
suited to his voice. A new part of the duties was composition,
for Foderley and his successors were required to produce every
year a new Mass in four or five parts, or an equivalent work, the
Prior and precentor approving, 'in honour of God, of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and of St. Guthbert'. Ashewell did compose a
Mass of St. Guthbert, of which unfortunately only a fragment
survives.4

The account written c. 1593 of the life and ceremonies at

le prykinge unius liber de prikesong ad usurn officii hoc anno vis. viiid.;
Pro duobus antifonis iiis. iiiid.' Ibid., p. 11.

1 I.e., probably canticles.

2 Atkins, op. cit., p. 19. 3 For references see above, p. 41, n. 5.
4 British Museum, MS. Add. 30520, fo. 3.

187

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

DURHAM

KEY

A. The Cantarie (Bishop Langley's Chantry- D. Loft over with Organ and Desk
chapel) E. Jesus Altar

B. Bishop Langley's Tomb F. Door

C. Altar of Our Lady G. Rood Doors

Durham before the New Foundation tells of the services which
were sung by the cantor and his choir. Every Friday 'after that
the evinsong was done in the queir there was an anthem song
in the bodye of the church before the foresaid Jesus alter called
Jesus anthem ... by the master of the quiresters and deacons
. . ., and when it was done then the quiresters did singe an
other anthem by them selves sytting on there kneis all the tyme
that ther anthem was in singing before the said Jesus alter'. On
the north side of the nave between two pillars there was ca looft
for the master and quiresters to sing Jesus mass every fridaie
conteyninge a paire of orgaines to play on, and a fair desk to
lie there books on in tyme of dyvin service'. In the 'Cantarie'
in the Gallilee

'being all of most excellent blewe marble stood our Lady's alter,

1 88

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

SITE OF SONG SCHOOL

CATHEDRAL

H. Rood above

J. Choir Door (Great Organ over)
K. 'The Cryers'
L. 'The White Organs'

KEY

M. Shrine

N. 'Trellesdoure' surmounted by iron pikes,
opened only for processions

a verie sumptuous Monument fynly adorned with curious wain-
scott woorke . . ., the wainscott being devised and furnished
with most heavenly pictures so lyvely in cullers and gilting as
that they did gretly adorne the said alter when our Lady's mass
was song daily by the master of the song schole [called Mr.
John Brimley, interlined], with certain decons and quiristers,
the master playing upon a paire of faire orgaines the tyme of
our Lady's masse'.1

In his Chronicle of people and events at Christ Church,
Canterbury, John Stone paid a tribute to the precentor John
Borne (d. 1420), remarking that he was not a singer of poly-
phony (organista), but had the most excellent voice of any

M.M.B. — O

1 Rites of Durham, pp. 34, 43.
189

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

monk in the kingdom. Of Borne's successor John Stanys, who
died little more than a year later, he tells us that he was a monk
of Bermondsey near London (a Cluniac Priory) and in his time
a superb singer of polyphony (organista praecipuus) , and that he
directed with great distinction all the polyphonic music (cantus
organicus) which was sung in the Priory. Leonel Power's con-
nection with Canterbury has been pointed out above. Another
musical monk at Christ Church was John Crambroke (pro-
fessed 1406, d. 1447), who was 'in his time an eminent organista! '.
Towards the end of his chronicle Stone records that in 1470
Cardinal Bourchier came for the observances connected with
the three hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of St.
Thomas, and that on the day after the feast of the Translation
of St. Thomas (Sunday, July 7) settings of the Gloria and Creed
and an antiphon Fragrat virtus composed by John Frennyng-
ham, a monk of the Priory, were sung. Frennyngham died on
the following ninth of October. * Inventories of the liturgical
books at Canterbury made in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries2 contain no polyphonic music, nor does an inventory
of 151 1, but a list written c. 1530 has the following in addition
to the plainsong books: 'iiii querys off the sequens and the v
boke of v parts with a boke off the base part; the boke of iiii
parts with ii queres off the mens and off the basse thereto;
hi small querys off thomas maun' [recte martyr?]; mr Hawts3
boke with an old vytatory boke'; and 'the boke that the masse
off ii tenors ys In'. Below this list is written: 'In the time of
da John Olph' chawnter and John wood Master off the chyldren
in crist's church'.4

St. Mary's Chapel in Westminster Abbey had a book of
polyphonic music as early as 1 41 5-1 6, 5 though there is no
evidence of stipendiary singers until much later. The duties of
Edmund Pynbrygge (1509) and of Thomas Goodman (15 10)
at Winchester Priory were, besides teaching the boys plainsong
and polyphony (cantus et discantus), to attend the daily Lady-

1 The Chronicle of John Stone, pp. 11, 12, 188, 112, 114.

2 In 1294-5, I321 and 1328.

3 The composer Sir William Hawte, knight, was connected with Can-
terbury; see below, p. 415.

4 Legg and Hope, Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 1 64.

5 'Solut' fratri Johanni Walden pro novo libro organorum xxs.' Pearce,
Monks of Westminster, p. 131.

190

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Mass in the Lady-chapel, the Friday Mass of Jesus in the
nave, and services in the choir at Vespers on Saturday, at
High Mass and Vespers on Sunday, and at first and second
Vespers and High Mass on double feasts, singing or playing
{cantando et psallendo vel organisando) as the precentor should
direct. The deed of Matthew Fuller's appointment in 1538
required him to sing and play the organ (in cantando et organi-
sando) in choir on double feasts and ferias at High Mass, pro-
cessions and both Vespers, and at other times at the request
of the precentor, as well as at the Lady-Mass and Jesus-Mass.1
James Renynger's duties at Glastonbury (1534) were to sing
and play the organ at the daily Mass, Offices and 'Anteymes'
in the Lady-chapel and on festivals in the choir, and to teach
six children 'pricke songe and descaunte' and two of them to
play the organ, the monastery undertaking to provide 'clavyng-
cordes'.2

The objects of the greater abbeys in supporting singers to
perform votive Masses and antiphons in polyphony were to
foster the devotion of the people and to add to the renown of
their community. Not only would it have been difficult, as
Wheathampstead pointed out, to provide enough singers from
the community, but also it was questionable whether regulars
should be occupied in the study and performance of elaborate
music. Cardinal Wolsey put the second of these points very
clearly in the statutes for Augustinian canons which he wrote
in 1 5 19. Observing that 'plainsong chanted with modest gravity
and in a sweet and tranquil style, which draws the souls of
listeners to spiritual delight and a longing for the music of
heaven, is more to be approved for all ecclesiastics than wan-
ton melodies which please the senses of the listener or elaborate
rhythms which excite his admiration for the performers', he
strictly forbade the use of polyphony (cantus fractus vel divisus
pricksong vulgariter et Anglice dictus) in choir by the canons or
others. Nor were outside singers, whether lay or secular, men
or boys, to be allowed in the choir during services. It was per-
mitted, however, that laymen, seculars and boys might sing
with polyphony and organ the Lady-Mass and the Mass of the

1 Winchester Cathedral Library, Enrolment Register 2, fo. 44-44.V;
Enrolment Register 3, fo. 73.

2 Deed of appointment (in English) in The Reliquary, vi 1892, p. 176.

191

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Name of Jesus, and other such music as it was customary to
sing outside the conventual choir in all the monasteries of the
kingdom, none of the canons being present except the celebrant.
The canons themselves might use a simple setting of the plain-
song — and perhaps faburden is meant here — on Sundays and
festivals, provided that the integrity of the chant and the clarity
of the ritual words were not affected. Wolsey conceded that
because of the small number of canons in some Augustinian
monasteries an organ could be used in choir, and a layman or
secular clerk 'of honest conversation' could be engaged to play
it, provided the canons avoided undue familiarity with him.1
Polyphony, both vocal and organ, was used at the Augus-
tinian Abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows in Leicester in the
late fifteenth century. An inventory of the books in the choir
made c. 1493 by Brother W. Charite, the Precentor, includes
plainsong books at the high altar and at ten other altars and
in the stalls of the Abbot and twenty-two other canons. Under
the heading Cantica organica there are a book of polyphony by
Brother T. Preston2 which began with an antiphon, and two
books of polyphony by Charite himself, one of which had the
words qui caelum et terram at the beginning of the second folio,
while the other, which was called by the curious name 'Zon-
glouers', began with a Kyrie.3 The Abbey also possessed two
books of organ music which Charite had compiled.4 There was
an establishment of singers at the Augustinian Abbey of the
Holy Cross at Waltham in Essex, for a document comprising
an inventory of the possessions and a list of wages and gratuities
given to lay servants of the monastery at the dissolution shows
that there were some twelve singing-men and five choristers,

1 Wilkins, Concilia, hi, p. 686.

2 Who may be the composer of the organ music in the British Museum
MS. Add. 29996. See below, pp. 192, 217, 364-6, 394-5. In 1543 a Preston
was organist and instructor of the choristers at Magdalen and a Preston whose
first name is also unrecorded was instructor of the choristers and joint
organist with Marbeck at Windsor in 1558-9. Bloxam, Register of Magdalen,
ii, p. 190. Fellowes, Windsor Organists, pp. 22-3.

3 'Item unus liber de canticis organicis per fr. T. Preston 20 fo quedam
antiphona incipiens 2° fo prolem in cruce; Item alius liber de canticis organicis
per fr. W. Charite vocat' Zonglouers 2° fo kyrieleyson; Item alius liber de
canticis organicis per eundem 20 fo qui celum et terram.' James and Thompson,
'Leicester Abbey Inventories', pp. 46-51.

4 See below, p. 216.

192

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

and that the goods included 'a lytell payre of organes' in the
Lady-chapel, and 'a great long payre' and 'a lesser payr' in
the choir. Thomas Tallis's name is fourth in a list of seventy
laymen, and he signed his name on the last page of a collection
of musical treatises which has on one of its pages Liber sanctae
crucis de Walt ham.1

The rule of the Brigittine nuns of Syon contained a forth-
right prohibition of polyphony and of organs in their offices.
In the Hours services their singing was to be 'sadde sober and
symple withe out brekyng of notes and gay relesynge withe
alle mekenes and devocion; but organs schal thei never have
none; ther psalmody schal be distyncte and open . . .' 2 Yet
the earliest surviving piece of liturgical polyphony for the organ
in England3 is based on the Brigittine version of the offertory
Felix namque* which differs distinctly from the Sarum version,
and may have come from Syon, the only Brigittine house
established in England. A possible explanation of this contra-
dictory evidence is that the prohibition did not apply to the
brethren who formed part of the community and celebrated
Mass.

The survival in Scotland of a choirbook and a set of five
part-books shows that the chief polyphonic forms of the early
sixteenth century were composed and copied there. The choir-
book5 is a collection of Masses for from three to ten voices,
Magnificats and Mary-antiphons for four and five, and a set-
ting of the Jesus-antiphon 0 bone Jesu for the extraordinary
number of nineteen. The only composer named is Robert
Carver alias Arnat, Canon of Scone,6 and the manuscript
probably belonged to that Augustinian abbey. Carver's com-
positions include a four-part Mass on V Homme arme, a Mass of
St. Michael, Dum sacrum misterium, for ten voices dated 1 5 1 3 (recte

1 Fellowes, English Cathedral Music, pp. 6-7; Tudor Church Music, vi>
pp. xii-xiii.

2 Aungier, Syon Monastery, p. 319.

3 Printed in Dart, 'A New Source of Early English Organ Music', p. 205.

4 As it appears in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. L.1.13.

5 Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates' Library, MS.

5-I-I5-

6 Robertus Carwor was one of the signers of a deed of lands by the
monastery of Scone to John and William Haliburton dated November 4,
1544; Liber Ecclesie de Scon, pp. 206-7.

193

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

1508 or 1509),1 a four-part Mass dated 1546 'in his fifty-ninth
year', a four-part setting of Gaude flore virginali, and the nineteen-
part 0 bone Jesu. The compiler drew also on French and English
sources, for among the contents are Dufay's V Homme arme Mass,
two antiphons by Robert Fayrfax, here anonymous, Magni-
ficats by Nesbett and Walter Lambe and William Cornysh's
Salve regina, these three also without their composer's names, but
identifiable from the Eton choirbook. 2 The part-books are tra-
ditionally connected with Dunkeld, 3 and all the music is anony-
mous, though a blank page at the end of one of the books has
the information: 'Robert Doibglas with my hand at the pen
William Fischer'. The notation and style of the twenty pieces
which form the main contents, and which include fifteen Mary-
antiphons, strongly suggest a continental origin. Three identi-
fications support this deduction, for the pieces include Josquin's
Benedicta es,* Jaquet of Mantua's Ave virgo gloriosa,5 and an
anonymous setting of Virgo clemens et benigna, a complete copy
of which is in a Florentine manuscript now in the Biblioteca
Vallicelliana in Rome.6 At the end of the Dunkeld books there
are two Masses, both certainly of British origin, the second of
which is based on the respond Jesu Christe fili Dei.

Cathedrals of the New Foundation

The smaller monasteries were suppressed in 1536, and by
1540 all monasteries and their possessions had been appro-
priated to the Crown. The nine which were episcopal sees,
namely Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Roches-
ter, Winchester, Worcester and Christ Church in Dublin,
were refounded as secular cathedrals and became known as
cathedrals of the New Foundation. Three other monasteries,
Chester, Gloucester and Peterborough, became the cathedrals

1 'In his twenty-second year.'

2 See the list of contents in The Eton Choirbook, i, p. 142.

3 Edinburgh, University Library, MS. Db.I.7, now bound in one volume,
described in a Library catalogue of c. 1695 as 'Music of the Church of
Dunkeld — 5 vols.'

4 Printed in Josquin des Prez, Motets, xi, p. 1 1 .

5 Printed in Adriani Willaert Opera Omnia, iv, p. 117.

6 See E. Lowinsky, 'A Newly Discovered Sixteenth-Century Motet
Manuscript', in Journal of the American Musicologial Society, iii, 1950, p. 229.

194

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

of newly-established sees, and Bath Abbey was secularized, the
diocese remaining Bath and Wells. Oxford became a diocese in
1542, and four years later its cathedral was transferred from
Oseney, formerly an Augustinian Abbey, to the chapel of
Christ Church, which has served from that time both as the
cathedral of the diocese and the chapel of the college. West-
minster Abbey also became a secular foundation, was joined
to the see of London in 1550, and in 1560 became a Royal
Peculiar and a collegiate church with a dean and twelve canons.
Some monasteries, particularly those in which the parishioners
had rights for worship, were continued as parish churches, and
at least the parts of their buildings to which those rights applied
were preserved.

The musical establishment of cathedrals of the New Founda-
tion consisted of minor canons, lay clerks or vicars, choristers,
and a master of the choristers. The number of singers varied
according to the resources which the royal warrants put at the
disposal of the new dean and chapter. The persons approved
by the King in 1541 for the new constitution of Winchester,
for example, were a dean and twelve canons, twelve 'Pety-
canons to synge in the Quere', twelve 'laye men to synge and
serve in the Quere daily Anglice Vycars', twelve choristers, a
master of the choristers (Richard Wynslade or Wynslate), and
a gospeller and epistoler.1 In 1546 the dean and prebends of
Christ Church, Oxford, were ordered to provide for eight petty
canons, a gospeller and epistoler, eight clerks, a master of the
choristers, eight choristers and two sextons.2 At Worcester from
1 544 there were ten minor canons, a master of the choristers
(Richard Fyssher), a deacon as gospeller, a sub-deacon as
epistoler, eight lay-clerks and ten choristers. At Gloucester the
numbers were six minor canons, six lay-clerks, a deacon and
sub-deacon, eight choristers and a master.3

1 Winchester Cathedral Documents, 1541-154"/, p. 54. In Henry VIII's statutes
of 1544 the vicars were referred to as 'Laici clerici', and the services were
to be 'secundum morem et ritum aliarum ecclesiarum Cathedralium; Ad
officio vero noctu decantanda eos obligari nolumus'. Ibid., pp. 130, 138.

2 An inventory of Christ Church dated May 19, 1545, includes 'a paire
of organce, with a torned chane to the same', and an unspecified number of
'prickeson bokes for men and childerne'. Dugdale, Monasticon, ii, pp. 166,

173.

3 Atkins, Early Occupants of the Office of Organist of Worcester, p. 20.

195

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

The Latin Breviary printed by Edward Whitchurch in 1541
was the first liturgical book of the English Church, but it was
still secundum usum Sarum and the only change was the exclusion
of all references to the Pope and to St. Thomas of Canterbury.1
The duties of the choir of a cathedral of the New Foundation
during the remaining years of the Sarum rite may be gathered
from the injunctions of Nicholas Heath, Bishop of Rochester,
to his cathedral at his visitation in 1543.2 'Imprimis it is or-
deyned', they began, 'that all and every the prests clerks and
other ministres of the Churche shall endevour theryself as
myche as they can to do everything within the Churche wich
is appoynted by the ordinall of Sarum to be done.' Then follow
injunctions that the master of the choristers should himself
'kepe the orgayns' at Matins, Mass and Vespers on double
feasts and on feasts of nine lessons, and should keep the organs
himself or by deputy at Commemorations, at which the playing
of the organ was to be at the discretion of the chanter; that the
'prests clarks and Choristers with the Master' should sing 'an
Anteme in prycksong immediately that Complayn be fully
done' on the vigil and the day of principal and double feasts
and on every 'holyday' in the year; that on every 'holyday'
except principal and greater double feasts, the priests, clerks,
master and choristers should sing Lady-Mass 'in pryckesonge
with the orgaines', unless High Mass was 'of our Lady', that is,
on feasts of the Virgin, when Lady-Mass was to be said; that
Prime and the Hours services should be omitted on these holy
days, in order that the Lady-Mass should be sung in polyphony;
and that on 'woorkedays' the choristers should sing the Lady-
Mass in polyphony with the organ.

At Christ Church, Dublin, the canons regular of the monas-
tery became the members of the new secular foundation, which
included a vicar for each dignitary with the rank of minor
canon, four minor vicars, four choristers, and three clerici
chorales, one of whom acted as master of the boys, organist and

1 The title was 'Portiforium secundum usum Sarum noviter impressum et
plurimis purgatum mendis. In quo nomen Romano pontifici falso adscrip-
tum omittitur, una cum aliis que Christianissimo nostri Regis Statuto
repugnant.' The shrine of St. Thomas in Canterbury was destroyed and his
name ordered to be excised from the liturgy in 1538.

2 Use of Sarum, ii, pp. 234-6.

196

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

bedell. The duties of the members and the arrangement of the
services, which were modelled on the practice of St. Patrick's,
were laid down in a new set of statutes by the King's Commis-
sioners in 1539.1 When Robert Hayward was appointed as mas-
ter of the choristers in 1 546 he undertook to play the organ and
keep the Lady-Mass and antiphon daily and the Jesus-Mass
on Friday 'according to the custom of St. Patrick's', to play
the organ at Matins on the eight principal feasts and on greater
doubles, to procure suitable music at the cathedral's expense,
and to teach the choristers pricksong and descant 'to four
minims', that is, up to four notes to one upon the plainsong.2
He was also to teach them to play the Lady-Mass, for which
purpose the cathedral provided the necessary instruments.3

The Litany in English was issued in 1544,4 for use instead of
the Latin Litanies of Rogation days and times of trouble. In
the same year Durham Cathedral bought 'viii ympnall noted ad
xviiid.',5 'xxiiii latines whereof i dd [dozen] noted with playne-
son of fyve partes at iiis. the dd',6 and paid twenty pence 'to the
chaunter of Westmynster for pryking the new Latyny in iii, iiii,
and v partes in prykeson'.7

Parish Churches

There is little evidence that polyphonic music was sung or
played in parish churches before the second half of the fifteenth
century. From that time larger churches began to provide them-
selves with the four things necessary for the adornment of their
services with polyphony, namely a rood-loft, an organ, addi-
tional clerks or 'conducts', and books of pricksong. It had

1 See the extracts printed as Appendix VI, below, p. 437.

2 'Quadrupla and Quintupla they denominate after the number of black
minims set for a note of the plainsong.' Morley, Plaine and Easie Introduction,
p. 171.

3 West, Cathedral Organists, p. 28.

4 Facsimile in Hunt, Cranmer's First Litany.

5 The Sarum Hymni cum notis was first printed in 1 5 1 8, and there were
editions in 1524, 1525, 1533, 1541 and 1555.

6 This entry confirms the existence in 1 544 of a printed five-part Litany,
otherwise known only from a reference in a copy of Maunsell's Catalogue
of English Books of 1595. See Fellowes, English Cathedral Music, p. 25.

' Durham Account Rolls, iii, p. 726.

197

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

always been essential that the parish priest should have a clerk
in minor orders, who was known as the 'parish clerk', to sing
or read the epistle at Mass, to alternate (repetere) with the priest
in singing the psalms at the offices, and to keep the parish
school. 1 The additional singers and organ player engaged by a
parish church were either clerks in lower orders or laymen,2
and in either case might be termed 'conducts', since they were
stipendiary persons who were not a permanent charge on the
parish. In most churches the engagements did not go beyond
an arrangement with one or more singers to be present on
festivals, usually the Christmas and Easter seasons and the
feast of the church's patron saint, and the reward was often
refreshment in the ale-house in addition to, or instead of, money.
St. Michael's, Cornhill, for example, paid in 1473 'to my Ladye
Bokyngham clerkes for their singyng 8d'. At St. Mary-at-Hill,
Billingsgate, there were payments in 1484-5 'To singers on
St. Barnabas evynyn wyne at Easter and at many other festes
of the yer to syngers within the quere vs.'; in 1498-9 to 'Symond
Vaireson for helpyng of the quiere all the halydays of Crystmas
3s. 4d.'; in 1502-3 to William Wylde the same sum for a like
service at Easter and Whit; in 1534 to 'hi singing men at Easter
for helpyng the quyer vs.'; and in 1535 to two singing men for
the same at 'ester hollydayes and loo sunday vis.', and to 'vii
conducts to sing evensong upon our ladies even xxd.' St. Andrew
Hubbard paid in 1496-7 for 'Wyne for singers on the Church
holyday 8d.'; in 1528-9 to a 'Conduct on holydays i6d.'; and in
1 53 1-2 'Apone sent Andre wes day to the syngyng men I2d.'
The accounts of St. Stephen's, Walbrooke, have entries in
1 5 18 to 'Singers on our Church holyday 2od.', and 'To the
syngers on the Invencyon off Synt stevyn 2od.'; in 1526 'To the
alehouse over the syngers on Seynt Stephyn Evyn vid.' and 'in
Rewarde to the syngers that day 6s. 8d.', and 'Spent on them
at the ale house after the last evynsong 7d.' 3

In i486 the Dean of the Royal Household Chapel gave per-

1 Atchley, The Parish Clerk, pp. 6-7.

2 Occasionally a priest, as at St. Mary-at-Hill in 1 529-30 : 'Brede and Drynk
at the hyryng of Sir Symond the Base that cam from Seint Antonys iiiid.'
Medieval Records of a London Church, p. 349.

3 Entries from Cox, Churchwardens' Accounts, Chapter XV; Medieval Records
of a London Church. The entries referring to music in the latter are discussed
in Baillie, 'A London Church in Early Tudor Times'.

198

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

mission for Gilbert Banester and the singers of the chapel to
sing at Vespers on Corpus Christi in St. Margaret's, West-
minster,1 and the churchwardens' accounts of St. Margaret's
for 1484-6 record that twelve pence halfpenny was spent on
'bread ale and wine on Corpus Christi day for the Singers of
the King's Chapel'.2 At various times between 1510 and 1528
St. Mary-at-Hill rewarded singers from the royal chapel with
dinner and sometimes also with drink; this church also bor-
rowed choristers from the church of St. Magnus for St. Barna-
bas' day in 1478 or 1479, and 'a chyld that songe a trebyll to
helpe the quere in crystmas halydayes' in 1493. In 1490 they
paid three shillings and four pence, and the 'finding' of their
clothes, to two children for their services from Midsummer to
Michaelmas.

The Guild of Jesus and the Holy Cross of St. Edmund's
church, Salisbury,3 was responsible for the support of the Jesus-
altar there and for the payment of its chaplain and clerk. The
earliest surviving account (1476-7) of the stewards of the guild
records a payment of twenty- two shillings to some chaplains and
clerks for singing the Mass and antiphon of Jesus on Fridays
in Lent 'as in former years', and also an amount of eighteen
pence to the clerks who sang 'Salve de Jesu1 on Fridays in Lent.4
It appears from the accounts for 1 500-1 that these clerks were
singers from the cathedral and that the eighteen pence was for
the cost of their refreshment, which is referred to as 'drynkynges
in Lent after Salve1 in 1 535-6, when the cost was five shillings
and eight pence, and in 1538-9, when it was four shillings. The
'quyrysters' of the cathedral took part in the Salve, and also in
the bread and ale, from 1539-40 until the year of the last
surviving account of the Guild, which is for 1 546-7. 5 The
accounts of the churchwardens of St. Edmund's, which are a

1 Flood, Early Tudor Composers, p. 15.

2 Cox, Churchwardens' Accounts, p. 209.

3 Dedicated to St. Edmund (Rich) of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury
1234-40, formerly Treasurer of Salisbury.

4 In 1 499- 1 500: 'for bred and ale for preists and Clerkes that syngyth the
Salveis every fryday in the lent xxd.' Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Edmund
and St. Thomas Sarum, pp. 248-9, 252.

5 Ibid., pp. 271-2. The Churchwardens' Accounts for 1553-4 have: 'paper
and yncke to make a Newe Songe for the Salve iid.'; the Salve payments
appear in those accounts from 1553 to 1558. Ibid., pp. 100-103.

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

separate series, mention both organs and a rood-loft in 1 443-6, *
while an inventory of the church's possessions in 1472 contains
some fifty service books, including 'i boke for the organes in
iide fo. jam tuam,i and a Missal and two 'grayles' (Graduals) for
the Lady-Mass.3 In 1403 the King gave possession of the
church of St. Thomas the Martyr in Salisbury to the Dean and
Chapter of the Cathedral, and the members of the cathedral
body served the church by turn. It may be that the informator
of the cathedral was afterwards responsible for the music, for
Thomas Knyght was paid eight shillings in 1537-8 for his
stipend as organista of the church.4

During the first half of the sixteenth century some parish
churches took a further step in the development of their ritual
by engaging for longer terms clerks and laymen who presumably
sang polyphony on festivals and in votive Masses and antiphons.
By 1 5 14-15, for example, the parish clerk at St. Mary-at-Hill
had been joined by two conducts, and in 1532-3 three singers
served for the full year and two others for more than half of the
year and were paid at an annual rate of ten pounds or less.
Five years later the accounts list nine singers, of whom Thomas
Tallis served for six months and Richard Wynslatt for a quarter;
two of the nine served for the full year and others for periods
ranging from three weeks to ten months.5

Entries referring to books of polyphonic music begin to
appear in inventories and accounts of parish churches in the
second half of the fifteenth century, for example at St. Mar-
garet's, New Fish Street, London, in 14726 and at St. Chris-
topher-le-Stocks, London, in 1488. 7 The 'Bokes ofPricksong'

1 'Roberto Denby pro factura le Orgelis xis. xd.'; 'i Tinctori pro panno
pro le Rode loffte tingendo viiis.' Ibid., p. 358.

2 Recte 'iram tuam'? Cf. Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 6.

3 Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Edmund and St. Thomas Sarum, pp. 3-4.

4 Salisbury Muniments.

6 This year (1537-8) the church paid 'for xxxvi elles of cloth for vi sur-
plyces for the conductes and iiii for the children at viid. the elle Summa xxis.'

6 Wordsworth and Littlehales, Old Service Books, pi. II (facsimile of an
inventory).

7 'A Pryk songe boke of paper royall with divers masses therein, begyn-
nyng in the first lyne of the secunde leeffe Nefilii um\ i.e., probably {Domi)ne
fill uni(genite) from the Gloria. The church also had 'in the Rode loft a paire
of Orgons with the ii peire blewers. The orgons closse, to be shitte with

200

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

in an inventory of service-books belonging to St. Laurence,
Reading, in 1516 are described as: 'A great boce of vellem
bourded for masses of the gifte of Willm Stannford; Another
boke bourded of paper with masses & antempins; An old boke
bourded with antempins; Anoyther of vellame bordyd with
antems & exultavits'.1 The accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill show
that a 'prickid song Booke' was bought in 1483-5; that in
152 1-2 John Darlington, a conduct, was paid for a 'pryksonge
boke of Kyryes Allelyas and Sequences' ; that John Northfolke,
also a conduct, supplied 'prykkd song bokes of the which v of
them be with Antemys and v with Massis' in 1529-30; and that
'Sir Marke', probably the Marke Fletcher whose name is
among the priests in the same account, supplied 'carolles for
cristmas' and cv square bookes' in 1537-8. The inventory of
1553 includes 'x bokes of song to be soung at mas in parchement
with v Caroll boks' and 'v littell song bokes in parchement and
v song bokes in paist with v song bokes to be sung at mas, in
paist'. In 1542 St. Stephen's, Coleman St., London, had 'Item
a boke for the organs. . . . Item a boke for Rectores. . . . Item
iii hymnalls and olde pricke songe boke'.2

The Reformation Inventories of the churches of London show
that out of one hundred and nine churches the following nine
churches possessed one or more books of polyphonic music: All
Hallows the Great, 'v Sawters and xii other pricksong bookes' ;
Holy Trinity the Less, 'iiii pryke song bokes'; St. Laurence,
Pountney, 'iiii bookes for prycksong' ; St. Mary-le-Bow, 'iii prick-
song bookes'; St. Mary Woolchurch, 'vii small bookes of prycke
songe'; St. Michael-le-Quern, 'a pryk songe boke' and also 'a
boke of Jhus masse yn parchement'; St. Olave, Hart Street,
'v Salters and iii pryke songe bokes'; St. Peter, West Cheap,
'viii pryksonge bokes' ; and St. Peter upon Cornhill, 'iiii synging
bokes of Prycksonge'.3

close leffes'. Freshfield, 'On the Parish Books of . . . St. Christopher-le
Stocks', pp. 1 1 8-1 9.

1 Kerry, History of St. Laurence, Reading, p. 103.

2 Freshfield, 'Some Remarks upon the Records of St. Stephen, Colman
Street', p. 46.

3 Walters, London Churches at the Reformation', for pages see the index under
Pricksong.

201

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

The Medieval Organ

The study of medieval records has thrown considerable light
on the development of the organ as an instrument, on the details
of its design and structure, and on the activities of organ
builders in the later Middle Ages.1 On the other hand, com-
paratively little is known of the function of the organ in the
services and its place among the other elements of liturgical
ceremonial. The two aspects of the history of the instrument are
not unrelated, for the ritual use of the organ was determined
not only by its size and resources but also by the particular
ritual forms in which it was used. Bound up with both of these
sides of its history is the further question of its place in the
building, whether in the pulpitum, in a gallery or elsewhere.
The position and function of the several organs in a larger
church have an obvious relation to the musical needs of the
various services sung in the choir itself, in the nave, and in a
votive chapel.

To understand the true scale and proportion of the music of
the medieval liturgy it is essential to realize that the choir of a
large church was an enclosed space designed for the common
devotions of the members of its community. It was in effect
their private chapel, to which the public were not admitted
during the service, and from which, in the case of monastic
churches, they were excluded at all times. The western bound-
ary of the choir was a stone choir-screen [pulpitum) with a
central door [ostium or introitus chori), built between two of the
main columns at either the east or west side of the crossing, or
in some cases farther westward in the nave.2 The choir-screen
was under the eastern arch of the crossing in the secular
cathedrals, except at Hereford and St. David's, where the
choir extended to the first bay of the nave on account of the
shortness of the eastern limb of the buildings. There were other
exceptions in earlier cathedrals, as in the arrangement at Wells
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and that at Old Sarum, 3

1 See Hopkins, The English Medieval Church Organ; Apel, 'Early History
of the Organ'; Sumner, The Organ.

2 The following have been consulted: Bond, Screens and Galleries; Hope,
'Quire Screens in English Churches'; Vallance, English Church Screens and
Greater English Church Screens.

3 The move to New Sarum took place in the time of Richard Poore.

202

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THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

where the screen stood under the western arch of the crossing.
The pulpitum was surmounted by a large crucifix, called the
Rood, and its upper level was enclosed by a parapet to form
a loft {solarium, solium, 'soler') commonly called the rood-loft.

The choir of a monastic church, on the other hand, normally
extended under the crossing and in many cases down the nave,
and an original pulpitum under the eastern arch of the crossing,
as at Durham, was exceptional. There was a further screen or
wall, usually one bay to the west of the choir-screen or, as at
Durham, in the western bay of the crossing, which was carried
across the side aisles, and served to close off the choir and
cloisters from the nave and its altars, which were used by the
laity. In a monastery the rood was above this screen, not above
the choir-screen.

The arrangement in the collegiate churches could follow
either plan. At Southwell there was a pulpitum only, built in
the early fourteenth century,1 and likewise at Tattersall, where
it was built in the sixteenth century (1528). At Ottery St. Mary,
however, there was a pulpitum under the eastern arch of the
crossing, and also a rood-screen of oak under the western arch,
and the parish altar stood against the rood-screen between its
two doorways. The first example of the typical college chapel,
which did not need a nave, was the chapel of Wykeham's New
College at Oxford, in which the pulpitum stands at the western
end of the choir and the transepts become an ante-chapel. A
nave was originally contemplated for the chapel of Merton Col-
lege, and later for that of Eton, but Merton chapel was com-
pleted with transepts (about 1425) and a tower (1451) and
Eton chapel with an ante-chapel. The chancel of a parish
church was protected and marked off from the nave by an open
wooden screen. Until the second half of the fifteenth century
a rood-loft was very uncommon, but by the mid-sixteenth cen-
tury it was quite general in the larger parish churches.

In the secular rites the chief ceremonial uses of the pulpitum
were for the singing of the Epistle, Gradual, Alleluia and Gospel
on Sundays and festivals, for the reading of the lessons at Matins,
all of which were carried out towards the altar, and also, on

1 Which replaced an earlier pulpitum, for a document of 1221 refers to
clerks reading 'in choro vel in pulpito'; Visitations and Memorials of Southwell,
p. 208.

204

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

occasions, for the ritual which took place before the rood during
processions, and which was directed towards the nave. The
monastic practice seems to have varied, and though Lanfranc's
Constitutions do not mention the pulpitum, the evidence sug-
gests that it was used for reading the lessons at Matins, but not
for reading the Epistle and Gospel.1

The earliest references to organs in Britain are contained in
the writings of Bede (d. 735) and St. Aldhelm (d. 709), in the
account by William of Malmesbury, writing c. 1 1 20, of the
organs given by St. Dunstan (924-88) to the abbeys of
Malmesbury, Abingdon and Glastonbury, and in the descrip-
tion by the monk Wulstan (d. 963) of the enormous organ
erected by Bishop Elphege (d. 951) at Winchester, which
had four hundred pipes and needed seventy blowers and
two players. Among the few records of the existence of organs
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are a deed of 11 72
in which Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, gave the
cathedral the revenue of certain churches, among them the
'church of Ellendone for the making of books and the repairing
of organs',2 and a note that Prior Hugh Darlington had magnum
campanile, organa grandiora made at Durham in 1264.3 Wulstan
wrote of the Winchester organ: 'Like thunder the iron voice
batters the ear, so that it may receive no other sound', and
other descriptions of the effects of early medieval organs refer to
sounds of impressive, and even deafening, volume. Though re-
marks on the ritual function of the organ in the early Middle
Ages are scarce, they give some ground for speculation. Accord-
ing to a summary of the customs of St. Augustine's, Canterbury,
which was written in the thirteenth century, the organ was
used there on Christmas Day, St. John's day, St. Thomas's day,
the Epiphany at High Mass, the feast of St. Adrian (Abbot of
Canterbury, d. 710) and its octave, the Purification (if not in
Lent) at High Mass, the Annunciation (if in Eastertide),
Easter Day, the Translation of St. Augustine at both Vespers
and ad prosam ad evangelium (that is, in the sequence at Mass) ,

1 Hope, 'Quire Screens in English Churches', pp. 104-6. Norwich, where
the Epistle and Gospel were sung from the pulpitum on feasts, seems to be
an exception. Customary of Norwich, p. 216.

2 Chartulary of Winchester, p. 2.

3 Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, p. 46.
M.M.B. P 205

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

and on the feast of St. Michael in the sequence only.1 The
function of the organ at Vespers is not specified, but its use for
the sequence underlines the character of that part of the Mass
as an outburst of praise, when not only the voices and the organ
but also the bells joined in the festive sound. Another festive
use of the organ recorded in monastic annals is with the singing
of the Te Deum at times of special rejoicing, as when the Prior
of Winchester ordered the community to ring the bells and sing
'a solemn Te Deum to the accompaniment of the organ' for the
restoration of Adam of Dalton as Bishop in 1334 after a dispute
with the King. 2 The chronicle of St. Alban's, in a description
of the reception of an Abbot-elect, tells us that the Te Deum
was solemnly begun as he was led into the church and pre-
sented to God and St. Alban at the high altar, with all the
bells ringing and the shawms ('which we call burdones') and
the clock sounding.3 At the reception of Abbot John Moote
in 1396 the Te Deum was solemnly sung by the community,
'the organ alternating'.4

These few indications seem to point to the use of a compara-
tively large organ, apparently to alternate with the choir in the
performance of sequences, of the Te Deum, and perhaps of
hymns, to distinguish occasions of special festivity. Presumably
the organist would play the single notes of the plainsong, and
if there were two players, as for the organ depicted in the
Utrecht Psalter (eighth to ninth centuries) 5 and the Winches-
ter organ, they would perhaps perform the plainsong in parallel
fourths or fifths, in the manner of early vocal organum.6 Such

1 Customary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, ii, 293-4,
268. Another reference to the organ reads: 'Quociens organa trahuntur ter
in una festivitate, dabit sacrista v. denarios folles trahentibus.' Ibid., p. 259.

2 Chartulary of Winchester, p. 118.

3 'Incipiatur solemniter hymnus Te Deum laudamus et ducatur modeste et
ordinate (assistente Priore ei in uno latere Suppriore in alio cum aliis digni-
oribus ecclesiae personis propinquius) , in ecclesiam et presentatur Deo et
Sancto Martyri Albano ad majus altare, pulsato classico sonantibus chala-
mis (quos "burdones" appellamus) cum horologio.' Gesta Abbatum, i, p. 520.

4 'Finito vero sermone Hymnus Te Deum laudamus per conventum, alter-
nantibus organis, solemniter et devote decantatus fuit.' Ibid., hi, p. 434.

6 Reproduced in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, s.v. 'Benediktiner';
Apel, 'Early History of the Organ', opposite p. 209; Sumner, The Organ,
p. 21.

6 See Apel, 'Early History of the Organ', pp. 210-13.

206

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

an organ would not be on a pulpitum, nor would it be suitable
for combining with a group of solo voices.

It is difficult to determine when and where the practice of
placing an organ in the pulpitum originated. It is possible that
the northern minsters inherited an older tradition, for a pulpitum
had been set up at Beverley by Archbishop Ealdred of York
between 1060 and 1069,1 and a York document of 1236 refers
to the use of a 'pair of organs' by John the organist.2 For the
secular cathedrals these centuries were a period of building and
rebuilding, which in many cases was not completed until
the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. At Exeter, for
example, the new choir and presbytery were built between 1270
and 1 3 10, and the existing choir-screen was begun in 13 17. In
the following year a grant of 1284 by Bishop Quivil to a bell-
founder for making the bells and repairing the organ and the
clock was confirmed by Royal Patent.3 From the second half
of the fourteenth century onwards the records of secular churches
amply demonstrate that the organ used for services in choir
was invariably placed in the pulpitum. It seems safe to assume,
therefore, that organa in chow always means the organ in the
pulpitum, and that an organ was never placed on the main
level of the choir or presbytery.

In the secular uses bells were rung during the singing of the
sequence, but there is no definite indication that the organ was
played also. It may not be idle, however, to notice here the
striking use of musical imagery in some of the Sarum sequences,
in such phrases as jungat laudibus organi pneuma; Syllabatim pneu-
mata perstringendo organica; Jungendo verba symphoniae rhythmica,
concrepans inclyta harmonia vera caeli luminal and In qua symphonia
miscetur et ilia quae vere diatessaron prima. The sequence for the
feast of a martyr, Organicis canamus modulis, illustrates the ways
of God with his saints by a series of musical images. This kind
of musical analogy seems to be peculiar to the sequence among
forms of liturgical verse, and points to the connection we have
suggested between vocal organum and the playing of the organ.

It seems most likely that the motet of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries was normally performed in the pulpitum

1 Hope, 'Quire Screens in English Churches', p. 51.

2 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, p. 153.

3 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1317-21, p. 72.

207

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

after the Sanctus and Benedictus, during the canon of the Mass,
the neuma in the tenor part being played on an organ. This
practice was developed in the secular churches of Paris and
northern France and adopted by English secular cathedrals
and some of the larger abbeys. The organ in this new era of its
liturgical history was a 'positive' organ with one or two rows
of pipes, placed in the centre of the pulpitum towards the choir;
it was provided with a desk for music, and the singers stood
around the player, facing towards the altar. Its main function
was to combine with a small group of soloists in the performance
of the motet and of the parts of the Mass which the soloists sang
in the pulpitum and which were set in polyphony on important
festivals.1

The evidence for this theory is indirect, for the musical manu-
scripts give no indication of methods of performance. It may be
appropriate to cite here Christopher Wordsworth's description
of the pulpitum at Lincoln as he saw it when the organ case
was being replaced in 1898. 'The pulpitum', he wrote, refer-
ring to the part of it which projects towards the choir,

'is a half octagon capable of holding more than one person if
necessary. It is mounted by three broad stone steps, the middle
portion of them having been hacked away when an organ was
erected in 1826. The pulpitum is of original oak, about the
date of the stalls (1380). It has been altered in the present cen-
tury to support gilded organ pipes. It overhangs the entrance
into the choir, and was adapted for singing eastward {not to-
wards the nave) . Mr. Logsdail assures me, but I was in Lincoln
too late to see this, that there were supports for book-desks on
the angles above the dean's and the precentor's stalls, as for the
Epistle and Gospel. The upper step or platform being wider
than the pulpitum would hold several singers if required. There
is a still larger stone bench with its back towards the nave
where they could sit hidden by the western part of the screen

1 A significant exception was St. Paul's, where in 1 289 Dean William de
Montfort forbade the custom, then probably new (the choir-screen was built
in the late thirteenth century) , of singing polyphony in the pulpitum, and
ordered that it should be sung in the presbytery: 'Et quod de cetero in
Choro cantent cantus organicos ubi Epistola de more legitur, et non in
pulpito, sicut fieri consuevit.' Charters and Statutes of the Minor Canons of St.
Paul's, p. 104.

208

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

till it was time to mount the stone platform in front of
them.'1

The organ developed rapidly during the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries, when it was built in a great variety of sizes
and brought into use in many more churches. The new organs
built on the pulpitum in some of the secular cathedrals were
much larger than hitherto, judging by their cost. The chapter
of Lincoln resolved in 1442 that their new organ should be the
finest obtainable, but only the first payment, of five marks to
'Arnold Organor' de civitate Norwyc', is recorded in the pub-
lished summary of the acts.2 A new choir-screen was built at
Chichester, probably by Bishop Arundel, and in 15 13-14 an
organ was installed at a cost of twenty-six pounds, sixteen
shillings and eleven pence;3 a new organ at Lichfield in 1482
cost twenty-six pounds, three shillings and four pence; at Exeter
in 15 1 3-14 the cost, including installation, was one hundred and
sixty-four pounds, fifteen shillings and sevenpence farthing.4

In colleges and collegiate churches the pulpitum, which in-
variably had an organ, was regarded as essential for carrying
out the Sarum rite according to the custom of larger churches.
In his final plan for the chapel at Eton Henry VI desired that
there should be a space 'be hynde the Provostes stall unto the
qwere dore vi fote, for a wey into the Rodelofte for redyng and
syngyng and for the Organs and other manere observance
there to be had after the Rewles of the Churche of Salesbury'.
The pulpitum in King's College chapel, which the founder
planned as 'a reredos beryng the Rodeloft departyng the quere
and the body of the chirch', was built between 1531 and 1536,
and is an early example of Italian Renaissance style in England.5
According to the contract for the rood-loft at Merton it was
'to be made lyke unto the Rodeloft of Mawdelen College in
Oxford', but there were 'to be made in the seide Rodelofft
ferre better dorys then ther be in Mawdelyn College aforeseid'.6

At Ripon the Lady-chapel organ was in a pulpitum, for the

1 Ceremonies and Processions of Salisbury, p. 196.

2 Lincoln Statutes, hi, p. 482.

3 Sussex County Library, Chapter Act Book C.L. 13, fo. 129.

4 Hope, 'Quire Screens in English Churches', p. 49.

5 Willis and Clark, Architectural History of Cambridge, i, pp. 366, 369, 409.

6 Registrum Collegii Mertonensis, p. 521.

209

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

payment to Lawrence Lancaster in 1478-9 is described as pro
missa Beatae Mariae Virginis in capella ecclesiae praedictae vocata
Ladylofte cum nota et organis custodienda.1 Ottery St. Mary had a
Lady-chapel at the east end for the daily Lady-Mass required
by the statutes, with its own stone pulpitum, which still exists.
It is clear from the arrangement of the stairway to this pul-
pitum that it was not used for reading the Epistle and Gospel,
which were read in the presbytery at the Lady-Mass, but solely
for musical purposes. In 1545 Ottery St. Mary had 'a paire of
organs in the Rodlofte [that is, over the wooden screen at the
east end of the nave] praysed at xls.', besides 'a new pair of
organs in the quere [that is, on the stone pulpitum] praysed at
v lib', and {a paire of organs in our Lady Chapel praysed at
xs.\ 2 An inventory of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross,
Crediton, made in the same year, has 'A great paire of organes
praysed at viili. xiiis. iiiid.' in the choir, and 'a payre of organes
praysed at xxs.' in the Lady-chapel.3

Durham paid ten shillings for having an organ made in
1377-8, and six shillings and eight pence for the same in 1425-6
and in 1 435-6.* A list of the amounts spent on building and
repairs at Durham between 141 6 and 1446 includes an item
of twenty-six pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence for mak-
ing several organs (factum diver sorum organorum) and one of sixty-
nine pounds and four shillings for a new choir-screen (novum
opus vocatum le Rerdoose, ad ostium chori).5 An inventory of Meaux
Abbey (Cistercian) in 1396 shows that there the larger organ
was at the west end of the church (organa majora in occidentali
fine ecclesiae) and the smaller in the choir (organa minora in
chow).6 Westminster Abbey had an organ in the choir in 1422-3,
and in 144 1-2 a new pair of organs was made for the choir at a
cost of six pounds and fourteen shillings.7 The Islip chapel or

1 Memorials of Ripon, iii, p. 260.

2 Dalton, Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary, p. 295.

3 Whitley, 'Inventories of Crediton and Ottery', p. 560.

4 Durham Account Rolls, iii, p. 586.

6 Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, p. cclxxiii.
8 Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, iii, p. lxxxii.

7 In 1422-3: 'In emendacione . . . organorum per fratrem Thomas
Gedney xiiis.' Both entries are in the Sacrist's accounts. In 1387-8 there is
the entry: 'Et cuidam Nich0 ludenti ad organa precepto domini Prioris,
xxvis. viiid.' Pearce, Monks of Westminster, pp. 133, 135, 99.

210

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Ottery St. Mary: arrangement of the screens

i. Lady-chapel screen. 2. Reredos of High Altar. 3. Choir-screen. 4. Rood-screen.

chantry, which was built by John Islip (Abbot, 1500-32), con-
sisted of a 'Jhesus Chapell beneath' and a 'Jesus Chapell above',
and the upper chapel, which was a loft with a Jesus-altar of its
own, had 'a payer of Organys with a corten of lynen cloth to

211

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

cover them'.1 At the dissolution there were also 'ii payre of
organes in the quyre'.2 The changes made by Abbot Wheat-
hamstead at St. Alban's apparently included the adoption of
the secular manner of reading the Gospel and the provision
of a large organ in the choir, for he provided a 'pair of organs'
at a cost of seventeen pounds, six shillings and eight pence, and
spent forty pounds odd on a 'wooden structure for the placing
of the organ and the reading of the lessons' 3 which is elsewhere
described as 'a certain new wooden structure at the western end
of the choir for the reading of the Gospel'.4 The organ was
installed between 1420, the beginning of Wheathamstead's first
abbacy, and 1428, for the chronicler of St. Alban's tells us that
'the new organs made a mighty noise' on the occasion of the
visit of Cardinal Beaufort to the Abbey on September 22, 1428.5
The fullest account we have of the arrangements in a large
monastic church is given by the writer of the reminiscences
known as the 'Rites of Durham'. In addition to the organs for
the votive masses,6 Durham had

'3 paire of organs belonginge to the said quire for maintenance
of gods service . . . one of the fairest paire of the 3 did stand
over the quire dore only opened and playd uppon at principall
feastes, the pipes beinge all of most fine wood . . . there was but
2 paire more of them in all England of the same makinge, one
paire in Yorke and another in Paules . . . also there was a let-
terne of wood like unto a pulpit standinge and adioyninge to
the wood organs over the quire dore, where they had wont to
singe the 9 lessons in the old time on principall dayes standinge
with theire faces towards the high altar. The second paire
stood on the north side of the quire beinge never playd uppon
but when the 4 doctors of the church was read, viz. Augustine
Ambrose Gregorye and Jerome7 beinge a faire paire of large

1 Monks of Westminster, p. 168.

2 Hopkins, The English Medieval Church Organ, p. 48.

3 'In factura unius paris organorum xviili. vis. viiid.'; 'in quadam fabrica
lignea pro positione organorum et lectura lectionum praeter pecunias a
fratribus datas xliiili. iiis. iiid. obol.' Amundesham, Chronicle, ii, p. 259.

4 Ibid., p. 198. 6 Ibid., i, p. 28.

6 See above, pp. 188-9.

7 I.e., on Sundays and festivals which were not principal feasts. Rites
of Durham, p. 207.

212

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

organs called the cryers. The third paire was dayly used at
ordinary service'.1

This third pair, according to an addition to the account writ-
ten in the late seventeenth century, 'were called the White
Organs, they were placed on the South side of the Quire to-
wards the Vestry house, and were most, and indeed dayly, used
at ordinary service, in the times of Queen Elizabeth and K.
James P. The original account observes that 'the said master
[of the choristers] was bownd to plaie on the orgains every
principall daie when the mouncks did sing ther high messe and
likewise at evinsong, but the mouncks when thei weare at there
mattens and service at mydnighte thene one of the said
mounckes did plaie on the orgains themeselves and no other',
presumably on the 'cryers' or 'white organs' according to the
day.2

The period when organs were installed in parish churches
corresponds exactly to the period of their building of rood-lofts,
and there is no doubt that the 'rood-loft solved the problem of
accommodating singers of prick-song and organ or other instru-
mental accompaniment', and that 'this was the primary cause
of its introduction and its real duty'.3 The rood-loft in a parish
church was reached by narrow steps opening from the nave;
there was no need for access to it from the choir, since it did
not fulfil a ceremonial function. The organs at St. Saviour's,
Dartmouth, in 1433,4 at St. Peter Cheap, London, in the same
year, at St. Mary's, Sandwich (Kent), in 1444, and at St.
Michael's, Cornhill, in 1459 are among the earliest of which
there is record.5 Some idea of relative size may be gathered
from the amounts paid for complete instruments, for example
in 1455 at St. Margaret, Southwark, six pounds, six shillings
and eight pence; in 15 17-18 at St. Mary-at-Hill, sixteen pounds,
and at St. Andrew, Holborn, for 'little organs', six pounds; in
1519 at All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, fifty pounds, and
at St. Petrock, Exeter, ten pounds; in 1520 at All Hallows,

1 Ibid., p. 16. 2 Ibid., pp. 62-3.

3 Vallance, English Church Screens, p. 68.

4 Watkin, Dartmouth, p. 328. The earliest payments to a player are in
1530 ('to Nicholas the organ player viis.') and 1531 ('to the Organ player
for hys beyng here at Crismas his. ivd.'). Ibid., p. 312.

5 Hopkins, The English Medieval Church Organ, pp. 35, 52.

213

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Staining, for a pair of new organs and for mending the old, four
pounds, six shillings and eight pence; in 1519 at All Saints,
Bristol, ten pounds. Some larger churches had both a great and
a small organ, as at St. Laurence, Reading, where in 15 10 one
Berkeleye was paid four pounds 'uppon a bargen of a payre of
organnes', in 151 2 Richard Turner and John Kent received
thirty- two shillings and six pence for an organ, and in 1 53 1 two
pence was spent on 'mendyng the stoppes of the grete organs'.1
Though comparatively few London churches possessed books
of polyphonic music at the Reformation, most had one or two
organs. In a few cases the inventory notes that one was on the
rood-loft, as in St. Mary-le-Bow: 'solde to Thomas Edmondes
ii paire of organs and the lofte that the one paire stode on
vili. xiiis. viiid.' 2

The Ritual Use of the Organ

The use of the organ in the liturgy between c. 1400 and the
Reformation may have retained, at least in part, the earlier
'monastic' tradition of performing plainsong on the organ in
single notes. Throughout this period the books Tor the organs'
which were listed in inventories were often plainsong service-
books, Antiphonal or Gradual, and it seems certain that the
use of an organ did not necessarily imply the playing of poly-
phony, though a well-taught player would probably extem-
porize on the plainsong as he saw fit and as occasion demanded.
It was not, apparently, until c. 1475 that it became customary
to teach choristers to play keyboard instruments,3 that is, to
apply their knowledge of descant to the keyboard, while the
earliest surviving examples of liturgical keyboard music date
from c. 1520.4

The earlier 'secular' tradition of the performance of motets,

1 All these entries except St. Mary-at-Hill and All Hallows, Barking, are
from Cox, Churchwardens'' Accounts, pp. 197 sqq. The contract for the organ
at All Hallows still exists; see Hopkins, p. 54.

2 Walters, London Churches at the Reformation, p. 441.

3 The Durham Account Rolls have an entry in 14 16-17: 'Cantori infor-
mant juvenes in organis 2s. 6d.' Durham Account Rolls, ii, p. 287.

4 Apart from the Felix namque referred to on p. 193, which may illustrate
organ descant of the first half of the fifteenth century.

214

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

and of movements of the Ordinary of the Mass composed in
motet-fashion, in the pulpitum with the participation of a small
organ, came to an end c. 1450 with the disappearance of this
style of composition. There is no evidence that the great organ
took part in the performance of the large polyphonic masses
and Magnificats of the period after 1450, nor would it have
fulfilled any necessary or useful function by doing so. The ex-
tended votive antiphons of the time were sung before an image
or crucifix, or in a separate chapel, and the contribution of a
small organ to their ensemble would have been pointless. The
idea behind the liturgical use of the organ in the later Middle
Ages was not that it should act as accompaniment and support
to choral music, but that it should be a further adornment of
the ritual, sometimes being substituted for and sometimes com-
plementing choral polyphony, or in certain circumstances serv-
ing to relieve the singers from the strain of continuous chanting.
The method of substituting the organ for singing in the per-
formance of plainsong may be illustrated in its simplest form
by the terms of a will of 1507-8 in which Thomas Miller left a
rent of thirteen shillings to St. Olave's, Hart Street, London,
with this direction: 'The Clerk of the said church is to have for
his labour fourteen pence and so that he can find oon persone
to kepe the Quere at same our Lady masse while he plaith at
organs or elles that he kepe the quere whiles that same personne
pleyes at organs'.1 In this performance of the music of the Lady-
Mass the player of the organ would act as ruler and soloist, the
clerk who 'kept the choir' would sing the chorus parts of the
plainsong, and they would alternate in certain parts of the
Ordinary. Similarly, in the performance in a large church of
the music of a votive Mass with a polyphonic choir and the
organ, which always took place 'out of choir', the master of the
choristers would act as ruler and soloist at the organ, alternating
with the choir in the parts of the Ordinary which were not set in
vocal polyphony throughout. The value of the organ in easing
the work of singers is illustrated by Wolsey's concession to the
Austin Canons that their smaller communities might relieve
with 'the melody of an organ' the strain of singing several
Masses and the canonical hours daily. It was also part of
Wolsey's purpose to avoid the danger of lax and inattentive
1 Provah, The Annals of St. Olave, Hart Street, p. 62.
215

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

devotion.1 In the larger monasteries the organ served to adorn
the ritual music of festivals, their stipendiary choirs being con-
cerned only with the singing of votive Masses and antiphons out
of choir. In the greater secular foundations, on the other hand,
choral polyphony was sung in choir on festivals, while the
organ supplied polyphonic music on lesser feasts and Sundays,
when choral polyphony was not sung.

Unfortunately, only one collection of liturgical organ music
has survived in anything like complete form.2 Its music for the
Mass comprises a setting of the Ordinary, partly alternatim, and
Offertory for Trinity Sunday; an incomplete setting of the solo-
ist's part of the Proper, the Sequence being alternatim, for
Easter Sunday; and settings of Felix namque, the Offertory in the
Lady-Mass Salve sancta parens, and of Offertories for lesser feasts.
For the offices it contains hymns and a Magnificat for Vespers,
antiphons for Compline, and hymns and the Te Deum for Matins
and Lauds. The repertory of organ music at Leicester Abbey
is summarized in William Charite's inventory, in which he tells
us that he wrote two organ books containing antiphons, hymns,
responds, Te Deum and several settings of the Magnificat for the
offices, and settings of the Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Alleluia
and Sequence for the Mass.3 The tradition of the performance of
the Te Deum in a particularly festive manner on occasions of
general rejoicing was still maintained, for an account of Richard
Ill's visit to York in 1483 records that the Te Deum was 'begun
by the officiating prelate and finished by the choir and the
organ'.4 At the reception of Henry VII in York in i486 'The

1 'Verum quia continuus et immoderatus canendi labor non solum voces
psallentium laedit, sed et ipsorum animos ad Deo serviendum inbecilliores
efficit, praesertim cum in nonnullis hujus regni cenobiis pauci sint
canonici, et nonnunquam tres pluresve missae praeter et ultra horas
canonicas sunt cum nota quotidie celeb randae; idcirco nos eorum laboribus
in hac parte compatientes, quod in omnibus illorum coenobiis organorum
melodia in choris suis, et alibi ad suum relevamen uti . . . non denegamus.'
Wilkins, Concilia, iii, p. 686.

2 The early part of British Museum MS. Add. 29996.

3 'Item gratis liniavit et notavit omnes antiphonas ymnos responsoria
alleluya sequencias Te deum certos tonos de Magnificat kyrieleyson Sanctus et
Agnus in duobus libris ordinatis tantum pro organis 2° fo unius descendit de
alterius Noli tar dare. ,' James and Thompson, 'Leicester Abbey Inventories',

P- 57-

4 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, p. 112.

2l6

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

Archbishop standing in his Trone beganne Te Deum etc.,
which by them of the Quere was right melodiously songen with
Organ as accustomed',1 and at the visit of Cardinal Wolsey to
St. Paul's in 1527 'the Lord Cardinall began Te Deum the which
was solemnlie songen with the King's trumpetts and shalmes as
well Inglish men as Venetians'.2

A comparison of the surviving repertory of organ settings of
hymns3 with the examples of the same form in vocal polyphony
supports the conclusion that one of the chief functions of the
organ was to provide polyphony for the offices on less important
days, when the polyphonic choir would not be present. There
was a relatively small amount of overlap, for of forty-one hymns
of which polyphonic settings survive, nineteen exist in organ
settings only, sixteen in vocal settings only, and six in both.4
There are no organ settings of the hymns on the festivals of the
Epiphany, Ascension, Whitsunday, Trinity, Corpus Christi, or
on any of the feasts of the Proprium Sanctorum, while, with the
exception of three of those which are common, there are no
vocal settings of the hymns which were sung frequently during
the periods of the year included in the Proprium de Tempore.
Similarly, the repertory of polyphonic antiphons for the organ
consists of settings of antiphons at Compline,5 of the canticle-
antiphon at Lauds on the vigil of the Ascension,6 and of that at
first Vespers on the feast of St. Laurence.7 The only one of the

1 Leland, Collectanea, iv, p. 191.

2 Dugdale, History of St. Paul's, p. 32.

3 In British Museum MSS. Add. 29996, 15233 and 30513. The last has
been published as The Mulliner Book.

4 These are: Te lucis ante terminum (Compline in Advent); Salvator mundi
(Compline in Lent); A solis ortus cardine (Lauds on Christmas Day); O lux
beata Trinitas (First Vespers on Sunday from Trinity to Advent); Exsultet
caelum laudibus (Common of Apostles at Lauds); and Iste confessor (Common
of Confessors at first Vespers).

5 Miserere mihi (psalm antiphon, except during the week after Christmas) ;
Natus est nobis (psalm antiphon for that time) ; Lucem tuam (canticle antiphon
on doubles from Trinity to Advent and Epiphany to Lent, with some excep-
tions) ; and Glorificamus te (canticle antiphon on three feasts of the Virgin
and at Commemorations except in the Easter season).

6 Clarifica me, of which the only settings are three by Tallis. This antiphon
was also sung (without the Alleluia which is clearly included in two of the
settings) with the Magnificat at first Vespers of Palm Sunday.

7 Beatus Laurentius, one setting by Thomas Preston.

217

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

six antiphons in this repertory of which vocal settings are known
is the Compline antiphon Miserere mihi.

Polyphony and Devotion

In this period of a century and a half before the discarding of
the medieval rites there was a remarkable growth and flowering
of musical culture in all parts of the British Isles. The new
foundations gave singers and composers opportunities unknown
before, and became the chief centres of the new styles of com-
position and performance, while the older foundations imposed
fresh duties on their singers and appointed teachers to bring
them to higher levels of competence and achievement.

In the colleges provision for the chapel establishment and
for the adornment of the ritual was a part of the wider purpose
of the founders, which was to strengthen the church and the
realm by giving free learning to scholars of promise in a context
of devotion and regular religious observance. In his Prefatio on
his foundation of Lincoln College, Bishop Richard Fleming
compared the 'dissonant' elements in the church and country
(the heresies of the Lollards) to those in the human body;1
pointing out the danger of their disproportionate growth, he
desired that the members of his college should above all seek
to exterminate heretical sects. Wykeham in his preamble to
the statutes of Winchester, Wayneflete in his Instrumentum of the
foundation of Magdalen2 and Elphinstone in his prelude to the
statutes of St. Mary's College, Aberdeen,3 expressed the same
purposes, which were to honour God, the Blessed Virgin and
the patron saint, to root out error, to nurture the faith and to

1 'Ut sicut in microcosmo sunt elementorum spherae harmonicae natur-
alis quadam dulcedine consonantes, sic humani compago corporis in seipsa
elementa continet dissonantium proprietatum, harmonica quadam melodia
commixta.' Statutes of Lincoln College, p. 7.

2 'Ad laudem gloriam et honorem omnipotentis Dei Patris et Filii et
Spiritus Sancti ac intemerate beatissime Virginis Marie Matris Christi
necnon beate Marie Magdalene Sancti Johannis Baptiste et Apostolorum
Petri et Pauli ac aliorum Patronorum Ecclesie Wintoniensis, exterpationem-
que heresium et errorum, augmentationem Gleri, decoremque sacrosancte
Matris Ecclesie cujus ministeria personis sunt idoneis committenda que
velut stelle in custodiis suis lumen prebeant et populos illuminent doctrina
pariter et exemplo.' Chandler, Life of Wayneflete, p. 390.

3 Fasti Aberdonenses, p. 53.

218

THE CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY

increase devotion. In the secular cathedrals and monasteries,
the provision of chapels, altars and musical services outside
the choir was a means of fostering the devotion of the laity,
especially to the Virgin and to the Name and Passion of Jesus.
Abbot Wheathamstead put this purpose clearly when he ex-
plained to his community that he wished to institute organistae
for the singing of the Lady-Mass 'because wherever the Divine
Service is more honourably celebrated the glory of the church
is increased and the people are aroused to much greater
devotion'.1

The development of the musical treatment of the Mass, Mag-
nificat, respond, hymn and other ritual forms shows the
strongly liturgical side of English polyphony during this period.
The votive antiphon, on the other hand, was an extra-liturgical
form, detached from the Office though still contained within
the framework of a liturgical memoria. It was said by individuals
and sung in every kind of institution, from the parish guild to
the college community. Even more than the strictly liturgical
forms of popular devotion, the Lady-Mass and Jesus-Mass, the
Mary-antiphon was the universal and characteristic expression
of the devotional fervour of the later Middle Ages.

1 'Quia ubi Divinum Servitium celebratur honestius ibi vigat decus
Ecclesiae, et est populus ad devotionem in multo amplius excitatus.'
Amundesham, Chronicle, i, p. 106.

219

)IHH»HHHIHHH(K-HIII | |«) Him)IIMH4tt>t III III Ml I I44I4IKHMIIM

MASS AND MOTET

T„

.he composition of polyphonic music for the Ordinary of
the Mass had begun as early as the Winchester Troper. Until
the second quarter of the fifteenth century polyphonic settings
of the movements of the Ordinary were grouped in the manu-
scripts according to their words, in the same way as the plain-
song chants of the Ordinary were grouped in the Gradual. The
Old Hall manuscript, which is a comprehensive collection of
settings of the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei grouped
in this way, has been dated c. 1420, mainly because the com-
poser Roy Henry in the manuscript is assumed to be Henry V
(reigned 1413-22). It is now generally agreed that Henry VI
is out of the question,1 but the possibility still remains, and
has not previously been put forward, that it was under Henry IV
( 1 399-1 41 3) that the greater part of the manuscript was
planned and written and that he was the royal composer. An
earlier date than 1413-22 is more in keeping with the style of
the music in the original layer of the manuscript, for some of
the pieces were composed according to the method of English
descant current in the fourteenth century, while others show
that their composers were in close touch with continental prac-

1 W. Barclay Squire (in 'Notes on an Undescribed Collection') and the
editors of The Old Hall Manuscript considered Roy Henry to be Henry VI;
see The Old Hall Manuscript, iii, pp. x-xiii. Lederer questioned this theory
(see p. 221, n. 4, below) and Bukofzer disestablished it; see his Studies in
Medieval Music, pp. 78-9.

220

MASS AND MOTET

tice of the period surrounding the turn of the century. The
earlier date also fits with what we know of the composers who
appear in the several stages of the compilation of the manu-
script. There is contemporary testimony to Henry IV's talent
for music in a chronicle of his reign written by John Strecche,
Canon of Kenilworth Priory (Augustinian) , who describes him
as a brilliant musician.1 Strecche must be counted a good wit-
ness, for both Henry IV and Henry V were often in Kenil-
worth,2 and there is earlier evidence of Henry IV's interest in
music.3 While there are many indications of Henry V's encour-
agement of music and his support of a large musical establish-
ment, there seems to be no contemporary evidence that he had
musical ability.4

These considerations lead to a dating of the stages in the
writing of the Old Hall manuscript which is different from the
accepted one. The first layer, which contains pieces in English
descant and more elaborate compositions which show decided
continental influence, belongs to the reign of Henry IV. The
second layer, added by two scribes, contains music by com-
posers who appear in the chapel in the first year of Henry V,
and further compositions by two of the first group. This layer
may therefore be dated between 141 3 and 1432, when there
are signs that the chapel assembled by Henry V was being dis-
persed. The final addition of pieces by Dunstable and Forest may
possibly have been made at the time of the chapel's visit to

1 'In musica micans et mirabilis litteraturis'; British Museum, MS. Add.
35295, fo. 262. The chapter on Henry V in Strecche's Historia Regum Anglie
is printed by Frank Taylor in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, xvi, 1932,
pp. 137 sqq.; the remainder of the chronicle is apparently unpublished.

2 See Wylie, England Under Henry IV, ii, p. 307; iii, p. 318: and Taylor,
'The Chronicle of John Strecche', p. 141. John of Gaunt built the great
Hall of his castle at Kenilworth c. 1392.

3 His father had 'i fistula nomine Ricordo' and his mother sang to the
cithara; the Lancastrian household accounts have in 1392-3 a payment of
forty shillings to a man presenting a cithara to Henry, and in 1395-6 one
of three shillings and four pence to John Davy 'de cam'a dni eunti de
Kenill' ad Leycestre pro una cithara dni'. Wylie, op. cit., iii, p. 325;
iv, p. 170.

4 In a rather extravagant treatment of this question V. Lederer ( Uber
Heimat und Ursprung der mehrstimmigen Tonkunst, ii, Chaps. III-IV) attributed
the manuscript to Henry V's reign, and quoted many literary allusions of
the time. None makes the claim that the King was a musician.

M.M.B. — Q 221

MASS AND MOTET

France in 1 430-1; the next decade was a lean one for the
chapel, and the addition is not likely to have been made after
Plummer, himself a composer, joined the chapel c. 1441.

French and English Style in the Fourteenth and Early
Fifteenth Centuries

Contact between English and French households and their
chapels may have begun during the papacy of Innocent IV
(1352-62) at Avignon. In 1354 the Pope was accepted by both
sides as mediator in the war between England and France, and
Henry of Grossmont, Duke of Lancaster, led the English pleni-
potentiaries to Avignon, where for six weeks in 1354-5 ne ne^
open house in the style to which Avignon was accustomed.1
Archbishop Simon Langham, formerly Abbot of Westminster,
who took up residence as Cardinal at Avignon in 1368, kept
his household and chapel there until his death in 1376, and left
legacies to three monks, three priests and a clerk of his chapel. 2
As Henry, Earl of Derby, the future Henry IV went in 1390-3
on expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land, and his retinue
included one or two chaplains and a group of minstrels con-
sisting of trumpeters, pipers and a drummer.3 Both Henry and
his father John of Gaunt were present at the marriage of
Richard II to Isabella of France at the Church of St. Nicholas
in Calais in 1395, and Henry was again in France from October,
1398, until his return from exile to take the throne in June of
the following year. These occasions would have given him an

1 Mollat, Les Papes d' 'Avignon, p. 356. It was shortly after his return that,
on March 4, 1355, he obtained royal letters patent to raise his father's
hospital at Leicester into the hospital and college of St. Mary Newarke.
Thompson, Newarke Hospital and College, p. 27.

2 'Item dominis Philippo Johanni et Jacobo monachis capellae meae
cuilibet xxx florenos camerae . . . et Johanni de Trisere presbytero . . xl
florenos camerae. Item Guisberto de Beert clerico capellae meae . . . xx
florenos camerae. Item dominis Philippo et Willelmo presbyteris cuilibet
xx florenos c' Widmore, History of St. Peter's, Westminster, p. 184. Among
those ordained to the first tonsure by Langham at Canterbury on March 3,
1 368, were Johannes Pikard, Jacobus Cook and Johannes Aleyn. Langham
Register, ii, p. 385. Though the combination of names is striking, it can only
be surmise that these may have been three of the composers in the Old Hall
book.

3 Expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land made by Henry, Earl of Derby, p. 132.

222

MASS AND MOTET

opportunity to observe the household chapels of Charles VI,
Philip the Bold of Burgundy and John Duke of Berry, with the
last of whom Henry was particularly friendly. These chapels
were well provided with competent composers and singers, and
with organs,1 while the household accounts of Duke Philip
show that Mass was celebrated in his chapel daily and that the
organ was customarily played on festivals. In 1397 payments
were made for material for the vestments of the Duke's 'prelatz
a chanter . . . le divin office aux festes solempnelles en sa
chapelle devant lui', and for 'draps d'or sur fonds varies . . .
aux messes quotidiennes'. In 1393-4 'niaistre Pierre de Pacy,
doyen de l'eglise de Paris, conseiller du roy' obtained for Duke
Philip 'unes orgues portatives pour mettre en sa chapelle de son
hostel d'Artoiz et les transporter en autres hostels . . . estans
audit lieu de Paris et environ pour en jouer devant luy aux
festes solempnez ainsi comme il est de coustume'.2 Twenty- two
shillings and six pence were spent in January, 1394, 'pour le
apportaige d'unes orgues de l'ostel d'Artoiz a l'eglise de saint
Anthoine pour faire le service devant mon dit seigneur le jour
de la feste dudit saint et pour les reporter au dit hostel'.3 The
most costly of such operations was the transporting of an organ
from Gand 'destine au manoir de Conflans' which was brought
in 1400 by water to Valenciennes and thence on the backs of
'xii gros varlets' to Paris.4 On the 'diplomatic' function of
Philip's chapel the editor of these accounts remarks: 'Nous ne
revenons pas sur la raison tres claire de cette devotion ducale.
Ce mode itinerant, qui s'avere de regie a la cour de Bourgogne,
s'etend parfois tres loin: la musique religieuse est au nombre
des moyens de persuasion dont use le diplomate, le politique,
en ses tractations dedicates.' It seems certain that the develop-
ment of the music of the Royal Household Chapel under the
early Lancastrian kings owed much to the French idea of the
manner in which a great Christian ruler should order his daily

1 See Pirro, La musique a Paris le regne de Charles VI; Dannemann, Die
Spdtgotische Musiktradition in Frankreich und Burgund, pp. 1-14. Charles V of
France (1364-80) attended Mass 'a chant melodieux et solemneP in his
chapel daily. Marix, Histoire de la musique de la cour de Bourgogne, p. 15.

2 At a cost of sixty pounds. David, Philippe le Hardi, p. 112.

3 Loc. cit.

4 Each stage took ten days and the cost was some thirty thousand francs.
The account has interesting details about the organ. Loc. cit.

223

MASS AND MOTET

and festal observances. The Old Hall manuscript provided
polyphonic music for the daily singing of Mass, being in this
respect unique, besides motets for festivals and votive antiphons
to the Virgin.

The musical evidence that direct contact between English
and French composers took place before 1400 consists of a
motet by an English composer, named in the text Johannes
Alanus, in a notable collection of continental music now in the
Musee Conde at Chantilly, 1 and one, or perhaps two, motets by
the French composer Mayshuet in the Old Hall manuscript.
Alanus has been identified with the canon of Windsor (d. 1373)
who bequeathed a book of polyphony to St. George's Chapel;
rather improbably with a John Aleyn, piper, who was in the
service of Derby during his expedition of 13922 and with a
Jean Alain who shared with three French minstrels a payment
from the Duke of Orleans when the four were in the service of
John of Gaunt in 1396;3 with the Aleyn who contributed a
Gloria in descant style to the Old Hall manuscript; and with a
John Aleyn who became a minor canon of St. Paul's in 1421
and died in 1437.4 While his identity is uncertain, there is no
doubt about the Englishness of his motet, for the words of the
treble part, which begin:

Sub Arturo plebs vallata
Plaudat melos, laus ornata
Psallatur altissimo,
Anglis conferentur grata
Eventu piissimo,

go on to praise the skill of a number of English musicians who
are listed by name. One of them, Ricardus Blich, may be the
Richard Blithe who was a member of the Household Chapel in

1 The piece is also in the Bologna MS. Bibl. G. B. Martini Q15 of c. 1430.
The Musee Conde manuscript (No. 1047) contains pieces dated 1369 and
1389, and has connections with the courts of Gaston Phebus (1331— 91)
Count of Foix; John I (1350-95) of Aragon; and Pope Clement VII at
Avignon (1378-94). See Reaney, 'The Manuscript Chantilly, Musee
Conde 1047'.

2 Expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land made by Henry, Earl of Derby, p. 269.

3 Laborde, Les dues de Bourgogne, iii, pp. 123-4.

4 Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 77. There was also a John Aleyne
among the King's minstrels in 1421.

224

MASS AND MOTET

141 3 and died in 1420. * The others are not known from other
sources, though 'J. de alto bosco' may be the J. de Bosco who
was a singer in the Papal Chapel at Avignon in 1394.2 The
melody of the tenor of Alanus's motet3 is that of the versicle
In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, while the words of the counter-
tenor, beginning:

Fons citharizantium
Ac organizantium
Tubal praedicatur
Musicae primordia
Scriptis ut historia
Genesis testatur,

is a roll of great musical theorists from Pythagoras to Franco,
to whose successors, in the last verse,

licet infimus
Johannes Alanus
Sese recommendat,
Quatenus ab invidis
Ipsum sonis validis
Laus horum defendat.

The piece has the classical isorhythmic structure, with three
statements of the tenor in progressive diminution, but more
significant is the fact that it shows a definite tendency towards
the sophistication of rhythm which was cultivated in extreme
forms by some of the continental composers in the same manu-
script:

Ex 22.

1 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1416-22, p. 312.

2 Haberl, 'Die romische schola cantorum', p. 213, n. 2.

3 Printed in Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, xl, p. 9.

225

MASS AND MOTET

The Chantilly manuscript has four pieces by Matheus de
Sancto Johanne which have French words, and one piece by
Mayhuet de Joan with Latin words and a tenor marked pro
papa Clemente, which must therefore have been composed be-
tween 1378 and 1394. At the end of the Old Hall book there
are two pieces which clearly form a pair in style and function;
the composer of the former of the two, Arae post libamina —
Nunc surgunt in populo, is given as Mayshuet, and there can be
little doubt that this is the same composer. Both are substitutes
for the Deo gratias at the end of Mass, for the highest part in
both pieces begins with a reference to the Mass and ends with
the words Deo gratias. 1 The tenor of Arae post libamina — Nunc
surgunt resembles the clementiam melody of the Benedicamus, and
its texts are sardonic commentaries on the vainglorious and
mercenary attitude of singers :

Cantatores sunt plerique
Quorum artes sunt iniquae
Vanam quaerunt gloriam . . .2

and:

Notulas multiplicant et reputant cantatum
Non amorem Domini puto, sed magnatum.

Vos tales hypocritae numquid aspexistis
Sanctum Evangelium, in quo perlegistis
Vere dictum Domini loquentis de istis?
Amen vobis dicitur mercedem recepistis.

1 Only two voices, the highest (beginning Post missarum sollemnia) and the
countertenor, of the second piece have survived. Arae post libamina is printed
in The Old Hall Manuscript, iii, p. 150.

2 After four six-line verses, the ending has: 'Practicus insignis Gallicus
sub Gallicis pennis hunc discantavit cantum; sed post reformavit Latina
lingua Anglis saepius fit amoena reddendo Deo gratias.'

226

MASS AND MOTET

Unlike the work of those who 'multiplied small notes', both
pieces have a forthright rhythmic and melodic style. In this
they are typical neither of the French music of their time nor
of the Old Hall music as a whole, which elsewhere gives ample
evidence of the melodic elaboration and rhythmic subtlety
which were characteristic of French practice in the late four-
teenth century.

Motets written as direct substitutes for the Deo gratias of Mass
are rather uncommon. The best known example is in the Notre
Dame Mass of Guillaume de Machaut1 (1300-77), where the
tenor, which is isorhythmically disposed, is a slightly varied
form of the third Ite missa est melody in the Sarum Gradual.2
The example in the 'Tournai Mass' of before 13503 is also
based on an isorhythmic treatment of the chant, in this case a
slightly varied form of the fourth Ite missa est in the Sarum group.
Of two further cases in the Ivrea manuscript of the third
quarter of the fourteenth century, which has Avignon connec-
tions, one has a text (Post missarum sollemnia) which is used, with
variants, in the latter of the Old Hall pair;4 the other, which
appears to be based on a freely-composed tenor, is also found
in the 'Mass of Toulouse', where it is designated Motetus super
Ite missa est.b An English case, the motet Humanae linguae organis
— Supplicum voces percipe — Deo gratias, is found in a set of frag-
ments taken from the fifteenth-century binding of a Fountains
Abbey memorandum book for the years 1446-60. 6 The iso-
rhythmic tenor is the same melody as that used by Machaut,
and both the upper parts end with the word gratias. While these
pieces are clearly substitute motets for the Deo gratias, it is
possible that any appropriate motet may have been sung in

1 Transcription in Guillaume de Machaut, iv, p. 20, and Guglielmi de Mas-
caudio Opera, i, p. 29. There are also modern editions of the Machaut
Mass by J. Chailley (Paris, 1948) and A. Machabey (Liege, 1948).

2 Graduate Sarisburiense, pi. 19*; the melody is virtually identical with the
seventh Sarum Benedicamus, loc. cit.

3 Transcription in Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, i, p. 1 29.
4Besseler, 'Studien zur Musik des Mittelalters', I, p. 188.

5 Transcription in Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, i, p. 1 38.

6 British Museum, MS. Add. 4001 1 B; the contents have been discussed
in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, Chap. III. The style of the music in
these fragments suggests a date close to 1400, and seven (including one
copied twice) of the eighteen surviving pieces are also in the original part
of the Old Hall collection.

227

MASS AND MOTET

that place in the ritual. There is no evidence that this continued
to be an English practice, but it is interesting to notice that an
account of the meeting of Henry VIII and Francis I at the
Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 tells us that the French
'concluded [Mass] with several motets'.1

The First Group of Composers in the Old Hall
Manuscript

The first of the four scribes who copied music into the Old
Hall manuscript laid out the general scheme of the collection.2
He gave it the following order: settings of the Gloria; Mary-
antiphons; settings of the Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei;
and five motets, comprising one to St. Thomas of Canterbury,
one to the Virgin, one to St. Katherine, 3 and the two Deo gratias
motets just discussed. Nineteen composers, apart from Mays-
huet, appear in the original part of the manuscript, namely,
Aleyn, Byttering, R. Chirbury, Cooke, J. Excetre, Fonteyns,4
Roy Henry, Jervays, Lambe, Leonel (Power), Olyver, Pennard,
Pycard, Queldryk, Rowlard,5 Swynford, J. Tyes and W. Typp.
Within each group of settings of the Ordinary the scribe
arranged the music in two sections, one of which continues the
English descant tradition, while the other uses techniques prac-
tised by French composers of the time. One of Roy Henry's two

1 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, III, i, p. 312.

2 A fourth hand added Dunstable's Veni Sancte Spiritus, Forest's Qualis est
dilectus and part of his Ascendit Christus on blank pages between the two
groups of Credo settings. For a discussion of the hands, see The Old Hall
Manuscript, i, pp. ix-xvi.

3 For which Bukofzer {Studies in Medieval Music, p. 71) suggested the
occasion of Henry V's marriage to Catherine de Valois on Trinity Sunday
in 1420, the tenor of the motet being Sponsus amat sponsam, the beginning of
the verse of the respond Virgo flagellatur at Matins of St. Katherine (Novem-
ber 25). However, the words of the upper parts are a devotion to the saint,
and I should place it some years earlier, with the other music in the first
hand.

4 A Michel de Fontaines (d. 1405) was Cantor, i.e., director of the music,
and Canon of Sainte Chapelle in Paris; Brenet, Les musiciens de la Sainte-
Chapelle du Palais, p. 25.

5 Possibly Philippus Royllart, composer of a motet Rex Carole — Laetitae
pads in the Chantilly MS., as Riemann suggested in Handbuch der Musik-
geschichte, II, i, p. 99. Rex Carolus is Charles V (1364-80). See also Van den
Borren, Le manuscrit de Strasbourg, p. 55.

228

MASS AND MOTET

pieces stands at the head of the second section of the Gloria set-
tings, and the other at the head of the whole set of Sanctus settings.
The French composers with whose work the 'new' styles in
Old Hall may usefully be compared include Nicolas Grenon,
who was at the court of Philip the Bold in 1385, in 1403 choir-
master at Laon, in 1408 grammar-master at Cambrai, in 141 2
master of the choristers in the chapel of John the Fearless, from
142 1 to 1424 choirmaster at Cambrai Cathedral, and from
1425 to 1428 a member of the Papal Chapel in Rome;1 Billart,
who was perhaps the Albertus Billardi who was 'clerc de
matines' at Notre Dame, Paris, in 1392;2 Jo. Asproys or
Hasprois, who was at the Papal Chapel in Avignon in 1394;3
Jean Cesaris, who was at Angers Cathedral in 141 7;4 Richard
de Loqueville, who was in the service of Duke Robert of Bar
in 141 0, and choirmaster at Cambrai Cathedral from 141 3 to
his death in 141 8;5 Jean Tapissier, who was in the service of
John the Fearless in 1408;6 and Johannes Carmen, who was in
the chapel of Philip of Burgundy in the last decade of the four-
teenth century, the household accounts referring to him as a
composer of 'motets et glas',7 and later at the church of Saint
Jacques de la Boucherie in Paris.8 The fame of three of these
composers was celebrated in Le Champion des Dames (c. 1 440) by
Martin le Franc, who places them in the generation preceding
that of Binchois and Dufay:

Tapissier, Carmen, Cesaris

N'a pas longtemps si bien chanterrent

1 Dannemann, Die spdtgotische Musiktradition in Frankreich und Burgund,
p. 10. He was apparently still living, and again in Cambrai, in 1449.
Reese, Music in the Renaissance, p. 13.

2 Pirro, La musique a Paris sous le regne de Charles VI, p. 20.

3 Dannemann, op. cit., p. 9.

4 Pirro, op cit., p. 30.

8 Reese, Music in the Renaissance, p. 7; Dannemann, op. cit., p. 10.

6 Pirro, op. cit., p. 29.

7 The article 'Carmen' in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart does not
refer to Carmen's connection with the Burgundian chapel, which is given in
David, Philippe le Hardi, p. 113. In 1403 Carmen was paid for copying
'certains himes nouvellement faiz'. Early Fifteenth Century Music, p. i.

8 See Gastoue, Les primitifs de la musique frangaise, p. 72. For a discussion of
the church music of these composers (except Billart), see Reese, Music in
the Renaissance, pp. 20-2. Billart's Salve virgo — Vita via — Salve regina is printed
in Polyphonia Sacra, p. 1 59.

229

MASS AND MOTET

Ou'ilz esbahirent tout Paris

Et tous ceulx qui les frequenter rent.1

The continuation of the English descant style in the music
of the Old Hall manuscript may be most clearly seen in the
settings of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei. Of the first seventeen
Sanctus settings only two, Roy Henry's opening piece and one
by Chirbury, are not on a plainsong. All are in simple descant
style, and their plainsongs provide for every liturgical occasion
from greater doubles to ferias. The chant is in the middle part,
without ornamentation, in all cases but two; in one of those, a
setting by Typp, 2 the chant is used in all three voices, at times
a fourth and at times a fifth higher than the original pitch,
while in the other, which is by Chirbury, it is set a fifth higher
and moved from one part to another without further trans-
position; 3

PU-ni, Sunt CDB-liet tier- TO. .gta-rC-a. tiv* a. Ho-san-na. in ex - - eel-sis

r r

1 .

1 1 '

r V .J. J J-- ■ ■

^ J

iJJ

J J J

jj-ry

VJ i

|i ■ 2 r ~ |~ ,

Pie - ni sunt cae - Li et ter - ra qto

rl-ata • a

1 Quoted in Reese, Music in the Renaissance, p. 12.

2 The Old Hall Manuscript, iii, p. 4.

3 Ibid., p. 34, and cf. Conditor alme, p. 151 above. A cantus firmus treated
in this way is termed 'migrant'. The term is restricted here to cases in which
at least a complete phrase or unit of the chant is transferred and in which
migration is continuous "or habitual. A momentary change in the position
of a cantus firmus, which often occurs in these pieces, was merely a crossing
of parts, and did not constitute a real change in the method of composition.
See Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 47-8, where both kinds of treat-
ment are shown as 'migrant'.

230

MASS AND MOTET

The technical development of this style may be seen in five
of the succeeding eight settings of the Sanctus,1 which are based
on plainsongs for feasts and Sundays, and use an ornamented
form of the plainsong in the highest voice.2 This method of
ornamentation may appropriately be called cantus fractus, for
the plainsong is truly 'broken', its notes being separated by
others in the manner of variations, or 'divisions' as they were
later called. Here the effect of the ornamentation is to achieve
a melodic style different from that of the plainsong, and com-
parison shows that the model for this new style was the secular
French chanson:3

Ex. 24.

Richard l.e<jue* Me

f 0 hi

SULS

a -mou

-reux

vous

gra-

dea -

yen -

Plainsong

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, iii, pp. 58-99. Sturgeon's setting (p. 55) is not
in the first hand. The five in question comprise three by Power (pp. 58-75)
and two by Olyver (pp. 81-9).

2 In one of Power's settings (p. 58) the ornamented plainsong is partly in
the middle part.

3 (a) Bodleian Library, MS. Canonici Misc. 213, fo. 93V; (b) The Old
Hall Manuscript, iii, p. 85.

231

MASS AND MOTET

The method of composition was different from that of simple
descant with parts above and below a tenor, since in this style
the highest part must be composed first, which was the method
of the French chanson. This treatment of plainsong may be
regarded as an ancestor of variation technique, and is therefore
of great historical interest. It probably arose because the com-
posers wished to make a more festive and 'modern' setting by
approximating their descant technique to the style of the chan-
son while retaining the ritual music as their basis.

Leonel Power's three-part setting in this group1 is a closer
imitation of the French chanson style than Olyver was able to
achieve, and is also an early example of another line of develop-
ment, the writing of two-part sections within a three-part com-
position.2 Power set the words Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua
in the Sanctus and qui venit in nomine Domini in the Benedictus
for the lesser number of voices, which was to become a standard
practice for the next century and a half.3 The remaining three

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, hi, p. 66. The highest part is an ornamented
form of the first Sarum Sanctus chant, transposed up a fifth.

2 For some examples of duets in French compositions, see the Gloria
settings with two-part openings by Hugh de Salinis and Loqueville quoted
in Dannemann, Die spatgotische Musiktradition in Frankreich und Burgund,
p. 1 19. The opening of another Gloria by de Salinis (ibid., p. 120) is in
three parts, and the trope, the words of which celebrate the ending of the
Schism in 141 7, is in two parts. The device of a two-part (or even one-part)
opening occurred earlier, in the introitus of a few isorhythmic motets by
Machaut. See also Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, Chapter V.

3 In this and similar cases the words of the duets were written in red
letters instead of black. This probably indicates one singer to a part, cor-
responding to the indication unus in continental manuscripts of the early
fifteenth century, and is found later in the Eton manuscript and in the O
quam suavis Mass.

232

MASS AND MOTET

of the festive settings of the Sanctus comprise one each by
Power and Tyes1 in which the descant method is expanded to
four parts, and one by Excetre, apparently on a plainsong,
which has not been identified, in the treble.

The settings of the Agnus Dei were set out on an exactly
analogous plan, but unfortunately there is a gap in the manu-
script and after sixteen settings in simple descant there remain
only two complete out of a group of probably eight or nine
festive settings. In a setting which is one of the comparatively
few four-part pieces in the manuscript2 Power devised another
use of the varied plainsong idea by using an ornamentally
expanded version of the chant as the tenor. Olyver's setting, 3
which is in the same style as his two Sanctus settings, is par-
ticularly interesting because the plainsong on which it is based
is the same melody sung three times, so that the piece is actually
three melodic 'variations', one in each of the measures corre-
sponding to our six-eight, three-four and four-four time, on the
same chant.

The settings of the Gloria and Credo which were copied by
the first writer of the manuscript were also subdivided into a
group of descant settings and a group of festive settings, but the
systematic use of the plainsongs was not carried out in the
Glorias, while in the Creeds it would not have been possible,
since the Sarum rite provided only one chant for the Creed.
In the only surviving descant setting of the Gloria on a plain-
song,4 and in two settings of the Creed,5 the plainsong is in the
middle part in the normal fashion, while another setting of the
Creed uses it in the treble, with occasional notes in the middle
voice, without ornamentation.6 William Typp's descant setting
is a compromise between free writing and writing on the plain-
song, using notes of the chant intermittently, with transposi-
tions, in all three parts.7 In many of the descant settings of the
Gloria and Creed an effect of overall design is obtained by
dividing the piece into three sections in different measures.

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, iii, pp. 76, 94. 2 Ibid., p. 136.

3 Ibid., p. 141. 4 Anonymous. Ibid., iii, p. [8].

5 Both anonymous. Ibid., ii, pp. 1, 15. 6 Anonymous. Ibid., p. 8.

7 Ibid., p. 44. Another setting, which is anonymous (p. 30), seems to use
some material from a Credo chant which appears in the modern Roman
Ordinary {Liber Usualis, p. 71, indicated as of the fifteenth century).

233

MASS AND MOTET

The composers made their most enterprising use of the con-
tinental practices of the time in the festive settings of the Gloria
and Creed, which can be divided into the three categories of
chanson, canon and isorhythm. When they adopted the tech-
nique of the chanson they abandoned their traditional descant
method, with its three evenly-spaced voices, for the disposition
of the parts which had been characteristic of the French secular
chanson since Machaut. In structure the chanson consisted of a
two-part outline formed by the main melody in the top part
(cantus) and a slower-moving tenor of rather careful melodic
design, supplemented by a countertenor of which the melodic
design was of little consequence, since its function was to add a
suitable third note to the intervals made by the other two parts
and to complement them in rhythm. At the stage in which
English composers met this style at the turn of the fourteenth
century, the main melody of a chanson could have considerable
rhythmic energy, but was not often notable for melodic grace.
Its favourite rhythm was triple, corresponding either to our
six-eight or three-four, and one of the characteristic rhythmic
devices was the use simultaneously or successively of the six-
eight and three-four groupings of quavers within a dotted
minim, an idiom with which Roy Henry was obviously quite
familiar:1

Ex.25

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, p. 34. The values referred to are those of the
transcription, and are one-quarter of the original. In France, a chanson
was normally performed by a combination of voice (s) and various kinds
of instruments. In the absence of any evidence for the use of string or

234

MASS AND MOTET

Some English composers became interested in the more com-
plex combinations of rhythms which were a feature of the
French secular chanson in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth
centuries,1 and were also used in French sacred music.2 Power,
in particular, wrote one setting each of the Gloria and Credo
which are virtually essays, or 'lessons', in mensural propor-
tions:3

** j . j.

Most pieces in chanson style were divided by changes of
measure into several sections; the other means of subdivision,
the writing of some sections as duets, occurs in three-part pieces
by Excetre,4 in four-part pieces by Power and Pycard,5 and in
two anonymous four-part Creeds, both of which end with a
five-part section.6 In one of his settings of the Creed7 Power
took direct action, which at first sight is of a rather startling
kind, to concentrate the form into two sections followed by an
extended Amen by starting the words of the countertenor at
Et in Spiritum Sanctum and arranging matters so that the cantus

wind instruments in English churches, it must be assumed that parts
without words were vocalized or played on the organ.

1 See French Secular Music of the Late Fourteenth Century.

2 E.g., in Billart's piece referred to in p. 229, n. 6, above.

3 The Old Hall Manuscript, ii, p. 169; the Gloria is in Vol. i, p. 65.

4 Ibid., i, p. 55; ii, p. 158. 5 Ibid., i, p. 60; ii, p. 1 14.

6 Ibid., ii, pp. 1 25, 1 76. The similarity of the former of the anonymous
Creeds to Power's four-part Gloria has led to the suggestion that it may
also be by Power. Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 44.

7 The Old Hall Manuscript, ii, p. 185.

235

MASS AND MOTET

reached that point in the words when the countertenor arrived
at the end of the text. This and similar ways of 'telescoping'
the text of the Creed were occasionally used in the early fifteenth
century, though the later practice of omitting some portions
of the text, which was characteristic of English Creeds from
c. 1430 to about a century later,1 was not used in the Old Hall
manuscript.

It was only with difficulty that the plainsongs of the Gloria
and Credo could be assimilated to the chanson style, for their
melodic idioms made them unsuitable for a tenor part, and
they could not easily be stylized by ornamentation to make an
upper part. In one of the two essays in the solution of this
problem Excetre used the latter method to make a three-part
setting of the second of the Gloria chants for greater doubles, 2
while in the other the anonymous composer of the second of the
four-part Creeds just mentioned used the chant, slightly orna-
mented, as a second cantus part in the 'full' sections, and more
fully ornamented as the upper part of the duets. At least two
of the composers, Pycard and Byttering, took up enthusiasti-
cally the idea of applying canon, or fuga as it was then called,
to the setting of the Gloria,3 though their French contempor-
aries seem not to have used canon for movements of the Mass,4
and the only known sacred examples are motets, such as
Carmen's Pontifici decori speculi in honour of St. Nicholas:5

1 See Missa 0 Quam Suavis, pp. xxxiii-xxxvi, and, for a theory as to the
possible reasons for the practice, Hannas, 'Concerning Deletions in the
Polyphonic Mass Credo'.

2 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, p. 55.

3 One by Byttering (Vol. i, p. 47) and three by Pycard (ibid., pp. 76,
84, 119). There are two canonic Creeds, both anonymous (Vol. ii, pp. 82,
101), while two other Creeds, by Pycard and Byttering (ibid., pp. 135, 203),
are pseudo-canons, and also late examples of hocket technique.

4 For a reference to two Italian examples, see Strunk, in Bukofzer, Studies
in Medieval Music, p. 85, n. 57. One of these, with the tenor and counter-
tenor in canon, is transcribed in Die mittelalterliche Mehrstimmigkeit, p. 58.

5 Bodleian Library, MS. Canonici Misc. 2 1 3, fo. 26v, transcribed in Stainer,
Dufay and his Contemporaries, p. 88, and Early Fifteenth Century Music, p. 54. The
canonic voice is designed in five isorhythmic sections. See also Johannes
Ciconia's 0 felix templum jubila, composed in 1400 for the dedication of the
new cathedral of Padua, which is written in pseudo-canon; transcription in
Van den Borren, Polyphonia Sacra, p. 243; discussion in Besseler, Bourdon und
Fauxbourdon, pp. 78 sqq., and Clercx-Lejeune, 'Johannes Ciconia de Leodio',

236

MASS AND MOTET

Ex.2t.

Both Pycard and Byttering used this scheme of two canonic
parts over two free parts, 1 and by telescoping the text Byttering
managed to make his setting one of the shortest of the Glorias
in the manuscript:

Ex.28.

( Q

- te

Be-

ne -

did -mus

Ora- tc-

os a - gl-

mus

vo -

Lun -

tis,

dora, - mus

i r

pp. 1 20-1 . On Ciconia's dates, see Clercx-Lejeune, 'Question de Chronologic',
in Revue Beige de Musicologie, ix, 1955, p. 47.

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, pp. 47, 76. Byttering's canon is not written
out in the edition; see Strunk in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 81-3.

M.M.B. — R 237

MASS AND MOTET

Pycard developed the further possibilities of canonic technique
in a setting with two parts in canon and three free parts:1

Ex.29.

Et in ter -no. bax ho-mi-nibas bo-noe vo-Lun-ta

and in his technical feat, astonishing for its time, of writing a
five-part setting of the Gloria as a double canon with one free
part.2 For this piece he provided a part called solus tenor to be
sung instead of the canonic tenor and countertenor, so that
the work could be performed by four voices instead of five.3
The second of two anonymous settings of the Creed,4 both of
which are canons for three parts with two free parts, worthily

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, p. 119.

2 Equally remarkable, and probably unique, is Pycard's Sanctus on
fo. ioov, not printed in the edition because thought to be incomplete. It is
actually a canon three-in-one in which the canonic part is a paraphrase of
the plainsong. I have discussed this piece in New Oxford History of Music,
iii, Chapter 4.

3 Ibid., i, p. 84. The upper canon is not in the edition; see Strunk, as
above, pp. 85-6. A solus tenor combining countertenor and tenor was used
by Carmen in two four-part motets, reducing them to three parts. One of
these, Venite adoramus — Salve sancta, printed in Van den Borren, Polyphonia
Sacra, p. 167, dates from c. 1409-15. See Besseler, s.v. 'Carmen' in Die
Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

4 The Old Hall Manuscript, ii, pp. 82, 101.

238

MASS AND MOTET

represents the culmination of this phase of the cultivation of
canon. It is a 'mensuration-canon' in which three parts read
from the same music, each interpreting the notation according
to a different measure-signature:1

Ex.30.

r^-r p

FC - U - o - 'que
fill? I

a* \ r

Pycard's double canon and these anonymous canonic set-
tings of the Credo are quite unparalleled in their technical
1 Ibid., pp. i io-i i. Facsimile in ibid., iii, between pp. xxiv-xxv.

239

MASS AND MOTET

interest outside England at this time, and may represent a
renewal, under continental influence, of the earlier English
interest in rota and rondellus techniques. They belong to the
last phase of a fourteenth-century tradition rather than to the
main movement of style in the early fifteenth century, for
canonic technique played no part in the next stage of the
history of the polyphonic Mass in England.

Isorhythm, on the other hand, kept its interest for composers
until the middle of the fifteenth century, though again its
transference from the motet to the longer movements of the
Mass seems not to have been a general practice in France.1
The use of isorhythm in Glorias and Credos in the Old Hall
manuscript is found only in pieces written by the first scribe,2
and was an important step towards the emergence some twenty
years later of the idea of setting all the movements of a poly-
phonic Mass on the same recurring tenor. Among the single
movements in isorhythmic structure in the Old Hall collection,
Typp's Credo on the tenor Benedicam te Domine exemplifies a
neatly orthodox design, in which the rhythmic scheme of the
tenor is the same pattern four times:3

Ex.31.
PlaXnsong

1 See Harder, 'Die Messe von Toulouse', p. 108, n. 2.

2 Five settings of the Gloria, by Power (iii, [23]), Pycard (i, 92), Queldryk
(i, 109), Tyes (i, 150), an anonymous (iii, [32]) (the scheme of this is so
similar to that of Power's isorhythmic Credo that it may well be by him),
and another anonymous in which only the Amen is isorhythmic (iii, [27]);
five settings of the Credo, by Pennard (ii, 241; his only piece in the manu-
script), Power (ii, 194), Queldryk (ii, 232), Swynford (ii, 213; also his only
piece) and Typp (ii, 224).

3 Ibid., ii, p. 224. The plainsong (Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 107) is the
opening of the third Antiphon at Lauds on the first Sunday after the octave
of the Epiphany.

240

MASS AND MOTET

and the piece is based on three statements of this tenor, laid out
in the proportions 12:8:3, that is, dotted semibreve to semi-
breve to dotted crotchet in the notation of our example. The
successive sections of the upper two parts are also isorhythmi-
cally related, for example:

Ex.32.

Treble

Counter-
tenor
Tfenor

to:

Po. - trem o - mni - po - ten - tern , fiac - to - rem cue -

Ex.33.

SOB -

CUL -

La. De -

urn

De -

Ul • men

1
J—

tre

U-

*—

et FC -Li

f h p

■0

si-

trmi

a -

J- 1

tP=

mjl

in the first section, and:

Ex.34.

(pro) - />£er__ nos

.ho

mi - - nes et_

t>ro- pter

to:

Ex.35.

(Crua)-fc - xus e-ti-am pro no - bis sub.

hon-ti-o

in the second section. This isorhythmic treatment of all the parts
became the normal practice in the fifteenth-century motet.
The melodic style of the piece is clearly related to the chanson,

241

MASS AND MOTET

and the text is telescoped. Compared with the established
French practice, however, some of the isorhythmic pieces in
Old Hall have unorthodox traits,1 such as the apparently
original tenors in pieces by Power, Queldryk and Swynford, a
non-repeating tenor in a Credo by Power,2 and a particularly
elaborate scheme in five parts3 with a pseudo-canon between
the two highest by Pycard, as one might expect. Pennard's
Credo,4 which is equally enterprising, involves the rarely-used
device of isomelody as well as isorhythm, the second half of the
piece being isomelodically related to the first, as may be seen
in the Amen, in which the isomelodic variation is carried out
in hocket:5

Et in- car-na - tus est de Spi-rC-bu, San - cto

Treble 2

jg vv B |vTj>Tyj*|yyJ>J. lJ j
M I y y K J J I »» k i g-

Like the large canonic schemes, intellectual adventures of this
kind are in the spirit of the previous century, while the later
development of the complete Mass on a plainsong tenor
stemmed from the more modest three-part settings in which
isorhythmic design was combined with the melodic style of the
chanson.

1 See the discussion in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 56-73.

2 An anonymous Gloria (Vol. iii, p. [32]) also has a straight- through tenor.

3 Which can be reduced to four by using the solus tenor part.

4 In four parts, reducible to three.

5 Vol. ii, pp. 244, 250.

242

MASS AND MOTET

English and French Style from 1413 to c. 14.30

Another period of direct contact between English and French
musicians began early in the reign of Henry V and ended with
the death of John Duke of Bedford at Rouen in 1435. The first
occasion was the meeting of all Christendom at the Council
of Constance (141 4- 18). It is recorded that the singers who
went with the English bishops to the Council charmed their
hearers at Cologne,1 and that at Constance their music on the
feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury made a strong impression.
A chronicler of the Council relates that on St. Thomas's Eve
in 141 6 the English 'ordered four trombonists through the town
of Constance at the time of Vespers . . . and sang Vespers in the
Cathedral in a laudable manner, with large candles, fine ring-
ing of bells and playing of the organ', or as another version
has it 'with sweet angelic singing'.2 The chapel of Henry V
was with him in France from 1417 to 142 1,3 and the composer
John Pyamour, who was a clerk in Henry's chapel in 1420,
went to France again with Bedford when the Duke returned
there after a visit to England in 1427.4 The most renowned
musician in the Duke's service was John Dunstable, composer
and astronomer, to whom Abbot Wheathamstead of St. Alban's
paid this tribute:

Musicus hie Michalus alter, novus et Ptolomeus,
Junior ac Atlas supportans robore caelos,
Pausat sub cinere; melior vir de muliere
Nunquam natus erat; vitii quia labe carebat,

1 Pirro, Histoire de la musique, p. 57.

2 'An sant Thomas aubent . . . sy hiessen ze vesperzit durch die statt
Constentz vier prusuner . . . und sungend die vesper zu dem thumb gar
loblich mit grossen brinnenden kertzen, mit schonem geliit und in den
organan' {another MS 'und mit engelschem siissemgesang mit den ordnen').
Ulrichs von Richental Chronik des Constanzes Concils, p. 97.

3 See Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1416-22, p. 127 (commission to John Colles,
clerk of the vestry, and John Water, clerk, to take carriage of the chapel
goods to Southampton, December 4, 141 7); Proceedings of the Privy Council,
ii, p. 240 (decision of the Privy Council to the same effect); ibid., p. 236
(provision on February 27, 1422, for payment to the executors of the late
Treasurer of the Household, John Rothenhale, for costs incurred in the
support and expenses of the Dean and clerks of the King's chapel returning
from Rouen to England on January 11-18, 142 1).

4 Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 77.

243

MASS AND MOTET

Et virtutis opes possedit unicus omnes.
Cur exoptetur, sic optandoque precetur
Perpetuis annis celebretur fama Johannis
Dunstapil; in pace requiescat et hie sine fine.1

The chapel of the royal household went to France for the
visit of Henry VI which began in April, 1430, and ended with
his coronation as King of France in Notre Dame, Paris, by
Cardinal Beaufort on December 16, 1431.2 Several copies of the
processional antiphon and a copy for the choir of the complete
plainsong for Henry's coronation service,3 which are preserved
in the French National Archives, show that two significant
changes were made in the traditional plainsong of the English
coronation ritual. The antiphon Firmetur manus tuas for the
entrance into the church was replaced by the respond Ecce
mitto angelum, no doubt with the visions of Joan of Arc in mind,
and a respond of St. Remigius, patron saint of Rheims, where
Charles VII had been crowned King of France in Joan's
presence on July 17, 1429, was sung as the procession carrying
the holy oil entered from the vestry. The ceremony was carried
out by the English nobles and the two French bishops, Beauvais
and Noyon, who were present; the canons of Notre Dame and
the English clerks took part, and there was an unseemly dispute
between them at the offering of the wine. If Henry VI's chapel
or the Duke of Bedford's sang polyphony during the service, it
is possible that Dunstable's famous motet Veni sancte Spiritus —
Veni creator Spiritus and his Credo and Sanctus on Da gaudiorum
praemia, which are perhaps the surviving movements of a com-
plete polyphonic Ordinary, were written for the occasion. The
words of the hymn Veni creator, which is an essential part of
the Coronation ritual, are sung complete in the countertenor
part of the motet, and its tenor enters with the second line of

1 Grove, Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., ii, p. 112.

2 Proceedings of the Privy Council, iv, p. 39 (April 20, 1430, authorizing
reimbursement of the Cardinal and of the Household Treasurer for their
expenditure on the King's chapel 'ad opem Regis ultra mare'); ibid., p. 30
(warrant for the expenses of Richard Praty and John Carpenter, chaplains
of the King, and John Walden, confessor, who went with him to France).

3 Headed 'Sequuntur ea que debet chorus ecclesie cantare in conse-
cracione et coronacione regis quando consecratur in ecclesia parisiensi.'
MS. Arch. Nat. L.499, No. 1. See Mahieu, 'Notre-Dame de Paris au
quinzieme siecle', pp. 18-19, 21.

244

MASS AND MOTET

the same hymn, leaving out the first three words, which would
be sung by the Cardinal. The tenor of the Mass is the melody
of the verse of the Trinity respond Gloria patri genitoque, which
has the appropriate text: Da gaudiorum praemia, da gratiorum
munera, dissolve litis vincula, astringe pads foedera.

After its tribute to Tapissier, Carmen and Cesaris, x Martin le
Franc's Le Champion des Dames continues:

Mais oncques jour ne deschanterrent
en melodie de tel chois
ce m'ont dit qui les hanterrent
que G. Du Fay et Binchois.

It is possible that Dufay (d. 1474), who had been a chorister at
Cambrai under Loqueville, went to Constance with the chapel
of Bishop Pierre d'Ailly of Cambrai, and there found a patron
in the elder Carlo Malatesta of Rimini, whose service he had
entered by August, 1420. 2 If so, he may have come into contact
with English musicians at Constance, though an eminent
authority places his first encounter with English music in the
years 1426-8, when he was again in Cambrai, and cites the
Mass of St. James, in which the term fauxbourdon was apparently
used for the first time, as the chief evidence of English influence
on Dufay's early style.3 Gilles Binchois (d. 1460), Dufay's most
famous contemporary, was with William de la Pole, Earl of
Suffolk, in Paris in 1424, went with him to Hainault in the
following year, and joined the chapel of Philip the Good of
Burgundy in 1430. It is possible that he was in England for a
time between these dates.4

The Later Composers in the Old Hall Manuscript

The music written into the Old Hall collection by the second
and third scribes comprises pieces by Burell, Cooke, Damett,
Sturgeon and Leonel Power; music by Cooke and Power had
also been in the original layer. The records of the royal house-
hold chapel show that John Burell, John Cooke, Thomas

1 See p. 229 above.

2 An example of Dufay's work in 1421 is the motet Vasilissa ergo gaude
{Guglielmi Dufay Opera Omnia, ii, p. 1), written for the marriage of Cleophe
Malatesta and Theodore Paleologus.

3 Besseler, s.v. 'Dufay', in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

4 Marix, Histoire de la musique de la com de Bourgogne, pp. 1 76-9.

245

MASS AND MOTET

Damett and Nicholas Sturgeon1 joined the clerks in 1413, the
first year of Henry V's reign, or perhaps a few years earlier. 2
The simplest style practised by the composers of this later music
stands on the border between descant style and the style of
the chanson, as may be seen in Burell's Gloria, which combines
the easy flow of the chanson with the spacing of parts char-
acteristic of descant:3

Ex 37.

Treble
Mean

Tenor

pax horrtL-nC-

W t 9

1 Pri

t pr f

1 rV

f :

h—d- =

8 bus

Lun - to.

Us.

In their more elaborate settings, such as Sturgeon's Sanctus
with duets,4 they show themselves quite at ease in the chanson
style, and it is significant that the melodies of the upper parts of
their motets, which are quite orthodox in design, are also in
chanson style. Here the rhythmic energy and variety of design
of the fourteenth-century motet have been abandoned in favour
of a new fluency and grace. The texts of two of the motets refer
to Henry V's campaigns, for Cooke's Alma proles regia — Christi
miles indite on the tenor Ab inimicis defende nos Christe5 invokes
Jesus, the Virgin and St. George for the welfare of the state
and protection against its enemies, while Damett's Salvatoris

1 A Nicholas Sturgeon from Devonshire was elected scholar of Winchester
College in 1399, and was then between eight and twelve years old. Kirby,
Winchester Scholars, p. 26.

2 The Wardrobe Accounts for 1409-12 are missing.

3 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, p. 1 7. The clefs are G1 C3 G4 (see p. 248, n. 2,
below) .

4 Ibid., hi, p. 55.

5 From the Litany for Rogation Days in time of war. Bukofzer, Studies in
Medieval Music, p. 68.

246

MASS AND MOTET

mater pia—Sancte Georgi on the tenor Benedictus Mariae films qui
ve1 [sic] has a prayer for King Henry in both texts, and the
text of the duplum invokes St. George, gloriosa spes Anglorum, to
bring victory and peace. This motet and Sturgeon's Salve mater
Domini — Salve templum gratiae on the tenor it in nomine Domini, the
texts of which are in praise of the Virgin, form a pair, for
Sturgeon's tenor is an exact continuation of Damett's, even to
the point of taking up where it left off in the middle of the
word venit.2

The style of this later music shows a movement towards
suavity and grace in rhythm and melody and towards care in
the treatment of dissonance, which is paralleled by a similar
movement in the style of such French composers as Pierre
Fontaine, Arnold and Hugh de Lantins, and Gilles Binchois.3
This common tendency reflects a second stage in the relation-
ship of English to continental music in which the influences
were mutual, and in which the effects of English practices on
continental writing were at least as strong as those which had
earlier worked the other way. It is arguable that this consider-
able credit on the English side of the account accrued largely
from a habit which English composers had of fusing categories
and techniques of composition which had normally been dis-
tinct in continental practice, such as plainsong with the chan-
son, isorhythm with the polyphonic Mass, and the chanson
with the isorhythmic motet.4 As in the thirteenth century,
England had no art of secular polyphony such as flourished
at the continental courts during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, and no tradition of the composition of isorhythmic
motets for important political or civic occasions, such as
were common on the continent. Hence all newly-acquired

1 The Mary-trope of the Benedictus. See above, p. 72.

2 The letter 'n', as Bukofzer observes, 'got lost in the shuffle'. Studies in
Medieval Music, pp. 68-70.

3 For a discussion of the work of these composers, see Reese, Music in
the Renaissance, pp. 34-42, 86-92.

4 French composers had earlier adapted the chanson to the Ordinary of
the Mass, a style which has been called Ballade-mass. See Dannemann,
Die spatgotische Musiktradition in Frankreich und Burgund, pp. 79-80. The
original corpus of Old Hall shows English composers catching up with this
idea, and adopting various methods of reconciling it with their own descant
tradition.

247

MASS AND MOTET

techniques and ideas about composition were turned at once to
the service of the liturgy, with most fruitful results.

It is remarkable that several sacred compositions by Binchois
use ritual forms and plainsong melodies of the Sarum rite,1 and
even more so that his technical methods are closely related to
those of the Old Hall composers. Binchois used simple descant
on plainsong,2 the paraphrasing3 of plainsong in the upper or
middle part of simple three-part writing,4 similar paraphrasing
in the tenor part of a piece in chanson style,5 elaborate orna-
mentation of a plainsong in the cantus part in a more developed
chanson style,6 and free chanson style with and without duets.7
It is not possible to suggest a chronology for the church music
of Binchois, but such techniques as these are strong evidence
of contact, which may well have taken place in the fourteen-
twenties, with the music of the English household chapels.

It has often been pointed out that a predilection for parallel
thirds and sixths was a characteristic of the English tradition,
and there is ample evidence of this in the descants in the Old
Hall manuscript. The idea of continuous movement in these
intervals seems to have been taken up by French composers
and turned into an almost rule-of-thumb method of three-part

1 Reese, Music in the Renaissance, p. 90. It may be added that the setting
by Binchois of the psalm In exitu Israel includes the antiphon Nos qui vivimus
(Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne, p. 208), which in the Sarum rite was
sung with it at Sunday Vespers throughout the year. Ordinale Exon, i, p. 41;
music in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 109.

2 As in the hymn A solis ortu cardine (Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne,
p. 1 88.) The plainsong, without ornamentation, is in the middle part, and
the clef arrangement is C3 C4 F4. English descant was normally written in
three different clefs, in accordance with its method of composition; the
French chanson was written with the same clef for the tenor and counter-
tenor and a higher clef for the cantus.

3 This term will be used of the writing of a plainsong in a free measured
rhythm, without or with only slight ornamentation.

4 As in the Kyrie di? Angelis (Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, xxxi, p. 48)
and the hymn Gloria laus (Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne, p. 194). In
the latter the refrain is set in three parts, the verses in two with the plain-
song in the upper part.

5 As in the Kyrie Orbis factor (absque versibus) in Denkmaler der Tonkunst in
Osterreich, xxxi, p. 49.

6 As in the Sanctus. Ibid., p. 53.

7 As in the Kyrie in Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne, p. 1 54, and the
Gloria, ibid., p. 163.

248

MASS AND MOTET

writing, under the much-discussed name of fauxbourdon.1 The
method is a combination of simple ornamentation of the plain-
song in the cantus with parallel movement in thirds and sixths
coming to a fifth and octave for the last chord of each phrase,
a kind of movement which had been taught and practised in
England in the fourteenth century. The middle part in the
French form of the method did not need to be written down,
since it could be improvised by singing the cantus at the fourth
below, though Binchois, for example, wrote out all three parts
in some cases, as in his Magnificat on the fourth intonation.2

In other cases he, or the scribe, indicated Afaulx bourdon,
leaving the middle part to be filled in by the singer.3 In England,
apparently towards the middle of the fifteenth century, Tabur-
den', which meant singing a part in parallel sixths below the
plainsong, with simple ornamentation of its cadences, each
phrase beginning and ending with an octave, was added to
descant among the elementary methods of part-singing taught
to choristers and clerks. Later it was used as a method of im-
provising on plainsong in choir and in processions, and as a
technique of composition ('on the faburden') for organ or
choir.4 By that time the treatment in faburden of the Te Deum,
of psalm and canticle intonations, and of well-known hymns
must have been familiar to all well-trained singers, and was
commonly practised extempore. It should be emphasized that
a middle part was not normally implied in English faburden.

1 See Reese, Music in the Renaissance, pp. 64-5, for discussion and references
to the literature of the subject.

2 Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne, p. 1 48.

3 See his Sancti Dei omnes. Ibid., p. 218. The comment of the St. Alban's
chronicler (see p. 206 above) that shawms were called burdones suggests
that the term fauxbourdon may have been coined to describe a French imita-
tion of the English manner of improvising the instrumental performance of
such well-known chants as the Te Deum. For a phonological discussion of
fauxbourdon-faburden, see the articles by H. M. Flasdieck, R. von Ficker

and G. Kirchner in Acta Musicologica, xxv and xxvi (1953-4), and H. M.
Flasdieck, 'Elisab- Faburden- "Fauxbourdon" und NE. Burden-"Refrain" ',
in Anglia, 74, 1956, which quotes (p. 197) the expression 'te synge a tribull
til faburdun' from a letter of as early as c. 1427.

4 The book of the bass part of hymns in Winchester College in 1521 and
the book 'voc. le Base' in Magdalen in 1522 may have been faburdens; they
are not likely to have been isolated part-books at so early a date.

249

MASS AND MOTET

Dunstable and His Contemporaries

The ripe fruit of this active interchange of ideas and tech-
niques between English and French composers came in the
later music of Power, in the work of John Dunstable, and in
that of a considerable group of composers who were either
Dunstable's contemporaries or immediate followers. Although
this mature style was largely a result of earlier French influence,
it was typically English to continental ears, and Martin le
Franc wrote of its effect on Binchois and Dufay in those terms
in a continuation of the passages from Le Champion des Dames
quoted above:

Car ilz ont nouvelle pratique
de faire frisque concordance
en haulte et en basse musique
en fainte en pause et en muance
et ont prins de la contenance
Angloise et ensuy Dunstable
pour quoy merveilleuse plaisance
rend leur chant joyeux et notable.

The contenance Angloise was well known in many parts of Europe,
for during some forty years after c. 1430 music by Dunstable,
John Pyamour, John Benet, John Bedyngham, Forest, John
Plummer, Sandley, Walter Frye and others was copied into
manuscripts in France, Burgundy and northern Italy, some-
times with the casual ascription Anglicanus or de Anglia. Some
of these composers may have spent their lives abroad, like
Robert Morton, whose extant work consists entirely of French
chansons, and it may always remain uncertain how much of
this great store of expatriate music belongs to the history of
music in Britain. On the other hand, had it not survived we
should be left with entirely inadequate notions of the part
which English composers played in one of the key periods of
musical history, for the music of this group shows that they
played an important role in the establishment of one of the
most lasting of all musical forms, the unified polyphonic setting
of the Ordinary of the Mass.1

1 For polyphonic settings of the Ordinary on the continent in the four-
teenth century, see Coussemaker, Messe du XIIIe siecle; Gombosi, 'Machaut's
Messe Notre-Dame' ; Harder, 'Die Messe von Toulouse'; Schrade, 'The Mass

250

MASS AND MOTET

From the beginning of the history of the polyphonic Mass in
England the Kyrie was left out of the scheme, as in the earlier
separate movements in the Old Hall collection, because on
festivals it was sung with the particular trope laid down by the
Ordinal, which made the Kyrie in some degree a part of the
Proper. To make a musical design of the other four move-
ments, their ritual chants were discarded and a plainsong
melody appropriate to a certain feast or season was chosen as
the tenor, on the analogy of the motet. According to its length,
this tenor was used either (i) once in each movement, in the
same or (2) in a different rhythm, or (3) more than once in
rhythms which were isorhythmically related or (4) not so
related but in different measures. Power adopted the first of
these plans in his Mass Alma redemptoris mater, which appears
to be the earliest (c. 1430) surviving polyphonic Ordinary on a
single tenor, using for his tenor only as much of the melody of
the antiphon as he needed, as far as the first syllable of populo.
He divided the tenor into two sections, one in triple measure
and one in duple, and to this bisectional outline he added open-
ing duets in the Credo and Sanctus:1

Ex.38.
Treble

Mean

{ctus)

Tenor

£tus)

lot -
(Tenor continues)

- - - ma. redan - (ptoris) ]

and a duet to begin the third Agnus Dei. He used the two pos-
sible groupings in the subdivision of three beats on two levels

of Toulouse'; Chailley, 'La Messe de Besancon'; Schrade, 'A Fourteenth
Century Parody Mass'. On the part played by English composers in the
early history of the fifteenth-century polyphonic Ordinary, see Bukofzer,
Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 217-26.

1 Trent, Gastello del Buon Consiglio, MS. 87, fo. 6. The Mass has been
edited by Feininger in Documenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae, Ser. I, No. 2.

251

MASS AND MOTET

of measure, the dotted minim of the upper parts and the dotted
semibreve of the tenor,1 as in the third and fourth bars of the
example. Although the tenor, being the plainsong transposed a
fifth down, and the countertenor both have a signature of
one flat, the treble has no flat in the signature, a practice
for which various explanations have been suggested2 and which
was common in English music until the early sixteenth century.
The Mass Rex saeculorum by Dunstable or Power3 is an example
of the second way of disposing a tenor, for the complete melody
is used, varied and extended in a different manner, once in
each movement. The device of paraphrasing the melody of the
tenor before or with its entry, which was merely suggested in
Power's Alma redemptoris Mass,4 is also suggested in the Gloria
and Sanctus of this Mass, and carried out at length in the
opening duet of the Credo:

Ex.3?.

Plainsong

This idea is another step towards musical unity in the poly-
phonic Ordinary, and later became one of the regular ways of

1 The upper parts are written with the measure signature O, the tenor
with G. By a convention which in this period was peculiarly English, after-
wards general, the tenor notes must be doubled in length by the singer, the
minim (of the original) being read as a semibreve. See Strunk, review of the
edition cited, in Journal of the American Musicological Society, ii, 1949, p. 109.

2 See Apel, Accidenten und Tonalitdt; 'The Partial Signatures in the Sources
up to 1450'; Lowinsky, 'The Function of Conflicting Signatures'; Hoppin,
'Partial Signatures and Musica Ficta'; Lowinsky, 'Conflicting Views on
Conflicting Signatures'.

3 Printed in John Dunstable, pp. 47-57; the differing ascriptions are
discussed there, pp. 1 71—3. The cantus firmus is the antiphon at Terce on
the feast of St. Benedict, and is not in the Sarum rite.

4 See the notes marked with an asterisk in Example 38.

252

MASS AND MOTET

fashioning a common opening for all four movements. The
third way of disposing a tenor may be seen in Dunstable's
Gloria and Credo on Jesu Christejili Dei,x where it is used twice
in each movement, the second statement being isorhythmic
with the first with the note values halved, as in an isorhythmic
motet, so that the two movements are exactly equal in their
total length and in the length of their subdivisions. 2 The fourth
method was used in an anonymous Mass on Veterem hominem,3
found in a continental manuscript, a passage from which was
quoted by Thomas Morley in his Tlaine and Easie Introduc-
tion to Practicall Musicke' (1597)4 in a context which makes it
certain that the composer was English. He disposed the tenor
in two statements, not isorhythmically related, one in triple

1 John Dunstable, pp. 35-40. The cantus firmus is the respond at Prime,
which had three chants, chosen according to the season and the rank of the
day. The chant used for this Mass is that with Alleluia which was sung, with
a varying verse, from Christmas to the octave of the Epiphany, from Low
Sunday to Trinity when the choir was ruled, and on the feasts of Corpus
Christi, the Exaltation of the Cross, both feasts of St. Michael, and the
Dedication of the Church. Use of Sarum, ii, pp. 222, Ixxvii.

2 Of which there are two, one in triple measure and one in duple. The
division is made at a point of exact proportion, but does not interrupt the
flow of the music. There is a similar change of measure within the isorhyth-
mic period in a Gloria by Tyes in Old Hall (Vol. i, p. 50).

3 One of a group of antiphons for the octave of the Epiphany which, as
Notker relates, were adopted from the Byzantine rite by the order of
Charlemagne; see Handschin, 'Sur quelques tropaires grecs traduits en latin'.
Music in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 95, and Die Musik in Geschichte und
Gegenwart, s.v. 'Antiphon'.

4 Ed. Harman, p. 1 24. The source of Morley's quotation was discovered
by Thurston Dart; see his letter in Music and Letters, xxxv, 1954, p. 183.

M.M.B. S 253

MASS AND MOTET

measure and one in duple, and used both forms once in each
movement, e.g.:1

Ve - te-remho-mC-nem re-no-vans sol-va • tor

Treble
Mean

Tenor
Bass

(Qui

toL - Us) (xtc-

ca. • to.

fnun-^cU)

Tenor of Agnus III

8 Qui tollis

In this Mass the fourth part, which sings only when the tenor
does, and therefore only in the four-part sections, is designated
Tenor Bassus, and the common beginning is clearly realized,
all four movements having the same first seven beats in the
opening duet.

The movements of a Mass written on a plainsong tenor will
sometimes have proportionate lengths, sometimes not. An iso-
rhythmic motet, and therefore also a Mass on a tenor which is
disposed isorhythmically, has exactly proportionate lengths by
virtue of the repetition of the tenor in the same or proportion-
ately diminished rhythm. Each of Dunstable's two movements
on Jesu Christe fill Dei, for example, has two main divisions,
one with a length equivalent to thirty-four dotted semi-
breves and thirty-four undotted semibreves, the other to thirty-
four dotted minims and thirty-four undotted minims, and the

1 Trent, Castello del Buon Consiglio, MS. 88, fos. 7V-9. The Mass is
printed in Monumenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae, Ser. I, Vol. ii, No. 1 .

254

MASS AND MOTET

four sections are therefore in the proportions 6 : 4 : 3 : 2. It is
interesting to notice that an exactly proportionate division
may also occur in movements not based on an isorhythmic
tenor, and is found in two of the Masses which have been
mentioned. Power divided his Alma redemptoris tenor into two
continuous sections of fifty-six dotted minims and eighty-four
minims, which is the proportion of 1 : 1 in crotchets,1 and
therefore presumably in actual length of performance, while
the composer of the Veterem hominem Mass designed his tenor in
two statements with sixty-two dotted minims in one and ninety-
three minims in the other, thus also giving the same number of
crotchets in each section. The varied repetitions of the tenor
in the Rex saeculorum Mass are not related in any exact propor-
tions. Though formal isorhythm went into disuse after c. 1450,
the use of exact proportions in laying out a tenor remained an
optional device in cantus-firmus technique throughout the later
Middle Ages.

The first period in the history of the unified Ordinary of the
Mass was also the last in that of the medieval motet, and if the
motet was normally sung after the Sanctus, as we have assumed,
there was an element of cause and effect in the development of
one and the disappearance of the other. The movements of the
Ordinary were written in exactly or approximately equal
lengths, through the use of a recurring tenor, in spite of the
great inequality in the lengths of their texts. Whatever may
have been the true reason for abbreviating the text of the
Creed, that practice contributed to this balance of the move-
ments, as did the lengthening of the settings of the Sanctus and
Agnus Dei by means of long passages of music on single
syllables, which was a distinct feature of the polyphonic
Ordinary. The result was that the time between the Sanctus
and the Consecration, which had always been at the disposal
of the musicians, was now filled by the singing of the longer
polyphonic Sanctus, down to the end of the first Hosanna, and
the Benedictus was sung after the Consecration.

The twelve isorhythmic motets of Dunstable2 were by far
the most considerable English contribution to this last period

1 The proportions of these two Masses were pointed out by Strunk in
the review cited above, p. 252, n. 1.

2 Printed in John Dunstable, pp. 58-94.

255

MASS AND MOTET

in the history of the form.1 Unlike those of Dufay, which were
roughly contemporary with them, Dunstable's motets give little
internal evidence of having been composed for particular
occasions or events. They have rather the character of works
written for the festivals of saints, and include pieces devoted to
St. Alban, St. Germanus,2 St. Michael, St. John the Baptist,
St. Anne, St. Katherine, and the Annunciation and Assump-
tion of the Virgin. His treatment of the design was orthodox,
almost invariably having three statements of the tenor in pro-
gressive diminution, and the combination of this firmness of
structure with his sensitive and imaginative use of the chanson
style gives these works a special measure of the beauty of line
and radiant serenity which were the distinguishing qualities

Ex.41.
Plainsong

Treble
Mean

Ve-nCCre -a- tor Spi-ri - tus, frtet>testu.Qrum vi-si- to.

IliS iff |

1 There are an isorhythmic motet Cantemus Domino-Gaudent incaelis and an
isorhythmic drinking song 0 Potores exquisiti in British Museum, MS.
Egerton 3307; see Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 145, 175.

2 The text, as an exception, suggests a particular occasion, which may have
been connected with the thousandth anniversary of the death of St. Ger-
manus in 1448, either in Paris or at St. Albans, where St. Germanus was
held in special regard.

256

MASS AND MOTET

of the contenance Angloise. His Veni sancte Spiritus et emitte — Veni
sancte Spiritus et infunde — Veni creator on the tenor Mentes tuorum
visita, the only one of his motets which was copied into a sur-
viving English manuscript,1 has an additional interest in its
unique use of paraphrase, for the treble of the opening duet of
each isorhythmic section paraphrases the successive lines of
the hymn Veni creator Spiritus, from the second and third lines
of which he chose his tenor (see Ex. 41).

The Development of the Festal Mass

The establishing of the cantus-firmus method of integrating
the movements set the pattern for the composition of the festal
Mass for a century to come. English composers held to this
basic scheme, taking full advantage of the variety of design
possible within it, while their continental contemporaries, par-
ticularly Dufay, Obrecht (b. 1452) and Josquin des Pres (d.
1 521), explored new possibilities of using given material from
both plainchant and secular song. In the dedication of his
Proportionate musices (c. 1476) Johannes Tinctoris of Naples con-
trasted this conservatism of the English composers with the
leading role which Dunstable and his contemporaries had
played in European music:

'At this time, consequently', he wrote, referring to the founda-
tion of chapels by Christian princes, 'the possibilities of our
music have been so marvellously increased that there appears
to be a new art, if I may so call it, whose fount and origin is
held to be among the English, of whom Dunstable stood forth
as chief. Contemporary with him in France were Dufay and
Binchoys, to whom directly succeeded the moderns Ockeghem,
Busnoys, Regis and Caron, who are the most excellent of all
the composers I have ever heard. Nor can the English, who are
popularly said to shout while the French sing, stand comparison
with them. For the French contrive music in the newest manner
for the new times, while the English continue to use one and
the same style of composition, which shows a wretched poverty
of invention.'2

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, ii, p. 66. It is also in four continental manu-
scripts; see John Dunstable, p. 176.

2 Translation in Strunk, Source Readings in Music History, p. 1 95, from
Coussemaker, Scriptores, iv, pp. 153-5.

257

MASS AND MOTET

The saying Anglici vulgariter jubilare, Gallici vero cantare dicuntur,
which was still current on the continent in the early sixteenth
century,1 is surely intended to point the contrast between the
English florid style (jubilare) and the more syllabic 'modern'
style of the continent, rather than to convey a dislike of the
tone-quality of English singers. The style cultivated by the
generation after Dunstable involved ever greater refinement
and proliferation of detail, and the three Masses of Walter
Frye, which were apparently composed on the continent, show
some of the directions of this development during the third
quarter of the century.2 In his three-part Mass on Nobilis et
pulchra3 Frye decorated and extended the cantus firmus, for
which he used the music of both the respond and its verse once
in each movement, and also gave the tenor passages of free
material in duet with the countertenor. The tenor of his four-
part Mass Flos regalis* is used only as a cantus firmus, with
slight elaborations, and the other three parts, the lowest of
which is designated Bassus, sing in pairs in the duets:5

Ex.42. _.

fer-ra pax.

bus

Treble

(Bar2i)fe

IT r

tn ter - ra. /xu

gra, - teas a- gi-mus tC-bC

ho - mi nl - bus)
pro - pter ma. - gneun

Tenor

~ — r— T-- f t pr T — r—r

This Mass shows a distinct advance on Veterem hominem in the
linear interest of the four-part writing and in the artistic use of

1 Strunk, loc. cit., gives references in 151 6 and 1545; see also above, p. 171.

2 The first initial of the opening piece (Frye's Mass Summae Trinitatis) in
the manuscript in which they are written (Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale,
MS. 5557) bears the arms of Philip the Good (d. 1467) and of Charles the
Bold (d. 1477). See Kenney, 'Origins and Chronology of the Brussels
Manuscript 5557'.

3 The first respond at Matins of St. Katherine. This Mass has a Kyrie
with the trope Deus creator.

4 The ritual source of the tenor has not been traced.

6 Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, MS. 5557, fos. 30V-31.

258 "

MASS AND MOTET

the melodic idioms of the style. Frye's three-part Mass Summae
Trinitati1 is based on a very long respond which is used com-
plete, separated into sections by duets, in the Gloria and Credo,
is shortened in the Sanctus and shortened still more in the
Agnus Dei. While there is virtually no elaboration of the plain-
song, except in an extension towards the final cadence, the tenor
was put into rhythm of a kind which makes its movement more
like that of the other parts, and their rhythm was correspond-
ingly enlivened:2

Ex.43.

Plains ong

Each of Frye's three masses uses a common opening for all the
movements.3

So great has been the loss of manuscripts of the last quarter
of the fifteenth century that practically no material for the
history of the festal Mass of that time has survived. We have,
for example, no Masses by any of the twenty-five composers in
the Eton manuscript except Fayrfax, whose mature music was
written in the early sixteenth century, though the King's
College inventory shows that Cornysh and Turges also wrote

1 Ninth respond at Matins on Trinity Sunday; also sung in procession for
the reception of a King and Queen, in the Sarum rite. See Wordsworth,
Salisbury Processions, p. 1 1 8.

2 Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, MS. 5557, fos. 4.V-5.

3 For the connection of the Summae Trinitati Mass with his antiphon Salve
virgo, see below, p. 305.

259

MASS AND MOTET

Masses, apparently for six voices. From the Magdalen books we
have lost two large volumes of Masses in five, six and seven
parts, some of which are likely to have been by Davy and his
generation.1 The Eton antiphons give us an idea what their
general style would have been, and a fragment of a six-part
Mass which has been pieced together from leaves of a late
fifteenth-century choirbook, which were afterwards used as
covers for a set of part-books written in the late sixteenth cen-
tury,2 shows that this style was also used for composing Masses:

t-X.44. fa, - eta sunt.

Treble
Mean

Tenor
Countertenor 1

Countertenor 2
Bass

^ i a

Qul pro-pternos ho - mu-nes,

3=M

i=±

mi-nes,
nes, et pro-pta

pter nos
nos ho

et prompt

no - stram

- pter nos ho -
et pro - pter

1 i l

mb nes

TTHi

et pro-ptsrno -
stram sa.

stram

*E3E

rvj

stram

tern

et pro-pterno - stram sa-tu.

1 See below, pp. 431-3 and Index of Musicians, s.v. 'Davy.'

2 Bodleian Library, MSS. Mns. e. 1-5, written for, and probably by,

260

MASS AND MOTET

John Cuk's Mass Venit dilectus metis1 is a four-part example
which, judging by its style, was written in this period. In the
Gloria, which exists in part, and in the Agnus Dei, which is
complete, the cantus firmus is used rather informally, appearing
in the last section in a paraphrased form with a final extension,
and in one earlier section of each movement in an abbreviated
form. It is not used in all the full sections, as the plainsong
usually was in larger forms, and while its rhythmic style is not
very different from that of the tenors of Frye's Masses, the
elaboration of the melodic lines and the extension of the range
of the other parts2 is considerable, the delight in florid melody
and active rhythm and cross-rhythm being particularly notice-
able in the solo sections. The cross-rhythm which was a feature
of the style of the early fifteenth century was now applied to the
further subdivision of the quavers into semiquavers, as in the
tenor of the two bars preceding the last part of the Agnus
Dei:

Treble
Mean

Tenor
Bass

(no-)

t 1 ' f f

— i — (

' n'rtfi

J J~j J /ji* •• Jjid

John Sadler. The leaves have been detached and are now catalogued as
MS. Mus. e. 2 1. The clefs of the mean, tenor and second countertenor parts in
our reconstruction are deduced from the context; the tenor, which has also
lost its clef, makes a poor fit, but the attempt indicates its style. We shall
use hereafter the English terms of the period for the various voices, which
were bass, tenor, countertenor (in the same range as the tenor, or a third
above or below it), mean, treble, quatreble.

1 In a number of leaves detached from the covers of a volume of Consistory
Court Acts in the York Diocesan Registry. See Baillie and Oboussier, 'The
York Masses'. The cantus firmus is the sixth antiphon at Matins on the
Assumption of the Virgin.

2 The range of the treble is an eleventh, of the mean a tenth, of the bass
an eleventh; the total range is three octaves.

261

MASS AND MOTET

•jnin-Jr]

n~^.m j =

(-cem)

pa -

The solo sections used more varied combinations of the parts,
and include in this movement duets for treble and bass,
treble and tenor, mean and bass, and tenor and bass, and
trios for the three lowest parts, the three highest parts, and
treble with tenor and bass. There was probably a common
opening in all the movements, since the first five notes of the
Gloria, which are in duet for tenor and bass, are the same as
the first five of the Agnus Dei.

The Festal Mass in the Sixteenth Century

The fundamental principle of late medieval polyphony was
differentiation of melody, rhythm and phrasing; this gave an
effect of great exuberance and vitality to the full sections, in
which the parts surrounded the tenor with patterns of con-
tinuously changing melody, of cross-rhythm and of overlapping
phrases. The ideas of thematic development, imitation and
repetition were minor elements in the making of these patterns,
the melodies being formed by a process of continuous renewal
and variety. Imitation, when present, was hidden within and
incidental to the complex of sound, being concerned with brief
and purely decorative figures, and sequence was likewise used
only for short and ornamental parts of a phrase. The solo sec-
tions were written as passages of vocal chamber music for the
more expert singers, in which overt imitation between the parts,
which was more frequent in them than in the full choral sec-
tions, was used as an additional method of weaving a poly-

262

MASS AND MOTET

phonic texture. This medieval aesthetic of polyphony, which
was bound up with the notion of polyphony as an adornment
of the ritual plainsong, persisted in some degree in English
choral music until the Reformation, and while it could be
modified by the elements of repetition and correspondence in
their various forms, the nature of the musical texture was such
that it could not be basically changed until the ritual plainsong
was abandoned, or used in dismembered units as a source of
material for imitative entries. These new elements of repetition
and correspondence are increasingly apparent in the festal
Masses written between c. 1500 and c. 1550, and the solution
of the technical problems involved is often carried out with
great ingenuity and artistry, notably in the work of John
Taverner.

Though Taverner composed his festal Masses (c. 1520-30)
in the most florid style, those of Robert Fayrfax (d. 1521) are
in a style which is less florid on the whole than that used by
composers who were in mid-career before the turn of the cen-
tury. Of the five Masses by Fayrfax which have survived com-
plete, Regali ex progenie,1 which was copied into the King's
College part-books in 1 503-4, 2 and 0 quam glorifica,3 which
was written for proceeding to his degree of Doctor of Music at
Cambridge in 1504,4 are Mary-Masses; the others, Albanus, 0
bone Jesu and Tecum principium,5 are a Mass of St. Alban, a
Jesus- Mass and a Mass for Christmas respectively. The only
one not based on a cantus firmus is 0 bone Jesu, in which the
composer took the opening common to each of its movements
from his own Jesus-antiphon 0 bone Jesu, and some of the music
of the last section of the Gloria, of the Credo and of the Agnus
Dei from the Amen of the same antiphon.6 Though it is not a

1 Third antiphon at Lauds on the Nativity of the Virgin.

2 See above, p. 164.

3 Hymn at first Vespers on the Assumption of the Virgin and through its
octave; not in Antiphonale Sarisburiense.

4 In Lambeth Palace Library MS. 1 it is headed: 'Doctor ffeyrfax for his
forme in proceadinge to bee Doctor.'

5 Antiphon at Vespers on Christmas and Epiphany and their octaves.

6 The identity of all the parts of the common opening with the beginning
of the antiphon is assumed from the identity of the mean part, the only part
of the antiphon to survive. The connection between the Mass and the anti-
phon was pointed out in Hughes, 'An Introduction to Fayrfax', p. 99.

263

MASS AND MOTET

'derived' Mass1 in the full sense, it seems to be the earliest
surviving example composed in England of a Mass which has
a musical connection with a polyphonic antiphon.

As might be expected, 0 quam glorifica is something of a
demonstration of technical skill, in which the treble and tenor
were written throughout in duple measure and the other parts
in triple measure, so that there is not the usual change from
triple to duple measure in the middle of the movements. Each
movement was based on one complete statement of the plain-
song, which is divided into three sections, the first two corre-
sponding to the first two lines of the hymn. The different measure
signatures are merely a matter of notation and do not make
cross-rhythms which can be heard as such by the listener. The
first full section of the Gloria, for example, in which the tenor
was disposed in a succession of dotted crotchets followed by
dotted minims, may conveniently be scored with a three-four
barring in every part:2

Ex.46.

Treble
Mean

Counter
-tenor

Tenor
Bass

te Gtx3.-ti.-as

The real essays in proportion in the work, which are quite
formal and deliberate in their design, were demonstrated in
some of the solo sections, e.g.:3

EX.4T.

Co unter tenor

Tenor
Bass

1 See below, pp. 282-3.
3 Ibid., fos. 12V-13.

2 Lambeth Palace, MS. 1, fos. 8v-g.
264

MASS AND MOTET

(roe)

ter

r "V r r ' r

The cantus firmus of the Regali Mass was treated in a more
orthodox fashion, being set out in two statements, one in triple
and one in duple measure, in each movement. The opening of
the Benedictus is a fair example of Fayrfax's use of points of
imitation, which in this case were made of rather ordinary stuff,
in designing a three-part solo section.1 In Tecum principium
there are twelve statements of the cantus firmus, all in different
rhythmic forms and some with a short final extension, while the
basis of the full sections in the Albanus Mass, which no doubt
arose from Fayrfax's connection with St. Alban's Abbey, is a
phrase of nine notes from an antiphon at Matins of St. Alban:2

Ex.48.

ba, - rats

The brevity of this theme brings the Mass into a category which
may be described as ostinato-cantus firmus, on account of the
number of repetitions of the theme in the full sections, where
it appears forty times. There are thirty statements in the tenor,
in direct, inverted and retrograde forms at various pitches,

1 Printed in Walker, History of Music in England, p. 37.

2 A copy with music of this office has not been found, but the theme is
identical with the opening of the tenor of Dunstable's St. Alban motet
Albanus roseo rutilat — Quoque ferendus eras — Albanus Domini laudans, printed in
John Dunstable, p. 58. See ibid., p. 1 74, and Hughes, 'An Introduction to
Fayrfax', p. 99.

265

MASS AND MOTET

five direct statements at different pitches in each part in turn
at the words Dona nobis in the Agnus Dei:1

Ex.4?.

Treble
Mean

Countertenor
Tenor

Bass

i-J-fr

J J I I

and finally five direct statements on the last word of the Mass,
pacem, falling by step to the closing cadence. 2

1 Lambeth Palace, MS. i, fos. 23V-24.

2 See the details of the layout in Hughes, op. cit., pp. 193-4. The music
of the word pacem was printed in Oxford History of Music, 1st ed., ii,

266

MASS AND MOTET

John Lloyd's Mass 0 quam suavis1 is a thorough-going example
of what may be called a 'demonstration-Mass' as far as the
writing down of its tenor is concerned, though the listener will
not be conscious of any particular subtleties, but only of writing
of a moderately florid kind, rather in the manner of Fayrfax.
The plainsong melody on which it was based2 is of such a
length that it is sung twice only, once in the Gloria and Credo
and once in the Sanctus and Agnus. Its rhythm in many of the
full sections is so designed that the actual lengths of the notes
can only be found through the solution and application of a
prescription hidden in a riddle. Some of these 'canons' 3 are ad
hoc devices, most are puzzles in numerical order. A fair sample
of the latter type is the final section of the Benedictus, to the
words in excelsis, in which the notes of the tenor are written as
breves in the original; the canon is Hie novenarius per varios
procreatur numeros, and its meaning is that the notes must actually
have the numbers of semibreves (crotchets in our transcription)
which are indicated in the following quotation:

Ex.50.

2 r

A 3

eel ...... . sis.

Since the singer obviously could not arrive at the right sequence
of the varii numeri on the spot, the manner of writing the tenor

pp. 320-1. For the music of the preceding Qui tollis peccata mundi see Reese,
Music in the Renaissance, p. 776. It is interesting to compare this treatment
with that of the theme of eight notes in Josquin's Mass Hercules Dux Ferrariae
{Josquin des Prez, Missen, ii, p. 19) on a soggetto cavato (composed before
1499; Reese, Music in the Renaissance, p. 236).

1 The identity of the composer was discovered by R. Thurston Dart.
The Mass is preceded by a puzzle-antiphon {Ave regina) with the indication
'Hoc fecit ichannes maris' (sea = flood = Ffloyd or Flud = Lloyd).

2 The antiphon to the Magnificat at first Vespers on Corpus Christi;
see Collins's introduction to his edition of the Mass, Missa 0 Quam Suavis,
p. xii.

3 Canon, as denned by Tinctoris, 'est regula voluntatem compositoris
sub obscuritate quadam ostendens'. Terminorum Musicae Diffinitorium, ed.
Machabey, p. 9.

267

MASS AND MOTET

is calculated to impress the learned rather than to exercise the
wits of the singers, as were the lessons in proportion in the Old
Hall manuscript, for example. The manuscript of Lloyd's Mass
has all the appearance of a presentation copy of a work de-
signed for the appreciation of the cognoscenti as well as for the
service of a ritual purpose, and there is nothing to equal its
degree of artifice among the surviving English choral music of
the period.

The four complete festal Masses by Nicholas Ludford were
probably written a few years later than those of Fayrfax, but
resemble them closely in style. The Mass of St. Stephen,
Lapidaverunt Stephanum,1 and two Mary-Masses, Benedicta [et
venerabilis es]2 and Christi virgo \dilectissima\z are contained in
two of the large choirbooks of the time, both probably written
between c. 1505 and c. 1520, one now owned by Gonville and
Caius College, Cambridge,4 and the other by the Library of
Lambeth Palace, while a third Mary-Mass, Videte miraculum*
is in the Gonville and Caius College book. Ludford's writing
is flowing and sonorous, as may be seen from the final section
of the Benedicta Mass, a mild 'demonstration' of six-eight
rhythm in the tenor, which observes closely the number of re-
peated notes in the original plainsong, against three-four
rhythm in the other parts6 (see Ex. 51).

Though Fayrfax and Ludford composed in a manner which
was noticeably more restrained than that of the late fifteenth
century, Taverner's writing in the larger forms still retained
much of the melodic elaboration and rhythmic interplay of the
earlier style, while adding to it new elements of repetition and
symmetry in the details of the polyphonic patterns. These
elements appeared in his work in two important ways: imita-
tion, or the off-set repetition of a melody in different parts, and
sequence, or the successive repetition of a melody in the same

1 First antiphon at Lauds on St. Stephen's Day.

2 On the verse of the eighth respond (Beata es) at Matins on the Assump-
tion.

3 Ninth respond at Matins on the Annunciation.

4 MS. 667. At the end is written: 'Ex dono et opere Edwardi Higgons
huius ecclesie canonici'. The book was almost certainly written for St.
Stephen's, Westminster, where Higgons became a canon in 15 18.

6 Respond at first Vespers on the Purification.
6 Lambeth Palace, MS. 1, fos. 31V-32.

268

MASS AND MOTET

Ex.51.

PLatnsong

Be-ne-cLC - eta

quae si-ne ta-ctu. pu-do-ris en- v&n -ta es .

TYeble f
Mean

Countertenor
Tenor

Bass 1.
Bass 2.

na no

part. The technical problem of using imitation in composition
on a cantus firmus is that of making the 'point' x of imitation fit
different parts of the pre-existing melody, and the difficulty of
the problem was increased when the composer derived the
points from the cantus firmus (thereby furthering the integra-
tion of the polyphony) rather than devising points which were
independent of the cantus firmus. Both of these methods may
be seen in Taverner's Mass Gloria tibi Trinitas,2 where all six
parts have a point on filius patris which is derived from the
cantus firmus, and against the last appearance of this point the

1 In sixteenth-century terms a 'point' was a figure or theme used in a
passage of imitative polyphony, a 'fugue' was the passage as a whole.

2 The first antiphon at first Vespers of Trinity Sunday, which was also
sung as the antiphon to Quicumque vult at Prime when the choir was not
ruled, except in the octave of Trinity.

M.M.B. — T 269

MASS AND MOTET

second countertenor1 begins a new and 'independent' point
which is imitated by four other parts : 2

Ex.52.

Treble
Mean

Countertenor 1.
Counter tenor 2.

Tenor
Bass

In this Mass Taverner departed from the orthodox by putting
his cantus firmus in the mean, not in the tenor, and by using
it as a basis for solo sections as well as full sections. He used a
normal lay-out for the cantus firmus, which is sung three times,
in triple time, duple time and in diminution, in each of the
first three movements, and twice, in triple time and diminution,
in the Agnus Dei, the second section of that movement being
free. He used imitation in the solo sections of his larger works
rather more than did the composers of the florid style of the
late fifteenth century, but less systematically and with freer
treatment of the points than did Fayrfax and Ludford. Strict
imitation, or 'canon' in the modern sense, which is not found

1 Or 'sextus', from the fact that it was written in the sixth part-book of a
set (Bodleian Library, MSS. Mus. Sch. e. 376-81).

2 Tudor Church Music, i, p. 130.

270

MASS AND MOTET

earlier in solo sections, appears in four passages in the Mass
0 Michael.1

Repetition in sequence has the effect of giving unity and
symmetry to a melody, as repetition in imitation has to a
passage of polyphony. Taverner frequently varied a sequence,
as he did a point of imitation, by slight changes in the intervals
of the melody, especially when writing against a cantus firmus,
and the opening of the Sanctus of the Mass Corona spinea is a
memorable example of this, as well as a sound of truly celestial
quality:2

Ex.53.

Treble

Tenor
Bass

ctus

He was particularly fond of using a sequence to form an

1 The cantus firmus is Archangeli Michaelis interventions, respond at first Ves-
pers and Matins on the feasts of the Apparition of St. Michael (third respond)
and St. Michael in Monte Tumba (ninth respond). The canons are at the
unison at Qui tollis in the Gloria (ibid., p. 199), at the second at Filium Dei
unigenitum in the Credo (p. 204), at the unison at the opening of the
Benedictus (p. 216), in each case for two trebles with a free part,
and at the unison for two basses in a four-part section at the opening
of the third Agnus Dei (p. 222). There is a canon at the seventh below
between countertenor and bass, also with a free part, at in nomine in the
Benedictus of the Mass 'Small Devotion'.

2 Tudor Church Music, i, p. 175; the cantus firmus had not been identified.

271

MASS AND MOTET

obstinately repeated pattern against a cantus firmus, thus giving
it the more important role of an ostinato, generally in the bass,
as in this passage from the first section of the Agnus Dei of the
Gloria tibi Trinitas Mass:1

Ex.54.

Treble
Mean

(miser?)

Countertenor 2
Countertenor l

Tenor
Bass

where the polyphony is unified by both sequential and imita-
tive use of the points.

Hugh Aston's two surviving Masses, Te Deum and Videte
manus meas, 2 have something of Taverner's breadth of style and
imaginative use of technique, though they lack his consummate
mastery of line and pattern. The form of the Te Deum Mass
comes close to being a set of variations because the composer
formed his cantus firmus almost entirely out of continuous
repetitions of the music of the second phrase ( Te eternum patrem)
of the Te Deum, which he used nine times in the Gloria, eight
in the Credo, four in the Sanctus and five in the Agnus Dei; it
appears in all the parts except the countertenor. He used the
music of the first phrase of the hymn only to make a common
opening for the Gloria, Credo and Agnus Dei, and the music
of the Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus (verse 5) of the Te Deum as an

1 Tudor Church Music, i, p. 152.

2 Antiphon to the Magnificat at Vespers on the Tuesday in Easter Week.
Aston's Masses are printed in Tudor Church Music, x.

272

MASS AND MOTET

appropriate basis for the opening of the Sanctus of the Mass,
while the rest of the music of the hymn played no part at all in
his design. This approach to variations by the repeated use of
a liturgical chant may be compared with Taverner's definite
adoption of the form of variations on a secular tune in his
'Western Wynde' Mass.1 Aston's treatment of cantus-firmus
technique in his Mass Videte manus meas was also unorthodox,
since he took advantage of a plainsong theme which has two
halves of virtually identical melody to loosen the traditional
plan, using only one statement of the cantus firmus in the Credo
and one and a half in the Agnus Dei. The work is a fine ex-
ample of florid linear writing, and of the use of the fast rhythm
of triplet quavers to give a cumulative effect to the final sections
of the Gloria, Credo and Agnus Dei.

This less formal use of the cantus firmus in a festal Mass may
be a symptom of the trend towards free composition in the
imitative style. It could not, however, arrive at its final aim
within the plan of the festal Mass, for both technical and
liturgical reasons, since not only were the structure and style
of the festal Mass determined by the fact that it was written
on a cantus firmus, but also its liturgical relevance was derived
from the particular cantus firmus on which it was based. It was
probably due to the strongly liturgical character of English
polyphony that the writing of cantus-firmus Masses covered
such a wide range of feasts, and survived until the mid-sixteenth
century, when this method of composing a Mass had virtually
disappeared elsewhere. Some idea of the liturgical range of the
festal Masses which have survived in whole or in part may be
gathered from the combined contents of two sets of part-books,
one a complete set of six2 containing eighteen Masses, seven of
which were copied by William Forrest, petty canon of Christ
Church, Oxford, and chaplain to Queen Mary, and the other
an incomplete set of four in Peterhouse, Cambridge, containing
Masses, Antiphons, Magnificats and a few other ritual forms.3
Besides the Masses of Fayrfax, Taverner and Aston which have

1 See below, pp. 283-4.

2 Bodleian Library, MSS. Mus. Sch. e. 376-81.

3 Cambridge, Peterhouse MSS. 40, 41, 31, 32, written between c. 1540
and 1547 (see below, p. 341, n. 4). See Hughes, Catalogue of the Musical
Manuscripts at Peterhouse, pp. viii-ix, 2-3.

273

MASS AND MOTET

been mentioned, and Ludford's Christi virgo and two incomplete
Masses (Inclina Domine and Regnum mundi), these two collections
contain the following: John Norman's Resurrexit Dominus;
Richard Pygot's Veni sancte Spiritus; Robert Jones's Spes nostra
and Thomas Knyght's Libera nos, both for the feast of the
Trinity; William Rasor's Christe Jesu, perhaps a Mass of St.
Thomas of Canterbury; Thomas AshewelPs Ave Maria, on an
antiphon at Commemorations of the Virgin in Advent; and
John Marbeck's Per arma justitiae, a Mass for Lent. This last,
which has been published,1 was probably written between
c. 1535 and 1543, and its design is along traditional lines, except
that two of the statements of the cantus firmus are not in the
tenor. It is a conservative example of the florid style, with
remarkably old-fashioned counterpoint for its time, little imita-
tion in the full sections, and many passages of differentiated
polyphony in the solo sections, and shows no great intensity
of imagination.

The Shorter Mass

The composition of settings of the Ordinary on a small scale
and of separate movements of the Ordinary was practised more
or less continuously during this period, though, to judge by
the surviving music, only the Kyrie was regularly composed as
a separate part of the Ordinary after the early fifteenth century.
At that time two movements of the Ordinary might be written
to form a pair. There are four such pairs of Gloria- Credo or of
Sanctus- Agnus, which are congruent in style and were set down
together in a manuscript source in each case, among the works
of Dunstable. 2 While the festal Mass derived its liturgical rele-
vance from its choice of cantus firmus, the shorter Masses and
Kyries tended to keep a closer relation to the music of the
Ordinary by using the plainsongs of the Ordinary as a basis,
and thus to maintain the method of the paraphrased and orna-
mental settings in the Old Hall collection. For example, a
ferial Mass of c. 1450 for the first three days of Holy Week, in

1 Tudor Church Music, x, p. 165. In 1543 Marbeck was accused of holding
Calvinist views and writing against the Mass. Ibid., pp. 157-8.

2 John Dunstable, pp. 14-34. For a discussion of earlier paired movements
by continental composers see Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 219-22.

274

MASS AND MOTET

three and occasionally four parts, has an ornamentation of the
simple chants in the treble:1

8 a- gnus De- i, qui toi-Lis pec-ca-hx mun-dL

Qui tot - lis pec - co.

The problem of the provenance of the manuscript in which
this Mass occurs, the main contents of which are Holy Week
music and carols, has been much discussed.2 The liturgical
music is based on the Sarum rite, and the presence of carols
suggests that the collection was written for a collegiate church
or household chapel. For liturgical reasons, the theory that it
belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of Meaux seems untenable.
The Cistercian rite was a twice 'reformed' version and con-
flation of those of Metz and Rome, first under the direction of
Stephen Harding and then under that of St. Bernard. The
uniformity of its texts and music was rigorously imposed,3 and
while some monasteries may have allowed secular rites and
customs in the votive services sung out of choir, it is difficult
to believe that in a Cistercian abbey the ritual of Holy Week
could have been carried out according to a secular Ordinal.4

1 British Museum, MS. Egerton 3307, fos. 1 7-19. The Kyrie is incomplete
at the beginning; being ferial, the Mass has no Gloria or Credo. It is tran-
scribed in Bukofzer, 'A Newly-discovered Manuscript', pp. 39 sqq., and
discussed in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, Chapter IV, where the
similarity to the style of settings of a Sanctus and Agnus by Binchois on the
same chants is pointed out.

2 See Schofield, 'A Newly-discovered Manuscript of the English Chapel
Royal, I'; Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, Chapter IV; Greene, 'Two
Medieval Musical Manuscripts'.

3 'Volumus in nostris de cetero monasteriis tarn verbo quam nota ubique
teneri, et mutari omnino in aliquo, auctoritate totius Capituli, ubi ab
universis Abbatibus concorditer susceptum et confirmatum est, prohibe-
mus . . .' Marosszeki, Les origines du chant Cistercien, p. 29.

4 Extracts from a Cistercian Ordinal, including Palm Sunday and Holy
Week, were printed in Rock, Church of Our Fathers, i, pp. 413 sqq.

275

MASS AND MOTET

Another method used for shorter Masses was that of setting
every second sentence of the text in polyphony for alternation
with the original plainsong. This made the ritual chant a part
of the performance while giving the composer some freedom of
action in the polyphonic sections.1 There are, for example, a
Kyrie by Horwood and two anonymous Gloria-Credo pairs set
for alternatim singing in a collection of leaves which formed part
of a book of Masses of the late fifteenth century. 2 One of the
Gloria-Credo pairs has a recurring theme, not used in cantus-
firmus fashion, which is a paraphrase of the versicle Custodi nos,
sung after the hymn at Compline throughout the year (except
on double feasts):3

Ex 56

Custodi nos Do-mine.

The form in which this theme is used in the Mass is written in
the manuscript thus:

Ex.57.

While this pair was composed in duple measure and is relatively
simple in rhythm and texture, with a certain amount of overt
imitation, the other Gloria-Credo pair is so florid as to approach
at times the style of the festal Masses, e.g. :

con- sub

per quem—

1 In some settings the chant was paraphrased in the polyphonic sections,
as in a Gloria by Dufay (Trent MSS. No. 1443; see the index in Denkmdler
der Tonkunst in Osterreich, vii, p. 77).

2 See p. 261, n. 1, above.

3 Ordinate Exon., i, pp. 27-8. The chant is taken from the 'Armagh Anti-
phonal', Dublin, Trinity College, MS. B.1.1, folios not numbered.

276

MASS AND MOTET

trl. per.

fa. -

eta. Sunt.

Of Horwood's Kyrie, only the treble and tenor, which uses one
of the Kyrie chants for Sundays1 in both paraphrased and orna-
mental forms, have survived.2 There is also in this manuscript
an anonymous Kyrie written in three parts, below which is a
canon explaining that a fourth part is to be deduced by singing
one of the other parts in canon six beats behind:

Ex 59.

The troped Kyrie Deus creator omnium was also set as a separ-
ate item. A collection of polyphonic music of c. 1460 in the
Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge,3 gives the

Ex.60.

Pl&lnsong

(intns)
{properUj)Vur

mL-ne,otr<juB sol-Lus no- strain ae-ter-num

tus no - stra,, Do- mC-ne,at - quesa-Utsno - stm,t

1 Graduale Sarisburiense, pi. 6*; this chant was also used on the feast of the
Conception of the Virgin. Ibid., pi. 8*.

2 It was for at least three voices, since the treble has rests during the third
Christe.

3 MS. 1236; on fos. 10-iov are tables for the date of Easter for the years
1 460-1 5 1 9.

277

MASS AND MOTET

plainsong of the first verse, which also serves for the two follow-
ing verses, and a two-part setting of the fourth, sixth and eighth
verses, the upper part of which is an elaboration of the plain-
song1 (see Ex. 60).

This may be compared with a three-part setting of about the
same period, also written for alternating plainsong and poly-
phony, in this case beginning with a polyphonic setting of the
first verse. The fourth verse opens thus:2

Ex.61

The style of the shorter Mass of the late fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries is exemplified in the Masses Rex summe and
Gaudete in Domino by Thomas Packe,3 both of which include the
Kyrie, in Henry Petyr's 'Playn Song' Mass (not so called in the
manuscript)4 and in an anonymous Mass on leaves bound up
with manuscript and printed Year Books of Law recently ac-
quired by the Bodleian Library.5 All four are for three voices.

XMS. 1236, fos. 33V-34-

2 On parchment leaves used to cover a copy of the Valor Ecclesiasticus of
1534 which was later used by Dugdale; now MS. Archer 2 in the Shake-
speare Birthplace Library, Stratford-on-Avon.

3 'Sir' in the manuscript, showing that he was a priest; he is possibly the
same person as Thomas Pyke (Pykke), clerk at Eton 1454-61.

4 These three are in British Museum, MS. Add. 5665, which also con-
tains carols written before c. 1475 (see below, p. 421). The Masses and
other liturgical items appear to have been added about the end of the
century.

5 The Mass is written on the same paper as the manuscript notes. The
Sanctus is followed by one page of the bass part of a Stabat Mater, and the

278

MASS AND MOTET

The Kyrie, Gloria and Credo of the Rex summe Mass, which
takes its name from one of the plainsong Kyries which were
not sung with the words of their trope, were set for alternatim
singing:1

StbEt

Hj v p r

(Leison)

and the material of this and the other two polyphonic sections
of the Kyrie recurs throughout the Mass. Gaudete in Domino
and Petyr's Mass are set for polyphonic singing throughout,
with a common opening in each movement. In the Bodleian
Mass the Gloria and Credo, which are alternatim settings, have
a common opening:

Ex 63.

Lau- da.-muste,be-nedC-ci-mus te, a - (dorcunus)

Agnus Dei is incomplete. The printed part includes Year Books printed by
R. Pynson in 1510 and 1520.
1 MS. Add. 5665, fo. 73V.

279

MASS AND MOTET
in u-num do-mi - nam Je -

Sum

in u- num do^mi-num Je

■j-JJ

'' r' r r—

£t

in u-num do-mt-num Je -

while the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, which are polyphonic
throughout, both open with a duet which uses an ornamented
form of this beginning. The style of Petyr's Mass is a special
case, for he composed the whole of the music with notes of
only two lengths, written in a notation adapted from plainsong,
in which the symbol fl was to be read as a breve (minim in our
transcription) and the symbol ■ as a semibreve (our crotchet),
e.g.:1

Ex.64

ex Th^-tre na-tum ante o- mnu-a sas-cu.

This deliberately 'playn' style was later used by Taverner for
his 'Playn Song' Mass (which does not imply a Mass on plain-
song themes), and this manner of notation was also used for
settings of other ritual forms, notably for the tenor part of
responds. The Sanctus and Agnus Dei of each of these Masses
were set in a distinctly less simple style than the other move-
ments and are about the same length as the Gloria and Credo,
in which the words were set almost syllabically.

Taverner's methods of composing a shorter Mass were both
varied and enterprising. In two of his five-part Masses, 'Small
Devotion' and the 'Meane Mass',2 he rang the changes on three

1 MS. Add. 5665, fo. 1 15V.

2 Printed in Tudor Church Music, i, pp. 70, 50, the latter as Sine nomine.
The title 'Meane Mass' occurs in one of the Petre part-books (Chelmsford,
Essex Record Society O/p Petre MS. 1) and in St. Michael's College,
Tenbury, MS. 1464; see Tudor Church Music Appendix, pp. 7-8. It is for a
mean (compass within the octave upwards from middle C), two counter-
tenors, tenor and bass.

280

MASS AND MOTET

ways of treating polyphonic texture: imitation, homorhythm
(i.e., 'chordar style) and antiphony. Antiphony, in polyphony
as in plainsong psalmody, means dividing a choir into two
groups which sing in alternation.1 In these Masses a group of
voices within the choir occasionally repeats in varied or exact
form the music of another group, so that this kind of antiphony
is another of the elements of repetition which were introduced
into the polyphonic writing of the period. Another technique
which involves repetition, that of the rota, had already re-
appeared in English polyphony about the middle of the fifteenth
century,2 and a passage from the Credo of Taverner's 'Meane
Mass' shows antiphony passing into a rota, which is followed by
imitation:3

Ex.65.

Treble

Mean

(Countertenor
rests)

Tenor

Bass

Cru • ci ■ fi-xus e - tic

pro no

Sub Fbn-ti
bis-sub Pon-tL-0 PL-La. -

l-o PL- La.
to

pro no

p MP Pr

sub fbn-ti-o PL -La.

1 On the general history of choral antiphony, see Apel, 'Polychoral Style'
in Harvard Dictionary of Music.

2 See below, pp. 302-3.

3 Tudor Church Music, i, p. 58.

28l

MASS AND MOTET

to pas-suset se-pul-tus

The smooth transitions from one to the other tend to hide the
differences of technique, but in general rota and imitation may
be distinguished from antiphony by an overlap in the music
which is repeated, and rota from imitation by repetition of the
point at the unison or octave only.

The movements of the 'Meane Mass' were integrated in more
than the usual ways, by a recurring ending as well as a common
opening, and by a somewhat similar scheme of frequent changes
of measure in each movement. In 'Small Devotion', which is
both more varied in method and more characteristic in melodic
material,1 the Gloria and Credo use imitative and antiphonal
styles, while the melodic lines of the Sanctus and Agnus are so
extended that the style approaches that of the large six-part
works, with use of sequence, canon and ostinato. For the second
half of the Hosanna of the Sanctus the composer devised a 'cantus
firmus' consisting of seven statements of a rising sequence, 2 and
he built the first {miserere) nobis of the Agnus Dei on an ostinato
figure which he used in each of the five parts in succession. 3

The third of Taverner's five-part Masses4 was composed by
re-working and expanding the music of his own antiphon Mater
Christi sanctissima.5 Masses composed by this kind of adaptation
of the polyphonic texture of a motet or secular chanson, which

1 A few passages (beginning and ending of the Gloria; first miserere nobis
and ending of the Agnus Dei) are derived from his antiphon Christe Jesu
pastor bone. See below, p. 341.

2 Tudor Church Music, i, p. 89.

3 The tenor of this Mass is missing, and the editors have supplied a fully
appropriate substitute. The recognition of the ostinato character of this
passage suggests a small emendation of the tenor at p. 94, bars 1 1-12, where
it certainly had the ostinato figure.

4 Ibid., p. 99. 5 See below, pp. 340-1.

282

MASS AND MOTET

was commonly used on the continent during the sixteenth cen-
tury, have generally been called 'parody' Masses, though
recently the rather opprobrious term 'second-hand' Mass and
the more appropriate term 'derived' Mass have been applied
to them.1 In this case Taverner made the beginning and the
last section of each movement of the Mass correspond to the
beginning and end of the antiphon, and did not use the rest
of its material in any systematic way, but added a considerable
amount of new writing. 2 The four-part Mass 'Western Wynde'
is the first surviving English Mass on a secular theme, though
such Masses had been common on the continent for nearly a
century,3 and is the earliest of three Masses on this melody,
the others being by Tye and Sheppard. It is not a cantus-firmus
Mass in the usual sense, but a set of thirty-six variations on the
melody, without interludes, carried out in a clearly conceived
plan and with constant variety of method and texture. There
are nine variations in each movement, disposed in two groups
of four with a final variation in triplet quaver rhythm in the
Gloria and Credo, and in three groups of three in the Sanctus
and Agnus Dei. The melody is ornamented occasionally in the
cadence, and is varied only to the extent that in one statement
in each movement the third of its phrases, which are in the
form A B B', is dropped. In twenty-one variations the theme
is in the treble, in ten in the tenor, and in five in the bass,4
while nineteen variations are full, nine are for three voices,
four are partly for three and partly for two voices, and four
are for two voices. The positions of the full sections in the
Gloria and Credo correspond, being in the first, third, fourth,
seventh and ninth variations in both movements; full variations
begin the first and end all three divisions of the Sanctus, and
come at the end of the first division and in all three variations
of the last division of the Agnus. It is clear from these bald

1 K. Jeppesen, review of Reese, Music in the Renaissance in The Musical
Quarterly, xli, 1955, pp. 388-9.

2 See Tudor Church Music, i, pp. lxi-lxii. Again the tenor is missing, but
in this case the editors have supplied it only where it could clearly be
derived from the antiphon.

3 The use of secular themes in masses, both as cantus firmus and later by
derivation, was common on the continent from Dufay to Palestrina.

* Disposed in the four movements thus: treble, 6, 5, 5, 5; tenor, 3, 3, 3, 1;
bass, o, 1, 1, 3.

283

MASS AND MOTET

particulars that the work was conceived and planned as a whole,
while its variety of method makes it a notable demonstration of
the art of variation by contrapuntal addition. Among the tech-
niques it brings into play are homorhythm, differentiated coun-
terpoint, points of imitation derived from and independent of
the theme, counterpoint in sequential ostinato, e.g.:1

Ex.66.

(phri-) ste, Do - mc-ne De -
^=J , hJ.

(Chri-) ste, Do-mC-ne De • • us,

us,

a - gnus De -

^Zl

iff

y b

T. c

gnus De
J 1 V S

us,

y *

a - - - gnus

and counterpoint in strict ostinato,2 e.g.:3
Ex.6T.

Sqn -

•ctus

San-

In the 'Playn Song' Mass for four men's voices the techniques
of imitation, antiphony and homorhythm are used in the Gloria
and Credo, while the extension of the melodic lines in the
Sanctus and Agnus Dei, with use of sequence, ostinato and
imitation, gives those movements an effect which is plain only
in the rhythmic sense. Like the Hosanna of the Sanctus in the

1 Tudor Church Music, i, p. 5.

2 I.e., which is unvaried in pitch and voice.

3 Tudor Church Music, i. p. 16.

284

Plate XIII

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Plate XIV

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31 s "3

i'-^

| i.

Si*

i4il

1 HuN

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w ly

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■*. ^j :\

iff

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it*

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P4TJ

til

k*
*•>:

MASS AND MOTET

'Small Devotion' Mass, the last section of the Tlayn Song' Mass
is based on an ad hoc cantus firmus, a descending scale which is
sung by every part in turn:1

Ex.68.

(0 : j j-

psj-

-& — — — r —

8 (/nun-) • -
v ' mun

ir-? j.

Y-

-^ — i —

— r

(fiecca) ta.

do- no.

Nicholas Ludford's seven Lady-Masses of c. 1 520-30, 2 one
for each day of the week, form the only surviving complete
scheme for the daily Lady-Mass throughout the year,3 includ-
ing some parts of the Proper as well as the Ordinary, and are
therefore of great interest musically and liturgically. Three of
the part-books have the vocal parts of the polyphony in the
usual way, but the fourth book has, not indeed a fourth part
for the polyphony, but melodies in measured notation and in
the tenor range for the alternatim parts of the Kyries, Glorias
and Credos, and the plainsongs of the soloist's part of the Alle-
luias, of the beginning and odd-numbered verses of the Se-
quences, and of the whole of the Offertories and Communions.4
Only the first words of the texts of these melodies and plain-
songs are given, except in the Kyries, and there seems no doubt
that this was the book of the Master of the choir, who would

1 Tudor Church Music, i., p. 49.

2 The binding of the manuscript in which they were written (British
Museum, MSS. Royal Appendix 45-8) bears the arms of Henry VIII and
Catherine of Aragon.

3 For some fragmentary survivals, see below, p. 391.

4 The Offertory Felix namque and the Communion Beata viscera, sung
daily in the Salve sancta parens Mass, are included in the Sunday Mass, the
first of the seven. They are repeated, and those for the other seasons of the
year are given, at the end of the book.

M.M.B. — U 285

MASS AND MOTET

probably use it at the organ. He might play only the single
notes of the melodies and plainsongs, but it is rather more
likely that he would play extemporaneous descants on them.1
All seven settings of the Kyrie were written for altematim per-
formance; the Gloria and Credo of the Wednesday and Friday
Masses are in vocal polyphony throughout, the Gloria and
Credo of the other Masses being for altematim performance,2
while all the settings of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei are for
voices. The Introit and Gradual of the Lady-Mass changed
only with the season, and were normally sung in plainsong,3
which is not given in these books. The music they contain
shows that the performance of the other parts of the Proper and
Ordinary was done as follows:

Kyrie Organ and voices altematim.

Gloria Voices only on Wednesday and Friday, altematim

on other days.
Alleluia Organ acted as ruler-soloist, voices as chorus.

Sequence Organ acted as beginner, then altematim.

Credo Voices only on Wednesday and Friday, altematim

on other days.
Offertory Organ only.

Sanctus and

Agnus Dei Voices only.
Communion Organ only.

For the most part the style of music is quite florid, as in
the opening of the Kyrie of the Sunday Mass:

Ex.69.

rrjN i

y J"T]

r* — r~*r

j j> |

y" t

7 f ' J f-

Ky -

Tf=t=t=fi- a ^i

•

re -

l 'T

1 As has been suggested by Baillie and Oboussier, 'The York Masses',
p. 26. The Kyries may have been sung, since the syllables are disposed as
for singing.

2 The Gloria was not sung in Advent and Lent, and the Credo was sung
only on the days on which it was sung in the Mass of the day. Missale
Sarum, col. 766*, and see above, p. 57.

3 Both the Gradual and its verse were sung by the choir: 'In capella

286

MASS AND MOTET

f ; Q i__Y_j y ,

i y (— g [

•

1 y J""]""!

[ r

^TCT

* ^ -

The tenor parts of the vocal sections in all the Kyries are, as in
this example, ornamented forms of the organ melodies with
which they alternate, and none have any clear connection with
the plainsong Kyries which the Sarum Missal prescribed for the
daily Lady-Mass.1 The same scheme was used in the alternatim
Glorias and Credos, the tenors of which are, in fact, restate-
ments, varied and unvaried, of the Tenor of the Kyrie of the
particular Mass in which they occur. The four vocal movements
of the Ordinary of the Wednesday and Friday Masses have a
common opening, and the settings of the Sanctus and Agnus
Dei in all the Masses are, as usual, in an expansive style which
gives them a length commensurate with the Gloria and Credo.2
When Tallis derived his five-part Mary-Mass Salve intemerata3
from his Mary-antiphon with that title,4 he carried out this
method of composition in a much more thorough and sys-
tematic way than Taverner had done in his 'Small Devotion'
and Mater Christi Masses. He dismembered the antiphon into
sixteen sections, and incorporated all but two of them5 as com-
plete units into the Mass. This was done in a particularly orderly
way, for the sections were incorporated into each movement of
the Mass in the same order, with one exception, as they existed
in the antiphon, while only the first section of the antiphon
appears more than once in the Mass, being sung at the begin-
ning of each movement to make a common opening. The

beatae Virginis per totum annum Gradale cum suo verso cantetur a toto
choro'. Missale Sarum, col. 762*.

1 The troped Kyries for lesser doubles, sung absque versibus, were dis-
tributed among the days of the week; the order is given in Missale Sarum,
cols. 761 *— 3*. On the Kyrie melodies in Ludford's Lady- Masses, see
below, pp. 290-2.

2 The settings of the Alleluia and Sequence are discussed below,
pp. 376-7, 391-2.

3 Tudor Church Music, vi, p. 3. 4 See below, p. 335.
5 The fourth and fifth sections, both in three parts, running from

pp. 149-152 of the edition.

287

MASS AND MOTET

Gloria, for example, was composed by putting together seven
sections of the antiphon and one new section (in the order i, 6,
new, 9, 10, 12, 11 and 15, where the numbers indicate the
order of the sections of the antiphon) . The Credo was made of
four antiphon sections and two new sections (1,2, new, 7, new,
14), while the Sanctus and Agnus Dei were each formed of
three sections of the antiphon (in the order 1, 3, 8 and 1, 13, 16),
with one new section in the last Agnus Dei, ingeniously joined
to the last section of the antiphon, so that both works close
with the same music.

Apart from the interest of its musical joinery, the Salve inte-
merata Mass is not a work of striking quality, for the best of
Tallis is not to be found in his Masses, and the only other
surviving example, which has no name, is a rather uncomfort-
able essay in the Reformation style of 'playn and distincte note,
for every sillable one'.1 Here he alternated imitation and homo-
rhythm in the style of the mid-sixteenth century and made a
virtually syllabic setting with careful attention to the rhythm of
the words, in the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as well as in the
other movements. The treatment of those two movements in
particular, with their fairly frequent repetitions of words and
sentences, shows how fundamental was the change which was
taking place in the ideas of churchmen and composers about
the relation of words and music in settings of liturgical forms.

The part-books2 in which Tallis's Sine nomine Mass is pre-
served contain a considerable amount of music for the Mass,
including works by Taverner, Knyght, Appleby, Okeland, Tye,
Sheppard, William Whytbrook, who was sub-dean of St. Paul's
from 1 53 1 to 1535, and William Mundy, who was a chorister
at Westminster Abbey in 1 542-3. 3 The books also contain
music by Blytheman and Whyte, presumably William Blythe-
man (d. 1591) and Robert Whyte, who was born about 1535,4

1 Cf. Edward VI's Injunction of 1548: 'Item they shall fromhensforthe
synge or say no Anthemes off our lady or other saynts but onely of our
lorde And them not in laten but choseyng owte the best and moste soundyng
to cristen religion they shall turne the same into Englishe settyng ther-
unto a playn and distincte note, for every sillable one, they shall singe
them and none other'. Lincoln Statutes, iii, pp. 592-3.

2 British Museum, MSS. Add. 17802-5.

3 Pine, 'Westminster Abbey: Some Early Masters of the Choristers',
p. 259. 4 Tudor Church Music, v, p. xi.

288

MASS AND MOTET

and can therefore not have been written before the introduction
of the English Prayer Book in 1549. The liturgical character of
the contents shows clearly that they were written for use with
the Sarum rite, and among the compositions by (William ?)
Mundy is a setting of Exurge Christe, a prayer for the confound-
ing of schismatics and the revival of 'apostolic truth'. The
problem of the date of the manuscript is complicated by its
including music by Byrd and John Mundy. The former, how-
ever, may be Thomas Byrd of the Chapel Royal or the William
Byrd who was a chorister at Westminster in 1 542-3. x Unless it
can be shown that the Sarum rite was still in use in some
choral foundation in the later sixteenth century, the weight of
evidence suggests that the manuscript was compiled for the
Marian revival of the old liturgy between 1553 and 1558,2
though this date would make it necessary to assume that there
was an earlier John Mundy than the son of William who died
in 1630. The manuscript will be referred to here as the 'GyfTard'
part-books, since it appears to have belonged at an early period
to a Dr. Philip GyfTard.

Though repetition of words was becoming more common in
the music of the Reformation era, as this manuscript shows, it
was not always accompanied by as sober a style as is found in
Tallis's four-part Mass. Among the settings of the Ordinary is
a Trench Mass' by Sheppard,3 in which he adopts a brisk style,
with short points of imitation:

Ex.70. San- ctus, San<tus,San

-I

1 Pine, loc. cit.

2 For Westminster? It contains a votive antiphon of St. Peter (Et portae
inferi).

3 Edited by H. B. Collins in Chester's Latin Church Music of the Polyphonic
Schools, No. 9.

289

MASS AND MOTET
ctus

San

-MM

ctus, San-ctus, San

ctus, Do-

etas. Do • rrtL-nus

j> h

ctus Do - mi-nus Oe-

and writes at times in a quick triple rhythm, with even shorter
points:

Ex.7l.

(J = pre v Co us /)

Ho- san -no. in ex - ceL

sis, Ho-san - no, in ex - eel -

Sis.

r r 'r r ]r pr t r

"' m Ho-safi-na in ex -eel- sis, Ho-san- na in ex -eel • sis

This work was apparently written on the model of the shorter
Masses of such French composers as Nicolas Gombert (c. 1490-
c. 1560). The same section of the manuscript contains the
'Western Wynde' Masses of Taverner, Tye and Sheppard,
Taverner's 'Playn Song' Mass, Sheppard's Mass 'Be not afraide'
and his 'Playnsong Masse for a Mene', and Appleby's 'Mass for
a Mene'. In a later section there is a group of three Masses,
all bearing the title 'Apon the square', two by William Mundy
and one by Whytbrook. The term 'square' seems to refer to the
melody on which the Kyrie of these Masses is based, for the
melodies which Mundy uses are found in a group of melodies,
set out for the Lady-Mass Kyries of the various days of the
week, written on the fly-leaves of a fifteenth-century Sarum
Gradual.1 The melodies for Sunday and Thursday in this set
are the same as those used by Ludford in his Sunday and
Thursday Masses, while the Sunday melody is the same as that
of Taverner's Kyrie called le roy in the Gyffard part-books,2

1 British Museum, MS. Lansdowne 462, fos. 151V-152; see Bukofzer,
Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 191-2. Folio iv has Sanctus melodies, two of
which are counter parts of Sanctus settings in Old Hall. Ibid., p. 92.

2 Printed in Tudor Church Music, hi, p. 54.

290

MASS AND MOTET

and the melody of the Kyrie of Whytbrook's Mass corresponds
to that in Ludford's Mass for Monday. The Kyrie melody of
Ludford's Tuesday Mass had earlier been used as the basis of
one of the Masses in the York fragments, and the melody of its
Christe was set in three different ways by Taverner.1 Another
source for three of these melodies is a fifteenth-century manu-
script of apparently English origin in the Vatican Library,2
which has le roy and two other melodies which appear in the
Sarum Gradual fly-leaves, one of which was used by Mundy
in his first Mass:

Ex. re

('Square')

Besides the le roy title, which may possibly be a reference to the
Roy Henry of the Old Hall manuscript, the Vatican manu-
script has the name Lambertus,3 and in the Sarum Gradual
the names Lyonel, Dunstaple and Martyn are written beside
three of the melodies. While these may be the original com-
posers of the melodies concerned, it is clear from the complex
of correspondences which has been outlined that many such
melodies became common property and were used as the basis
of the Kyrie for the daily Lady-Mass and sometimes also for the

1 Printed in Tudor Church Music, iii, pp. 56-7.

2 MS. Reg. lat. 1146, fo. 72V-73. 3 See Bukofzer, op. cit., p. 192.

291

MASS AND MOTET

other movements. The origin of the term 'square', which occurs
also in inventories and accounts, is obscure, but it may simply
refer to the appearance of the notation in which the melodies
were written. The Magdalen accounts for 1532 have a payment
to one Bull for 'le prykkyng unam missam et square in scripto
gradali' and one to Bull and Norwich for 'prykkyng of squaris
in 12 gradalibus in capella'.1 At Durham the art of descanting
on 'squares' was included with faburden and the other tech-
niques of descant among the subjects the cantor was required to
teach his singers.2

The section of the Gyffard part-books which includes
Taverner's Kyrie le roy provided a series of separate Kyries and
Alleluias for the daily Lady-Mass. Taverner's Kyrie is a good
specimen of the relatively florid style of these pieces, other
examples of which may be seen in his Alleluias Salve Virgo and
Veni electa* in Tallis's Alleluia Ora pro nobis* and in the first
section of Okeland's Kyrie :

Ex 73.

Ky - n- e,

Ky - ri-e •

son.

The only example in England of a Mass set in organ poly-
phony to alternate with plainsong, commonly called an Organ

1 Macray, Register of Magdalen, ii, p. 7. 2 See above, p. 187.

3 Tudor Church Music, hi, pp. 52-3; the cantus firmus of the former setting
resembles both Salve virgo and Virga Jesse floruit virgo but is not identical with
either.

4 Ibid., vi, p. 88. For a discussion of this set of Alleluias, see below, pp.
377-8.

292

MASS AND MOTET

Mass, is by Philip Ap Rhys of St. Paul's.1 This is an unpreten-
tious composition, in two and three parts, one of which is
always an ornamented form of the plainsong. It comprises the
Kyrie Deus creator omnium, the other parts of the Ordinary ex-
cept the Credo, and the Trinity Sunday Offertory Benedictus sit
Deus pater. In the Kyrie the composer set the odd-numbered
verses, leaving the first three words to be sung by the beginner,
while in the Gloria the organ begins after the celebrant has
sung the opening and the choir et in terra pax, and in the Sanctus
and Agnus Dei after the beginner has sung the opening. The
first Agnus Dei is one of the more interesting sections, and
achieves a good effect of rhythmic cumulation:2

Ex.74
Ptatnsong

Qui toLUs

W=^7T^y

PS , H — i —

—j >

p 0 j J =

t r J

iy J

'• M

y==

m i

t»- ), k i h ' , k r b if - b * p« f *p

1 In British Museum, MS. Add. 29996; printed in Altenglische Orgelmusik,
pp. 24-35. 2 MS. Add. 29996, fo. 34; 'bar-lines' as in the MS.

293

MASS AND MOTET

In the manuscript the Offertory is headed In die sanctae Trinitatis.
The Sarum Ordinal gives the Kyrie Conditor for that day,1 and
the chants on which Ap Rhys based his Sanctus and Agnus Dei
are for lesser double feasts according to the Sarum Gradual,
though his Gloria is founded on one of the two chants for
greater doubles.

1 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 207. Exeter, however, gives Deus Creator (Ordinate
Exon, ii, p. 468). For a discussion of Ap Rhys's Organ Mass, see Stevens,
'A Unique Tudor Organ Mass'.

294

I MM I Ml I M I I H I I I I I I III It H I n n m imttmmott H I t MtMMtmnMHH I I I M I H I U I IMMtUt

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND
MAGNIFICAT

MMIMIIIIMIIIHIIIHMIM IIIHIMIIIIIIHIttllMMHIIIIMMMIIIIIIIIIIHIHIHKItm

Origin and Development of the Votive Antiphon

Jlrom the beginning of its history the votive antiphon used
ritual texts drawn from the Antiphonal, Processional or
Sequentiary; at a later stage non-ritual words from Books of
Hours and devotional literature were added to its repertory.
The polyphonic votive antiphon probably originated about
the mid-fourteenth century. Thirteenth-century conductus like
Salve mater misericordiae which had a devotional text related to
that of an antiphon may perhaps be regarded as its ancestors,
while a setting of Mater ora Jilium, probably of the early four-
teenth century, is an example of the polyphonic treatment of
a text from the Processional which was later used as a votive
antiphon:1

Ex.T5

trio.- ter 0 - to. — fC'li - um Lit post hoc ex- si, - U - um

1 In a Sarum Gradual, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. liturg. d.3, fo. 71.
It is preceded by poems to the Virgin in sequence form (including Benedicta
es caelorum regina) with plainsong, and followed by two other polyphonic
pieces, Virgo pudicitiae ferens titulum and Salve virgo tonantis solium.

295

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

A number of devotional pieces to the Virgin with non-ritual
texts and music, set out sequence-wise like Mater ora filium,
have survived.1 They are probably of the first half of the four-
teenth century, and are written in simple descant style. 2 Litur-
gically, these may still be conductus, or more likely cantici to be
sung at the Lady-Mass in place of the sequence, rather than
votive antiphons in the later sense. It is otherwise with a pair
of pieces written in the descant style of the second half of the
century, which use both text and plainsong from the ritual. In
Paradisi porta per Evam3 the plainsong is in the middle part
throughout, transposed up a fifth. This is followed by a setting
of Sancta Maria virgo intercede* which is of particular musical
interest as an early example of the treatment of the plainsong
by the two lower parts in migrant fashion:5

a San eta fna-ri • a vir-go in-ter ce

in-te.r

With these two examples we reach the first definite stage in the
history of the votive antiphon.

The antiphons which were written by the first scribe of the
Old Hall manuscript are in a more developed form of this
descant style, like the simplest of the Mass movements in the

1 In leaves in Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ff. 6.16, and Gonville
and Caius College, MS. 334/727.

2 The first pair of verses of Includimur nube caliginosa in the Gonville and
Caius manuscript is transcribed in Bukofzer, 'The Gymel', p. 82.

3 The antiphon at the memoria of the Virgin on ferias between Low Sun-
day and Whitsunday. Ordinate Exon, i, p. 143; Antiphonale Sarisburiense,
pi. 252.

4 One of the antiphons for the memoria of the Virgin from the Purification
to Ash Wednesday and after Trinity. Ordinate Exon, i, pp. 103, 180.

5 Cambridge, University Library, MS. Kk.1.6, fo. 246V; plainsong in
Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 493.

296

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

manuscript, for the musical development and resources of the
antiphon throughout its history were closely related to those of
the polyphonic Ordinary. In the simpler descant settings of
antiphons a text from a ritual source was set on its own plain-
song, which was normally in the middle voice, the only
exception being Byttering's Nesciens Mater, in which it is shared
by all the parts:1

Ex.TT.
PlaCnsong

rie-scL-ins tna-ter vurgo vc-rampe pe-rit

1 , J j ' .

J JS--ES.J

0 .. J.

" #

■ A 4-

/ 3 0

lift4 r

tf'< —

O - d

8 tie - sco - ens /77a -

ter Vur- qo .

X Q i^M

1 a J>J t

~*h~

i J J

-H-

K j

ruffl pe - pe - ret .

The trend of the descant style towards that of the chanson may
be seen in Cooke's Ave regina caelorum, ave domina, which com-
bines the idioms of the chanson style with the part-arrangement
of descant. 2 Of the three antiphons in a later hand in the Old
Hall collection, Cooke's Stella caeli extirpavit3 is a free setting
in very simple descant style, Damett's Salve porta paradisi* is

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, p. 157.

2 Ibid, i, p. 161. The clefs are C2 C4 C5, and there is a change of measure
for the middle section.

3 Ibid., pp. 168-9.

4 Ibid., pp. 166-7; tne text is fr°m the second verse of the sequence
Salve virgo sacra parens. Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 53, n. 2 1 .

297

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

intermediate in style, and his Beata Dei genitrix Maria1 takes a
step towards a larger form by using duet and full sections
in alternation.

The adoption by English composers of the chanson style for
the antiphon, as for the Mass, took place when English and
French composers were exchanging ideas about style and tech-
nique. The antiphon, however, does not seem to have been set
in polyphony by continental composers before c. 1420. Some
of the earliest examples, all in chanson style, are Ave regina
caelorum, mater regis angelorum by Binchois, 2 Tota pulchra es and
0 pulcherrima mulierum by Arnold de Lantins,3 and Salve regina
by Hugh de Salinis.4 The last is remarkable because it is ap-
parently the only setting known by a continental composer to
have the trope always included by English composers in settings
of this antiphon, treating the trope as solo sections and the
exclamations as full sections in the way which was invariable
in English settings until the mid-sixteenth century. The pieces
by Binchois and de Salinis make some use of their plainsong
melody, though neither is completely based on it.

After the Old Hall period English composers sometimes used
the plainsong when setting antiphons with ritual texts, em-
ploying the same techniques as in single movements of the Mass
based on plainsong, but most of the antiphons of the mid-
fifteenth century were free compositions. The two antiphons
based on plainsong out of fifteen which are contained in a
manuscript probably written towards the middle of the century5
are both examples of the technique of sharing the chant be-
tween the parts, e.g.:6

Ex. 78.
Plainsong

eta. es

1 The Old Hall Manuscript, i, pp. 164-5.

2 Printed in Les musiciens de la com de Bourgogne, pp. 1 89-90.

3 Printed in Polyphonia Sacra, pp. 262, 269.

4 Printed in Geschichte der Musik in Beispielen, No. 3 1 .

5 Bodleian Library, MS. Arch. Selden B.26; the contents of the musical
part also include carols, a hymn and secular songs. Facsimiles and tran-
scriptions (save of five of the antiphons) in Early Bodleian Music, i and ii.

6 Selden B.26, fo. 30V. The other antiphon on a plainsong is Sancta Maria
virgo (fo. 3v), which is also in the Aosta manuscript; see Bukofzer, review of
Hughes, Medieval Polyphony in the Bodleian Library in Journal of the American

298

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

- j

|"-

\l.

rv "

c6x.

Most of these pieces have at least one passage written as a duet
and are divided into two or three sections in different measures.1
The rhythmic style of several pieces, including Speciosa facta es,
is not far removed from that of the simpler Old Hall antiphons,
though in the f: ee settings the highest part is often quite florid,
and great play is made with the two ways of grouping six
quavers or s\x semiquavers:2

Ex.79.

Though none of these antiphons has a composer's name given
here, three, Power's Ave regina caelorum mater regis angelorum,
Plummer's Tota pulchra es (here incomplete), both in four parts,
and Dunstable's Beata mater, have been identified by their
occurrence in continental manuscripts.3 Plummer's piece, which

Musicological Society, v, 1952, p. 56. In the Oxford manuscript it is followed
by another setting of the same text which is not in Hughes's list of contents.

1 One, Funde virgo ter beata, is in two parts throughout.

2 Selden B.26, fo. i6v. 3 See Bukofzer's review mentioned in n. 6, p. 298.

299

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

is quite individual in style, is in duple time throughout, and the
parts are frequently imitative, unlike the differentiated parts
in the normal chanson style. All the antiphons are in praise
of the Virgin, with the interesting exception of Miles Christi
gloriose, which is an antiphon of Thomas of Lancaster, who was
executed by Edward II in 1322. x Thomas's brother Henry re-
covered the family titles and estates two years later and in 1330
began the foundation of St. Mary Newarke Hospital and Col-
lege. He encouraged the popular devotion to the memory of his
brother and made efforts to have him canonized as the martyr
of Pontefract.2 The canonization did not take place, but the
devotion continued, and this antiphon is part of a rhymed office
in honour of 'Saint' Thomas.3 Newarke College is a likely place
for such an antiphon to have been sung in the fifteenth century,
and it is conceivable that the manuscript originated there.4

The general development of chanson style in England in the
first half of the fifteenth century, as in the mature work of
Binchois and Dufay, was towards smoothness and grace rather
than melodic elaboration. Dunstable maintained this balanced
and graceful chanson style when he used plainsong as a basis
for an antiphon, as he did in four of the seventeen antiphons
which have survived.5 Alma redemptoris mater uses the plainsong
at times only,6 while Regina caeli and Ave regina caelorum, ave
domind? have an ornamented form of the plainsong in the treble
throughout (see Ex. 80).

Since the effect and intention of ornamenting a plainsong was
to transform it into a part with the melodic and rhythmic idioms
of the chanson, these three pieces do not differ in style from his
freely-composed antiphons, nor from his Crux Jidelis,8 an anti-

1 See Greene, 'Two Medieval Musical Manuscripts', p. 3. The words
are: Miles Christi gloriose /laus spes tutor anglie/fac discordes graciose / 'reduci con-
cordie/ne sternatur plebs clamose / dire mortis vulnere.

2 Thompson, Newarke Hospital and College, p. 12.

3 Printed in The Political Songs of England, pp. 268-72.

4 If so, the first line of the carol 'Alleluia: A newe work is come on hond'
(fo. 2iv; printed in Medieval Carols, No. 30) had an extra appropriateness.

5 Two of his antiphons are to the Holy Cross, one is to St. Katharine
and the others are Mary-antiphons.

6 John Dunstable, p. 106; also printed in Reese, Music in the Middle Ages,
pp. 418-20, with the notes of the plainsong indicated.

7 John Dunstable, pp. 99, 101.

8 Ibid., p. 103.

300

Plate XV

m ffft^'ii -:1 |]Ul iflu j=j^*!1

:'Mft{*:

^ Si

Plate XVI

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Ex.80.

Regi-nacae- Li LoB-ta,

. . . (re).

Regcna cae - U

Lae

-tCL ■
J

J^>J A

*7 * r — u-f-

(re)

phon of the Holy Cross, which has a paraphrase of its ritual
plainsong in the middle part of the full sections and an orna-
mented form of it in the treble of its duet. The only one of the
'free' antiphons with a distinctly different appearance from its
fellows, Quam pulchra es,1 is reminiscent of the earlier descant
style in its less graceful melodic lines and its constant use of
homorhythm.

Salve regina2 is the most extended of Dunstable's antiphons,
and its length is largely due to the addition to the normal text
of the trope of three four-lined rhyming verses beginning Virgo
mater ecclesiae, which was adopted for the votive use of this
antiphon in England and is almost invariably found with it in
Processionals and Books of Hours.3 Its effect is to extend the
text which follows the word ostende to a length equalling that
up to ostende, and to give this second portion the form of alter-
nating verses and exclamations. The singing of the verses by
soloists in the plainsong performance of this antiphon was a

1 John Dunstable, p. 112. 2 Ibid., p. 115.

3 The hymn from which the trope was derived contains six verses, as
printed in Analecta Hymnica, xxiii, p. 57. For the usual Sarum plainsong
version with five verses, see Eton Choirbook, i, p. 141. Polyphonic settings
seldom have more than three verses. See also Harrison, 'An English
Caput', pp. 204-6.

M.M.B — X 3OI

Votive antiphon and magnificat

monastic, if not also a secular custom,1 and it was natural to
write them as solo sections in polyphonic settings.2 Dunstable
made no use of the plainsong in his setting, while Power used it
only in the exclamations:3

Ex.81.

Plainsong

- (a)

Power's Mater orajilium shows him writing in chanson style with
the same assurance as he did in his Alma redemptoris Mass:4

Ex.82.

(l) B in MS.

and Plummer's antiphon to the mother of the Virgin, Anna
mater matris Christi, like his Tota pulchra es, has passages which
suggest either a revival of the rondellus technique or an adap-

1 E.g., Ordinate of St. Mary's, York, i, p. 27; Aungier, History of Syon
Monastery, p. 333: 'all schalle knele excepte . . . the sustres that be tabled
or assygned by the chauntres to synge the verses of Salve Regina or Regina
celi which schal be songen standynge at the deske'.

2 The invariable use of the trope in English settings makes it likely that
the anonymous settings in the Trent manuscripts published in Denkmaler der
Tonkunst in Osterreich, xxvii, pp. 60, 74, and also the settings of three verses
of the trope (all based on its plainsong) in Trent MS. 90, fos. 350-2, are by
English composers.

3 John Dunstable, p. 152. It is ascribed to Dunstable in Trent MSS. go and
92; see ibid., pp. 192-3. The mode is the same as the plainsong, and the
opening phrases resemble it in their general outline.

4 Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, xl, p. 212, revised slightly from the
manuscript (Trent MS. 92, fo. i8iv).

302

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

tation of the technique of canon and pseudo-canon found in
some of the Old Hall music:1

Ex.83.

At its best the English polyphonic antiphon of this period
combined the sensitive melodic lines of the chanson style with
elements of the English descant tradition, with very expressive
results in some cases, as in the remarkable ending of Forest's
Tota pulchra es:2

Ex.84

I/O*

tar - tu

■rls

QJJL-di

- bx

est

et vox

twr - tu, -

ris

=>■

cU -

ta-

1 Y rf F ' * *

=%^i

vox tur

tu.

au - di - ta, est in

1 In leaves bound in at th>f end of an English treatise on the Mass of the
second half of the fifteenth century (Bodleian Library, MS. Add. C.87).The
composer's name is spelt Plomer here, Polmier and Polumier in continental
manuscripts. The first eight lines of this antiphon are taken from the eighth
and sixth responds in the rhymed office of St. Anne; see Breviarium Sarum,
iii, pp. 551, 549.

2 Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, xl, p. 80.

303

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

ter - ra. no - stm-Surge, pro-pe-ra, a-mc-ca, me • a,

ve-

co • ro-

be - ris.

The use of a plainsong cantus firmus for the setting of an
antiphon along the same lines as those employed for single
movements of the Mass also began in this period. It does not
seem that this was done with the idea of relating a text of
general use to a particular festival, as with the Mass. Forest's
Ascendit Christus,1 for example, has a tenor which is a para-
phrased form of Alma redemptoris, but the text of the antiphon
itself, which in its ritual position is the canticle antiphon at
first Vespers of the Assumption, had a more definite festival
context than the tenor. The idea may simply have been to lend

1 Printed from the Modena manuscript, where it is ascribed to Dunstable,
in John Dunstable, p. 148. The last scribe of the Old Hall manuscript copied
Forest's Qualis est dilectus tuns (printed in The Old Hall Manuscript, ii, p. 77)
after Dunstable's Veni Sancte Spiritus; he next began to copy Ascendit Christus,
but left off, putting Forest's name in the margin, before he had finished the
treble part. Bukofzer {Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, s.v. 'Forest') iden-
tified the composer, whose first name is not recorded, with John Forest,
Dean of Wells and a benefactor of Lincoln College. There is no definite
evidence that they were the same person.

304

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

the antiphon more dignity and scope by applying to it the
technical method of the cantus-firmus Mass, and in this respect
Forest's piece may be regarded as a pioneer work in the history
of the large antiphon. Its tenor moves rather faster in relation
to the other parts than was usual in the later antiphon, when
the other parts had developed a more florid style, but it thereby
achieves the structural use of a plainsong melody without
sacrificing the equanimity and balance characteristic of the
chanson style:1

Ex.85.
Plainsong

L 1 f

est

U-(la)

U-

0 V k 1 |

J >T7S

S est

il-

Walter Frye's Salve virgo mater pia, a somewhat later piece, has
a similar treatment of a plainsong. This work is a particularly
striking example of the relation in design between antiphon and
Mass, for the tenor of the Gloria and Credo of Frye's own Mass
Summae Trinitati is identical in all the details of its melody and
rhythm with the tenor of this antiphon, and the common open-
ing of the movements of the Mass was taken from the opening
of the antiphon. This makes the Mass a very early example of
the derived Mass.2

1 The piece ends before the complete melody of Alma redemptoris has been
sung; on this point and its connection with a Credo by 'Anglicanus', see
Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 41.

2 The antiphon is anonymous in Trent MS. 88, fos. 70V-7 1 ; the recogni-
tion of the identity of the tenors and the corollary that Frye was the com-
poser of the antiphon are due to Bukofzer. See his article 'Frye' in Die

305

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

There is at least one example of the isorhythmic method of
disposing the plainsong tenor of an antiphon, John Benet's
Gaude pia Magdalena, x which is based on the tenor 0 certe preci-
puus, the respond at first Vespers on the feast of St. Mary
Magdalene, using only the music of those three words. The
tenor is stated three times in progressive diminution in the
same scheme of proportions as that of Dunstable's Veni sancte
Spiritus, and, as there, the upper parts over each of the iso-
rhythmic halves of the tenor are also isorhythmically related.
The quotation shows the beginning of the section composed on
the third statement of the tenor:

This piece combined the features of the antiphon and the iso-
rhythmic motet at a time when the former was waxing and the
latter had almost waned.

During the second half of the fifteenth century the large-
scale antiphon was established as a work similar in style and
comparable in size and design to a single movement of a festal

Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, where the opening of the antiphon is
quoted alongside the beginnings of the Gloria and Credo of the Mass.

1 In the same set of leaves as Plummer's Anna mater matris Christi. The poem
is in a Book of Hours and Psalter, MS. 20 in the John Rylands Library,
Manchester, with others on the same model, including antiphons to St.
John Baptist, St. Katharine, St. Nicholas, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and
one to St. George beginning Georgi martir indite /te decet laus et gloria.

306

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

setting of the Ordinary. The tenor, whether it was a measured
form of a plainsong or an original melody, was the basis of the
full sections, as may be seen in an anonymous Gaude flore vir-
ginali which is an early example (c. 1450-60) of a four-part anti-
phon of large design based on an original tenor. Though written
in a continental manuscript, it is probably by an English com-
poser, because of its style and because its text has the variations
which are peculiar to it in English Books of Hours and poly-
phonic settings:1

Ex.87.

(pume)rum.

Gau

■ de

spon-sa

ea. - rev De

- i-,

Gojul - de
Gau,- de

t zsf

pr_tx/

De-

sport - scl

8 - rum.

Com, - de

spon - sa

CO. -

ros-

? V P f.
De-c,

tlom

The Eton Antiphons

Our knowledge of the style of the large antiphon in England
in the late fifteenth century is due entirely to the preservation of
the Eton choirbook. 2 Although a Gaude flore virginali by Dunstable,
his only recorded five-part work, which is listed in the index,
has unfortunately been lost, the surviving contents of the
manuscript provide some material for the history of the form
between the Dunstable period and c. 1485- 1500, when the
greater part of the music was composed. Two of the forty anti-
phons which are complete3 are by William Horwood (d. 1484),
and one is by Gilbert Banester (d. 1487). These three, and also
Horwood's Gaude virgo mater Christi, the last page of which is
missing, were written on original tenors, and are probably the

1 Trent MS. 89, fo. 1 70V. The work is given as two pieces (Tr. 617, 618)
in the catalogue in Denkmdler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, vii, p. 5 1 .

2 Complete edition in The Eton Choirbook (in course of publication).

3 Thirty-nine complete in the manuscript, and one, Walter Lambe's
0 Maria plena gratia, in a complete copy, anonymous, in the Lambeth
Palace Library, MS. 1. Fourteen others survive in various states of incom-
pleteness; for details, see Harrison, 'The Eton Choirbook', pp. 168-75.

307

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

earliest antiphons in the collection. Horwood's Salve regina has a
tenor and countertenor (called Bassus in the manuscript) in the
same clef, and above them a countertenor, mean and treble;
this is the same disposition of the parts as in our last example,
with a treble added. It is the only piece in the manuscript in
which the two lowest parts have this tenor-countertenor rela-
tionship, and on this ground as well as on grounds of style it is
possibly the oldest of Horwood's pieces here. Imitation is vir-
tually absent, even in the solo sections, e.g.:

Ex.88.
Countertenor

Tenor
Bass

Vir - go duL - cis,_ O ma

Virgo did- cis, 0 tn<x-

« Jj J J J — ^ J

Ma - re

where the tenor is clearly the basic part, the others being added
with contrasting line and rhythm. There are occasional points
of imitation, freely treated, in Horwood's other antiphons, in

Ex.89.

Treble

308

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Banester's, and also in Hugo Kellyk's seven-part Gaude flore
virginali, which, to judge by its style, is also one of the earlier
pieces in the manuscript. The clearest case of imitation in
Horwood's writing is this passage from his Gaude flore virginali:
where he uses points which became common coin in the next
century.

The words of the latter part of Banester's 0 Maria et Elizabeth
are a prayer for the king and for peace and loyalty in the
church and state.1 This is the only allusion of its kind in the
manuscript, and the earlier part of the text, which is a poem on
the Visitation of the Virgin (July 2), may possibly imply a
reference to the pregnancy of Elizabeth of York with the boy
who was born on September 19, i486, and became Arthur,
Prince of Wales:2

Ex.90.

(jvintegraf>-)tw, etquicguvdpar • tus E

Treble
Moon

Countertenor

Tenor
Bass

et qtuc • quid

par- tus

U-za-bethbo • • ni habetex do- nts gra • to

E-li-za-beth bo- no ha

do -nts

1 'Protege quesumus athletam regem nostram N', etc.

2 Flood (Early Tudor Composers, p. 15) suggests that this piece was written
for the marriage of Henry and Elizabeth.

309

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

ae fi - II- 1 Irian- ae_ h est

y w ,, , . .

gra-tC-ae fi - Lit tHa-ri - ae est..

Like Banester's music, Kellyk's is old-fashioned in its idioms,
but he works the material into a texture of seven melodious
parts in a remarkably competent way:

Ex.91.

Quafcreble
Treble

Mean
Countertenor i

Countertenor 2

jun - eta

I j J -i

f-cfia)- C/» stc oi

C-cfc)

riJ J

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Horwood's Gaude virgo mater Christi is the most mature in style
of the works in this group; the melodies of the parts in the solo
sections are well balanced, and there is a fine ability to combine
sonority and line in such a full section as this:

Ex.92.

Tul-get

Treble
Mean

Countertenor
Tenor

Bass

re - sur

The Eton music shows the extension in the range of pitch in
choral music which came with writing for five and more parts,
with the highest parts for boy trebles and the lowest parts in the
modern bass range. The written pitch of the Old Hall music
and of that of Dunstable's time had tenor G as the lowest nor-
mal note, the B flat a tone below being rarely written. Though
the actual pitch was partly a matter of convenience, it is clear that
the range of polyphony until the second half of the fifteenth
century corresponded to that of the tenor and countertenor
voices of today. The normal compass of four-part polyphony
in the mid-fifteenth century may be seen in the anonymous
Gaude jlore virginali quoted above, 1 which extends two octaves
and a third, or seventeen notes, upwards from tenor C; the
regular compass of pieces in five or more parts in the Eton
manuscript is twenty-two or twenty-three notes. The compass
of each piece is given in these terms in the manuscript, together
with the number of voices, both in the index and at the head
of the piece, probably to show which works needed trebles and
which could be sung by men only or, with transposition, by
boys only. A few five- and six-part antiphons keep within the
range of fourteen or fifteen notes, but none of the four-part
antiphons exceeds fifteen notes. Of the ten four-part Magnifi-
cats, only one of which remains complete, six had a range of
twenty-one or twenty-two notes, one of seventeen, and three of

1 Ex. 87, p. 307.
3ii

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

fourteen. The sonority obtained from the wider range in the
full sections and the greater possibilities of textural contrast in
the solo sections were among the major 'discoveries' of the
later medieval composers, whose liking for the sound of rich
and full chords is also evident in the common practice of
dividing one or more parts at important cadences.

All the music in the manuscript, with the exception of Wyl-
kynson's nine-part Salve regina, was composed before 1502, the
year of the death of Provost Henry Bost, whose arms are in the
initial of the mean part of Davy's 0 Domine caeli terraeque.1
Wylkynson's nine-part Salve regina, which is signed with his
name and is probably in his hand, is in 'white' notation, and
has picture initials pasted on which are not the work of the
illuminator(s) of the rest of the manuscript. It is a later addition,
datable between 1502 and 1515.2 The antiphons which show
the maturity of the florid style include thirty-six complete pieces
by fourteen composers, namely, in the order of the extent of
their contribution to the manuscript: John Browne, Walter
Lambe, Richard Davy, Robert Wylkynson, William Cornysh,
Robert Fayrfax, Edmund Turges, Fawkyner, Nicholas Huchyn,
Robert Hacomplaynt, John Hampton, Richard Hygons, Ed-
mund Sturton and John Sutton. Exactly half of these thirty-six
antiphons were written on a cantus firmus taken from plain-
song,3 while three others, all by Lambe, used the plainsong of
their particular texts with a technique compounded of para-
phrase, ornamentation and migration. The standard method
of disposing the tenor in two statements in different measures
was used in more than half of the eighteen cantus-firmus pieces,
the slight variants which were introduced being the addition of
an extra phrase from (or partial statement of) the tenor in five

1 See Squire, 'On an Early Sixteenth Century Manuscript', p. 89.

2 For a discussion of evidence which suggests that there were two stages
in the compilation of the book, see Harrison, 'The Eton Choirbook',
pp. 163-4.

3 While a cantus-firmus Mass bears the name of its plainsong as the title,
which is usually given in the manuscripts, the identity of the cantus firmus
of an antiphon is virtually never given there. The only exception in Eton
is Lambe's fragmentary 0 regina caelestis gloriae, where the simultaneous
cantus firmi are both marked. So far, it has been possible to identify all
but four of the eighteen tenors concerned, as well as two used in incomplete
pieces. For details, see The Eton Choirbook, iii, Editorial Commentary.

312

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

cases and a return to perfect time for the final section of the
piece in three. Both of these variants were used by Lambe in
his 0 Maria plena gratia, where the final section in triple measure
is based on a partial restatement of the cantus firmus.

The way in which a plainsong melody was divided up and
disposed as the cantus firmus of an antiphon was related to the
length and sequence of thought of its text, and while a number
of conventions had been established for the treatment of the
Ordinary of the Mass and were regularly observed, the troped
part of the Salve regina was the only case of such a convention
being established for the antiphon. The first step would pre-
sumably be to decide what parts of the text would be set as
full sections, and to dispose the tenor accordingly. In his first
Salve regina, for example, which is one of the most clearly-
balanced settings of that text, Browne disposed the antiphon
Maria ergo unxit as his cantus firmus in this fashion:

Ex 93

PlaCnsong

8 Sues, et ,do-mus im-pleta, est ex o - do

Tenor

3 dotted, minims

' re un - auenti

<2d te su - spt-ra - mus La.-cn-ma.-rum wzZ - Le Eta. ma.-

10 semibreves

0 cLe

3*3

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

bic)

ili semibreves

E3i Semibreves
Total 45

Here the framework of the composition was made in two sec-
tions of equal time-value,1 assuming that the final notes with
pauses are to be regarded as extra tempus. The disposition of the
parts in the solo sections would be planned so as to give them
an appropriate variety of texture, and written with such lengths
as to make the piece a balanced whole. Browne made the
change from triple to duple measure at the end of the first verse
of the trope, though it was most often made at the beginning
of this verse, and designed the whole piece so that not only the
two statements of the cantus firmus but also the two main
sections are virtually of equal length. In his other setting of Salve
regina, on the antiphon Venit dilectus meus, Browne made the
change of measure after the first exclamation, 0 clemens, which
he based on the first five notes of the plainsong as an extra
insertion between its two statements. His layout of this cantus
firmus is not symmetrical, but the two sections of the piece
are again almost exactly the same length.

A carefully calculated disposition of the cantus firmus was
also used by Wylkynson in his Salve regina for nine voices and
by Sutton in his setting for seven voices, both based on three
statements of their plainsong. Wylkynson equalized the lengths

1 Equal, that is, if we assume that the dotted minim of perfect measure
was the equivalent of the semibreve of imperfect measure. Similarly sym-
metrical arrangements to that in Ex. 93 result from this assumption in a
few other cases, and an approximately equal length for the two main sec-
tions of the piece results in virtually all cases. There seem to be good empiri-
cal grounds for the conclusion that the effect of the stroke of diminution
in the measure signatures was to indicate the relation J- in (J) = o in (£,
as compared with the earlier relation o- in O = o* in C. See also above,
pp. 254-5.

314

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

of the division of the cantus firmus (Assumpta est Maria) under
each measure signature, thus:

Statement I, 51 bars Statement II,

27 bars1

Statement III

3/4 39 bars

4/4 39 bars

3/4 16 bars

Sutton, on the other hand, made the first two statements of his
plainsong (Libera nos) equal in length and the sections of differ-
ent measure into which they were divided unequal, thus:

Statement I, 32 bars

Statement II, 32 bars

Statement III

3/4 43 bars

4/4
bars

3/4
1 1 bars

3/4 16 bars2

The composers of the other twenty-five texts, apart from the
Salve regina,3 in the manuscript (only two, Gaude flore virginali
and Stabat mater dolorosa, were set more than once) disposed the
full and solo sections so as to agree with the form and content
of the words. In the case of a metrical text the verse or group of
verses was a regulating factor, and the relation between the text
and the lay-out of the cantus firmus, as well as the varied treat-
ment of the solo sections, may best be seen in a reduction of
these elements to a diagrammatic form such as is reproduced
on the following page. Browne's 0 Maria salvatoris mater, on an
unidentified cantus firmus, has six verses in each of the two
main sections, and the diagram also shows the cumulative
addition of the parts in the first two verses from the fourteenth
bar onwards, the broken texture of the fourth and fifth verses,
in which the lines of the poem were grouped by the sense (or a
possible interpretation of it) and not by the verse, and the
remarkable exclamatory full section in the course of the ninth
verse. In Davy's Salve Jesu mater vera on an invented tenor,
which has a plainer overall plan than Browne's 0 Maria, the
full section in the third verse is built up gradually, that in
verse eleven is reserved so as to give special emphasis to the last

1 In the treble part in a solo section. 2 Under a sign of double diminution.

3 For the lay-out of the other three settings of Salve regina based on a
plainsong, by Hacomplaynt, Huchyn and Hygons, see Harrison, 'An
English "Caput" ', pp. 209-14.

315

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Ofi-Xui-u5o<ti

oo
10

fzZOhfO

£ r oi-<o

Diagrams, drawn to scale, of antiphons in the Eton Choirbook. The
letters at the left indicate the voices. Full sections are shown by diag-
onal lines ; solo sections are in black. The horizontal lines represent the
lay-out of the cantus firmus.

line Quid Maria patitur, and the concluding full section is also
unusually short. Fawkyner's Gaude virgo salutata on the antiphon
Martinus Abrahae sinu has a well-balanced scheme, and its judi-

316

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

cious choice of parts for the solo sections contributes greatly
to the lightness and clarity of its general effect. The third of
the four sections into which the second statement of the cantus
firmus was divided is exceptional in being the basis of a solo
section rather than of a full section.

Among the pieces which use a scheme other than the standard
double cursus in laying out a plainsong as the tenor are Sturton's
Gaude virgo mater Christi, on one statement of Alma redemptoris
mater', Davy's In honore summae matris on Justi in perpetuum vivent,
a lengthy respond which has one complete statement, with a
partial restatement in triplet quavers for the Amen; and Davy's
Virgo templum Trinitatis on three statements of the St. Martin
antiphon 0 virum ineffabilem, disposed in such a way that the
ends of the statements do not coincide with the ends of the
sections of the piece, a rather exceptional treatment.

The three pieces by Lambe which use ornamentation and
sharing of the plainsong proper to the words are interesting
examples of the continued practice of these characteristically
English techniques in the late fifteenth century. In Mesciens
mater he used the plainsong as the cantus firmus of the full
sections, but otherwise the piece is a free composition, apart
from momentary paraphrase at the opening and momentary
ornamentation in the mean part in one other passage.1 In
Ascendit Christus he used the chant in both solo and full sections,
in the former as material for ornamentation, and in the latter
in ornamented forms and also as momentary cantus firmus in
the countertenor, tenor and bass parts:

Ex.94.

Plainsong

Tenor
Bass

M.M.B.

(frroeclaro)

1 At 'sola virgo', bars 63-5.
317

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Lambe's Salve regina is a more extended essay in this mixture of
free composition and writing on a plainsong, in which the
chant is used as a cantus firmus for some of the full sections, as
in 0 pia; as a shared and partly ornamented cantus firmus for
other full sections, for example in Vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve;
and as melodic material for some of the solo sections, as in the
setting of the lines Virgo clemens, virgo pia, Virgo dulcis, 0 Maria.
Other examples of Lambe's technical skill are his combination
of two plainsongs to make a double cantus firmus in his six-
part setting of 0 regina caelestis gloriae, x of which unfortunately
only one page has survived, and his demonstration of rhythmic
proportions in some passages of his four-part setting of Gaude
flore virginali, where he continued the tradition of the essay in
proportions practised by Power and other Old Hall composers,
which was still taught in the age of Thomas Morley and John
Farmer. 2 In the course of two of these passages, one a few bars
after the other, Lambe presented the singers with examples of
the proportion 3 : 2 in terms of the quaver, crotchet and
minim, having written the tenor of the full sections throughout
the piece in duple proportion to the other parts (see Ex. 95).
The rhythmic elements in the florid style reached the highest
point of their development in the music of the Eton collection.
They were the result of a continuous process of elaboration of
the style of Dunstable and the later Old Hall composers, which
had combined the practice of composition around a plainsong

1 Johannes Regis (c. 1430-85), master of the choristers at the Church of
Our Lady in Antwerp from 1463 and afterwards secretary to Dufay and
canon of Soignies, composed a Mass with Ecce ancilla Domini and Ne timeas
Maria as a double cantus firmus and other antiphons in pairs in the same
way. The work is printed in Johannis Regis Opera Omnia, i, p. 25.

2 In his Divers and Sundry waies of two parts in one, London, 1591.

318

Mean
Tenor

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT
Ex 95- tncu-ter Chrt-stC, Qui -a so

Countertenor

Bass

y i I

F¥^

ma- ter C/>rt-

1 f

g Lf^ ttlk

ter Chri * stC, Qui - a so - la.

sti - Esse tan - toe.

i/or -go ts - se tan - tae

tenor characteristic of fourteenth-century descant with the
melodic idioms and disposition of voices characteristic of the
continental chanson. The rhythmic values used for paraphras-
ing a plainsong in the tenor remained virtually constant during
the fifteenth century, with the minim as the unit of movement.
By the end of the century, however, the rhythmic values of the
other parts had evolved from the idioms of the chanson into a
great variety of groupings of the smaller note-values, as in
Browne's 0 regina mundi clara (see Ex. 96), which exemplifies
the complexity and vigour of the rhythmic counterpoint in a
full section in the florid style. In many of the solo sections the
composers used a still more extensive vocabulary of ornamen-
tal melodic idioms, and achieved an effect of delicate vocal
chamber music in a truly 'coloratura' style, as in Fawkyner's
Gaude rosa sine spina (see Ex. 97), where the treatment of
the bracketed figure is reminiscent of the rondellus technique
of the thirteenth century.1 Interchange and imitation of a

1 Compare Plummer's use of this device in his Anna mater matris Christi,
p. 303 above.

3J9

Ex.96.

Plainsong

Mean l
Mean 2

Tenor
Countertenor 1

^...rmj-ste-ri-um.

(no-) - to. ha

nr/WK.* I

5/h. - rt • a

Countertenor

Tenor
Bass

Ex.97,
(probtta -)tis Flo - ret sem

- pergra • ti

per

J- J J J j

— * — v —

320

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

characteristic melodic idiom were practised in solo sections as
well as in full sections like that quoted above from Browne's 0
regina mundi clara, as in this passage from the same piece:

Ex.98.

Mean
1

i — Mil f"i

•

►ffT|

,p»r»- jg;

• MM

Mean

* 4

—

— «

3 -

■)

1 f — § — J~^

— fcj — •

in which the point is a peculiarly English cadential ornament
of the fifteenth century.1

As a rule the solo sections were made of free material not
connected with the cantus firmus, but in some cases the com-
poser adapted the idea of the recurring opening of the move-
ments of a Mass by deriving the main voice or voices of an
opening solo section from the beginning of the cantus firmus,
as Browne did in his Stabat Mater:

Ex 99. Sta- bat mater

I i j ,J i i ,t

quam tristis etaf-fUcta.

In some instances material for solo sections other than the
opening one were derived from the cantus firmus in the same
way as in Wylkynson's nine-part Salve regina:2'
Ex.too.

Pla-Lnsong

Quatreble
Mean

Qs-Sumpta.esttna.-rLa. in cae - Cum., ,

re - ai- na, ma.-ter mt- se ■ ri- cor-di. -

mi. - se - n - cor - cU

ae,

qi -na, ma - ter

1 See also Lambe's Salve regina, bars 96-7; Cornysh's Salve regina, bars
98-100.

2 See also bars 1 12-16 of the same piece, and Hacomplaynt's Salve regina,
bars 14-16, Mean.

321

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

and in settings of Salve regina the familiar plainsong of the anti-
phon occasionally had an effect on the melodic material of the
polyphony, as in Hacomplaynt's setting:

Ex lot.

Plainsong

,..et Spes nostra
et spes

Treble ^" *-Z
Mean

> i ._ y i t ' .

et spes no

Although the depiction of words by melody had no greater
place in medieval polyphony than it had in plainsong, Fawky-
ner's little figure for the serpent in his Gaude rosa sine spina is a
clear case of musical illustration:

Ex.102.

caL-ca.

Treble
Mean

Countertenoi

f Q

Ser - - per

tern su -

t>e-ra • i/it

tern

8 *

•

and makes one inclined to believe that the last syllable of the
word pereamus in his Gaude virgo salutata was not dropped merely
by chance:

Ex.103.

post mor - tun pe • re « Da se - <

Treble
Mean

Countertenor

Tenor
Bass

(mor)- tempe-re-

mor- tern pe * re . a
322

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

The relation of the rhythm of the words to musical rhythm
varies between the extremes of syllabic setting and extended
vocalization. The general principle was to set the beginning of a
sentence syllabically in an appropriate rhythm, and to extend
the rest of the musical sentence by vocalizing, rather in the
manner of a 'modernized' neuma, and almost always on the
penultimate syllable.1 Repetition of words was quite excep-
tional. The singing of a syllable on the first of a group of
quick notes rather than after the last (as in modern practice),
e.g.:

Ex.104.

flr- rit U- la

was a common idiom, later used in the setting of English words
until well on in the seventeenth century.

The other technical features of the polyphony of the later
Middle Ages were bound up with the theory and practice of
the modes of plainsong, with the modifications in modal prac-
tice which resulted from the introduction of accidentals within
the modes, and with the new problems in the treatment of in-
tervals and chords which arose with the increase in the number
of parts. In the Eton antiphons the third and fourth modes,
which had E as their final, were not used, and the composer
of the only piece which was based on a plainsong in the third
mode (in the transposed position ending on A), Browne's 0 regina
mundi clara, avoided that mode by writing the piece in the first
mode, with the final D.2 The modes with a major third above
the final (modes five to eight on the finals F and G) occur
about three times as often as the first and second modes, which
had a minor third, and the last chord of all main sections of a
piece, almost without exception, had a major third, changed
by an accidental if necessary, whatever was the mode of the

1 Hence the aptness of the Italian visitor's description of English singing:
'non cantavano ma giubilavano'. See p. 171 above, and compare the use
ofjubilare, p. 258 above.

2 Lambe wrote a third mode cadence, with G sharp, in his Salve regina
(bar 55) and in his Stella caeli (bar 90); these are the only occurrences of G
sharp in the manuscript. Stella caeli is in an almost 'pure' fifth mode without
Bflat.

323

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

piece. While it would be misleading to suggest that there was
any regular connection between the composer's choice of mode
and the subject of his text, it may be noted that all the settings
of Stabat mater were written in the second mode transposed
down a fifth, and that Davy wrote all his pieces except his
Stabat mater in the seventh or eighth mode.

The factors involved in the use of accidentals were a complex
of the practice of plainsong, of the necessities and developing
idioms of polyphony, and to a limited extent of the impulse to
use them to express the thought of the words. In a piece in the
fifth or sixth mode, for example, B flat was normally written
throughout, as sometimes in plainsong. On the other hand, the
transposition of the second mode down a fifth to G, which did
not occur in plainsong and required the use of B flat,1 arose
in polyphony from the need to accommodate the range of the
mode to the range of the tenor voice.2 The reverse of this
method of adjusting mode to range was also used, by keeping
the normal pitch of the mode in the writing of the music, thus
setting the voices at a pitch which required downward trans-
position in performance.3 This practice of writing in the 'high

1 A few second mode chants were transposed up a fifth ('in acutas et
superacutas aliquando transmutatur, et tunc facit finem in alamire per
b quadratam'. Use of Sarum, ii, pp. xii, xvi) to avoid the low B flat, which
was not written in plainsong.

2 The range of the second mode, according to the Sarum Tonale ( Use of
Sarum, ii, p. xi), was from the fifth below the final to the sixth above (G to B)
in antiphons, and to the seventh above (rarely) in responds. The tenors in the
transposed second mode in Eton (it is not used in the untransposed position)
range from C to F (in the three Stabat mater settings, Hacomplaynt's Salve
regina and Hampton's Salve regina), from C to D (in Cornysh's Gaude virgo),
and from C to G (in Fayrfax's Salve regina). Other transpositions in Eton
are of the fifth, sixth and seventh modes to C. The transposition in Browne's
second Salve regina arises from the plainsong, which is itself in the sixth mode
transposed up a fifth, being one of the 'variationes in acutas constitutas'
(see Use of Sarum, ii, pp. xl-xli). The examples of 'mixed' modes, in addition
to Browne's 0 regina mundi clara, are Wylkynson's nine-part Salve regina
(tenor in seventh mode on F; piece in fifth mode) and Browne's six-part
Stabat virgo (tenor in fifth mode; the piece appears to be in seventh mode
on C).

3 Presumably a third or a fourth, as convenient. In a valuable series of
four articles on 'Pitch in the i6th and Early 17th Centuries', considered
mainly in relation to the pitch of the organ, Arthur Mendel rejects the
theory of transposition by a third. In purely vocal performance, however,

324

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

clefs' was most often adopted when the tenor was in the seventh
mode,1 and in such cases the written pitch of the treble part
took it up to the high B or C, making transposition in per-
formance unavoidable.

The composers of the Eton music followed a long-established
practice when they set the lowest part of a piece with a constant
B flat and one or more of the upper parts with a more or less
constant B natural.2 This flattening of the B below C on the
second space in the bass clef with almost complete consistency,
whatever the mode,3 gave rise to the idiom of 'false relation'.
The setting of a bass part under a tenor singing F, for example,
called for B flat as one of the possible notes, and if the upper
parts were in a mode which normally used B natural, a situa-
tion arose in which false relation could become an established
idiom, as in this passage:

Ex 105.
Pl&uisong

.In- ef - fa- bi

dot et.

cue - cen

cUt.

t 0

\ h

p c_r r ■

accen -

/nun-

dot

~~et

ac -

* 1

cen -

ft. pr p

frosto -

dit

8 tmtn -

fjrJ> — ^ —

tint

ac •

£—*

dot et ac

dti

there seems no reason why any convenient pitch, perhaps given by the
organ, should not have been used.

1 Eton Nos. 27, 31, 37. The other cases of high clefs are in Mode VIII
(No. 17, highest note B flat); Mode V (No. 3; highest note A); Mode I
(No. 21; highest note A); and Mode I on G (No. 19; highest note B flat).
In two pieces with normal clefs (Nos. 2, 31) the treble goes to A; otherwise
the limit is F or G. The numbers refer to the catalogue of the manuscript in
Annales Musicologiques, i, pp. 169 sqq.

2 And correspondingly with two flats in the bass and one above when the
mode was transposed a fifth down.

3 The only antiphon in which the B natural at this pitch is 'normal' is
Kellyk's Gaude flore virginali, which is in the fifth mode on C.

325

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

from Davy's Virgo templum Trinitatis, which is in the eighth
mode. This effect was obviously enjoyed for its own sake, and
became accepted in other contexts. It was used, for example, to
give cumulative tension to the final full section of a piece, and
in this case was sometimes pressed to the most extreme form
in which technical deftness could bring it off, as in the Amen
of Davy's Stabat mater:

Ex.106.

Treble
Mean

Countertenor
Tenor

Bass

Here, and in similar instances in pieces in the second mode on
G, the false relation resulted from the writing of B natural in
the upper parts instead of the B flat proper to this transposition
of the mode.

This technique of introducing into a mode the idioms of
another mode was used by Browne in several passages in which
he 'imported' the flat seventh degree, which was idiomatic in
the seventh mode, into cadences in the fifth or sixth mode.
The most remarkable of these instances is the close of his Stabat
juxta Christi crucem, where he created a situation of extreme
tension by writing the normal and the flattened forms of the
seventh degree simultaneously:

Ex.tor.

Mean
Tenor

Countertenor 1
Countertenor 2

Bass 1
Bass 2

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Sturton's writing of D flat in his Gaude virgo mater Christi, the
most extreme accidental in the manuscript and its only occur-
rence, may have been suggested to him by the rare use of just
such an importation in the chant which he used as his cantus
firmus. The usual way of writing the Sarum form of Alma
redemptoris mater was in the transposed position of the fifth mode
up a fifth on C, in the G clef.1 In the version of the chant
which Sturton used, B flat as a flattened seventh not proper to
the mode occurs at the word genitorem.2 Presumably the plain-
song was transposed in the service books in order to introduce
the flattened seventh at this point, for if it were written in the
normal position the note would be E flat, which was not
admitted in plainsong notation. Sturton wrote the antiphon as
his cantus firmus at the normal pitch of the fifth mode, which
is that of the tenor voice, and the E flat in question comes shortly
after he had written E flat as bass to B flat in the tenor, so that
his D flat appears in a context which may be summarized thus:

Ttenor

Bass

San- ctum oe - nC - to - rem .

The expression of words by 'foreign' notes is no less rare in
the music of this time than their depiction by melodic lines.
At times accidentals of this kind were used where the words

1 See Use of Sarum, ii, p. xxxv (beginning of this antiphon) and p. xxxii:
'Huius (toni) eciam cantus frequenter in acutas et in superacutas trans-
mutatur, et tunc facit finem in cesolfaut causa toni et semitoni'.

2 As in Antiphonale Sarisburiense, pi. 529.

327

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

would not seem to suggest them,1 while at others it is difficult
for us not to feel that their effect is particularly appropriate
to the words, as in Sturton's treatment of mortem pati, 2 or in such
a passage as this from Browne's first Salve regina:

Ex.109

(pa) to Cru. - cl h

xo vui - ne

to,—

The Eton music, like the chapel for which it was created, is a
monument to the art and craftsmanship of many minds united
in the object of carrying out the founder's vision of perpetual
devotion. From its study and performance there emerge some
distinct impressions of the musical personalities among the
composers who contributed most significantly to the expression
of that devotion. Browne's technical command, the deeply pene-
trating quality of his imagination, and his capacity for strikingly
dramatic expression place him among the greatest composers
of his age, while Lambe's wise and experienced mastery is cap-
able of reaching heights both of emotion and technique. Davy
excels in sure and rapid craftsmanship and in the joyful ex-
uberance of its use, and Cornysh in the versatility of a talent
which, though not remarkable for depth or consistency, ranges
from the sensuous warmth of the Salve regina to the flamboyance
of the Stabat mater and the simplicity of the Ave Maria mater Dei.
Wylkynson can be admired for his more than respectable com-
petence as a well-schooled informator-composer, and his high
level of ability is shared by most of those whose attainments
can be judged only from one or two examples of their work.

Among the memorable passages in the music of the more
distinguished of the Eton composers are the first section and
the magnificent Amen of Browne's Stabat mater, a work of in-
exhaustible interest; the opening of his first setting of Salve
regina, where 'the music unfolds like a flower responding to the

1 As, for example, in the curious passage on ecclesia in Browne's second
Salve regina, bars 84-6. 2 Bars 74-6 in his Gaude virgo mater Christi.

328

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

sun';1 the closing cadence of Lambe's Salve regina', and the as-
tonishing effect of the momentary vision of a new tonal pano-
rama which Davy created in two passages of his In honore summae
matris, the former of which may be quoted:

Ex.110.

Treble
Mean

Countertenor

Tenor
Bass

The Votive Antiphon in the Sixteenth Century

Three five-part antiphons by Fayrfax, in addition to his Salve
regina in the Eton book, remain complete: Aeternae laudis lilium,
Ave Dei patris filia, and Maria plena virtute.2 All three have free
tenors, and like his Masses are noticeably less florid than the
Eton antiphons. The first is on the Visitation, and is thought to
be the 'Anthem of oure Lady and St. Elizabeth' for which
Fayrfax was paid twenty shillings at St. Albans in 1502 from
the privy purse of Queen Elizabeth.3 It was written, without

1 Walker, History of Music in England, p. 33, where the passage is quoted.

2 See Hughes, 'An Introduction to Fayrfax', p. 95, with the following
emendations: the Stabat mater in Harley 1709 is by Davy; Fayrfax's Salve
regina has survived only in Eton; Ave cujus conceptio in Harley 1 709 is anony-
mous; Ave lumen gratiae is incomplete in Eton; the anonymous Ave Dei patris

filia in Lambeth MS. 1 is not the same work as that attributed elsewhere to
Fayrfax.

3 On March 28; Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, p. 2. One of
Fayrfax's incomplete antiphons, Lauda vivi alpha et 0 filia supernissima, ends

329

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

the composer's name, into the large choirbook of c. 1 5 1 o which
is now in the library of Lambeth Palace, and which contains
six other large antiphons: Lambe's six-part 0 Maria plena gratia
(here anonymous and in Eton with the composer's name but
incomplete), Sturton's six-part Ave Maria ancilla Trinitatis, and
four anonymous five-part pieces. Sturton's antiphon, which is
based on Gloria tibi Trinitas, opens with anticipations in three
of the parts of the beginning of the cantus firmus, which later
became well known as that of the instrumental In nomine.1 The
piece is in the first mode, without flat as signature in any of the
parts save for one line in the treble, and has many instances of
false relation:

Ex.tlt.

Countertenor 1

Countertenor 2
Bass

va-U-dis-sC-ma

•j. J- i£U

Taverner's Ave Dei patris Jilia,2 his only surviving large anti-
phon on a cantus firmus, was based on the chant of the Te
Deum, and it is interesting to compare his treatment with
Aston's in his Te Deum Mass. While Aston based twenty-six
sections of his Mass on the second phrase of the Te Deum
chant, Taverner used each of its five different phrases once only,
in their due order, so that there is no element of recurrence in
his cantus firmus, and he based the Amen of the antiphon on

with a prayer for Henry VIII. Sad to say, all of the five antiphons known
to be by Ludford lack one or more voices.

1 See Reese, Music in the Renaissance, p. 779.

2 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 61.

330

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

the last verse of the Te Deum, In te Domine speravi,1 including
the neuma of the fourth mode.2 Although the style of the full
sections is basically non-imitative, there are two clear instances
of the anticipation of the cantus firmus by other parts,3 and a
few of mutual imitation around the cantus firmus, one involv-
ing the perpetration of a musical pun on the words ut sol,
which are set to their appropriate notes in the hexachords
on G and C:4

ExU2

Treble
Mean

Countertenor

Tenor

Bass

|* i p n

sol,

prae • e-

i^P

ZTT

te.

ut sot,

r=7

prae-ele-^ta)

e-ie -

ut sol,

prae

Imitative treatment of the solo sections is no more frequent,
on the whole, than it was in the Eton music, but here the solo
sections are somewhat less elaborate in style. The setting of the
penultimate syllable of preconizatur, which comes immediately
before our last quotation, is characteristic of Taverner in its
effective use of sequence and its close pursuit of three points,
the last of which is a typical 'ending-point' in his vocabulary.
His setting of the Amen is a good example of the cumulative
effect of repetition, in this case a double ostinato in the treble

1 The lay-out, both of the cantus firmus and of the complete piece, seems
to be an example of calculated proportions. The cantus firmus is disposed

thus: (60 x <d.) + (30 x o) + (48 x J.); the complete piece has (113

x d.) + (113 X o) + (48 X J.).

2 In the Liber Usualis the Te Deum is indicated as third mode (p. 1 834) ;
in the Sarum Tonale it was in Mode IV. Use of Sarum, ii, p. xxii.

3 By the treble at the opening, and by the bass (and treble in diminu-
tion) before the first entry of the cantus firmus.

4 Josquin des Pres did this on G-D at the words electa ut sol in his Virgo
prudentissima; the passage is in Josquin des Prez, Motetten, p. 135. See Reese,
Music in the Renaissance, p. 255.

331

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

and bass against the cantus firmus of the tenor (the mean and
countertenor are omitted) :

Ex.113.

Treble

Tenor
Bass

pr us

Taverner's Gaude plurimum1 shows some further development
of imitative technique and some use of antiphony, 2 while the
division of the music into successive points of imitation, which
are rather freely treated, is clearly perceptible in the full sec-
tions of his 0 splendor gloriae,* an antiphon of the Trinity.4
Although this is virtually in the imitative style, the parts do not
yet repeat words or phrases,5 except in a passage written as a
free rota, in which the voices imitate each other in irregular
order at the octave or unison6 (see Ex. 114).

Hugh Aston's Gaude virgo mater Christi,7 which has a non-

1 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 78.

2 At sempiterni patris the bass repeats the previous countertenor phrase,
and the mean repeats the bass's benignus hominem edidisti (ibid., p. 79). The
treatment of Gaudemus itaque (p. 85) is antiphony with overlap, and in the
final full section (pp. 90-1) the tenor repeats the treble's phrase on eandem
tecum caelestem gloriam. 3 Ibid., p. 99.

4 Compare the requirements of Wolsey's statutes for Cardinal College,
p. 168 above.

6 There are some exceptions, but it should be noted that all three manu-
scripts on which the edition is based are dated after 1580.

6 Tudor Church Music, iii, pp. 108-9.

7 Ibid., x, p. 85. His three incomplete antiphons {Ave Maria ancilla
Trinitatis, Ave Maria divae matris Annae filia, and O Baptista vates Christi)
are printed in the same volume, pp. 1 14-51. A treble part with the words
Ave domina sancta Maria has not been printed; see Hughes- Hughes, Catalogue
of Musical Manuscripts in the British Museum, i, p. 463.

332

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Exll4.

Treble
Mean

Countertenor

Tenor
Bass

(pecto-) -ra,

r v P

m, te pre - ce pre-ca murhu, - mi-Li,

^mm

te pre-
1 J>i

^~P^~TT

ce pre-ca- murhu,- mi- U te pre-ce pre-ca- murhu- mi

lPi bJ J>.J i UfA Ml hi JU

^ir if

Ce pre- ce pre-ca

rrr:

/flu

ur/?u. - mi- it,

^^^g

P
1

k'» te pre-ce pre-ca mur hu-mi ■ Li, fe Pre-ce pre-ca

te pre-ce pre-ca

te pre - ce pre-ca.- murhu - mi

metrical prayer at the end of the usual metrical text, also exists
as an antiphon of St. Anne with an alternative text beginning
Gaude mater matris Christi.1 He set it in florid style, with con-
siderable use of imitation, up to the end of the poem, but much
of his setting of the prayer is in antiphonal style, and the general
impression is of a certain inconsistency of method. However,
there are some interesting points, such as his use of rests to
clarify imitations in the full sections and the surprising survival
of a fifteenth-century cadence idiom in which one of the parts
leaps an octave:2

Ex.115.

M.M.B.

(no-)-

1 In Bodleian Library, MSS. Mus. e. 1-5.

2 Tudor Church Music, x, p. 95.

-z 333

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

The long and well-made Amen is based on an ostinato shared by
four parts and consisting of a short figure which is melodically
expanded:

Ex.116.

is then used in diminution, and is finally treated as a point
worked out in an extended stretto. Aston used the same idea
of an expanding ostinato in the bass of the Amen of his Ave
Maria divae matris Annae jilia, which begins thus:1

Ex. 117.

and is then developed into a more continuous part based on
this figure.

Aston's Te Deum laudamus was originally a setting of the
Marian text which imitated the Te Deum and began Te matrem
Dei laudamus.2 It appears with those words in the earlier manu-
scripts, and the later substitution of the Te Deum text, which
differs considerably from that of the hymn, turned it into an
antiphon of the Trinity.3 Aston gave his setting the style and
design of a large antiphon, basing all save one of the full sec-

1 Tudor Church Music, x, p. 136.

2 For references to this and other imitations of the Te Deum, see Muchel-
ney Memoranda, p. 7, n. 2, and Corbin, Essai sur la musique religieuse portugaise,
p. 352, n. 1. Te matrem Dei was the first piece in a book of Antiphons in
Magdalen; see the inventory below, p. 431.

3 See Tudor Church Music, x, p. xviii. The mean part-book British Museum,
MS. Harley 1709, gives Asshwell as the composer. About 1600 John Bald-
win copied two three-part sections of this work, with the Marian text, into
his manuscript collection, now in the Royal Music Library in the British
Museum. He gave Taverner as the composer, and the two items were
published, as Tu ad liberandum and Tu angelorum domina, among Taverner's
works in Tudor Church Music, Vol. iii. The former is Aston's music (ibid.,
x, pp. 107-8) transposed down a fourth, and the latter is the following
section (ibid., pp. 108-9). There are two other misattributions to Taverner
in the same volume; Rex amabilis, again from Baldwin, is actually a section
of Fayrfax's Maria plena virtute, and Esto nobis (from British Museum,
R.C.M. MS. 2035) is a section of Tallis's Ave Dei patrisfilia printed in ibid.,
vi, p. 166.

334

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

tions on one or two statements of the plainsong of the second
verse of the Te Deum, a fourth higher than the original pitch
and somewhat ornamented. At the word Sanctus he used the
corresponding phrase of the Te Deum as the cantus firmus, and
in the last section put the plainsong of In te Domine in the bass,
bringing the piece to an end in the seventh mode. The first
few notes of the opening duet of the antiphon are the same as
those of the opening of his Te Deum Mass, but the material and
the design differ thereafter and the Mass is not 'derived' from
the antiphon. Nevertheless, the connection is enough to suggest
that the original title of the Mass may also have been Te
matrem Dei laudamus, and that the two works form a pair such as
Aston was required to submit as his Oxford Bachelor of Music
exercise in 1510.1

Tallis's antiphon Salve intemerata, the source of his derived
Mass with the same title, was written on an original tenor.
It is not a successful work, for the style of the polyphony falls
awkwardly between differentiation and integration, lacking the
linear and rhythmic vitality of the earlier style and the logic and
coherence of the later, while the rhythm sags at intermediate
cadences through lack of overlapping phrases, and the themes
are uneven in interest. His only other surviving complete anti-
phon,2 the six-part Gaude gloriosa Dei mater * is, on the other
hand, one of his finest pieces, and a crowning work in the his-
tory of the votive antiphon. All its themes have character, and
some move with a rare exuberance which springs from his
daring treatment of rising intervals; the flow of the rhythm is
always maintained, and the form, which is on a very large
scale, is handled with great skill. The maturing of his style is
shown in such points as the gradual addition of the voices from
the duet which begins at Gaude virgo Maria to the apt entry of
the first full section on the word omnia, in the varied texture
of the solo sections and the long sweeping lines of the full
sections, in his use of cumulative sequence :

1 See the transcript of the entry recording his supplication, ibid., x,
p. xiv.

z Ave Dei patris filia (ibid., vi, 162) and Ave rosa sine spinis (ibid., p. 169)
are still incomplete. For parts of these which have been found since the
edition was printed, see Tudor Church Music Appendix, pp. 43-9.

3 Tudor Church Music, vi, p. 123.

335

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Ex. 118

and, in the Amen, of extended ostinato. Although there is no
cantus firmus, and the tenor is integrated into a texture which
uses both imitation and differentiation with great resource, the
work is definitely in the florid style, owing a lot to Taverner
but thoroughly characteristic of the mature Tallis in its com-
bination of strength and expressiveness.

A number of large antiphons composed between the early
years of the century and c. 1545 were copied into the Peterhouse
part-books, from which the tenor book has unfortunately been
lost. Besides antiphons by Fayrfax, Ludford, Taverner, Aston
and Tallis, this collection includes Mary-antiphons by Richard
Bramston (Mariae virginis fecunda viscera), Arthur Chamberlayne
[Ave gratia plena Maria), R. Hunt {Stab at mater), Edward Martyn
(Totius mundi domina), John Marbeck (Ave Dei patris filia) , John
Mason1 (Ave Maria ave fuit prima salus and Quales sumus 0 miseri
properantes) , John Norman (Euge dicta Sanctis oraculis), William
Pasche (Sancta Maria mater Dei), and Richard Pygot (Salve
regifia);2 Jesus-antiphons by Walter Erley or Erell (Ave vulnus
lateris) and John Mason ( Vae nobis miseris) ; and an antiphon of
St. Augustine (Exsultet in hacdiejidelium ecclesia) by Hugh Sturmys.
The four parts of Marbeck's Ave Dei patris filia which survive in
the Peterhouse books and his complete Jesus-antiphon Domine
Jesu Christe have been printed,3 and show him using more
'modern' techniques, such as imitation and contrapuntal homo-
phony, than he did in his Mass Per arma justitiae. The Mary-
antiphon, which may well be the earlier, is the more successful
work. In Domine Jesu Christehe often seems to miss the main point
of imitative technique, the overlap of the entries, and tends to
fall back on a cliche in his closes, except in that of the first main
section, which uses effectively a short ostinato figure in the
tenor and bass.

1 'Cicerstensis', i.e., of Chichester, in the Index of the manuscript.

2 Pygot's Gaude pastore, the bass part of which survives in British Museum,
MS. Add. 3419 1, is an antiphon of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

3 Tudor Church Music, x, pp. 200, 215.

336

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

The Shorter Votive Antiphon

Throughout this period more modest settings of votive anti-
phons were composed, presumably for smaller choirs and for
less important occasions. Walter Frye's Ave regina caelorum mater
regis,1 for example, was one of the most widely known examples
of the mature chanson-antiphon; it was copied into thirteen
continental manuscripts and made into three arrangements for
organ. Obrecht used its tenor as the basis of his antiphon and
Mass of the same name, and it was depicted in a Flemish paint-
ing oft. 1450.2 In England descant technique, with the plain-
song as the middle part of three, was still used for the setting of
short antiphons in the late fifteenth century, as may be seen in
Richard Mower's Regina caeli\z

Ex.119.

Treble

Tenor
Bass

CU-(l£Uma)

In this form of descant technique the tenor was the exact plain-
song, and was written in the note-symbols of plainsong, a
method which was commonly used until the Reformation for
such ritual items as responds, but seldom for votive antiphons.
Some of the free antiphons in the same collection as Mower's
piece are much plainer in style than his, while others use a
limited range of melodic idioms in an expressive way, as in
this passage from an anonymous three-part setting of Gaude
virgo mater Christie

1 Transcription in Reese, Music in the Renaissance, pp. 94-5.

2 See ibid., pp. 94, n. 307, 191, 200.

British Museum, MS. Add. 5665, fo. 56V.

337

4 Ibid., fo. 1 04V.

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT
Ex.120.

Treble

Tenor
Bass

Quern do-le-bas

Besides a few Mary-antiphons, this manuscript contains a
setting of Gaude sancta Magdalena by Thomas Packe and an
anonymous setting of the short Jesus-antiphon Nunc Christe te
petimus. x

In February, 151 6, Benedictus de Opitiis left his post of
organist at the church of Our Lady (later the Cathedral) in
Antwerp, where he had been in February, 15 14, if not earlier,
and from March 1 he was established as court organist to Henry
VIII. Five years previously Richard Sampson had been in Ant-
werp on a diplomatic mission, and after a period in the service
of Wolsey (15 13-16) and another as proctor of Tournai (from
151 7), he became Dean of St. Stephen's, Westminster, in 1520
and Dean of the Chapel Royal in 1523, going on to hold other
deaneries and eventually the bishopric of Chichester. Composi-
tions by these two men were written into a relatively small but
finely executed manuscript which bears the date 1516,2 and
which begins with a setting of a poem in honour of Henry VIII
{Salve radix varios producens germine ramos) in the form of a canon
four-in-two set down in two circles with a rose within each.
This is followed by a lengthy four-part piece by Sampson, also

1 This text was the third of three verses sung with the respond Libera me
dotnine at Matins of the Dead. It was set as an antiphon both with and with-
out the words Sancte Deus, etc. See, for example, Taverner's Sancte Deus, in
Tudor Church Aiusic, iii, pp. 139-40.

2 British Museum, MS. Royal 1 1 E. xi.

338

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

to words in praise of the King (Psallite felices) , of which this
passage is a fair sample:

Ex.121

du-stribu-en - do.

- en - do. do ■ • sis,

Est rex Hen ■ ri - cus

It seems very likely that these two composers met in Antwerp,
and that Sampson's 'praise-motet' was modelled on the work of
Benedictus, who in the year before he left Antwerp contributed
two pieces to a publication by Jan de Geet of Antwerp entitled
Lofzangen ter ere van Keizer Maximiliaan en zijn kleinzoon Karel den

339

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Vijfden.1 Not only the style of the music but also the notation
of the manuscript are very similar to those in the Antwerp
publication. Sampson's motet is followed by three Mary-anti-
phons — Benedictus's four-part Sub tuum praesidium,2 Sampson's
five-part Quam pulchra es,z and an anonymous four-part setting
of Haec est praeclarum vas — while the rest of the contents of the
manuscript are two settings of texts from the psalms, which do
not fit into any particular place in English liturgical practice.
They are, in fact, motets in the sense of that word which was
normal on the continent but was not used in England until the
late sixteenth century, although works of their type began to be
written about the time of the Reformation.

It was in the smaller musical forms, both sacred and secular,
that the Renaissance style of imitative polyphony in duple
measure was first practised in England, and the interest of the
early Tudor kings in foreign arts was one of the means by which
it became known. A collection of secular chansons by Nether-
lands composers had been made for Prince Arthur (1486-1502),4
and, as was the convention in such chansonniers on the continent,
several Mary-antiphons were included. Some years after the
Sampson-Benedictus manuscript was written, an anthology of
motets by continental composers, including two secular pieces,
was made and splendidly illuminated in the Flemish style for
Henry VIII.5 The effects of such importations on English
music are more apparent in the smaller sacred forms, in carols,
and in the secular court music than in works in the large
florid style, which absorbed the techniques of imitation and
antiphony without suffering any basic change.

Taverner's short antiphon Mater Christi sanctissima,6 for ex-

1 Published in facsimile, with an introduction by W. Nijhoff, Gravenhage,
1925. See also the facsimiles in Hans Albrecht, s.v. 'Benedictus de Opitiis',
in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

2 This piece is also in the Antwerp print.

3 Also composed in the Netherlands style, as Wooldridge pointed out in
Oxford History of Music, first edition, ii, p. 322; the first part is printed there,

PP- 323-4-

4 Now Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1 760.

5 British Museum, MS. Royal 8 G. vii. The pomegranate, badge of
Catherine of Aragon, appears in the decoration, and one of the pieces
contains a prayer for the Emperor Charles, elected in 1519; hence the
book may be dated between 1519 and c. 1528.

6 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 92.

340

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

ample, which was the source of his derived Mass, is clearly dis-
tinguished from his large antiphons by its use of homophony,
antiphony and short points of imitation, and his Christe Jesu pas-
tor bone1 by being set in almost 'playn song' fashion in anti-
phonal style with free imitation in the last section. At first
sight this piece seems to be a Jesus-antiphon with a second
section in the form of a prayer for Henry VIII, which begins
Fundatorem specialem serva regem nunc Henricum, but its original
words were almost certainly those of the antiphon of St. William
of York2 which began 0 Wilhelme pastor bone and continued with
virtually the same words as Taverner's work,3 while the prayer
may originally have been a prayer for Wolsey as founder of
Cardinal College.4 Two of the other four short antiphons by
Taverner, which lack their treble and tenor parts, are settings of
texts prescribed in both the original and revised statutes of
the College; he set the Ave Maria5 with the pauses required
for the ringing of the bell, and the text of his Sancte Deus agrees
with the form given in Wolsey's statutes.6

Sancte Deus was also composed by Tallis, in an expressive set-
ting for four voices with two trebles,7 and by Philip van Wilder,
a Netherlands musician who lived in London from 1525 on-
wards and appears in the court accounts of Henry VIII as a
lutenist from 1529 onwards. At the end of the Gyffard part-
books there is a group of short antiphons comprising seven
Mary-antiphons, two Jesus-antiphons and an antiphon of St.
Peter. The title and the opening notes of Tye's Sub tuam protec-
tionem would lead one to expect that it was a setting of the

1 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 73.

2 See discussion of the statutes of Cardinal College, above, p. 168.

3 The text is in York Processional, p. 1 96, as the antiphon in exitu chori on the
feast of St. William. It is also in a Sarum Book of Hours, Manchester,
Rylands Library, MS. Lat. 127. These agree in reading pater, mundum, and
gaudia for the fautor, semper, and gloriam respectively of Taverner's setting.

4 The prayer for Henry is in the Peterhouse part-books, one of two
sources of the work; these books must therefore have been written between
c. 1540 and 1547. The other source is the later part-books, Oxford, Christ
Church MSS. 979-83, which read 'et Elizabethan! nostram Angliae reginam
serva' for the sentence Fundatorem, etc.

5 Tudor Church Music, ii, p. 134.

6 Ibid., p. 139. Taverner's other two short antiphons are Sub tuum praesi-
dium (ibid., p. 144) and Fac nobis secundum hoc nomen suave (ibid., p. 135), an
antiphon of the Name of Jesus. 7 Tudor Church Music, vi, p. 98.

341

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Ex 1E3

0 bo - he .

j yn

Je-
ll

Ex.124

Gau- de man -a vir-

y 1 e g P 1 m

• Gau.de tnari a vir.-
9°

Goude tno.H-0, vir
V h h b J> b J

Gau - cfe tna-ria vir •
342

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

(l) Dotted mi.nun tn MS

go cun-ctashae-reses so - ia, Cun-cta&hae-resesso-

343

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

Mary-antiphon which began with those words, but the text is
adapted as a Jesus-antiphon, and the music continues as a free
setting, with a flexible use of imitation:

Ex.l£2.

pro

-te - cti- o

nemcof

■flJL-

Sub tu, •

prote

prote - cti ■
cti - 0

nam con- fu-gi

^ — y h b &

mus

K i "™"

\ yC&

pro-te ■ cti • o

nem

Robert Carver's nineteen-part 0 bone Jesu is a remarkable
example of sonorous and resourceful part- writing which, while
not free of technical errors, is not nearly so faulty as his modern
editor1 would have us believe. We may be sure that his choir
revelled in its sound2 (see Ex. 123).

The setting of Gaude Maria by Robert Johnson, 3 a Scottish priest
who was banished to England, apparently for heresy, before the
Reformation, shows in its 'pairing' of parts and systematic imita-
tion that he had moved closer to the Franco-Netherlandish
style than had Carver and most of his English contemporaries
(see Ex. 124).

This and other pieces by Johnson and his Scottish contem-
poraries show that musical style in Scotland during the first half
of the sixteenth century was affected by French music of the
time. There were cultural ties with the French court, and the
copying of French music into Scottish manuscripts has already
been noticed.4

The Magnificat

The large number of pieces of sacred polyphony of this period
which are not comprised under the headings of Mass, motet or

XJ. A. Fuller-Maitland (Year Book Press, London, 1926); now super-
seded by the edition in Music of Scotland 1 500-1700 (Musica Britannica, XV),
ed. K. Elliott, 1957.

2 Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS. Adv. 5.1. 15.

3 In the Gyffard part-books. 4 See above, p. 194.

344

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

votive antiphon have, with few exceptions, the common feature
that they are settings of a part, and not of the whole, of the
ritual text with which they are concerned. The decision as to
which part of the text was set in polyphony and which left in
plainsong depended on the ritual form of the particular item,
and since in such cases plainsong and polyphony were integral
parts of the same piece, the polyphony was most often written on
the plainsong it replaced, in either a plain or ornamented form.
For convenience, the various categories of ritual polyphony
will be discussed in the order in which they were arranged
in our second chapter.

Complete psalms were not set in polyphony for use in their
normal liturgical position in the Offices, but only where they
formed part of a procession or other special ceremony. The
composition of music to words selected from the psalms, which
was not uncommon on the continent after c. 1450, was not
practised in England until immediately before the Reforma-
tion, and it may be that such 'psalm-motets' as Tye's Miserere
mei Deus and Omnes gentes plaudite, which were both biblical and
didactic, were beginning at that time to replace the votive
antiphon in some churches. The plan of some of these pieces,
such as Robert Johnson's Domine in virtute tua and Sheppard's
Beati omnes, corresponds to that of an antiphon with psalm Ipsum. 1
Johnson's work is a setting of the first eight verses of the twen-
tieth psalm in which the words and music of the first verse are
repeated at the end.

A Magnificat of the second half of the fourteenth century
which may be the earliest surviving polyphonic treatment
lacks the first verse but, as far as it survives, sets all the succeed-
ing verses. It is in simple descant style, and has the first intona-
tion of the canticle in the middle voice. Apart from repeated
notes to accommodate the varying number of syllables, the
music is the same for each verse:2

Ex.125.

Plavnsong

Et ex - suL fa-vtt spi ■ ri- tus me - us-.

1 See above, p. 59. Domine in virtute was the ninth antiphon, with psalm
Ipsum, at Matins on the first Sunday after the octave of the Epiphany.

2 Cambridge, University Library, MS. Kk.1.6, fo. 247.

345

VOTIVE ANT1PHON AND MAGNIFICAT

J-

in De - o Sa ' lu - ta. - ri me - o.

Another setting, which exists only in fragments, shows that a
more elaborate style of free composition was also used in this
period:1

Ex. 126,

Do ■ Qrinurrj)

The style of the Magnificat in the first half of the fifteenth
century may be judged from the setting in the second mode by
Dunstable, the only one of that period known to be by an
English composer, in which he set the odd-numbered verses in
three parts, leaving the first word to be sung by the beginner:2

Ex.l2T.

(Beginner)

(Choir)

Plainsong

tTlagni-fi ■ cat a • ni-mafnea, Do-minum.
* ft

tHaqnC-fi ■ cot

a -

ni-mo.

me - a

Do - -

mi-

l in

num.
o-

£ — P —

-f n* *-*H

a -

L— ' 1

nt, - ma,~

me - a

Do ' -

mi -

num.

1 On a fly-leaf of the Bodleian Library MS. Lat. Th. e. 30.

2 John Dunstable, p. 95.

346

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

and used virtually the same music for the other odd-numbered
verses, varying the rhythm by writing the fifth and seventh
verses in duple measure. He adopted the same scheme for the
even-numbered verses, which he set as duets, the sixth and
eighth verses being in duple measure. Hence the last verse,
which was the second half of the Gloria patri, was a duet,
which in performance would be followed by the antiphon in
the second mode. The highest part of the polyphony throughout,
both in trios and duets, is an elaboration of the Magnificat
intonation of that mode.1

A canticle intonation could be turned into a treble part in
polyphony by even simpler and more functional methods, as in
this verse from Christopher Anthony's Magnificat primi tonl of
c. 1450:2

Ex. 128.

PlaCnsong

8 'Tenor Esurientes per fauLxbourdon'

and also in less simple ways, as in this passage from the same
piece:

Ex.12?.

Treble

Sit • cut

e - rat inf>hn

■ci-pi-o et

nunc . et

_ sem<

•

Per

Tpnor

Countertenor

'Y Elf r

r f n

r * tF

Anthony may have been English, but in any case his setting
illustrates, as does the next example by an anonymous com-
poser from the same continental manuscript, the common lines

1 Dunstable's setting may be compared with four by Binchois (Les musi-
ciens de la com de Bourgogne, pp. 131-53) and two by Dufay (Denkmdler der
Tonkunst in Osterreich, vii, pp. 169-78), which also treat all the verses.

2 Trent MS. 90, fos. 375V-376.

347

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

of development in England and on the continent of the compos-
ition of the Magnificat, of which specimens in English manu-
scripts of this period are lacking. Anthony's piece followed the
practice of setting only the even-numbered verses, which was
almost invariable after the mid-fifteenth century,1 and about
the same time composers began to set the canticle in four parts,
with the elaborated intonation in the tenor, as in:2

Contratenor

altus'
Tenor

'Contratenor
bassus'

{Et ex sulfa.

(1) Not in MS

vit spi-)

This technique of setting the Magnificat was the equivalent of
that used in the festal Mass and large antiphon, and opened
the way for its development into a larger form written in the
florid style. In the full sections of such settings the composer
elaborated the intonation into a tenor of a length appropriate
to the dimensions of his setting and made the solo sections

1 Consequently the Magnificat was listed and referred to as Et exsultavit,
as in the index of the Eton choirbook. The only English Magnificat in
which the odd verses are set (beginning anima mea) is a fragmentary one in
Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. liturg. a. 6.

2 Trent MS 91, fos. 58V-59. Verses four and ten have the same music
(in duple measure for three voices), as also have verses six and twelve (in
triple measure for four voices); verses two and eight are single.

348

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

of free material. The tenor of every full section of a Magnificat
in the eighth mode, for example, was in effect a variation on the
intonation of that mode:

Tenor

and by the time of this setting by Horwood, which is one of
the sadly few left of the original twenty-four in the Eton manu-
script, 1 the writing of the fourth, eighth and first half of the last
verse as solo sections, and the use of duple measure for the
fourth and sixth verses, were established conventions.

A four-part Magnificat of this period has been preserved in
a volume of Proceedings of the Mayor's Court of Dartmouth
(Devonshire).2 It is in the fifth mode on F, though its tenor,
which is clearly the basis of the composition, does not seem to be
closely related to the Magnificat intonation of that mode:

Ex.132.

The music is contemporary with the Court records, for it ends
on the sixth folio, on the verso of which the records of the Court

1 Four, by Horwood, Kellyk, Lambe, and William Monk of Stratford,
are complete; two, by Fayrfax (marked 'Regale' in the index) and Nesbett
(complete, without the composer's name, in the Carver choirbook), can be
supplied from other sources.

2 MS. 1 98 1 of the Town of Dartmouth, now in the City Library, Exeter.
M.M.B.— AA 349

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

begin with a judgement of October 4, 1484. It may be that it
was customary in some places to open a series of court sittings
with a service, for in the first year of Edward VI Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin, was granted funds to increase the choir by
six priests and two choristers, in return for which the choir sang
in the Law Courts on the first day of every term.1

The treatment of the Magnificat at the height of the florid
style may be seen in a setting by Cornysh in the eighth mode on
C, and in one by Turges in the sixth mode, both in the Caius
College manuscript. Cornysh used the extraordinarily wide
range of three octaves and a fifth, writing C below the bass
clef for the second basses in two places and a treble part which
goes up to G. His piece is not consistently florid in the solo
sections, but breaks out here and there into purple patches
such as:2

Ex 133
Treble

Mean

x 0

'"N> H"

sae

■ cu-Lo -

1 * -la

sat

1 .

cu. Lc -

4-- »

14m.

1 "

. 1- 1 \T f=====

1 a LPtI1^^-* -*

J J ■ 4 ■ *:*i:

"* -

\\y 1 4V ,-

j * iT

The following passage from Turges's Magnificat, which is perhaps
the most florid work of this period in any form, shows the

1 Lewis-Crosby, Annals of Christ Church, p. 44.

2 Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS. 667, p. 116.

350

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

unusual rhythmic situation of a series of triplet quavers begin-
ning at a half-beat in the basic crotchet measure:1

Ex 134

Tenor

The two settings by Fayrfax2 and one by Ludford are in a less
florid style than this, but the three by Taverner, in the first
mode for six voices, in the second mode for five voices, and in
the sixth mode for four men's voices, are among his most
elaborate and inspired works.3 The six-part setting is particu-
larly extended, e.g.:

Ex.135.

Sec -

Treble
Mean

Countertenor 1

(M)

1 Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS. 667, pp. 126-7.

2 The 'Regale' Magnificat has been edited by Dom Anselm Hughes
(London, 1949).

3 Tudor Church Music, iii, pp. 3-25. The tenor of the five-part setting and
most of the highest part of the six-part setting have been supplied by the
editors.

351

VOTIVE ANTIPHON AND MAGNIFICAT

The same style of expansive ornamentation pervades the only
surviving organ setting of the Magnificat,1 which, unlike the
vocal settings, begins after the beginner has sung the first word,
and supplies the odd-numbered verses thereafter. This anony-
mous piece is a formidable and extended setting designed in
pairs of verses which have the same kind of musical treatment.
Thus the first, a half-verse corresponding to anima mea Dominum,
and the third are set as contrapuntal duets, the fifth, which
begins:

Ex 136

mi Y J-

j=i

FFF

rrr^

and the seventh are essays in proportion, while the ninth and
eleventh are in imitative style.

Tallis's four-part setting,2 while it is by no means a large work
and makes frequent use of imitative texture, has the extended
melodic lines and the spontaneous motives of the differentiated
style. His five-part setting,3 on the other hand, has the syllabic
treatment and clear working out of carefully chosen points
which are characteristic of the Renaissance style. It is paired
by a common opening with a Nunc dimittis in the same style,
which begins like the Magnificats with the second verse and
continues with the even verses, and which is one of the few re-
maining settings of the Latin text of this canticle. Tallis's
two settings of the Magnificat bring out strongly the contrast
between the old style and the new as they existed side by side
during the last decade or so of our period.

1 British Museum MS. Add. 29996, fo. 25V, under the title 'The viii tune
in C faut'.

2 Tudor Church Music, vi, p. 64. 3 Ibid., p. 73; the tenor is supplied.

352

MM« M»HM*m-»l HtltllHHIHI)llll»MHHIIIIIIIHMIIHIHtM{MHHI4ltlMtMIIHm

VII

OTHER RITUAL FORMS;
THE CAROL

Ritual Antiphon

n some occasions of special ceremonial importance an
antiphon and the psalm-verses which were sung with it were
both set in polyphony. One of the earliest examples is a
setting in the Pepys manuscript of the Nunc dimittis with the
antiphon Lumen ad revelationem for the ceremony of the distribu-
tion of candles on the feast of the Purification.1 In the antiphon
the middle part is based on the plainsong, while in the canticle,
in which only the second half of each verse is set, it is the upper
part which carries the intonation. Since this was one of the few
cases in which the antiphon was sung complete before the psalm
and also after each verse, the music would be performed in
this way:

Ex.l3T,
Plainsong

Lumenad revela-tC- onemgen-tium.

Lu- men ad — re - we ■ La - ti - o • ftem gen - U -
1 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos. 55V-56.

353

urn

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Plauisong

8 tliwc dimit-tis ser-vwnta-um,Do-mi-ne, se-cun-du/nver-bumtu-um in pa-ce.

Se - cundum verbum tuum in pa.

The Gyffard part-books contain a group of four anonymous
settings of the antiphon Asperges me and two verses and the
Gloria patri of the psalm Miserere mei Deus, sung at the asper-
sion before Mass on Sundays except from Easter to Trinity.1
In two of these the first half of each verse was left in plainsong,
as in the Nunc dimittis just quoted, while in the others the whole
text was set in polyphony, as may be seen in two passages from
the third setting, in which the first half of the first psalm-verse
was set in a remarkably florid style for so late a date:2

Ex.138.

Plauisong

CLsper- pes mefio-ml-ne, hys-sopo

hjs - ■- so • po

1 The antiphon was sung complete after each of the two verses, but after

354

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Plainsong

A setting of Vidi aquam egredientem, which was sung with one
verse and the Gloria patri of the psalm Conjitemini Domino3 at
the aspersion between Easter and Trinity, in the same manu-
script,4 uses the monorhythmic form of the plainsong as its
basis, and the anonymous composer seems to have taken special
delight in false relations:

Ex 139
Platnsong

VC- di.

8 e - gre-dien-tem
e - pre

e- gre-dc- en - tetn.

the Gloria patri only its second half, from Lavabo me, was repeated. Missale
Sarum, col. 32**.

2 Plainsong from the Sarum Gradual of 1527; the beginner's Asperges me
as in Add. 1 7802-5.

3 The last return in this case was from the words Et omnes ad quos pervenit.
Missale Sarum, col. 33**.

4 There is an earlier setting, which also begins at the third word, in the
choirbook in Lambeth Palace, MS. 1 .

355

OTHER RITUAL FORMS: THE CAROL

Another case of polyphonic treatment of both antiphon and
psalm is that of the psalms Laudate pueri and In exitu Israel with
the Alleluia antiphons which were sung with them during the
procession to the font at Eastertide. A setting of the former in
the Pepys manuscript, which is liturgically the most varied and
interesting collection of the fifteenth century, has the antiphon
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia, the psalm and the Gloria patri com-
posed in three parts throughout, omitting the beginning of the
psalm, which was sung by the rulers. The middle part is an
ornamented form of the plainsong, and the single Alleluia which
ends the verses is treated differently each time it recurs. John
Sheppard's setting in the Gyffard part-books, which deals only
with the even-numbered verses and the single Alleluia which
was joined to each, is an example of the technique of using the
faburden of a plainsong intonation as the bass of a polyphonic
composition. This technique may be illustrated from the first
verse of Sheppard's piece, where the faburden and the chant,
which is not, of course, sung with the polyphony but only in
alternation with it, are related in this way:

Ex 140.
Plainsong (14? a fourth)

5 Sit no - men Domini bene-di ■ ctum: ex hoc nunc et usque in saecuMt/n,Ql-le ■ Liya~
Simplest form of the fabuxclen

Stit no-men Domini benedictunrex hoc nuncet usque in sae-cuLumflltelu.- ua..

356

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

The bass of each verse is virtually the same thing, while the
other parts vary, so that the method of composition is essentially
the writing of contrapuntal variations on a ground. The setting
in the same collection of In exitu Israel, with the single Alleluia
to end each verse, which was made jointly by Sheppard, Byrd1
and William Mundy, was also written for alternatim singing and
was similarly based on the faburden of the intonation, so that
in this case three composers wrote variations on the same
ground. Sheppard composed seven verses, Byrd three and
Mundy four, including the first verse of the Gloria patri.2

At least one setting of each of the antiphons with verses,
Media vita and 0 rex gloriose, which were sung with the Nunc
dimittis during the last four weeks in Lent, has survived,
though both are incomplete.3 Sheppard composed the full sec-
tions of his six-part Media vita,* which comprise the words of the
antiphon itself, on the monorhythmic form of the plainsong, and
the missing tenor part can be supplied without difficulty. He wrote
one of the verses, however, "without using the chant, and the
other two with a free use of its motives. This fine work is written
in an appropriately severe style, though not without the energy
and linear interest characteristic of all this composer's writing
for the Sarum ritual, as the passage on the next page
shows.

Sheppard composed two seven-part settings of the antiphon
Libera nos salva nos,5 which was sung, with the psalm Magnus
Dominus (Ps. 47), as the sixth antiphon at Matins on Trinity
Sunday. While it is possible that these were intended as votive
antiphons, the fact that in both cases he left the first two words
to be sung in plainsong and used the chant as a basis makes it
more likely that they were sung in the ritual position, when the
antiphon was performed complete after the psalm. In one of the
settings the lowest part is the plainsong in monorhythm, and
in the other it is the faburden of the plainsong.

1 See above, p. 289.

2 The Byrd contribution to this symposium is printed in Tudor Church
Music, ix, p. 298, and in William Byrd, viii, p. 42. See also Stevens, 'Proces-
sional Psalms in Faburden'.

3 John Mason's setting of 0 rex gloriose is in the Peterhouse part-books.

4 In Oxford, Christ Church, MSS. 979-83.

5 Both in Oxford, Christ Church, MSS. 979-83, and therefore lacking one
part.

357

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

J J

EW^

Uf "&J

Is r " JUff

358

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Another ritual antiphon which was set in vocal polyphony
was Miserere mihi Domine, the psalm-antiphon at Compline
throughout the year, though it is likely that polyphonic settings
were used only during Lent, when the choir attended Compline.
One of the settings in the Pepys manuscript has a long and well-
controlled treble which was evolved from the chant:1

Ex.142.
Plainsong

fti • • ■ • \ =¥

V *-,; c~ „-> ~ _

8 tni-se-re-re rni ■ hi, Do- mi • ne

h j. NiJTlJ JHJ-T3

tru.
mi

se - re

se ■

re -

iUpS

tni -

J- 3 J Ji

l«

re
re.

/77t

/«:.

Zto-

n j-n

m^i

LIT r 7

ff=tf

re.

while John Norman's setting shows the method of writing in a
very florid style of abstract decoration around the plainsong:2

Ex.143.

h \ r L^

mt • At,

tni - se - re-re
tni- se •

.) p-.j

re.

r-JL; ppigjj-Eigff

/77t - Se - re- re.

1 Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS. Pepys 1236, fos. 91V-92.

2 British Museum, MS. Add. 5665, fo. 145.

359

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

hi, Do

This method is closely related to one of the ways of setting a
plainsong for the organ, that of writing a rapid and purely
decorative part against the melody played in monorhythm, as
in one of John Redford's settings:1

Ex.144-

However, a more usual way of treating a plainsong for the key-
board was to put it in the middle or lowest of three parts in either
a monorhythmic or decorated form, and write counterpoints on
one or more points upon it. If only one point were used the
effect was that of an ostinato, as in this pleasant Miserere by
Redford : 2

Ex.145.

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, one of a series of fourteen Miserere
settings; the composers named are Kyrton, Redford, E. Strowger (whose
setting is a canon two in one on the plainsong), and Philip Ap Rhys (as
'P.R.'). Two of the Redford settings are also in The Mulliner Book, as No. 7
(with a rapid part below the plainsong) and No. 53 (with two points over
an ornamented form of the plainsong). The latter is there entitled 'Miserere
with a meane'; in the keyboard context mean signifies a middle part,
which may or may not be the plainsong, shared by the two hands.

2 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. 8; 'bar-lines' as in the manuscript.

360

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

It will be noticed that here the composer used ornamentation
of the plainsong to produce movement where it was needed
as well as deftly to work in his point. In his setting of the longer
melody of Glorificamus,1 which was the canticle antiphon at
Compline at Commemorations of the Virgin (except in Easter-
tide) and on three of her feasts, Redford used one point, which
involved a suspension, for half of the piece. He did not main-
tain this ostinato treatment throughout, and thereafter his
counterpoint is more loosely made, and lacks consistency. Tallis,
on the other hand, used the ostinato method with complete
success in his three settings of Clarified me pater,2 the canticle
antiphon at Lauds on the vigil of the Ascension, in all of which
the plainsong, somewhat decorated, is the tenor of four parts,
and a single point is maintained against it throughout.

For settings in a style which was more idiomatic to the key-
board the composers combined and contrasted these and other
methods. Richard Wynslate's Lucem tuam, for example, begins
quietly with a point over the plainsong:3

Ex.146.

x r r r

ILu. - cem Cu. •

am, Domine]

Soon he pursues a short motif:

Ex.147

E±

[(conce)-de,

mmn-n

■i

r T"i v 'i

de- sti(tutis))

1 The Mulliner Book, No. 54.

2 Ibid., Nos. 99, 101, 104.

3 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. igv; for plainsong, see above,
p. 102.

361

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL
and later brings a shift of rhythmic grouping:

Ex 148

\(cordium) te- ne - bris]

ending with a return to the idea of the repeated motif:

Ex.149.

[(Lumen)

quod

blebs:

est

jffl

mnrrn

Vocal polyphony was seldom used for the antiphonal chants
of the Mass, though the Pepys manuscript provides exceptions
in the form of two settings of the Communion Beata viscera for
the Assumption of the Virgin1 and one setting of Vera fides geniti,
the Communion on the Nativity of the Virgin,2 all anonymous.
Vera fides is based on an ornamented form of the plainsong sung
as the middle part of three, while one of the settings of Beata
viscera is free after the first few notes and the other has three
parts over the plainsong sung in monorhythm3 (see Ex. 150).

The only surviving vocal setting of an Introit in this period is
one of an anonymous and unique set of pieces for the Proper
of the Mass of the Name of Jesus in the Gyffard part-books,

1 Also sung in the Mass Salve sancta parens.

2 Also sung in the Mass Salve sancta parens at Eastertide.

3 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1 236, fos. 86V-87.

362

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex.150.
Plainsong

Be a ta-vcs-ce.

go- nis

which also includes the Gradual, Alleluia and Sequence.1 All
the settings are based on their plainsongs, which were put in the
tenor part in plainsong notation, to be interpreted mono-
rhythmically, and the composer set the parts of the ritual sung
by the choir, not the parts of the soloists. He laid out the Introit
In nomine Jesu on the full plan of its double repetition, with
first the beginning by the ruler and continuation by the choir:

Ex.151

(tar)

mne ge - nu,

1 In Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum,

363

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

then the psalm-verse Laudate Dominum with the first half in
plainsong and the second half in polyphony, then the Introit
again {ut supra) , the Gloria patri treated in the same way as the
psalm-verse, and finally the Introit for the third time.

Thomas Preston's set of organ pieces for the Proper of the
Mass of Easter Sunday, the only surviving set of the kind, is
unfortunately incomplete in the manuscript. As we have it, it
includes the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia and part of the Sequence.
Preston's scheme for the Introit differs from that of the vocal
setting, for he wrote a second setting of the Introit, presumably
for its returns, but not a separate setting of the second half of
the Gloria patri. The style of his first setting of the Introit is an
interesting form of the idea of an essay in rhythm and figuration
upon the plainsong, in which the chant is decorated and put
into a series of free and flexible rhythms, while the other part
deals with a succession of changing rhythmic and melodic
ideas,1

Ex.152.
Plainsong

Re-sur - re-xi.

et-odLhuct&-cumsum, QL- Le • Lu. ■ ua,.

(Beginner)

ii, p. 272, the group is listed under the title of the Introit In nomine Jesu, and
the other pieces are not listed separately. They are discussed below,

PP- 378, 393-

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. 62v; the Gradual, Alleluia and
Sequence, which is incomplete, are discussed below.

364

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL
appearing at the beginning, and later
Ex.153.

and

Ex.154.

-J- ^ -j- <3* * J- » J- * * j J- »

His setting of Tu cognovisti, which is the second half of the psalm-
verse Domine probasti me, and his second setting of the Introit
are in the more usual imitative style with the decorated plain-
song in the tenor, the former being carried through on one
point, the latter on a series of some nine points. In contrast to
the complete absence of vocal treatments, more organ settings
of Offertories have survived than of any other ritual form but
the hymn, and it is not surprising to find that the Offertory
Felix namque for the Mass Salve sancta parens, which was cele-
brated with music more often than any other Mass, was the
most often set. Preston's series of eight settings form an im-
pressive contribution to these essays in the keyboard treatment
of a long plainsong melody. Four of the eight are treatments of
the monorhythmic plainsong in each of four parts in turn:1

Ex.155.

Plainsong
Beginner

(Choix)

4 — -1— =i

[J H

"H^J — i

*ijM

i r Eff—

•&i j j

-a-

cxJf r p

F f m. -*-

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. 53V.

M.M.B, — BB

365

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

and there is a second setting on the chant in the bass, in triple
measure.1

Respond

Settings of the responsorial chants of the Mass and Office
had the most ancient and continuous tradition in the history
of medieval polyphony in Britain, for examples are found in
every century from the two-part organa of the Winchester
Troper to the Office responds of Tallis and Sheppard. It was
natural that during the period of the growth of secular choirs
in the later Middle Ages polyphony should be applied to those
responds of the secular Office which had special ceremonial
treatment, such as the Christmas respond Hodie nobis caelorum
rex and the All Saints respond Audivi vocem. As in earlier cen-
turies, only the solo parts were set, the rest being sung by the
choir in plainsong, and in most fifteenth-century examples the
polyphony elaborated, or at least made occasional reference
to, the plainsong which it replaced:

Ex.156.
Plainsong
Five boys

(Choir)

Plainsong

W. media no- cte cLa- trior fa-ctus est

1 Printed in Altenglische Orgelmusik, p. 6.
366

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Me • di a no - - cte cla - - -

After verse, respond is repeated from Oleum

These passages are from one of the three settings by John Tuder
in the Pepys manuscript,1 which also contains no fewer than
five anonymous settings of Gloria in excelsis, the verse of Ho die
nobis. In this respond the opening was not normally set, for a
reason which will be apparent if the method of its ceremonial
performance be recalled, and even when the music was on the
whole only distantly related to the chant the plainsong melody
always made itself felt at the words et in terra pax:2

Ex. i5r.

Plainsong

FWTTf

The only other responds of the Office in the Pepys collection,
In pace in idipsum with the Gloria patri, and In manus tuas, 3 which

1 Fos. ioo-ioov. For a discussion of two settings of Audivi in the earlier
MS. Egerton 3307, one of which is not based on the plainsong, see Bukofzer,
Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 125, 135, 139-40. In the setting of this respond
a break was regularly made before the words Ecce sponsus, where the singers
turned from the altar to the choir. See above, p. 107.

2 Pepys MS. 1236, fos. nv-12.

3 There are two settings of each; both the settings of In manus tuas are by
William Corbronde, while the In pace settings are anonymous. Only one
part is extant of each of two further anonymous settings of In pace.

367

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

were sung at Compline in Lent, were treated on the same
lines. We meet three of these texts again in the work of
Taverner, where the plainsong is sung virtually without orna-
ment and surrounded with florid counterpoint. It is not hard
to imagine how enchanting was the effect of his Audivi and
Gloria in excelsis, both for four high voices, when sung with
their appointed ceremonial:1

Ex.158.

tt in ter ■

Tallis used a different technique in setting these three responds,
and the comparison is instructive, for Taverner surrounded the
Chant with contrasting lines, while Tallis adapted it to the
purposes of imitative polyphony, making a point out of each
phrase of the plainsong melody:2

Ex. 159.

1 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 47.

2 Ibid., vi, p. 90.

368

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

In the work of Taverner we meet the earliest examples of a
method of setting Office responds which seems, at first sight,
to be liturgically improper because it appears to reverse the
roles of soloists and chorus, but which is actually analogous to
the way in which Ludford set the Alleluia in his Lady-Masses
for choir and organ. In Dum transisset sabbatum, the third (and
last) respond at Easter Matins, Taverner set the respond in
polyphony and left the soloists' beginning and verse to be sung
in plainsong.1 This can be explained as a recognition of the
accomplished fact that the choir of a secular foundation such as
Cardinal College was now a polyphonic choir, and therefore
ritual polyphony, which had been for centuries the preserve
of soloists, was now given to the choir, and replaced its plain-
song as it had previously replaced the plainsong of the soloists.
The effect was to restore the kind of contrast between choir
and soloists which was originally contemplated by the liturgy.
In making a choral setting of a respond the composer had to
provide for a break in the flow of the polyphony at the point
where the respond was taken up after the verse, which was at
the words ut venientes in Dum transisset, as may be seen in Robert
Barber's setting of that text:2

Exi6o

me-runt a-ro ■ ma-ta ,

utve-ni-en-

This method, with the monorhythmic disposition of the
plainsong which invariably went with it, was used in the
increasing number of responds of the Office which were set in
polyphony during the last decades of the Sarum rite. Tallis
wrote settings in this style of Dum transisset, of Loquebantur variis
Unguis for first Vespers of Whitsunday, of Videte miraculum for
first Vespers and Matins of the Purification, of Homo quidam

1 Tudor Church Music, hi, pp. 37, 43. In the former the opening is not
given, though the words are written; the correct treatment may be seen in
the alternative version for four parts, ibid., p. 40.

2 British Museum, MSS. Add. 1 7802-5.

369

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

fecit coenam for first Vespers of Corpus Christi, of Candidi facti sunt
for first Vespers of feasts of Apostles, and of Honor virtus et
potestas for Matins of Trinity Sunday.1 This impulse towards the
further adornment of the ritual of the Offices is most marked in
the work of Sheppard, for responds form a very considerable
proportion of his music to Latin words.2 Most of those which
survive were written in a set of part-books from which the
tenor book has disappeared,3 but thanks to the monorhythmic
method of writing the plainsong this is not as serious a loss as
it might have been, and it is possible to reconstruct with cer-
tainty those responds in which the cantus firmus was in the
tenor.4 The simplicity of this operation and the vigour of Shep-
pard's style are both illustrated in the opening of his setting of
Reges Tharsis, sung as the respond at first Vespers and as the
third respond at Matins of the Epiphany:

Ex.161.

1 All are printed in Tudor Church Music, vii. The title of the last is given as
Virtus honor and the first word of Homo quidam has not been supplied. The
last two responds mentioned were printed in the Byrd-Tallis Cantiones
Sacrae of 1575, though it seems unlikely that they were composed after the
accession of Elizabeth I.

2 The beginnings are not normally given in the manuscripts, and must
be supplied to show the proper title in each case. In the list of Sheppard's
works in Grove, Dictionary of Music, s.v. 'John Shepherd', the additions
shown in brackets should be made to the following titles: (JVon conturbetur)
corvestrum; (Laudem dicite) Deo nostra; [Christi virgo) dilectissima; (Reges Tharsis)
et insulae; (Impetum) fecerunt unanimes; (Filiae) Hierusalem (venite) (Justi) in
perpetuum; (Spiritus Sanctus) procedens a ihrono; (Gaude Gaude Gaude Maria) virgo
cunctas (haereses) .The verse Gloria in excelsis should not be listed under Masses.

3 Oxford, Christ Church, MSS. 979-83.

4 The following have been completed in this way: JVon conturbetur II, Dum

37°

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

et in • su-lae

> yi. i

mu-neraof- fe-rent.

Ill

of- fe

rent

As a rule, settings of those responds which had a longer tra-
dition of polyphony, such as Gloria in excelsis, Audivi, In pace and
In manus tuas, were still done in the older way of solo poly-
phony and choral plainsong. Sheppard's three settings of In
manus tuas in the Gyffard part-books show the old and new
methods side by side. In the first he set the soloist's part, which
consisted of the words In manus tuas; Redemisti me, Domine Deus
veritatis:

Ex. 162.
Plainsong

(Soloists)

(Choir)

In manus tu - as, Do • mi-ne, commen-do spi-rc
(Soloists)

turn, meum.W. Re - de-mi-sti me, Do - mi-ne De-us vert'ta-tls.

In ma-nus fy - - as,

In ma-nus tu .... - as, en

while in the other two he set the part of the choir, consisting
of the words Domine commendo spiritum meum, which in both cases

transisset I, Reges Tharsis, Impetum fecerunt, Spiritus Sanctus procedens I and II,
Verbum caro and Gaude Gaude Gaude Maria (with prose Inviolata),

371

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL
are marked in the manuscript 'In manus Corus Mr Sheparde':

Ex.163.

Do-

ne, com- mendo,com-min-

In the later Middle Ages settings of the responds of the Mass
were still confined almost entirely to the Alleluia, but again the
Pepys manuscript provides an exception, an anonymous set-
ting of the Gradual Benedicta et venerabilis for the Vigil of the
Assumption.1 Two points about this piece, which deals only
with the soloist's beginning and the verse Virgo Dei genitrix,
may be noted: the use of unison at genitrix and at in tua se
clauset later in the verse, which is rare in ritual polyphony,
though less so in carols and secular polyphony; and the delib-
erate form of cadence at f actus, an idiom which is also found
in the Alleluias in this manuscript, where it has a function
which does not seem to apply here:2

Ex 164.
Plainsong

1 Also sung in the Mass Salve sancta parens; however, since the Gradual of
the Lady-Mass was sung throughout by the choir (see above, p. 286, n. 3)
this setting must be for the feast.

2 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos. 75V-76. The
Sarum Customary does not expressly say that the last word and neuma of

372

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

The settings by Sheppard and John Ensdale of the Easter
Gradual Haec dies (the latter is in the Gyffard collection) may
be assumed to have been sung at Vespers rather than at Mass.
Ensdale's piece is marked in die pasche and follows in the manu-
script John Mundy's setting of the Kyrie, also marked in die
pasche, with which Vespers began during Easter week. Both
Sheppard's and Ensdale's settings treat only the words of the
Gradual, omitting the plainsong beginning, and not those of
the verse, and both are based on the plainsong, which does not
include the neuma on the last syllable of the ending laetemur in
ea in either setting.1 Ensdale put the plainsong in the bass,
Sheppard in the tenor, and while Ensdale wrote elaborate runs
on the word exsultemus:

Ex.165.
Plainsong

_» p- ■ ■ J i ■

f (exsulte-) •

mas,

ex - sui-

fe-

i ex
(exsuite-) -,*

- suL-te -

"n j

mus, ex - $ui -

V f -

ex -

sal - te -

the verse of the Gradual were sung by the choir, in the same way as those
of the verse of the Alleluia; see Use of Sarum, i, p. 70, and cf. Missale Sarum,
col. 8. This setting is evidence that they were, as are also the settings of this
Gradual and of the Gradual Propter veritatem in the St. Andrew's manuscript.
1 Cf. above, p. 63.

373

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

— .«|

ttt

•

mus

-ptffl —pM—f

8 I

-^ffft

mus

Sheppard's setting (in six parts) is more integrated in style.1

All but a few of the settings of the Alleluia which survive
were composed for the Lady-Mass, and one of the earliest
examples in our period is a two-part setting, made in the first
half of the fifteenth century, of the Alleluia Salve virgo for the
weekly Lady-Mass from the Purification to Septuagesima and
Trinity to Advent. 2 Only the beginning and the words of the
verse up to caelorum were set, leaving the complete Alleluia and
the last two words et domina of the verse, with the neuma, to
be sung in plainsong by the choir. The upper part is based
throughout on the plainsong, the beginning:3

Ex. 166.

Plainsong

at- Le - - " lu- " - - - -

and the second half of the verse being set in triple measure and
the first half of the verse in duple measure. The Pepys manu-
script contains a complete set of Alleluias for the daily Lady-
Mass,4 as well as settings of the Alleluia Surgens Jesu for the

1 It has been published by Chester, edited by H. B. Collins.

2 For the weekly Lady-Mass 'quacunque feria contigerit'; if it were cele-
brated daily, this Alleluia was sung on Friday. Missale Sarum, cols. 780*-
781*.

3 British Museum, MS. Egerton 3307, fo. 46.

4 In the following order: Post partum, Virtutes caeli, Or a pro nobis, Salve
virgo, Virga Jesse, Veni electa, Ave Maria (these on fos. 31V-33V) and Per te Dei
genitrix (fo. 43). See the order in Missale Sarum, col. 781*.

374

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Mass of the Name of Jesus and of the Alleluia for certain feasts,
including Duke lignum for the Finding of the Holy Cross, Ascen-
dent Christus for the Ascension, Paraclitus Spiritus for the Monday
in Whitsun week, and Dies sanctificatus for the Transfiguration.1
In these settings, all anonymous, the Alleluia and the ending
of the verse, which had the same plainsong neuma, were set
to the same music. In some pieces the whole of the Alleluia
melody was used, in others only its opening, as far as the jubilus,
as may be seen in these two settings of the Alleluia Post partum,
which also show the different methods of performance that
seem to be implied:2

Ex.167.

(a)

(Soloists)

(Choir) at ■ le
pro.

fy Post par -turn in-ter- • ce •

Choir: poiijphonij, 'pro nobis'; then soloists'
beginning, followed by Seaoence.

1 The manuscripts normally give the closing words of the verse, since they
were sung in polyphony. In the Pepys manuscript these closing words are
the only clue to the identity of the verses, except in the cases of Dulce lignum
(title given at the end), Ascendens Christus ('De Ascensione' at the end) and
Paraclitus Spiritus ('Spiritus Paraclitus' at the end). This manuscript also
contains settings of the Alleluias Laudate pueri and Confitemini for Eastertide,
which are discussed below, pp. 378-9, 409.

2 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos. 52V, 32.

375

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

lb)

.(Soloists^

8 Y.Post par - - turn Cn-ter • ce • de

Choir: f>olyf>hony, 'pro nobis'i then soloists' beginning
(polyphony), followed, by Sequence.

The order of the Alleluias in Ludford's cycle of daily Lady-
Masses1 corresponds to that prescribed in the Sarum Missal,
and the method of performance is quite clear, observing the
division between solo (here organ) and chorus (here vocal
polyphony) laid down in the Missal. The polyphonic sections
were based on their plainsongs, used in ornamental forms in
the tenor, and since a sequence was always sung the repeat of
the Alleluia in each case ended at the first note of the neuma,
as in the Alleluia Post par turn for the Monday Mass:

Ex.168.

pro-

no ■

fit y — •'■ — J. ^ ^ — gl

(Organ)

at- te -

pro no-

'aiLetuia'

01 ■

lu>

bro no

1 In British Museum, MSS. Royal Appendix 45-8.
376

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Cu.- • • - '

r. g j — j j Hi J J h

■ La - -

T "\-OX

ending

'Post partum'

Choir: polyphony, 'pro nobis)
then organ beginning,
followed by Sequence.

The latest in date of these Alleluias for the Lady-Mass are four
pieces by Sheppard, two each by Taverner and William Mundy,
and one each by Knyght, Tallis and Tye.1 Again, some settings
deal with the whole of the Alleluia melody, others with its begin-
ning only, as may be seen by comparing Sheppard's setting of
the Alleluia Veni electa:

Ex 169.
Plainsong

Oi-Le-Lu-

01- Le

with Taverner's.2 Knyght's Alleluia Obtine sacris, which is one of
the most attractive of the set in its freshness and spontaneity,

1 In British Museum, MSS. Add. 17802-5. This manuscript gives no
indication of the words of the verses, neither of their openings nor endings;
they must be identified by comparison with the plainsong melodies.

2 Printed in Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 53.

377

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

illustrates the mid-sixteenth-century manner of ornamenting a
plainsong in the tenor and the freely imitative style of the parts
which were set around it:

Le, CU-le • Lu-

-rfrrrn

CU-letuui,CU-le-lu-ia.

The choral sections of the Gradual Constituit Deus pater and
the Alleluia Dulce nomen of the Proper of the Jesus-Mass in the
same manuscript were set in polyphony, as were those of its
Introit. Hence the Gradual1 was sung with alternating plain-
song and polyphony in the following way: the beginning of the
Gradual in plainsong;2 the complete Gradual in polyphony;
the verse Adiuva nos in plainsong3 up to the last word tuum; the
neuma on that word in polyphony. The Alleluia was treated in
the same fashion, but the neuma of the last word sibilum of the
verse was given a different setting, as in the Gradual, although
its melody is the same, after the first few notes, as that of the
Alleluia. There was no repeat of the Alleluia, since the sequence
Dulcis Jesus Nazarenus followed.

Between the Epistle and Gospel at the Mass of Easter Eve
and the Mass of the eve of Whitsunday the Ordinal prescribed
both the Alleluia Confitemini Domino and the Tract Laudate
Dominum* The upper part of the setting of this Alleluia in the

1 Called 'grale' in the manuscript.

2 Not given in the manuscript.

3 Indicated in the manuscript by the first two words, without music.

4 Use o/Sarum, ii, p. 167; Ordinate Exon, i, p. 323 ('Epistola Si consurrexistis,
et legatur in pulpito. Qua lecta, duo clerici de superiore gradu in capis
sericis ibidem dicant Alleluya. Chorus idem repetat. f. Confitemini domino.
Sequatur Tractus Laudate dominum."1) and p. 330 ('Ep. Factum est cum Apollo.
Alleluya. f. Confitemini domino, sicut in vigilia Pasche').

378

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Egerton manuscript, which is for two voices, appears to be
based on the whole melody of the Alleluia, and is followed by a
setting of the verse up to the last word ejus, which was evidently
to be sung by the choir in plainsong. The actual method of per-
forming this Alleluia, however, is made clear by the setting in
the Pepys manuscript, for it was a special case in which the
Alleluia was sung in full by two soloists and repeated in full by
the choir before the soloists sang the verse. The Pepys setting
is for two voices, and is followed by another setting for three
voices which is marked chorus, and then by the verse, set for two
voices up to misericordia, leaving out the last word. The setting
by Sheppard in the GyfTard part-books, where it is marked
vigilia pasche, seems to be the only other surviving treatment of
this text. Sheppard composed the Alleluia in imitative style on
a point derived from the plainsong:
Ex. in.

Plainsong _^

Ot - Le - Lu -

and the verse on free points, with a florid passage on the word
saeculum :

Ex.172.

f 0 m*.

i •"!

—i " ■ j^

— — J J —

• (saecu.-) -

■* • 4

t-*-"

1 tn . .
(-ca.) •

sob ca «

i j ffi r-]

> I

U r

1 P —

(■cu)

379

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

se-(iricordia.)

Lum mt-se-ri-cor - cLl-

The only settings of responsorial chants for the organ are the
Gradual and Alleluia which form part of Preston's Proper for
the Mass of Easter Sunday. The organ takes the role of the
soloists, having the first two words of the Gradual and the verse
without the last word:1

Ex.173.
Plauisong

'//aec dues'

ConfCtemini '

nusquc-nt-am

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. 64V.
380

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Cu.lum -]

and likewise supplying the opening of the Alleluia and the two
verses Pascha nostrum and Epulemur, without the final neuma in
each case. In the Gradual, Preston carried the keyboard treat-
ment of the plainsong to a stage beyond that of the rhythm-
ram-figuration style he used in the Introit, making it an essay
in proportions which requires complete rhythmic independence
in the player's two hands. He set both of the Alleluia verses in
imitative style in three parts.

Tract

Although the Tract was not normally a subject for poly-
phonic setting, there is a single example, a three-part piece
bearing the title Tarn peccatum,1 which John Baldwin copied
into his anthology now in the Royal Music collection in the
British Museum, and which he attributed to Taverner. These
words are the beginning of the fourth verse of the tract Duke
nomen Jesu Christi for the Jesus-Mass from Septuagesima to
Easter, which is unusual among tracts in having a non-biblical
text. Though the attribution must be somewhat suspect on ac-
count of Bal win's errors in similar cases, the music is interesting
as an ostinato using a simple figure treated in quasi-isorhythmic
fashion.

Hymn

When the chanson style and technique were applied to the
English descant method of setting a hymn, the effect was ana-
logous to the ornamented treble style of the Mass and antiphon,
as may be seen in the only surviving setting of a hymn by
Dunstable:2

1 Printed in Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 1 26.

2 John Dunstable, p. 95; original notation and transcription in Wolf,
Handbuch der Notationskunde, 1, pp. 382-3.

M.M.B. CG 381

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

Ex. 174.
Plainsong

This also shows the practice, henceforth almost invariable, of
writing down the setting or settings for the even-numbered
verses, leaving the others to be sung in plainsong. Most fifteenth-
century settings used this method of the decorated treble, often
very elaborate, as in this anonymous setting of the hymn at first
Vespers of the Ascension in the Selden manuscript:1

Ex.175.
Plainsong

If the composer wrote different music for two or three verses,
the technique became that of contrapuntal variations on a
theme, as with Gilbert Banester's settings of the three even-
numbered verses of Exsultet caelum laudibus, the hymn at Lauds
for Common of Apostles:2

Ex 176.
Plai-nsong

2 Vos

I.ExsuL ■ tet cae- Uwn Lxudt-bus,... ,.
Sae - — -. cli ju

1 Bodleian Library, MS. Arch. Selden B. 26, fo. 30.

2 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos. 15V-17V.

382

4 Quo

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL
rum prue • - - ce

Quo ■
b De ■ o

rum prae - ce
tri sit qLo ■ ri ■ a

De - o pa • tri. sit qLo - ri • Q.

pto

Two other ways which were less usual in the fifteenth century
were that of fauxbourdon, 1 consisting of a part written in sixths
and octaves below the tune with a third part moving in fourths
below it, as in an anonymous setting in the Pepys collection of
the second verse of 0 lux beata Trinitas:*

Ex. irr.

Plavnsong

'Contra Tenor'
'Tenor'

1. 0 lux

ma • -

— be- a- to, Tri - nc - tas.
- ne Uzu-dum car - mi

ne)

Te.

f r r

ne Lau-dutr (oar - mi-

ne)

ne lau-dum(cxv - mt

and that of the monorhythmic cantus firmus, as in this treat-
ment of the tune of Salvator mundi Domine by an anonymous
composer, also in the Pepys manuscript:3

1 In the continental sense, distinct from the English faburden.

2 Pepys MS. 1236, fo. 11.

3 Ibid., fos. 64.V-65. A transcription of three parts, omitting the part next
below the treble, was printed in Hymns Ancient and Modern, Historical
Edition, p. xxxvi.

383

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex. 178.

Plainsong

i. Sol-va-tor mun-di , Do-mi • ne

Qd- e - sto .
(ad- a- sfa

nunc- pro pi - ti-

nunc pro - pt' tt_

- as)

nunc pro

As a rule, the vocal polyphonic hymns of the sixteenth cen-
tury, which are almost all by Tallis or Sheppard, used the
plainsong in the treble in a monorhythmic or slightly orna-
mented form, or disposed in a more or less persistent rhythmic
pattern, as in Tallis's setting of the same hymn:1

Ex.179.

ad-

Sto nunc .

pro - pi -

dd ■ e - Sto— nunc pro-
Od

pi- ti - - us, ad-
e, sto nunc pro ■ p

ti - us,

dd- e - sto— nunc pro-
Et pcur-ce sup-{pLicarttibus)

8 e - sto nunc pro -

ti - us, Et

pi - ti- us,
pOT'Ce sup-

J 5 j j

pli

pi - ti- - us, Et par •

1 Printed in Tudor Church Music, vii, pp. 242-5.
384

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Here the tune is more ornamented than usual, and the same is
true of Tallis's Jam Christus astra ascenderat1 for first Vespers of
Whitsunday, in which he disposed the melody in the second
and fourth verses, which have identical music, in such a way as
to make a strict canon between the treble and countertenor:

Ex.180.
Plavnsong -^

LJamChrt'stus a- stra(a)-scen- de-rat Re - gres-sus— un-de ve-ne-rat.

Z. SoL-iemnisur-ge- bat di- es, Quo my -> sti -j CO

Sol - Le - mnis urge - bat di •

Some fifteen hymns by Sheppard, for five to eight voices,
have survived, but all save two lack their tenor part. Because
the regular method of setting was to put the tune in the treble
(there are single instances in Sheppard of the tune in the mean
and in the bass) we are in a much less fortunate position with
Sheppard's hymns than we were with his responds, for only one
of his hymns had a monorhythmic plainsong in the tenor,2 and
can therefore be restored with certainty. One of the two which
remain complete is a fine setting of Aeterne rex altissime, with a
monorhythmic cantus firmus in the treble, which begins:3

1 Printed in Tudor Church Music, vii, p. 285. The titles of the Tallis hymns
given in the edition are those of the second verse of the hymn, except in
the case of 0 nata lux; the actual titles of the others must be discovered before
the plainsong and full text can be supplied. The following are the titles of
the Tallis hymns: Mae dum pergunt is Sermone blando angelus; Procul recedant
somnia is Te lucis ante terminum; Adesto nunc is Salvator mundi; Solemnis urgebat is
Jam Christus astra ascenderat; Haec Deum caeli is Quod chorus vatum; Hie nempi
mundi is Deus tuorum militum; Tu fabricator omnium is Jesu salvator saeculi.
The first three were printed in the Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, where Tallis
included a setting of each of the two tunes of Procul recedant (see Hymns
Ancient and Modern, Nos. 163, 34), which are, of course, two different pieces.

2 One of his two settings of Deus tuorum militum.

3 Oxford, Christ Church, MSS. 979-83 (attributed to Tallis in St.

385

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL
Ex.181.

Scan - dens

trl -

Scan-dens trlbu-nal dexte

ScandenstribunaL dexte

fTfrf

z, ScandenJtri-buXn

nal

rae,dex- te -
Scan-dens tri-bunal dex-te

can-dens tri-i.

LEI i

rae,scan-dens tribu-nal. dex- te-
roe, scan-dens tri ■ bu ■ nal

V P b P hJ>

rae
dex-

scan-dens tn-bu- nal dex - te- rae

The titles of organ settings of hymns were always indicated
by the opening words of the first verse, which shows that the
first and remaining odd-numbered verses were supplied on the
organ, and not, as with vocal polyphony, the even-numbered
verses. This is confirmed by the fact that the only collection of
organ music which is liturgically ordered1 provides three verses
for Salvator mundi, a hymn with five verses, two for Te lucis ante
terminum, which has three, and four for Christe qui lux es, which
has seven.2 Since the Customary directed that the singing of a
hymn should continue from the point where the beginner left
off, the organ must have been regarded in this case as both
ruler and continuer. Redford's setting of Te lucis ante terminum
in the Mulliner book, which begins with the second line of the

Michael's College, Tenbury, MS. 344) ; the other is the second of his set-
tings of Deus tuorum militum, in the same manuscript.

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996 as far as fo. 67V.

2 There are three other examples of the kind, Conditor alme siderum,
Verbum supernum and Iste confessor. There are also settings which give only
one verse and others which have fewer than the number of odd-numbered

386

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

tune,1 seems to be the only case which provides for a vocal
beginning and an organ continuation.

These sets of verses called for variety of technique in the
successive treatments of the same tune. For example, Redford's
three verses for Verbum supernum prodiens a patre, the hymn at
Matins during Advent, are a duet based on the decorated plain-
song for the first verse, a more florid duet on the decorated
faburden of the plainsong for the second verse:2

and an imitative treatment, with three points on the plainsong
as a 'meane', for the third verse. This last verse was copied into
the Mulliner book,3 but not the first two. Thomas Mulliner
was not concerned with the needs of the Latin ritual, and his
choice of a single verse from a set in this and in two other
cases4 shows the direction of the changing musical taste of his
time. In all three instances he chose a verse in three parts in
imitative style, which is the most frequent style of the hymns in
his collection. Other methods found there include ostinato, the
essay in proportions, and abstract figuration of a moto perpetuo
kind. While Redford's ostinato figures generally have an instru-
mental sound and are usually pursued in one part,5 Tallis's are
vocal in sound and are shared between the parts, as in his
settings of other ritual forms. The style of unfolding motives

1 Stevens, The Mulliner Book, p. 46.

2 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. 13V, there anonymous; see Grove,
Dictionary of Music, s.v. 'John Redford'.

3 The Mulliner Book, No. 66.

4 The fourth verse of Christe qui lux in Add. 29996 is The Mulliner Book,
No. 31, and the third verse of Veni redemptor is The Mulliner Book, No. 47.

5 E.g. Aeterne rerum, Jam lucis and Aeterne rex altissime; The Mulliner Book,
Nos. 74, 75, 69. The last is printed in Walker, History of Music in England,
p. 69.

387

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

which is seen in the first two verses of Redford's Verbum supernum
is seldom to be found in Mulliner's collection, though there is a
clear case in the first of William Blytheman's four verses for
Aeterne rerum conditor, the hymn of nine verses at Lauds on
Sundays from Epiphany to Lent, which is the only group of
hymn-verses in the Mulliner book which has the appearance of
a set.1

Two choral settings of the Te Deum have survived, both
arranged for alternatim singing, the polyphony beginning with
the second verse. Taverner's five-part setting lacks the tenor,
but its restoration has been possible since the tenor had the
plainsong in every verse but one.2 The melody of verses eleven
to twenty was changed by the addition of the note a tone higher
than the cadence note of the plainsong, evidently to make a
more manageable cadence in the polyphonic setting. Hence
these verses have a cadence F D E instead of F D, the setting
being based on the chant transposed down a tone:

Ex 183.

Tu pa- tns

r c p'r r P r i

ris sem-bi-ter- nus es ft - U

Tu pa- tris sem-pi-ter- nus es ft - 'li
sempt,-ter- - - nus es fi-U-us.

1 The Mulliner Book, Nos. 49-52.

2 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. 26.

388

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

At the 'antiphon' Aeternafac the melody is put in the bass at a
fourth lower than the expected pitch, which gives it a cadence
on A, and the final 'antiphon' In te Domine speravi, with the
neuma, is also at this pitch, this time in the tenor range, so
that the music from Tu patris to the end is kept in the fourth
mode with the final A. It is interesting to compare Taverner's
Te Deum with the anonymous four-part setting which is the
first piece in the Gyffard part-books. This work was written on
the faburden of the plainsong, a method equivalent to that of
the psalm In exitu in the same manuscript; it is not at all behind
Taverner's setting either in the flexible use of imitation or in
the melodic interest of the points:

Ex.lBt

ae-ter - nam pa-

Te ae • ter - num pa - - trem

trem o-mnis ter-ra ve-ne-ra - tar, o-mnls ter • ra ve-ne-ra-tur.

o - mnis ter - ra we • ne ra ■ - tor.

The cadences are treated in the same fashion as in Taverner's
setting, the faburden of Tu patris sempiternus,1 for example, show-
ing that the cadence with the additional note is assumed:

Ex.185.

Tu pa • tris serr - pi ■ ter ■ nus es fi - Li- us

Again, the same transposition is made at Aeterna fac as in
Taverner's setting, though in this section and in In te Domine

1 It will have been noticed that each phrase of a faburden always ends
with a cadence falling one step, whatever may be the cadence in the plain-
song. Every cadence in the plainsong which did not rise one step was orna-
mented in performance so that it did.

389

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

the bass is the actual plainsong and not its faburden. Some bars
of the final section illustrate the linear and rhythmic vigour of
the counterpoint:

Ex.186.

Organ settings of the Te Deum were regularly written on the
faburden of the chant, but the faburden could be put in any
part of the texture, and the variety of treatment was naturally
greater than in the vocal settings. The range of style may be
judged from three consecutive verses of Avery Burton's setting,
based on the faburden of the plainsong transposed down a
second, in which it will be seen that the cadences in the part
of the chant which begins at Tu rex gloriae are treated in the
same way as in the vocal settings:1

Ex.187.

(Verse 12)

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 29996, fo. 23V. The first verse in the example
is followed by a verse (also Venerandum) in the manuscript, which is marked
'A verse more then nedythe'.

390

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

(Verse 14)

Organ settings also had regularly a transposition of the chant
at Salvumfac which was equivalent to that in the vocal settings
at Aeterna fac. They began with the half-verse following the
beginner's singing of the first three words of the hymn, and
hence did not treat the same succession of verses as did vocal
settings. It was in keeping with the instructions of the Customary
that in no case did the organ act as beginner of the Te Deum.

Sequence and Prose

While the sequence at the votive Masses of Jesus and of the
Virgin seems commonly to have been sung in polyphony, it was
quite unusual to sing a polyphonic sequence on a festival, if
we may judge from the rarity of surviving examples.1 The re-
mains of a set of Lady-Mass sequences of the second half of the
fifteenth century,2 unfortunately in a very fragmentary state,
show that they were set for altematim performance and in a
moderately florid style. The sequences in Ludford's set of daily
Lady-Masses3 appear in the following order: Ave praeclara, Post
partum, Ave Maria, Laetabundus, Hac clara die, Ave virgo singularis
[sic] and Hodierne lux diei. Here Ave virgo singularis is apparently
a slip for Ave tnundi spes Maria, of which it is the second verse,
the verses which follow it in the ruler's book being the remaining

1 There are fragmentary remains of a setting of the sequence for Ascen-
sion Day in Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. misc. 291. The setting begins at
Nam quadraginta; for the text of this sequence, see Missale Sarum, col. 413.
For the sequence-hymn Alma chorus, see below, p. 393.

2 Also in MS. Eng. misc. 291.

3 In British Museum, MSS. Royal Appendix 45-8.

391

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

odd-numbered verses of that sequence. With this emendation
the order corresponds to that of the Sarum Missal with the
omission of the sequence Salve sancta parens, which the Missal
gives after Laetabundus. In Ludford's settings the sequence is
begun in the normal manner, the organ acting as beginner,
and thereafter supplying the odd-numbered verses:

Ex 188.
(Organ)

'Laetabundus'' [exsultet fideiis chorus, CLUeLuCa]

Re- gem re ■ gumin-ta- ctae—= pfo-fu- dip

Since the verses of a sequence go in pairs to the same music,
the tenor of each vocal verse is an ornamented form, in this
case a fifth lower, of the plainsong which was played imme-
diately before on the organ.

Thanks to John Baldwin's bent for copying examples of three-
part polyphony we have two single sequence verses by Taverner,
one entitled Jesu spes poenitentibus, from a sequence Dulcis Jesu
memoria for the Mass of the Name of Jesus, the other beginning
Traditur militibus, from Coenam cum discipulis, the sequence for
the Mass of the Five Wounds of Jesus.1 These were very prob-
ably copied from complete alternatim settings for four voices,
composed on a plan similar to that of the settings in Ludford's
Lady-Mass cycle, as doubtless were also Tye's three-part Tellus
flumina and four-part Unde nostris eya,2 both verses from the

1 Tudor Church Music, hi, pp. 123, 132; for the texts of these sequences, see
Missale Sarum, cols. 850, 752*.

2 In Oxford, Christ Church, MS. 45.

392

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

sequence Post partum of the Mass Vultum tuum. The Gyffard
part-books contain an anonymous setting of Alma chorus Domini,
the sequence for the Thursday after Whitsunday,1 and a set-
ting of Dulcis Jesus Nazarenus is included in the Proper of the
Mass of the Name of Jesus. In the former the monorhythmic
form of the plainsong was used in the bass, and in the latter in
the tenor, as in the other pieces of the set. The final lines of
Alma chorus may be quoted to show the strong style of the piece
and its remarkable Amen, where the bass, which is the faburden
of the plainsong, is written in normal mensural notation, not
as elsewhere in plainsong symbols, and forces the rhythm into
a triple grouping without a change of measure-signature:

£x. 18?.

Plainsong

Per o-mni-a do -

Per Ocinnia do

pt( f r f

xa, per o-mni-a da- xa.\
xa, per o -mnia do -

J y |

£^£

Per

do-

1 Alma chorus was also sung as the hymn at Compline on Whitsunday
and the three days following, and as the hymn at Compline on the feast of
the Name of Jesus. The polyphonic setting is discussed in this section, in
agreement with its musical form, though since it has an Amen it was cer-
tainly written for use as a hymn, probably for the Whitsuntide use since it

393

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

The only surviving organ setting of a sequence is, like Dulcis
Jesus Nazarenus, one of a group of pieces for the Proper of a Mass,
Preston's set for the Easter Sunday Mass, and is unfortunately
incomplete. Preston took advantage of the alternating verses
of the lengthy Easter sequence Fulgens praeclara to write a series
of essays in figuration and proportion.1 Though shorter than his
first setting of the Introit Resurrexi in the same set, the opening
section of the sequence is similar to it in style,2 while other
verses use various kinds of persistent figuration, as in the
second verse, which are sometimes worked out in some form
of 3 : 2 proportion, as in the verse Die impie £abule, on the
same melody as the following verse Igneis nexus loris:

Ex.190.

fgneis ne-xus lo-ris a Chri-sti vi- cto-ria?

follows in the manuscript a setting of the Whitsun respond Spiritus sanctus
procedens. Amen was never sung after a sequence; see Missale Sarum, col. 1 1 .

1 Facsimiles and discussion in Stevens, 'Further Light on Fulgens Prae-
clara', where the writer suggests the printed Sarum Gradual of 1532 as the
earliest source of the plainsong used by Preston. However, it occurs in
virtually the same form in earlier sources, e.g. in Manchester, John Rylands
Library, MS. Lat. 24 (text in The Sarum Missal, p. 467), in the fifteenth-
century York Gradual Bodleian MS. Lat. liturg. b. 5, and in the printed
Sarum Gradual of 1527.

2 The setting leaves the first word to be sung by the beginner in plain-

394

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Although the setting has lost some verses at the end, it is of
great interest as a compendium of the contrapuntal devices of
the period.

There are five settings in the Pepys manuscript and one set-
ing by Taverner of the prose at Matins of St. Nicholas, Sospitati
dedit aegros, which is the only prose of which more than one
setting remains in our period. All six treat not merely the alter-
nate verses but the whole text of the prose,1 and also the words
sospes regreditur, the closing words of the respond Ex ejus tumba
in which the prose was inserted, which in the ritual performance
followed the prose and completed the sense of its last verse.
The verse Catervatim ruuntpopuli of this respond was an exception
to the general rule in that it was sung by the whole choir, and
the prose Sospitati was also performed in a different way from
other proses, being sung by the whole choir alternatim.2 Hence
the complete polyphonic setting of the prose and the ending of
the respond was preceded and followed by choral plainsong:

Ex.191.

(Soloist from senior stalls)

(Choir)

spes — re ■ gre-di • • tur.

(Choir) y/. Catervatim ; then ft. from 'Surdis' to quisque; then the prose :

song, and takes up the music at praeclara. It is based on the plainsong a fourth
lower than the original, and the alternating verses must have been sung at
that pitch. For the full text see Missale Sarum, cols. 360-1.

1The first setting in the Pepys manuscript (fos. 19V-20) seems to be
an incomplete setting rather than an exception to the rule. The manu-
script has only the first three of the eight verses (fo. 1 gv) and the concluding
words Sospes regreditur (fo. 20) .

2 See above, p. 6g.

395

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Plainsong

1. So-spi-ta-tt de-dit ae-groso-le ■ i per-fu-si-o.

(So • spi-ta- • ti

This shows the first verse, with the plainsong which preceded it,
of the most elaborate of the settings in the Pepys manuscript, x
in which the anonymous composer set the second and fifth
verses for two voices, and changed to triple measure for the
seventh and eighth verses. The end of the eighth verse was fol-
lowed by the setting of the last two words of the respond:

Ex.192.

spes..

the neuma which the prose replaced being omitted, and the
first verse of the Gloria patri and the last return to the respond
at et debilis were then sung in plainsong. Walter Frye's Sospitati,
which is one of the five in this manuscript and the only work
known to be his which has survived complete in his native
country,2 is a simpler setting, and probably earlier than the
one just quoted. He wrote only two settings for the first four
verses, and one of these 'double-duty' verses has the plainsong
ornamented in the tenor, a rather unusual treatment in this
manuscript: 3

1 Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS. Pepys 1 236, fo. 82V.

2 The first few notes of his English chanson 'So ys emprinted', which
survives in various forms in continental manuscripts, are in Bodleian
Library, MS. Ashmole 1 9 1 , fo. 1 96V. See Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music,
p. 94, and his article 'Walter Frye' in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

3 Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS. Pepys 1236, fos. 84.V-85.

396

Ex.193.
Plainsong

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

3. Re ■ le - va- vit a de ■ fun -ctis de ■ fun-ctum in bi - vi- o.

4. Ba - pti ■ za-tur au-ri vi -so Ju-de-us in ■ dC -ci- o.

/ h, ■! 1 j—

J Re- le-
Ba- pti-

va -
za •

wit a
tur — au •

de - fun-
ri vi -

ctis
so

i Re- le
Ba- pti-

•va-

za ■

vit a

tur — au -

de ■ fun
ri vi

•

ctis
so

Re - le- va

Ba - pti - za

vit a

tur au •

Taverner composed a different setting for each verse of his
five-part Sospitati,1 writing three of the verses in three parts,
and the piece is a fine example of resourceful craftsmanship.
He used the plainsong in the sixth verse and in sospes regreditur
as a cantus firmus, in the first, third and fifth verses as the basis
for extended melodic lines, in the second verse as material for
imitative points, and in the fourth verse as a free canon:

Ex.194.

Ba ■ pti - za - tur— au - . ri

the seventh and eighth verses being set in free florid counter-
point.

Sheppard's six-part Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria with the prose
Inviolata2 for second Vespers on the feast of the Purification is
the sole surviving example of a polyphonic setting of both

1 Tudor Church Music, iii, p. no; to be revised by ibid., Appendix, p. 35.

2 In Oxford, Christ Church, MSS. 979-83.
M.M.B. — DD 397

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

respond and prose, only the verse Gabrielem archangelum scimus
and the Gloria patri being sung in plainsong. This is perhaps
his finest work, and must be accounted one of the masterpieces
of the last years of the Sarum rite. It is based throughout on the
plainsong transposed down a fifth as a monorhythmic cantus
firmus, and the treatment is an interesting demonstration of the
manner of joining the beginning and end of a prose, without
breaks, to the words and music of a respond. The respond,
which begins thus:1

Ex.195.

etas hae • re

1 The Sarum Breviary gives the three Gaudes when the respond was sung
at Vespers with the prose, one Gaude when it was sung at Matins. Breviarium
Sarum, iii, cols, 145, 143. The music for the Vespers form is not given in
Antiphonale Sarisburiense, and is supplied here from the Sarum Processional,
British Museum, MS. Harley 291 1, fo. 71 v.

398

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

is first set complete, and would be followed by the singing of
the verse in plainsong. The polyphonic setting, which as usual
does not show the verse, then gives the return to the respond at
Dum virgo with the same music as before, which this time runs
straight through into the prose where it is inserted after Et post
partum virgo, thus:

Ex 196.

ft post par- turn vir - go,

Et post par ■ turn vir •
vL~ o-la-ta in -te-

am, in -vi - o ■ la.-

P > J> J>

ln-vi- o -la - ta in-te-g,

The second verse of the prose, Quae es effecta, is also set for the
full chorus, while the third verse has a beautifully tender set-
ting for four high voices, disposed as two gymels1 of trebles and
means, with bass:

1 The term used in English late medieval manuscripts for a duet of two
soloists from the same section of the choir. See above, p. 154.

399

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

Ex.197.

Plainsong) Omateral-
0 ma- ter al-

ma Christi Carts ■
ma Chri ■ sti

si -ma, Christi ca
ca- ris - si • ma. _

0 materal-

ma Chri- sti car i ■ si

The fourth verse has the same music as the third, the gymels
exchanging parts, and the next four verses are set in pairs in
the same fashion, the fifth and sixth for the same voices as the
third and fourth, and the seventh and eighth for five voices,
two gymels and the countertenor. The last verse of the prose,
0 benigna quae sola, is set for the full choir, and goes without a
break into the last words of the respond, inviolata permansisti, set
to the same music as before.

Lesson

The Pepys collection contains three settings of the troped
lesson Laudes Deo which was sung in the pulpitum at the Mid-
night Mass of Christmas. In each case the words which were
sung before and after the lesson and one or more parts of the
trope which was inserted into it are set for two voices,1 although
the Missal provided that the opening and closing words were to
be sung by two singers together and the words of the lesson and
the trope altematim. In the first of these settings the chant of the
words which precede the lesson is used in an ornamented form
in the upper part:

1 The first setting (fos. 3V-5V) treats Fulserunt only; the second (fos. 76-7)
Fulserunt and Messias; the third (by Garnesey, fos. 78V-80) Fulserunt, Ab
arce, Messias, Qui creavit, In Hierusalem and Judex cum venerit. In each case this
is in addition to the opening {Laudes Deo) and closing {Ab ortu solis) texts of
the trope; for the complete text see Missale Sarum, cols. 50-1.

400

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex. 198.
Plainsong

Laudes De-.o di -cam per sae-cu • La

Lou ■ des

do ■ cam per sae

but in the section of the trope beginning Fulserunt et immania,
the music and words of which were drawn from the sequence
for the same Mass, the plainsong is put in the lower part:

Ex. i99.

Plainsong Vn £ * 9 • » m • » • • ,

Ful-

0 A.

i Ful-se-runt et im-ma-nC • a no-cte me-di • a

fte - mnt t>t im ■ /nn .

ni- a

J n

runt et

im • ma ■ ni

A unison beginning is used in each of the other two settings,
one of which is by Garnesey:

Ex. 2oo.

Sheppard and Robert Johnson still observed the convention of
two-part setting for this trope, and their settings1 are interesting
as examples of fairly extended two-part writing in the mid-
sixteenth century. Sheppard worked on the basis of free
imitation on points derived from the plainsong:

1 In Oxford, Christ Church, MSS. 45 and 982 respectively.
401

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ful-seruntet cm- • ma- ni- a no-cte medi ■ a

John Tuder's setting of the Lamentations in the Pepys manu-
script,1 in which only one voice is given, provided for the com-
plete set of three lessons, each ending with Jerusalem, Jerusalem
convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum, for each of the three days on
which the Lamentations were sung at Tenebrae. He did not set
the announcement (Incipit Lamentatio, etc., or De Lamentatio, etc.)
which was part of the plainsong and was always included in
later settings, but he set the Hebrew letters in phrases of some
length. This latter convention was firmly established by the
time of the great settings of Tallis and Robert Whyte, which are
among the most impressive and moving works in the larger
style of the mid-sixteenth century. Tallis's music, 2 a fine ex-
ample of the effective use of both antiphony and extended
imitation, comprises the first two lessons of the Tenebrae of
Maundy Thursday with their announcements, apparently from
two different sets, since they are in different modes.

The two anonymous Passions according to St. Matthew and
St. Luke in the Egerton manuscript are the earliest polyphonic
settings of the Passion known in any country. 3 In these, as in
later English settings, the composer set only those parts of the
Gospel which were marked a (Ita) in the service-books, and
hence his text comprised the words of the Jews and the dis-
ciples, and of all individuals except Christ and the Chronista or
narrator. The Egerton settings were written in a simple and
solemn descant style, without any use of the plainsong and
without any of the melodic idioms of the chanson style:4

1 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos. 36-42.

2 Tudor Church Music, vi, pp. 102, 1 10.

3 Unfortunately only the early choruses (as far as Ave Rabbi) of the St.
Matthew setting have survived; the St. Luke is complete, and is transcribed
in Bukofzer, 'A Newly Discovered 15th-century Manuscript', pp. 39 sqq.

4 British Museum, MS. Egerton 3307, fo. 16.

402

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex 202.

/T\

O.J J

J J ^

a a 6 tf

'7 r — r

r r

\L>

Hum ■ quid, e- go sum, Do- mi- - - ne?

Although Richard Davy's setting of the St. Matthew Passion
in the Eton choirbook1 is in four parts and the style is less
simple, this tradition of appropriate restraint and sobriety is still
apparent, quiet strength and clear annunciation taking the
place of the floridity and jubilation of his antiphons:

Ex 203.

Quern vul-tis vo-bis e ck-o - bus

Quern uul-tis vo-bis e du ■ o-busdi- • • mit - - ti?

Between Davy's work and the anonymous St. Matthew Passion
in the Gyffard part-books there is no noticeable change of
style; the later setting has the same directness of treatment and
control of the quicker rhythms, and the impression of restraint
is strengthened by the old-fashioned style of the counterpoint:

Ex 204.

Quern i/ul-tis vo-bis de du-o ■ bus di - mit- - - ti?

Quern

VJ.

de du-o -bus di-mit-

Processional Music

The parts of the ritual of processions which were set in poly-
phony during our period comprise the hymn or prose Salve festa

1 It is incomplete at the beginning; two voices begin at Hie dixit, possum
destruere templum and all four at Non licet mittere eos.

403

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

dies for various festivals, and a number of items which were
proper to the time between Palm Sunday and Whitsunday.
The chant of Salve festa dies was always the same though the
words for the various feasts differed, and the earliest polyphonic
setting, which is in the Egerton manuscript, gives under one
composition the words for Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday,
Corpus Christi and St. George's day. The music comprises a
three-part setting of the refrain, settings in three parts of the
first and third verses and in two parts of the second and fourth,
ending with a new three-part setting of the refrain, and has an
ornamented form of the plainsong in the treble throughout.1
Thus the opening and closing refrains and the verses were sung
in polyphony, and the intermediate refrains probably in choral
plainsong. On the other hand, all but two of the six settings of
Salve festa dies in the Pepys manuscript, and all the surviving
settings of later date, are concerned only with the refrain. The
two which treat a verse or verses as well as the refrain are both
settings of the Salve for the feast of the Dedication of a Church,
one having three verses which relate to the feast of Corpus
Christi, 2 and the other the usual first verse of the Salve for the
Dedication festival, Hie est aula Dei. Two of the other settings in
the Pepys collection are among the rare examples of four-part
writing in that manuscript. Both are quite independent of the
plainsong melody, and the opening of one, which is also for

1 See Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 1 23-4; the beginnings of the
two settings of the refrain are quoted there, p. 142.

2 This shows that the manuscript was written for a place dedicated to
Corpus Christi, and therefore almost certainly for Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge. There do not seem to have been any churches dedicated to
Corpus Christi, the colleges at Cambridge and Oxford (founded 1 5 1 6) being
the only cases. The setting is found on fos. 23V-27, in the following order:

Te merito criste iubilans laudat chorus iste
cui vitam caro dat tua sancta caro. (Verte')

Salve festa dies toto venerabilis evo
qua sponso sponsa iungitur ecclesia.

Rex sedet in sena turba cunctis duodena

se tenet in manibus se cibat ille cibus. ('verte')

Fit caro de pane vinum cruor hec duo plane
cristus discipulis dat memoranda suis.
404

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Corpus Christi, shows that its style has similarities to that of
Horwood's pieces in the Eton choirbook:1

Ex205

An anonymous setting of c. 1 500 of the Salve for the Dedica-
tion festival shows a very simple way of making a three-part
piece on the plainsong:2

Ex. 206.
Plainsong

Sal-

ve fe • sta di-es to-to ve-ne-ra-bC

ve. fe - sta cU

Lis.

ae-vc. .
es

while Sheppard's characteristically vigorous setting of the
Easter Salve for four male voices has no melodic connection
with the chant:3

1 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos 57V-58. Hor-
wood's Salve regina has the same disposition of clefs as this piece, with a
'countertenor' in C3 added. Our example may also be compared with the
four-part verse from 0 redemptor in the Egerton manuscript quoted and
discussed in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 136-7.

2 British Museum, MS. Add. 5665, fo. 120, in 'plainsong' notation (see
above, p. 280). There is also a three-part setting, in normal notation, in this
manuscript (fos. 106V-107).

3 In the Gyffard part-books.

405

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex.207.

fe • sta di

It is written in the transposed form of the mode of the chant,
and its ending shows that it requires the plainsong to be sung a
fourth higher than the written pitch.

In the only surviving setting of En rex venit,1 sung at the first
station of the Palm Sunday procession, which is in the Egerton
manuscript, polyphony is applied to the parts of the ritual which
were sung by the three clerks, that is, the opening sentences,
which begin thus:2

Ex.208.

Plainsong

Hie.

est it - le.

triors mor-tis..

/r\ /r\

1 Apart from a single part in Shrewsbury School, MS. Mus. iii. 42,
which, like the liturgical part of the Egerton manuscript, is concerned
chiefly with music for Holy Week. Some of the music is plainsong, some
measured, and the manuscript is remarkable in being a part-book, one of
a set of three, of a date (possibly 1430-60) much earlier than part-books
came into general use. This form may have been adopted on account of the
plays (see p. 99, n. 1, above), each player's part being in one book. The
contents are listed in K. Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church, ii,
pp. 520-1. 2 British Museum, MS. Egerton 3307, fo. 8.

406

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

and the verses Hie est qui de Edom and Hie est Me, the second of
which has an effective use of emphasis by pauses:1

Ex.209.

mors.

j nn

F=T

tis,

In the two settings of Gloria laus et honor for three voices which
are in the Egerton collection,2 the opening refrain, and prob-
ably also the final one, and all the verses, were sung in poly-
phony, and the other refrains in plainsong by the choir, as the
Ordinal directs.3 Both compositions are free in part, and in
part based on the ornamented plainsong, while the setting in the
Pepys collection, by Tuder, uses the chant in an enterprising
way:4

Ex.210.
Plainsong

Glo- ri • a laus et ho-nor — tC-bisitrexChrt-steredem- • ptor.,

sit
sit

rex

*Chri.

ste re -
_ Chrc ■

dam

rex.

ste

Y i

r *

.Chri-ste

1 British Museum, MS. Egerton 3307, fos. gv-io.

2 The former of the two is incomplete; for a restoration of its beginning
and a description of both settings, see Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music,
pp. 120-2.

3 'Hiis finitis assunt pueri in eminenciori loco canentes Gloria laus.
Chorus idem repetat post unumquemque versum. Pueri J. Israel es /«', etc.
Use ofSarum, ii, p. 161.

4 Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS. Pepys 1 236, fos. 96v-g6bis.

407

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

and becomes quite florid at times. The verses of this piece appear
to use the chant in an ornamented form at the fourth above the
normal pitch:

Ex 2U.
Plainsong

rex,

The method of imitative writing on a monorhythmic cantus
firmus may be seen in settings of Gloria laus by Tye and Blythe-
man for two trebles, mean and tenor, where the plainsong is in
the mean, and in another setting by Blytheman,1 where it is
used in each of the four parts in turn:

Ex.212

Coe ■ tus in ex -eel

Coe • tus in ex ■ eel

sis te lau-datcaB-U-cusomnis.

The verse Unus autem of the antiphon Collegerunt, which was
sung at the next station of the Palm Sunday procession at the
north-west door, has three surviving settings, all of the fifteenth
century,2 and all using the method of ornamenting the plain-
song, generally, but not entirely, in the highest of the three
parts.3 The antiphon Ave rex noster for the fourth station of this
procession, at the rood, was a choir chant, and was apparently
not set in polyphony.

The hymn with refrain for the procession with the chrism

1 All three are in the Gyffard part-books.

2 One is in the Egerton manuscript and two are in Pepys.

3 In the second and longer of the settings in the Pepys manuscript (fos.
68V-70) the ornamented plainsong is a fourth higher than the original pitch.

408

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

on Maundy Thursday, 0 redemptor sume carmen, has a polyphonic
setting in the Egerton manuscript, in which the refrain is based
on the plainsong while the verses are freely composed.1 The
settings in the same collection of two processional pieces for
Holy Saturday, Inventor rutili and Rex sanctorum, both of which
are in the form of refrain and verses, are based throughout on
the chant with a different setting for each verse, and thus take
the form of melodic variations on the plainsong. 2 One of the
two settings of Inventor rutili in the Pepys manuscript is a varied
form of the Egerton setting, and this seems to be the only
musical connection between the two manuscripts, though they
have much in common liturgically. While this setting gives
the refrain only, the other setting in Pepys is of the complete
text, for one voice, and is also in the form of variations on the
chant. The verse Crucifixum in came of the antiphon Sedit angelus,
which was sung at the rood on Easter Sunday morning by
three from the senior stalls (turning towards the people),3 and
the verse Laudate pueri of the Alleluia which was sung at the font
in the procession of Eastertide Vespers by three boys (turning
to the east), both have polyphonic treatments in the Egerton
manuscript.4 The setting of Laudate pueri ends before the last
word domini, and appears not to be based on the chant which it
replaces. The psalms Laudate pueri and In exitu Israel, both with
an Alleluia antiphon, which were sung while going to and re-
turning from the font in this procession, also had polyphonic
settings, which have been discussed earlier.

As we have seen, a twelfth-century setting of Dicant nunc
Judei, the verse of the antiphon Christus resurgens for the proces-
sion on Easter Sunday morning with the cross which has been
taken from the sepulchrum, is one of the oldest surviving pieces
of polyphony in medieval Britain.5 The fifteenth-century set-
tings, one in the Egerton manuscript for three voices6 and
one in Pepys for two,7 are closely related to the plainsong,
while the only identified composition by John Cornysh treats

1 Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 123; part of the verse Starts ad aram
is transcribed there, p. 136.

2 Ibid., p. 123. 3 Use of Sarum, ii, p. 168.

4 The former is discussed in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 1 24.

5 See above, p. 117.

6 Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, p. 125. 7 At fos. 54-5.

409

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

an ornamental form of the chant in the manner of a duet in the
florid style:1

Ex.213.

Di-cant nunc Ju.-d.e-

Jul- de-

The long history of this Easter processional antiphon comes to
a fitting close with superb settings of the complete antiphon and
verse by Thomas Knyght and John Redford in the Gyffard
part-books. Both surround the monorhythmic plainsong with
vigorous counterpoint, which in Redford's setting tends to the
pursuit of short ostinato points, suggesting the influence of the
keyboard style on which his fame chiefly rests:

Ex.214.

(De)- o,

vC-vit De • o,

vi-vit De- o.

vt-vit De-
III

vi- vit De - o, 'vi- vit De - d, quod

The chants of the various forms of Kyrie eleison used in pro-
cessions on Rogation days and on St. Mark's day were some-
times sung in an appropriately simple counterpoint or in
faburden. The style of the counterpoint may be judged from
the beginning of one of the settings in the Pepys manuscript,
which has a three-part setting of each of the three usual
litanies:2

1 British Museum, MS. Add. 5665, fos. 120V-121; there is another two-
part setting in this manuscript at fos. 142V-143.

2 At fo. 55; the plainsong is taken from the Processional referred to in the
next footnote.

410

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex.215.
Plainsong

8 Ky-,

e - Lei-son. Chri ste — e- Lei. -son. Do-mine mi-se- re- re.

Ky-ri - e e -
Ky -ri - e e ■

„. T j h J

let -

Lei -

J J. - hi 1

son. Chri - ste
son. Chri- ste e-

e-
Lei. -

Lei-

-jJ

son.
son.

I 1

t cjm '

Lei

Ky -ri - e e Lei ■ - son. Chri ■ ste

That this method of writing is closely related to faburden
becomes clear if the tenor of this example be compared with
actual faburdens of this chant which happen to have been
written down, though it seems certain that they would normally
have been improvised. In one case the faburdens of the Roga-
tion Kyries were noted in the lower margins of the pages
containing their plainsongs in a Sarum Processional of the late
fifteenth century, now in the Bodleian Library,1 while another
form of the faburden of this chant was written at the end of a
fifteenth-century Sarum Processional now in the Library of
Lambeth Palace, with faburdens of two other Rogation Kyries,
the three being headed 'Faburdon'.2 Example 216 shows the
plainsong, ornamented at the cadences as it would have been
in faburden singing, together with the faburden from the Bodleian
Processional, the faburden from the Lambeth Palace Processional
transposed up a fifth, and the tenor of the Pepys setting, also
transposed up a fifth for more convenient comparison:

1 MS. Rawl. liturg. e. 45, fos. 57V-61V.

2 Lambeth Palace Library, MS. 438, fo. i8ov. They have been discussed
by Bukofzer in Geschichte des englischen Diskants, pp. 123-4, anc* 'Fauxbourdon
Revisited', p. 31. In his article Bukofzer deduced 'a treble that may pos-
sibly be the melody' of the first of the faburdens in Lambeth; his deduction
came close to the original, which in the form added in the late fifteenth
century to a manuscript Sarum Ordinal of the end of the fourteenth century
(Salisbury Cathedral Library, MS. 175, fo. 214V; Frere did not include
these melodies in Use of Sarum) reads thus:

Ex.215 a.

Ky - ri-e- Ley • son. Christe

Ley- son
4II

Chri- ste.

lux - di nos.

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex 216.

i$ j J j j j i h [i i| i i j i i m

Bodleian

Lambeth

Pepys

Ky-ri- e

e ■ Lei- son. Chri- ste e - Lei-

Ky - ri ■ e e - Lee ■ son Chri. - ste e -Let -

Kij - ri - e

son Chri ste e - Lei

This juxtaposition shows that there was room for slight differ-
ences in the making of a faburden, and that the composer of
the Pepys setting used the faburden as his tenor, as did Banester
in his Exsultet caelum (Ex. 176 above). These are remarkably
early instances of English faburden technique.

The Pepys manuscript contains a setting of Ab inimicis nostris
defende nos Christe, an optional part of the Litany for Rogation
Days in time of war, the first part of which had been used by
Cooke as the tenor of his isorhythmic motet Alma proles regia —
Christi miles indite in the Old Hall manuscript. This setting is
divided in four sections in conformity with the text, and is
another example of the unusual method of ornamented plain-
song in the tenor part:1

Ex. 217.

> Plainsong

QJ> i - ni - mi • cis— no - stris de-fen- de nos Chri -ste.

OJb I- ni-mi .- - cis no - - strts de • f&n •

1 Fos. 46V-47; plainsong from Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. liturg. d. 3,
fo. 14.

412

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

de nos ChrC- ste.

prn~i

t li'LLf

r^A

de - fen ■ de

i inn tf\t u^ m

jn rn

C/iri -

ste.)

de-fen

de nos.

Chri >

ste)

Apostles' Creed and Lord's Prayer

Two unique polyphonic settings of ritual items which may be
added here are an Apostles' Creed by Robert Wylkynson, writ-
ten, probably in his own hand, on the last page of the Eton
choirbook, and a Lord's Prayer by Philip van Wilder in the
GyfFard part-books. The latter was printed in Tylman Susato's
fourth book of Ecclesiasticae Cantiones quatuor vocum, published in
Antwerp in 1554. It is a pleasant setting in imitative style for
three trebles and a tenor, which does not use the chant of the
Pater noster:

Ex. 218.

Pa - ter no ■

ster, qui es in cae-

H y j) i h — 1 1

(\j I r

Pa-

ter

no-

r y p p p T —

ster, qui es in cae-

£/>,

A h H fr

■ = 1

Pa - ter no -

ftyfr-jl =

1 =

L J

lis, san-cti- fi-ce- - tur san-cti-fi-ce- tur

qui es

Wylkynson's piece is a real curiosity. The Apostles' Creed was
said at Compline daily, and this setting may have been written
for Compline in Lent, when the choir attended, for it is based
on a cantus firmus consisting of the first phrase of Jesus autem

M.M.B. EE 413

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

Ex 219.

(End)

Sum ChH-stum fi • Li-
Jacobui ;

no ■ strum -. qui,

na - tus ex

Marl - a vLr-gi-ne, pas-
Thomas

um e- lus

cbn-CQ' ptus est de

Johannes

sus sub Fbnti-o Pita- to, cru-

ni-cum Do-minum

Spi ■ ritu San • cto,
Evangelista

new, et i/c - tarn ae - ter ■ nam

■ men.
'ut supra'

transiens, the antiphon to the Magnificat on Monday in the
first week in Lent. To this phrase of chant are added twelve
parts entering in succession in the manner of a rota with the
text Credo in Deum, each section of which is marked in the

414

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

manuscript with the name of the Apostle who was traditionally
said to have supplied it. The effect when sung is that the phrase
Jesus autem transiens has truly passed 'through the midst' and
remains at the end (see Ex. 219).

Benedicamus

Polyphonic settings of the Benedicamus were uncommon in
the later Middle Ages. All but one of the examples which exist
are in the Pepys manuscript, which contains eighteen settings
for two and three voices, anonymous save two by 'W. Haute
Knyght' and one by J. Nesbet. In some the upper part is an
elaboration of one of the Benedicamus chants, while others are
free compositions, and include several effective essays in the
use of characteristic motives. Though canon was a rare tech-
nique in this period, one of the settings is a canon two in one
over a tenor written in the idiom of the continental 'trompette'
parts, followed by a canon over a pedal:1

Ex. 220.

Be- nedi-ca-

t w

Do-' ■

DO-

Q » y 1 h

- h:

mi -

mi-

k j —

—

7=-

Do
(t)ACB!nMS.

•r

mi-

One of Hawte's settings is in the form of a pseudo-canon three
in one2 (see Ex. 221) while Nesbet's is a treatment of the
in perenni melody of the Benedicamus with the Easter Alleluia,
beginning in cantus-firmus style and ending with a passage of
free ornamentation3 (see Ex. 222) :

1 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS. 1236, fos. 124.V-125.

2 Ibid., fo. 127. 3 Ibid., fo. 126V.

415

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

Ex.221.

Ex.222

Carol

We have no direct information about the use of Benedicamus
substitutes after the period of the thirteenth- and fourteenth-
century ordinals. The disappearance of the conductus in the
second half of the fourteenth century and the appearance of the
votive antiphon at the same time might suggest that the anti-
phon replaced the conductus as a festal substitute for the
Benedicamus, but the practice of institutions and the character
of the texts of the antiphons make it clear that this could not
have been the main function of the votive antiphon. On the
other hand, the words of some polyphonic carols, a genre which
appeared about the time the conductus was going out of use,
make it likely that the sacred carol of the fifteenth century took
over from the conductus the role of Benedicamus substitute on

416

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

certain festivals. The carol has been defined as 'a song on any
subject, composed of uniform stanzas and provided with a
burden', which was sung at the beginning and after each verse.
In some cases the verses end with a recurring line, called
refrain as distinct from the self-contained burden.

Historians of the carol as a form of poetry have agreed in
ascribing the initial impulse in the cultivation of the sacred
carol to the activity of the Franciscans.1 The appearance of the
earliest pieces of devotional polyphony to English words was
contemporaneous with the first period of their preaching in
England, and it has been suggested that the Latin poems in the
'Red Book of Ossory', which Bishop Richard de Ladrede of
Kilkenny, a Franciscan, wrote between 13 17 and 1360 for the
minor clergy of his cathedral to replace the improper secular
pieces they had been singing, were intended especially for the
three days after Christmas, the Circumcision and Epiphany.2
As we have seen, these had been days of special licence, which
was restricted by the statutes of Bishop Odo de Sully of Paris
and by the ordinals of the English secular cathedrals to a rela-
tively free choice of music as a substitute for the second Bene-
dicamus at the Offices.3 The great majority of the polyphonic
carols of the fifteenth century are for this festal season from
Christmas to the Epiphany, and include, besides carols for those
two feasts, carols of St. Stephen, St. John, the Holy Innocents,
St. Thomas of Canterbury and the Circumcision. There are a
few carols of the Blessed Virgin, one or two of which seem
particularly appropriate to the Annunciation, though they
would all have also been relevant to Christmas. Carols sung in
choir during this period would almost certainly have been sub-
stitutes for the Benedicamus, and the texts of some polyphonic
carols strongly suggest that this was their function. The famous
'Agincourt' carol Deo gratias Anglia* has the refrain-line Deo
gratias. The Latin carol Deo gratias persolvamus in the Selden
manuscript5 ends with the lines Benedicamus Domino, Deo gratias,

1 Greene, Early English Carols, pp. cxxi sqq.; Chambers, English Literature
at the Close of the Middle Ages, pp. 81-2.

2 Chambers, loc. cit. 3 See above, pp. 108-9, *2l.
4 Medieval Carols, No. 8. The theory of the editor (p. xiv) that carols

were sung in ritual processions is untenable, since the ordinals laid down
the chants to be sung for processions throughout the year.
6 Ibid., No. 22.

417

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

the last two words being the refrain. In the Egerton manuscript
both the burden and the last verse of Novo profusi gaudio,1 which
has Latin, French and English words, end with Benedicamus
Domino\ the penultimate line of Parit virgo Jilium2 and the first
line of the last verse of Exsultavit cor, which refers to the prowess
in battle of Henry V,3 are Benedicamus Domino; the last line of
David ex progenia is Benedicat Domino', and the burden of Verbum
patris5 is the first two lines of the established Benedicamus trope
of the Christmas season, Verbum patris hodie Processit ex virgine.
Thus the movement begun by the friars was taken up in other
communities, and provided Benedicamus substitutes acceptable
to church authorities for use in the Christmas season and on
occasions of national prayer or thanksgiving.

There is also a considerable number of 'moral' and convivial
carols which could not have been introduced into a service, and
were probably sung at banquets in royal and aristocratic house-
holds and at evenings of recreation in colleges and collegiate
churches. In earlier times carols are mentioned as songs which
could be danced to at court entertainments, as in 'Sir Gawayne
and the Green Knight',6 written probably in the last quarter
of the fourteenth century:

Justed ful jolile thise gentyle knightes
Sythen kayred to the court caroles to make,7

and

Daunsed ful drezly wyth dere carolez.8

In the same poem conductus and carols are mentioned together:

Much glam and gle glent up therinne

About the fyre upon flet, and on fele wyse

At the soper and after, mony athel songez

As condutes of Krystmasse and carolez newe

With al the manerly merthe that mon may of telle.9

1 Medieval Carols, No. 47. 2 Ibid., No. 73.

3 Ibid., No. 61; the second verse begins 'Henrico Quinto prelio', but the
rest of the verse was not written in.

4 Ibid., No. 46. B Ibid., No. 67.
8 Ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 1925.

7 Lines 42-3. 8 Line 1026. 9 Lines 1062-6.

418

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

One of Wykeham's statutes for Winchester College, which was
copied or adapted by many of the new foundations of the
fifteenth century, including All Souls, St. John's (Cambridge),
Eton and Magdalen, allowed the fellows and scholars to have a
fire in hall on greater feasts and important college occasions,
and to remain after supper singing songs and entertaining one
another with 'poems, chronicles of kings, the wonders of the
world and other recreations suitable to the clerical state'.1 An
account of a royal banquet on Twelfth Night in 1487 tells us
that 'At the Table in the Medell of the Hall sat the Deane and
those of the Kings Chapell, which incontynently after the Kings
first course sange a CaralP.2 It was for use at such times that
convivial and didactic carols, and those which while festal were
not in the full sense devotional, were written in the same col-
lections as those which were substitutes for the Benedicamus
during the Christmas season.

The polyphonic carols of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries are markedly different in style and subject from the
earlier carols, for their favourite theme was the Passion of Our
Lord and they were personal in expression and pietistic in tone.
There is nothing to suggest that these 'Carols of the Passion'
were sung in the ritual; their place is with the household music
of the court, and they were a part of the late medieval devotion
to Jesus which had its liturgical expression in the Jesus-Mass
and antiphon. Their chief source is the manuscript called the
'Fayrfax book',3 which has carols by Browne (probably John,
but possibly William, who was a gentleman of the Household
Chapel between 1503 and 151 1),4 Davy, Cornysh, Banester and
Sheryngham, and courtly and convivial pieces by Browne,
Davy, Fayrfax, Turges, Tuder ('Tutor'), Hampshire, Newark
and Thomas Phelypps. Similarly the 'XX songes ix of iiii

1 'In festis principalibus . . . liceat gracia recreationis in cantilenis, et
aliis solaciis honestis moram facere condecentem, et poemata, regnorum
cronicas, et mundi huius mirabilia, ac cetera que statum clericalem con-
decorant seriosius pertractare.' Kirby, Annals of Winchester College, p. 489.

2 Leland, Collectanea, iv, p. 237.

3 British Museum, MS. Add. 5465; the texts are published in B. Fehr,
'Die Lieder des Fairfax MS.', in Archiv fiiir das Studium der neaeren Sprachen,
cvi, 1 90 1, pp. 48 sqq. For printed transcriptions of the music, see Reese,
Music in the Renaissance, p. 768, n. 25.

4 Lafontaine, The King's Musick, pp. 2-5.

419

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

partes and xi of thre partes' of 1530, the only polyphonic music
printed in England before the Reformation,1 contained sacred
and secular songs, devotional carols and instrumental pieces by
Fayrfax, Cornysh, Ashewell, Pygot, Taverner, Jones, Robert
Cowper and John Gwynneth. The publishing of this collection
shows that a musical repertory of the kind sung in the early
Tudor court had by that time a fairly wide use in the more
affluent and musically cultured households of the realm.

The musical development of the polyphonic carol went along
the same lines as that of the short antiphon and the processional
music, though at a rather slower pace. Most of the carols, all
anonymous, in the two collections of the first half of the fifteenth
century, a roll at Trinity College, Cambridge,2 and the Selden
manuscript in the Bodleian Library, 3 are written for two voices
in the simple descant style which was established by the end of
the fourteenth century. When a third part was added, usually
in a refrain, it was a middle part in the descant fashion, though
the composers adopted from the beginning the rhythmic and
melodic idioms of the chanson:4

Ex. 223.

The carols in the Egerton manuscript,5 which are also anony-
mous, generally have the longer and more graceful melodies

1 The bass book and the first page of the treble are in the British Museum,
the first and last pages of the mean in Westminster Abbey Library. There
are some facsimiles in E. B. Reed, Christmas Carols Printed in the 16th Century,
1932, pp. 4 sqq. The texts are printed in Anglia, xii, pp. 589 sqq.

2 Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. O.3.58.

3 All are printed in Medieval Carols. The name Childe, perhaps the com-
poser, is written above 'Y-blessed be that Lord' in the Selden manuscript.

4 Medieval Carols, No. 41.

5 They are discussed in Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval Music, pp. 148-69.

420

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

and the interweaving tenor and countertenor parts, written in
the same clef,1 of the mature chanson style:2

Ex.224.

Some of the carols in the collection called the 'Ritson' manu-
script after Joseph Ritson, who owned it in the eighteenth cen-
tury, bear the name of Richard Smert and others appear to be
the joint work of Smert and John Trouluffe. Smert was a vicar-
choral of Exeter from 1428 to 1465 or later,3 and rector of the
parish church of Plymtree near Exeter from 1435 to 1477, when
he resigned. A John Treloff was one of the five canons of the
prebendal church of St. Probus, which was attached to Exeter
Cathedral, during the episcopate of John Bothe, Bishop of
Exeter from 1465 to 1478.4 The Ritson carols are similar to the
more mature examples in the Egerton collection, being in chan-
son style and in triple measure, with the exception of the second
refrain of Ave decus saeculi,5 which is in duple measure. The only
instance of four-part writing is the second refrain of 'O blessed
Lord full of pity', where the countertenor has almost the func-
tion of a bass, being in a lower clef than the tenor and taking
the lowest notes at the cadences:6

Ex 225.

bles-sed Lord,

1 With three exceptions: Qui natus est {Medieval Carols, No. 51) has a
middle part of the descant type, while Omnis caterva (No. 70) and Comedentes
convenite (No. 71) have three different clefs with a middle part of the
chanson countertenor type. 2 Ibid., No. 67.

3 Calendar of Documents of the College of Vicars Choral, in the Cathedral
Library. 4 Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis, p. 63.

6 Medieval Carols, No. 86. 6 Ibid., No. 1 16.

421

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

The carols in the Fayrfax book show a decided change in
musical style. They are regularly in duple measure and some-
times treat the refrain in a shortened or varied form, as in
'Woefully array'd' by William Cornyshe,1 a setting of words
'rather doubtfully ascribed to John Skelton',2 to which the com-
poser's warm and intimate style was well suited. In the first
two lines of the third verse he used a homorhythmic treatment
with striking effect:3

Ex.226.

Thus no.

man, for thy sake ■, I Love thee,thenbvemeiwhy$leep'st thou,a-wake, a.

1 -J^j fLAj b b J- J>

man, for thy sake, I Love

Lot/

thee,then Love me-,whys,

• * j b Mi

■leef. st

p P r r

st thou,a-wake,a.
■ J— i-

man, for thy sake;
wake

then Love me-, why sleep'st thou,a-wake,

wake, a- wake.

Re- mem - ber tny ten- (der heart)

while for the end of the last verse and the shortened final refrain
he used a familiar point, and closed on a form of the sus-
pended cadence which he wrote at the end of the first section
of his Salve regina in the Eton choirbook:4

1 'William Cornysshe Junior' in the manuscript, which suggests that it was
written before the death of William senior in 1502; it also contains a carol by
Edmund Turges in praise of Prince Arthur (d. 1502).

2 Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, p. 107; see
also Brown, Religious Lyrics of the Fifteenth Century, p. 326.

3 British Museum, MS. Add. 5465, fo. 65V. * Ibid., fo. 66v.

422

OTHER RITUAL FORMS! THE CAROL

Ex, 227.

(thee)
(thee)_

Come

whenue list, wet-
± ? J J.

Come when </e
come to me. J

(thee) Come when ye LstfweL-come to me.

Woe- fui- Ly or- ray'd.

The Break with Medieval Tradition

The change from the Latin to the English liturgy brought to a
close the varied repertory of ritual music associated with plain-
song. Though the Anglican 'Service' incorporated in its Com-
munion service something of the musical tradition of the shorter
Mass, little musical continuity with the style of the festal Mass
was possible once the extreme reforms of Edward VI's reign
(1547-53) had come into effect. The Marian revival was short-
lived and by the fifteen-sixties the new Morning, Communion
and Evening services had opened a new chapter in the history of
English church music. The Anglican anthem and Magnificat
inherited in some degree the liturgical tradition of the Latin
votive antiphon and Magnificat, but again there was virtually
no continuity of style with the larger votive antiphon and Mag-
nificat of earlier Tudor times. The style inherited by the English
anthem was that of the earlier psalm-motet, shorter antiphon

423

OTHER RITUAL FORMS; THE CAROL

and carol. The social function of the carol passed to the poly-
phonic songs of the Elizabethan age, and its characteristic mix-
ture of sacred and secular is still found in Thomas Whythorne's
'Songes of three, fower, and five voyces' of 157 1, which includes
'moral' songs and metrical psalms, and in Byrd's 'Psalmes,
Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie, made into Musicke of five
parts' of 1588, which stand between the medieval carol and
the madrigal, the household music of a later age.

424

APPENDIX I

Deed of Appointment of Richard Hygons as Master of
the Choristers at Wells (i^g)1

Omnibus Christi fidelibus presens scriptum indentatum visuris
seu audituris Johannes Gunthorp Decanus Ecclesie Cathedralis
Wellensis capitulumque eiusdem Salutem in Domino sempiternam
ac eidem Scripto fidem credulam adhibere Noveritis Nos de con-
fratris nostri Magistri Thome Overay dicte Ecclesie precentoris
assensu et consensu expressis dedisse et concessisse hocquoque pre-
sente scripto nostro confirmasse Ricardo Hugons Civitatis Wellensis
in Comitatu Somersetensi civi et inhabitatori viro in cantu scien-
tifico Annuum redditum sive annuam pensionem iiii librarum xiiis
iiii denariorum legalis monete Anglie Ad terminum vite sue sub
modis formis condicionibus et provisionibus subscriptis eidem
annuatim per manus communarii dicti Ecclesie Cathedralis pro
tempore existentis Ad quatuor terminos usuales scilicet Natalis
Domini Pasche Sanctorum Johannis Baptiste et Michaelis Arch-
angeli equalibus porcionibus fideliter persovendam prima solutione
huius incipiente in festo Natalis domini proxime futuro Viz lxvis
viiid de pensionibus redditibus et proventibus decano et capitulo
prefate Ecclesie Cathedralis in et ad Usum supportacionem et
sustentacionem choristarum et tabulariorum illius Ecclesie Cathe-
dralis pro tempore existencium domusque eorundem necnon
aliorum operum in ea parte incumbenciam legitimam datis concessis
et appropriatis Ac xxvi solidos viii denarios de terris pratis domibus
redditibus et proventibus nostris apud Estwalles Wellie olim Orum
ys lyvelode nominatis exeuntibus et proventuris Unum quoque
quindecim edificiorum seu messuagiorum decenter et honorifice
prope cemeterium Ecclesie Cathedralis antedicte sumptibus et
expensis bone memorie domini Thome de Bekyngtona quondam
Bathonensis et Wellensis Episcopi edificatorum quod ipse Ricardus
modo occupat et inhabitat situm et situatum inter edificia sive
messuagia adnunc per Johannem Howse ex parte orientali et

1 Wells Museum, MS. 22, now in the Cathedral Library. The text printed
here is from the MS. 'Transcript of Documents in the Museum', Vol. i,
pp. 77-80.

425

APPENDIX I

Johannem Seward ex parte occidentali eciam ocupata et inhabitata
in et ad Valorem Summe xxvis viii denariorum Pro huius valoris
redditu sive pensione supradictus Ricardus Hugons hec onera
subibit. Primo instruet et informabit diligenter et studiose iuxta
vires dictos Choristas et tabularios omnes et singulos pro tempore
existentes in bonis et virtuosis moribus in cantu piano fracto et
discantu lusu quoque organorum iuxta eorum disposicionem et
capacitatem. Secundo. dietim presens erit in superpellicio suo hon-
esto et condecenti in missa beate marie virginis in Capella eiusdem
sita et situata ex parte orientali summi altaris prefate Ecclesie
Cathedralis ac prope et retro ipsum ibidem cantando et psallendo.
Ac eciam in Antiphona eiusdem beate marie virginis ante imaginem
suam prope hostium chori dicte Ecclesie Cathedralis ex parte
boreali eiusdem positam et situatam certis diebus et temporibus
antiquitus decantari solita quando et quotiens huiusmodi Anti-
phona ibidem decantatur — causa legitimi impedimenti cessante in
hac parte — iudicio precentoris illius Ecclesie Cathedralis pro tem-
pore existentis approbanda Postquam quidem Antiphonam sit
decantatam statim et immediate idem Ricardus Hugons quolibet
die dominico in quo seu in crastino die tunc sequente festum duplex
non continget Aut in quo die dominico Exequie mortuorum
solemnes in prefata Ecclesia Cathedrali non celebrabuntur facie t
Antiphonam de Jesu ante crucem maiorem in navi eiusdem Ecclesie
Cathedralis existentem per dictos choristas et tabularios more
hactenus in ea parte consueto et solito decantari. Tertio. presens
erit in Choro antedicto in superpellicio honesto et condecenti locum
servans et tenens in gradu inferiori ex parte Cantoris superscripti
prope repetitorem eiusdem Chori singulis diebus dominicis et
festivis in missis altis et utrisque vesperis— primis et secundis Ac
in matutinis in festis Sancte Trinitatis Corporis Christi Nativitatis
Sancti Johannis Baptiste Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et Translationis
Sancti Thome Martyris ibidem psallendo et cantando ad honorem
dei et Chori eiusdem cessante causa legitimi impedimenti exponenda
et declaranda decano si presens fuerit Ac in ipsius Absentia Sub-
decano et in Utriusque eorum absentia presidenti Capituli pro
tempore existenti. In casu et eventu quibus huiusmodi missis ves-
peris et matutinis seu eorum alicui in festis principalibus et maioribus
duplicibus commode interesse non possit abesseque velit et desideret
petita desuper licencia et obtenta ab eo cui causam suam huiusmodi
habet exponere et declarare Si vero in festis minoribus duplicibus
festivis seu aliquibus diebus festivis et dominicis causa impedimenti
legitimi subsistat quod in prefatis missis vesperis et matutinis seu
eorum aliqua presens esse non valeat causam ipsam Precentori
supermemorato seu eius deputato exponat licenciamque in ea parte

426

APPENDIX I

ab eo postulet et obtineat. Quarto, quod quando et quotiens prefatus
Ricardus Hugons velit devillare licentiam petet et obtinebit a Can-
tore dicte Ecclesie pro tempore existente seu eius deputato ac in sua
huiusmodi absencia semper ordinabit et providebit de honesto
scienti et docto viro in ipsius loco ad informandum et docendum et
instruendum Choristas et Tabularios supermemoratos diligenter
utiliter et attente suis sumptibus et expensis. Quinto. quod quando
et quotiens continget dictum Ricardum Hugons infirmitatem cor-
poris pati seu incidere temporalem quominus durante ipsa infirmi-
tate valeat personaliter instruccioni et informacioni predictorum
Choristarum et Tabulariorum debite intendere ut tenetur pro toto et
omni tempore huiusmodi infirmitatis doctum honestum et scientem
virum inveniet et in loco illius subrogabit ad suplendum debitum
suum in informacione et instruccione eorundem suis eciam sumpti-
bus et expensis. Sed si quod absit continget ipsum Ricardum Hugons
perpetuam infirmitatem pati seu adversa corporis valitudine con-
tinua et incurabili laborare sic quod non poterit debitum officii sui
huiusmodi facere et exequi ut premittitur tunc percipiet dumtaxat
annuatim per manus communarii prenominati Ad quatuor Anni
terminos superscriptos equalibus porcionibus xxvi solidos viii
denarios de pensionibus redditibus et proventibus Decano et Ca-
pitulo ipsius Ecclesie ad Usum supportacionem et sustentacionem
permissis datis concessis et appropriatis habebitque edificium seu
messuagium super plene descriptum et nunc per eundem Ricardum
Hugons occupatum et inhabitatum durante vita sua Proviso semper
quod si dictus Ricardus Hugons fuerit negligens et remissus in
informando docendo et instruendo prefatos Choristas et Tabularios
licebit Precentori Ecclesie antedicte pro tempore existenti eum
alloqui et admonere ad sui emendacionem et reformacionem in ea
parte Cui precentori idem Ricardus Hugons in hiis que concernunt
debitum officii sui huius humiliter obediet et parebit Proviso eciam
quod si idem Ricardus Hugons animo pertinaci antedicta onera
seu eorum aliquod neglexerit aut recusaverit perimplere et observare
Ac de et super hoc legitime coram Decano et Capitulo prefate
Ecclesie Cathedralis pro tempore existente convictus fuerit extunc
presens nostra concessio pro nulla habeatur viribusque careat et
vigore. Et si contingat predictum redditum seu pensionem quatuor
librarum xiii solidarum quatuor denariorum a retro fore in parte
vel in toto per quindecim dies post aliquem terminum terminorum
supra scriptorum extunc bene licebit prefato Ricardo Hugons in
quatuordecim aliis edificiis sive messuagis supermemoratis et eorum
quolibet distringere et districciones sic captas abducere asportare
et penes se retinere quousque de huius modi redditu seu pensione
sic a retro existente sibi plenarie fuerit satisfactum et persolutum In

427

APPENDIX I

cuius rei testimonium Uni parti huius scripti indentati penes ipsum
Ricardum Hugons remanenti Nos prefati Decanus et Capitulum
Sigillum nostrum commune apponi fecimus. Alteri uni parti eiusdem
Scripti penes Decanum et Capitulum et Successores nostros reman-
enti idem Ricardus Hugons sigillum suum apposuit. Hiis testibus
Magistro Johanni Middilton Officiali Archdiaconi Wellensis ac
dominis Ricardo Huchyns Johanne Comb et Johanne Towker
Capellanis Vicariis choralibus Ecclesie Cathedralis supermemorate
Datum quo ad Sigilli mei Ricardi Hugons antedicti appositionem
Wellie septimo die mensis Decembris Anno domini millesimo
Quadringentesimo Septuagesimo nono.

428

APPENDIX II

Deed of Appointment of Thomas Ashewell as Cantor at
Durham (1513)1

Haec indentura facta inter Thomam, permissione Divina Priorem
ecclesiae cathedralis Dunelmensis, ex una parte, et Thomam Hashe-
well cantorem, ex parte altera, testatur, quod idem Thomas est
retentus et firmiter juratus ad serviendum dicto Priori et successori-
bus suis, bene et fideliter usque ad terminum vitae suae, sub forma
infrascripta; videlicet quod idem Thomas Hashewell illos monachos
Dunelmenses et octo pueros seculares, quos Prior Dunelmensis, vel
ejus deputatus, assignaverit sibi ad discendum, assidue et diligenter
et meliori modo, quo sciverit, tarn ad modulandum super organa,
quam ad planum cantum et organicum, decantando scilicet plane-
song, priknott, faburdon, dischant, swarenote, et countre, quantum
in ipso est gratis laborabit et informabit. Ac prefatos monachos et
octo pueros, ut premittitur, quater omni die feriato, videlicet bis
ante meridiem et bis post meridiem, diligenter et sufficienter docebit
eorumque lecciones [ut praefertur, audiet], nichil ab eis de dictis
scienciis suis occultando. Tenebitur itaque idem Thomas Hashe-
well omnibus et singulis missis, vesperis, et Salve regina, in choro
ecclesiae cathedralis Dunelmensis predictae, cum priknote, dis-
chaunte, faburdon, et organico cantu conjunctim et divisim cele-
brandis, a principio praedictorum cantuum usque ad finem illorum,
nisi ipsum aliqua legitima causa impediat, personaliter interesse,
modulando ibidem super organa, si necesse fuerit [sive admonitus
seu assignatus fuerit], tenoremque ad cantus supradictos canendo,
aut aliam partem voci suae magis congruentem, a precentore seu
ejus locum gerente assignatam. Et tenebitur cotidie personaliter
interesse missae beatae Mariae Virginis [a principio usque ad finem]
cum nota in Galilea Dunelmensi celebrandae, canendo ad eandem
missam planum cantum sive organicum, meliori modo quo sciverit
et poterit, sicut contigerit alios ibidem cantare pro tempore, nisi
legitima et magna causa ipsum impediat. Et si talis causa emerserit,
quod ibidem alternis vicibus interesse non poterit, alium peritum

1 Reprinted from Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, p. ccccxiii; words
in brackets from John Tildesley's indenture, ibid., p. cccxcviii.
M.M.B. — FF 429

APPENDIX II

habilem et ydoneum ejus loco [et officio] subrogabit. Tenebitur
eciam ad vocacionem praecentoris praefatae ecclesiae cathedralis
Dunelmensis seu ejus locum tenentis pro cantibus previdendis
[tociens quociens ad hac praemunitus fuerit]. Insuper idem Thomas,
quolibet anno, durante termino supradicto, quamdiu bene et
comode laborare poterit, unam novam missam quatuor vel quinque
parcium, vel aliquid ei equivalens, sicut praefatis Priori et precentori
pro tempore existentibus visum fuerit, in honorem Dei, beatae
Mariae Virginis, et sancti Cuthberti facere tenebitur. Pro quibus
omnibus et singulis serviciis bene et fideliter impendendis et sustin-
endis, dictus Prior pro se et successoribus suis concessit dicto Thomae
Hashewell decern libras monetae Angliae ad quatuor anni terminos,
scilicet ad festum annunciacionis beatae Mariae Virginis, sancti
Johannis Baptistae, sancti Michaelis Archangeli, et nativitatis
Domini, per equales porciones, una cum tribus ulnis de secta
generosorum clericorum quolibet anno ad nativitatem Domin
recipiendis; habendum et tenendum supradictas decern libras et trei
ulnas panni praefato Thomae a dicto Priore et successoribus suis
apud monasterium Dunelmense ad terminos supradictos solvendass
quamdiu omnia et singula premissa modo et forma praenotatis et,
bene perimpleverit. Si vero contingat dictum Thomam in tantam
debilitatem morbo incidere, vel infirmitate, quod praemissa facere
seu perimplere nequeat, extunc idem Thomas erit contentus perci-
pere annuatim de praefato Priore et successoribus suis pro tempore
incumbenciae suae quinque marcas usualis monetae Angliae. In
cujus rei testimonium sigillum commune capituli nostri praesentibus
est appensum. Data Dunelmi, in domo nostra capitulari, vicesimo
iiiito die mensis Decembris, anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo
terciodecimo.

430

APPENDIX III

Extract from a Magdalen College Inventory (1322) l

Duo libri missarum pro hominibus et pueris in papiro, 2° fo.
primi tis gracias,2 2° fo. secundi Eleyson. Unus liber pro hominibus
tantum vel pueris tantum in papiro, 2° fo. Kyrie. Unus liber non
ligatus, 2° fo. magnam gloriam.3 Item unum librum unius partis
tantum voc. le Base, 2° fo. Kyrie.4" Item 8 quaterni de sancto
Swythuno,5 14 de nomine Jhu, 5 de visitacione beate Marie.

Item sunt novem libri pulcherrimi cantuum fractorum, quorum
duo sunt majores, in quibus sunt misse septem parcium sex parcium
et quinque parcium, 20 fo. primi. Et in terra,6 2d0 fo. secundi, bone
voluntatis;6 duo libri minores missarum cum sequenciis Alleluya et
Kyryeleson quatuor parcium, pro missis beate Marie, 2d0 fo. primi,
Euge,6 2d0 fo. secundi, Euge. Item duo magni libri, Psalmorum7
Magnificat et Nunc Dimittis ac Antiphanarum septem parcium
sex parcium et quinque parcium, secundo fo. primi Et exultavit,
secundo fo. secundi Et exultavit. Item duo libri Antiphanarum
quinque parcium et quatuor parcium, secundo fo. primi Te matrem
Dei, secundo fo. secundi, Sancta. Item magnus liber Missarum
Antiphanarum et Psalmi Magnificat cum sequenciis et aliis pro
missis beate Marie, pro viris tantum vel pueris tantum, secundo
fo. Kyryeleson. Isti libri fuerunt empti infra annum Domini mille-
simum quingentesimum decimum octavum et annum Domini
millesimum quingentesimum vicesimum quartum.

1 Reprinted from Macray, Magdalen Register, ii, p. 209. The second
paragraph is an addition, probably of 1524.

2 Probably for te gracias, with which the first full section of a Gloria
often began.

3 From the Gloria.

4 Squares or faburdens?

5 Bishop and Confessor, d. 863; patron saint of Wayneflete's Cathedral
of Winchester.

6 The second verse of Ave praeclara, the Sequence of the Sunday Lady-
Mass, begins Euge caeli porta.

7 I.e. canticles.

431

APPENDIX IV

Extract from a King's College Inventory (i^g)1

An inventarye of the pryke songys longynge to the Kyngys Col-
lege in Cambryge

5 greate bokys coverde wyth rede lether conteynynge the most
solemne antems off v partes.

iiij smallar bokys coverd wyth lether havynge Cornys and Copers
massy s.

iij bokys of parchmente conteynynge Salve festa dies En rex venit Rex
sanctorum. Crucifixum.2

iiij bokys of papyr havynge Sequenses and Taverners Kyries.

vi bokys off parchemente conteynynge Turges massys and antems
Pontificem.3 0 per omnia.41 Summe dei.h Cristi virgo. Alma redemp-
toris. Cristi virgo. Quia devotis.6 Qui tres pueros.7 Water Lambes
Exultavit.8 Nunc dimittis off the same. Exultavit. Alma redemp-
toris. 0 cristi pietas.9 a masse Recordare.10 Horwood's Gaude.11

1 Reprinted from The Ecclesiologist, xxiv, 1863, p. ioo, with slight emen-
dations from the original.

2 Holy Week music in three-part settings; compare the collections in
Egerton 3307 and the Shrewsbury part-book.

3 Pontiftces almi is the seventh antiphon at Matins of St. Nicholas.

4 Fifth antiphon at Lauds of St. Nicholas.

5 Seventh respond at Matins of St. Nicholas.

6 Fifth antiphon at Lauds of St. Katherine.

7 Verse of the respond Summe Dei confessor Nichole.

8 There is a five-part Magnificat by Lambe in the Eton choirbook.

9 Antiphon to the Magnificat at second Vespers of St. Nicholas. The
melody is the same as that of O quam suavis; see Missa 0 Quam suavis, p. xi.

10 Recordare Domine testamenii (which was set by Richard Bramston in Add.
1 7802-5) is the eighth respond at Matins on the first Sunday after Trinity;
Recordare mei Domine et erue me is the seventh antiphon at Matins on Passion
Sunday. There are also Offertories Recordare mei Domine omnipotentatui on
the twenty-second Sunday after Trinity and Recordare quod steterim on the
Saturday before Palm Sunday.

11 The Eton choirbook contains Horwood's Gaude flore virginali and his
Gaude virgo mater Christi (incomplete); both are for five voices.

432

APPENDIX IV

Haycomplaynes Gaude.1 Congaudentes.2 0 gloriosa.3 Dun-
stabylls Exultavit* Summe dei. Exultavit Morgan. Quia viderunt.
Ascendit cristas. 0 pastor.5 Tibi laudes.6 Exultavit. Also Quia
viderunt. Exultavit ffarfax. Quia viderunt off the same. Cristi
virgo. Wylkynsons Salve decus.7 The Masse Regale. The masse
Lux eterna.8 Ne derelinquas.9 Summe Dei.

vj bokys of squaris off ye wych ij be papyr ye reste parchmente.
A boke wyth a blake coverynge in parchment havynge
Dicant nunc. Laudate pueri. In pace. In manus. Verbum patris
refulgens10 and a masse off Taverners for chyldren.

iiij bokys in papyr off carrolls. Nowell.

vj bokys conteynynge a masse of Pygottys a nother off Gornyshys
and an anteme off Davys.

ij Bokys havynge a masse Regale, a nother A dew mes a mowrs,11
and Taverners Kyries with the Sequensis.

A boke conteynynge thes songys folloynge. Laudes deo.12 The prose
for Christmas day Verbum patris.

1 The only surviving composition by Hacomplayne (Hacomblene,
Hacomplaynt) is his Salve regina in Eton.

2 Congaudentes exsultemus is the sequence on the feast of St. Nicholas.

3 0 gloriosa domina is the hymn at Lauds on feasts of the Virgin and at
Commemorations of the Virgin except at Christmastide; O gloriosa genitrix
is the antiphon to the Benedictus at Lauds for Commemorations of the
Virgin from the Purification to Advent.

4 Certainly a lost composition, not the three-part work in John Dunstable,

P- 95-

5 The antiphon to the Magnificat at first Vespers of St. Nicholas.

6 Tibi laus is the seventh respond at Matins on Trinity Sunday.

7 Wylkynson's five-part Salve decus castitatis (now fragmentary) is in the
Eton choirbook. 8 See above, p. 164.

9 Ne derelinquas me Domine pater is a respond at ferial Matins in August;
Ne derelinquas me Domine Deus is the Introit for Wednesday after the second
Sunday in Lent.

10 Apparently for boys, and perhaps a variant on the Benedicamus sub-
stitute Verbum patris for Holy Innocents.

11 There is a four-part song 'Adew mes amours' by Cornysh in British
Museum, MS. Add. 31922.

12 Probably the troped lesson at Midnight Mass; Laudes Deo devotas is the
sequence for Friday after Whitsunday.

433

APPENDIX V

Extracts from a Winchester College Inventory (1531)1

LIBRI COLLEGII BEATE MARIE PROPE WINTONIAM
PRO CAPELLA

Antiphonaria ex parte domini Custodis

Item i magnum antiphonarium iacens coram domino custode, 2do

folio Spiritui
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram magistro schole et sociis

senioribus, 2do fo. incipient
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram 30 socio, 2do fo. debeamus
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram sociis junioribus, 2do fo.

venit
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram conducto, 2 do fo. seculorum
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram hostiario et clerico, in iibus

voluminibus, 2do fo. prime partis hoc modo, 2do fo. secunde

partis per singulos
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram scholaribus, 2do fo. donee

Antiphonaria ex parte Vicecustodis

Item i antiphonarium iacens coram vicecustode, 2do fo. portarum
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram sociis senioribus, 2do fo.

vis et reg
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram sociis junioribus, 2do fo.

tencia
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram conducto, 2do fo. tegente
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram clericis, 2do fo. quam ad
Item aliud antiphonarium iacens coram scholaribus, 2do fo. tato
Item aliud antiphonarium pro rectore chori, 2do fo. tunc
Item aliud antiphonarium pro organista, 2do fo. Domine (struck out)
Item aliud antiphonarium novum ordinatum pro chorustis, 2do fo.

facite
Item aliud antiquum antiphonarium pro chorustis, 2do fo. ati

(struck out)

1 In the College Muniments.
434

APPENDIX V

Gradalia ex parte domini Custodis

Item i gradale iacens coram domino custode, 2do fo. temporibus
Item aliud gradale iacens coram sociis senioribus, 2do fo. dicatur
Item aliud gradale iacens coram sociis junioribus, 2do fo. temptantis
Item aliud gradale iacens coram conducto, 2do fo. omnibus
Item (blank)

Gradalia ex parte Vicecustodis

Item i gradale iacens coram vicecustode, 2do fo. temporibus
Item aliud gradale iacens coram sociis senioribus, 2do fo. orationes
Item aliud gradale iacens coram sociis junioribus, 2do fo. quatuor
Item aliud gradale iacens coram conducto, 2do fo. supradicto modo
Item aliud gradale iacens coram clericis, 2do fo. In hoc ha

Gradalia pro chorustis

Item i gradale, 2 do fo. Deus

Item aliud gradale, 2do fo. vestigia

Item aliud gradale, 2do fo. in ira mea (struck out)

Processionalia

Item i processionale 2do fo. ex te sanctum

(seventeen others, of which three are struck out)

v non reperimus precedentis inventarii

Item ix processionalia impressa similia, 2do fo. bus vel in locis

Item aliud impressum, 30 fo. Deus invicte

Item iii libri himnorum impressi similes, 30 fo. exiens

Item 20 psalteria scripta, unum 2do fo. cum exarserit

Item aliud, 2 do fo. et nunc reges

Aliud, 2do fo. mefac

Manualia et Pontificalia

Collectaria

Libri Evangeliorum et epistolarum

Ordinalia
435

APPENDIX V

Item 2° libri notati, unus missarum, alius antiphonarum, ex dono

magistri Pers1 quondam socii collegii
Item iiii libri notati responsoriorum consimilis quantitatis
Item alius liber imnarum partis basse, cum multitudine bossorum

in lateribus, ex dono magistri Barnake2

Legende
Missalia

[After sections headed Jocalia et vasa argentea, Cruces de argento
cum baculis, Calices, Cruces de Cupro, Candelabra de
Laten:]

Organa

Item i par organorum in parte boreali chori ex dono domini

Johannis Webbe3
Item aliud par organorum in pulpito
Item i par organorum in capella Fromond

1John Pers of Taunton; Scholar, 1480; Scholar of New College, B.C.L.;
Fellow of New College, 1487-93; Fellow of Winchester, 1505.

2 Ralph Barnake, Scholar of Winchester, 1495; Scholar of New College;
Fellow of Winchester, 1500-17; Warden, 1520-6.

3 Fellow, admitted 1494.

436

APPENDIX VI

Extracts from the Statutes of the New Foundation of
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin {i53g)x

Regulae et constitutiones pro melius ordinanda Ecclesia Sancte
Trinitatis et pro mutando priorem et conventum in Decanum et
Capitulum sicut proposita sunt a Regis Henrici octavi Commis-
sionariis. [Robert Payneswick, Prior, became Dean; Richard Bale,
Sub-prior, Precentor; Walter Whyte, Seneschal and Precentor,
Chancellor; and John Mosse, Sub-precentor and Sacrist, Treasurer.]

Likewise that the other regular canons being in number eight, and
four chorister boys, shall be called by the name of Vicars Choral,
who shall be present at the divine offices there by day and night,
and shall collegialiter exercise hospitality within the precincts of the
said College, in like manner as the Vicars Choral of the Church of
St. Patrick's; assigning to the said eight for the same and their
cloathing 53I. 13s. 4d. and for the sustentation of the four boys
61. 13s. 4d. per annum. . . .

The said eight Vicars Choral shall be in the ministry and shall
perform similar duties as in the Church of St. Patrick. The first
shall be styled Sub-dean and Dean's Vicar, to which office we
appoint John Curragh presbyter, which John shall be president of
the said vicars choral ... he shall also be a secular canon of the
said Church, shall have a Stall in the Choir, a place and voice in
the Chapter secundum stalli sui gradum in the Election of the Arch-
bishop and Dean and all other capitular acts. . . .

Likewise we ordain that one of the Vicars Choral shall be pre-
centor's vicar, called succentor, whose office shall be to instruct the
boys of the choir in singing; he shall have the second place after the
Dean's Vicar in Choir, Chapter and at table, shall order the table of
weekly services, and such other matters as are arranged by the
Succentor in St. Patrick's Cathedral, to which office we appoint
Dominus John Kerdyff. . . .

[The Chancellor shall have a Vicar Choral, who shall have the

1 From an eighteenth-century translation in the National Library of
Ireland, MS. 98, fos. 44-50.

437

APPENDIX VI

third place in rank, and shall] emend and correct libros chori falso
latino et incongruo corruptos ... to which office we appoint Christopher
Bathe, whom we make hereby a minor canon, commonly called
a petit Canon. . . .

[Dominus Oliver Grant is appointed Treasurer's Vicar Choral
and a minor canon, with fourth place in Choir, Chapter and at
Table.]

Likewise we ordain that the other regular canons, in number
four shall be personally present at divine offices, especially quando
Missae cum cantu celebrantur, each of whom shall receive yearly
46s. 8d. from the funds above named, and shall have their daily
refections at the tables of the vicars. . . .

We will that the four above mentioned Choristers shall attend
diligently to the offices enjoined by the Precentor or master of the
boys, to whom they shall shew due reverence. Likewise we will that
they be present in the Daily Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
in all other masses cum ft actum habeant cantum, likewise in Vespers pro
cantandis responsoriis and in Missis gradalibus. . . .

We appoint that one of the Dignitaries shall celebrate every sexta
feria a Mass De nomine Jesu in the summo mane in lieu of the first Mass,
before the Image of the Crucifix in the accustomed place, and this
solemnly cum solemni cantu.

We appoint likewise that the four principal vicars in their turns
per omnes hebdomadas shall serve and celebrate Mass at the principal
altar daily, and shall celebrate a mass cum cantu piano for the State
of the King at the said altar three times per week; likewise that the
other four minor vicars in their turns per week shall officiate daily
at the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary except on the great and
principal feasts in which we wish one of the Dignitaries to celebrate
if conveniently they can; if not we leave it to the disposition of the
Dean and Precentor.

Likewise the said Vicars minor shall one of them daily except
Friday celebrate or cause to be celebrated in said church submissa
voce one other mass, called the Mass of the Holy Cross, vulgarly
stiled 'The Roode Mass', at the accustomed time and place. Likewise
the said Vicars minor every Thursday [Die Jovis) shall celebrate a
Mass cum cantu et Choristis et aliis ministris prout decet et consuetum est.
Likewise said vicars with two of the principal Vicars who shall be
free that week from the service of the High Mass shall celebrate
on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at the altar of the Holy
Ghost one mass for the soul of Walter Kelly formerly Mayor of
Dublin, for the soul of Alison Ward cum ab hac luce tnigraverit, and
all other benefactors of said church.

Likewise that three clerici chorales habeantur in said cathedral, of

438

APPENDIX VI

whom the first shall be learned in the musical art tarn ad pulsatione
Organorum quam in cantn piano etfracto, pariter et in sufficienti discantu pro
instructione puerorum, who shall be master of the Boys under the
praecentor and shall minister in the daily mass of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and in the high Mass, and as often as any Mass cum cantufracto
shall be celebrated; he shall have the office of Bedell in the said
Cathedral carrying Virgam before the Dean when he shall come to
celebrate the divine offices, and also before the other dignitaries
when they shall perform the divine offices in the Choir, and shall
have for his pay yearly 61. 13s. 4d.

Likewise a second Clericus who shall be called Sacrist, whose office
it shall be to strike the bells at the proper hours; he shall be present
day and night, at the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary every day
for assisting the singers there, in like manner at the High Mass.

Also a third Clerk, whose office to strike the bell campanum Mariae
at the first Mass, and assist the prebendary celebrating the same,
and to administer to him the wine water and bread; he shall do
the same at the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the second
Mass.

1 2 December 3 1 of the King
John Allen Cane. R
Georgius Dublin
Willimus Brabazon

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453

In addition to British musicians mentioned in the text, this list includes composers
(in capitals), holders of university degrees in music, masters, informators and
organists. If no office is shown, that of clerk is to be understood. An asterisk
indicates that there is an entry in Grove's Dictionary. As a rule, information given
there is not repeated here. Names of Chapel Royal musicians are from lists kindly
supplied by Mr. John Harvey and Dr. A. R. Myers, the printed Calendars of
Patent Rolls and Close Rolls, the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, and Lafontaine.
References to Leach are to his English Schools at the Reformation (London, 1896);
those to S terry are to his Eton College Register, I4^i-i6g8 (Eton, 1943). Names of
graduates in music are from Williams; other references will be found in the
Bibliography. In other cases the information is from unpublished archives. The
year in medieval accounts was normally counted from Michaelmas to Michaelmas,
divided — at Christmas or January 1, Easter or March 25, and June 24 — into four
terms. Where dates enclose three or more years it is not to be assumed that the
records are complete for the whole period.

*Abyngdon (Abyndon), Henry, 23, 25,
161
Eton, 1447 (Mar) -53

*ALANUS, JOHANNES, see Aleyn,
John

ALCOKE, PHILIP

Lichfield, lay- vicar 1527 (Chapter
Act Book iv, fo. 38); Crediton,
secondary 1544-8, inf 1547-8
(Leach); his Salve regina is in Brit.
Mus. Add. 17802-5

ALEN, WILLIAM

His Gaude virgo mater Christi is in
Cambridge, Peterhouse part-books

Alexander, Robert
Eton, inf 1528-30

* ALEYN, JOHN, 112, 222, 224-5
(Ex. 22), 228
Windsor, Canon 1362-d. 73 (Ollard)

Aleyn, John, piper, 224

*ALWOOD, RICHARD

AMBROS

King's, 1 48 1 -2; there is a canon by
John Ambrose in Brit. Mus. Royal
App. 58

Andrew, 1 58

Windsor 1454-5; perhaps the Andrew
in the New College Accounts 1479-
80

ANGLICANUS, DE ANGLIA, 250,

3°5
ANTHONY, CHRISTOPHER, 347-8
(Exs. 128-9)

* APPLEBY, THOMAS, 11, 178, 288,

290
Ap RHYS, PHILIP, 13, 293-4 (Ex.

74), 360
ARNAT, see CARVER
*ASHEWELL (HASHEWELL),

THOMAS, 11, 41, 158, 177, 187,

274. 334, 420
Lincoln, inf 1508; Durham, master

1513
Asshby (Astelby), Arnold

Eton, inf 1447 (Mar)-g; Salisbury,
porter of the close 1449 (Robertson)

* ASTON (ASSETON, ASSHETON),

HUGH, 29, 272-3, 330, 332-6
(Exs. 1 15-17)
Newark, master 1525-48 (Thomson)

454

Bagele (Vageler), Walter
Wells, org 141 6

Bakhouse, Adam, 176
Ripon, org 1520-6

BALDWYN

His Magnificat in the Eton Choir-
book is lost; a John B. was Mus.B.
Cambridge 1 470-1

*BANESTER, GILBERT, 23, 199,
307-10 (Ex. 90), 382-3 (Ex. 176),

419
BARBER, ROBERT, 32, 369 (Ex. 160)

Winchester Coll, inf 154 1-2
Barbor, John

Newport (Salop) Coll Church, org
1547-8 (Leach)
Bartlet, Nicholas

Eton, 1524 (Jan)-6 (Mar), inf 1525

(Sept)-6 (Mar)
Barton, Ralph

Magdalen, org 1491
Bayly, Christopher

Magdalen, inf 1485
Bealle, Richard

Fotheringhay, inf 1544-7 (Leach)
*BEDYNGHAM, JOHN, 250
Bekton

King's, chaplain and inf 1 467-8
Bell

New Coll, inf 1484-5 (3 terms)
Bell, Alexander

Magdalen, inf 1 486
Bell, William

Winchester Coll, org 1482-99
*BENEDICTUS (BENET) DE

OPITIIS, 172, 338-40
*BENET, JOHN, 250, 306 (Ex. 86)
Bernard (Barnard), William, 165

Magdalen, 1486-90, inf and org

1490, chaplain 1491
Beryderyke, Benjamin

Mus.B. Cambridge 1519
Bettoun, Thomas, 15

Dunkeld, canon early 16th cent
Beylby, Thomas, 103

Southwell, VC 1 476- 1 503
Blaksmit, 133

Chapel of Henry III
Blithe, Richard, 224

Chapel Royal, 1413-d. 20
*BLYTHEMAN, WILLIAM, 288, 388
Bonyat (Boweyat, Boveat), Richard

Eton, inf 1468-72

Boraston (Bowarton, Boverton), John

Eton, inf 1475-93 (Jan)
Bothe, William

Birmingham, org 1547-8 (Leach)
Bowyer, Richard

Windsor, 1482-99, org 1489-96
Bowyer, Richard

Chapel Royal, 1525-48, master 1545
Boys, Daniel, 186

Worcester, master 1522-c. 40
Braddon, John, 8

Wells, VC 1502-4
*BRAMSTON, RICHARD, 180, 336

d. 1552-3

Brankynberg

King's, conduct and inf 1469-70

*BRIMLEY,JOHN, 41, 189
Durham, master 1536-c. 76

Brown, Roger, 185

St. Patrick's, Dublin, 1509

*BROWNE, JOHN, 312-16 (Ex. 93),
319-21 (Exs. 96, 98-9), 323-4,
326-9 (Exs. 107, 109), 419, 111. 23
A J. B. of Berkshire was scholar of
Eton c. 1442-5, elected scholar of
King's Sept 26, 1444, aged 19, and
admitted Oct 6, 1445. A J. B. of
Coventry was elected scholar of Eton
July 8, 1467, aged 14 about Dec
25, 1467 (Sterry). The composer was
almost certainly not the J. B. rector
of West Tilbury May 31, 1478 to
1490, who was Licentiate of Civil Law
in 1478 and a Chancery clerk in 1482

Browne, William

Windsor, 1473 (May i)-g (d. July 6),
listed as John in 1475-6, org 1474-6

Browne, William, 419
Chapel Royal, 1503- n

BRYGEMAN, WILLIAM, 35

Eton, 1503 (3 terms); his Salve regina
in the Eton Choirbook is fragment-
ary; a Brigeman was conduct at
King's in 15 13-15

Bull, 292

Magdalen, 1529-32

Buller

Magdalen, org 1526

Bunnock, Robert

Chapel Royal, 'instructor' 1465

BURELL, JOHN, 22, 245-6 (Ex. 37)
Chapel Royal, 1413-21; see article
by R. L. Greene in Bibliography

455

BURGATE, R. de, 135

Abbot of Reading 1268-90
Burrow (Borow), Thomas

Mus.B. Cambridge 151 7
*BURTON, AVERY (DAVY), 24,

390-1 (Ex. 187)
Buttery, John

Eton, scholar 1499- 1504; King's,

clerk 1507 (Sept) -8 (June), 151 1

(Mar-June), became conduct; later

Ramsey Abbey, master
Butlar, William

Eton, inf and org 1542-5, clerk 1550

and later
Bygbroke, Robert, 173

Winchester Cath, teacher of singing

and org c. 1437
Byrd, Thomas, 289

Chapel Royal, 1525-48
Byrd, William (1), 289, 352
*BYRD, WILLIAM (2), 424
BYTTERING, 228, 236-7 (Ex. 28),
297 (Ex. 77)

Campyon, William, 182

Chichester, org 1544
Cartwright, Thomas, 174-5

Southwell, VC 1476 (admitted June

25)-9o; York VC 1492-1503
* CARVER (alias ARNAT),

ROBERT, 193, 342-4 (Ex. 123)
CATCOTT

His Trium regum is in Cambridge,

Peterhouse part-books
Catherow, see Thatcher
Catour (Catur), Robert, n, 179

Wells, inf and org 1445-62
Caxston, George

Westminster, master 1530-2 (Pine)
CHAMBERLAYNE, ARTHUR, 336
Charde, John

B.Mus. Oxford 15 18-19
CHARITE, WILLIAM, 192, 216

Leicester Abbey, Precentor c. 1493;

no compositions survive
Charles, John

New Coll, inf 1448-55 (June);

presented to Trinity Chantry, Oxford

1450
*Chelle, William
CHILDE, 420

Possibly William Child, assistant

master at Eton 1446-9, later Fellow
of New Coll and Rector of West
Lydford, Somerset, d. 1487 (Sterry)

CHIRBURY, ROBERT, 22, 228, 230
(Ex. 23)
Chapel Royal, 1421-47; Dean of St.
Mary's, Warwick, 1443 (May 4)

Clausay (Clavelshay), John, 180
Wells, 1504-8, master 1508

Claveryng, John

Magdalen, inf 148 1-3

Clawsey, John

B.Mus. Oxford 1509

Clerk, William

Queen's, Oxford, org 1469-70

Clifford, John

Wimborne Minster, org 1539 (Cox)

Cockin, William

Northampton, All Saints, org 1547-8
(Leach)

Cokkes

King's, 1457; a Richard Cokkes was
scholar of Eton 1440 (Sterry); there
is a Mass by 'Riquard Cockx' in
Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, MS.

5557

COLE, J.

Part of a Gloria patri is in Brit. Mus.
Roy. App. 58

COOKE, JOHN, 22, 228, 245-6, 297,
412
Chapel Royal, 1413-d. 33

Cooke, John

Chapel Royal, 1429-55 (grant for
good service for 26 years)

Coole (Goole), Henry

King's, 1537-48, org 1544-5

CORBRONDE, WILLIAM, 367
Perhaps the Chapel Royal 'singing
man' 1515

CORNYSH, JOHN, 24, 159-60, 164-
5, 409-10 (Ex. 213)
Chapel Royal, 1504; a J.C. of
Winchester became scholar of Win-
chester Coll in 1472, aged 1 1 (Kirby)

Cornysh, Richard, 159

* CORNYSH, WILLIAM, junior, 23,

164, 170-2, 194, 259, 312, 321, 324,
328, 350 (Ex. 133), 419-20, 422-3
(Exs. 226-7), 111. 24

* Cornysh, William, senior, 43

Westminster Abbey, master 1479-91
(Pine)

456

*Cotell (Cutell), Richard, 12, 113, 149-

St. Paul's, minor canon 1394-5,

cardinal, 1395
Couch, Robert

New Coll, inf 1535 (Valor Eccl.)
*COWPER, ROBERT, 35, 140

King's, 1492-6 (as Cooper, Coopar);

the will of a R.C. was proved in 1541

(Test. Cant.)
Crambroke, John, 190

Canterbury, monk 1406-d. 47
* Crane, William
Crawe (Crowe), James, 177-8

Lincoln, inf 1539 (Maddison)
CUK, John (see also Cooke), 261-2
(Ex. 45)

A John Cooke was succentor vicariorum

at York 1452-5 (Harrison)

DAGGERE, WILLIAM

His song 'Downbery down' is in Brit.

Mus. Add. 31922
DAMETT, THOMAS, 20, 22, 87,
245-7. 297-8

Chapel Royal, 1413-31; Windsor,

Canon 1431- d. 37 (Ollard)
DARK, JOHN

His Magnificat is in Cambridge,

Peterhouse part-books
Darke

New Coll, inf 1484-5
Darlington, John, 201

St. Mary-at-Hill, London, 152 1-2;

Eton, inf 1522-3, clerk 1544-50 (Dec)
Davy, John

Lincoln, org 1489, inf 1490 (Jan 14)

(Maddison)
*DAVY (DAVYS), RICHARD, 36,
162, 164, 260, 312, 3!5-i7> 324-6
(Exs. 105-6), 328-9 (Ex. no), 403
(Ex. 203), 419

Magdalen, inf and org 149 1-2; in

1495-6 Magdalen paid for binding

a 'liber de canticis et missis et anti-

phonis domini Ric. Davy'; Exeter,

VC 1 497- 1 500
Dawke, John

B.Mus. Oxford 151 1
Derby, Robert, 161

Winchester Cath, clerk (and org?)

1444

Ditty, Walter

Eton, 1530 (June) -40, inf 1530

(Sept) -40
Dore, William, 161

Winchester Coll, org 1542
Dove (Dowffe), Robert, 177

Lincoln, VC 1520-d. c. 1537, inf

1528, org 1535 (Maddison)
DRAKE, RALPH, 43

Muchelney, master c. 1500; one

voice-part of his 'Frere Gastkyn' is

in Brit. Mus. Royal App. 58 (early

1 6th cent, after 1504)
Draper, John

Supplicated B.Mus. Oxford 1516-17
*DUNSTABLE, JOHN, 25, 147, 155,
221, 228, 243-4, 250, 252-8 (Exs.
39> 40» 265, 274, 291, 299-302
(Ex. 80), 306-7, 311, 318, 346-7
(Ex. 127)

Ede, Richard

Canon regular, supplicated B.Mus.

Oxford 1506-7
Edmund, 32

Winchester Coll, inf 1396-7
Edmunds, William, 21

Windsor, installed 1478 (Apr 19),

inf 1479-80; Eton, 1484; Chapel

Royal, 1490
EDWARDS

His respond Terrenum sitiens is in

Cambridge, Peterhouse part-books
Elwell, John

Eton, inf 1457-61
*ENSDALE (ENSDALL), JOHN,

373-4 (Ex. 165)
ERLEY (ERELL), WALTER, 336
EXCETRE, JOHN, 22, 228, 233, 235-6

Chapel Royal, 1374-96
Exce(s)tre, William, 21, 25

John of Gaunt's Chapel, 1383;

Chapel Royal, 1392- 1402

Farford, Thomas

Lincoln, chor 1448, VC 1455-d. 71,

sometime inf (Maddison)
*FARMER, JOHN, 318
*FARTHYNG (FARDYNG),
THOMAS, 24-5, 35, 163

King's, chor 1477-83, clerk 1493-9;

Chapel Royal, 151 1-20

457

FAWKYNER, 312, 316, 319-20 (Ex.

97), 322 (Exs. 102-3)
*FAYRFAX, ROBERT, 24, 42, 164,
172,194,259,263-8 (Exs. 46-9),27o,
273> 312, 324, 334> 336, 35i» 419-20
Firtun, John

St. Stephen's, Westminster, and
Chapel of the Duke of Norfolk;
Mus.B. Cambridge 1516
FLUYD, see LLOYD
Foderley, Thomas, 41, 187

Durham, master 1496-1502
FONTEYNS, 228
FOREST, 221, 228, 250, 303-5 (Exs.

84-5). .
Forest, William

Winchester Coll, 1464-9 (as John

in 1465, 1468)
Foukys, W., 10

Lincoln, inf 1431
Fowler, John

Exeter, VC 1432-3; Chapel Royal,

H33-4
FOWLER, JOHN, 24

Chapel Royal, 1451-67; presumably

the composer in the Pepys MS.
Fowler, John

Chapel Royal, 1499 (gospeller),

1504, 15 18 (late gospeller)
Foxe, Robert

Westminster, master from 1542-3

(Pine)
Francis, John, 158

New Coll, inf 1427-9, 1436-43
Freeman, William, 177

Lincoln, chor 1485, poor clerk 1495,

inf 1524 (Maddison)
FREN(N)YNGHAM, JOHN, 43, 190

Canterbury, master (?) 1455-d. 70;

no compositions survive
*FRYE, WALTER, 250, 258-9 (Exs.

42-3)= 337, 396-7 (Ex. 193)
Fryvyll, Humphrey

King's, 1495-9; Mus.B. Cambridge

1495-6, Mus.D. 1505
Fuller, Matthew, 44, 191

Winchester Cath, master 1538, VC

until 1558 (Chapter Act Book)
Fyssher, Richard, 195

Worcester, master 1 543-9 (Atkins)

Games

Magdalen, inf 1547-51

GARNESEY, 401 (Ex. 200)
Gaylard, John, 180

Wells, inf 1 5 14 (Jan-Mar)
GEDNEY, see GYDNEY
Genyngs, George

Eton, 1526 (June)-7 (June), inf 1526

(Sept)-7 (June); King's, 1528-34 (as

Genyns)
Gilbert, John, 177

Lincoln, inf 15 18, org 1524 (Mad-
dison); B.Mus. Oxford 1510-11
Gilbert, Richard

Wimborne Minster, org 1495

(Cox)
Godwin, Robert, 32

Winchester Coll, Fellow 1541-50,

inf 1542
Goodman, Thomas, 44, 190

B.Mus. Oxford 1505; Winchester

Cath, master 151 1, VC 1541-56

(Chapter Act Book)
Goole, see Coole
Grenacres (Grenakers), John

Magdalen, inf 1535
Green (Grene), Richard, 41

Worcester, org 1468-84 (Atkins)
Grene, William

King's, 1492-8; Westminster, master

c. 1532-c. 43 (Pine)
Growe, William, 185

St. Patrick's, Dublin, minor canon

1509
Gustinian, 160

New Coll, org 1542-3
*GWYNNETH, JOHN, 420
GYDNEY, JOHN(?), 173

No compositions survive
Gye, John, 180

Wells, inf 1512
Gyles, John, 1 72

Chapel Royal, 151 1, org 15 15

HACOMBLENE

(HACOMPLAYNT), ROBERT,
36, 312, 315, 321-2 (Ex. 101), 324,
111.5
b. St. Andrew's, London; Eton,
scholar 1469 (aged i3)~72; King's,
scholar 1472, B.A. 1475-6, M.A.
1480, B.D. 1490, D.D. 1507, Fellow
1475-93, Provost 1509-d. 28 (Sept 8)
(Sterry)

458

Halywell, John, 35

King's, 1447-51, inf 1449-51; Eton,

1453 (Jan)~5, inf 1454-5
HAMPSHIRE, RICHARD, 21, 35,

419

Windsor, chor admitted 1474 (Nov

16); King's, scholar 1484, clerk i486;

Windsor, clerk 1489-99, inf 1495-9

*HAMPTON, JOHN, 40, 186, 312,

324
Hardy, John

Magdalen, inf 1485
HASHEWELL, see ASHEWELL
*HAWTE, SIR WILLIAM, 190, 415-

16 (Ex. 221)
Hayward, Robert, 197

Christ Church, Dublin, master 1546
* HENRY VIII, 3, 24-5, 37, 84, 168,

1 7 1-2, 184, 195, 228, 285, 330,

338-41
His compositions are printed in Lady
Mary Trefusis, Songs, Ballads and
Instrumental Pieces composed by King
Henry VIII (Oxford, 191 2)

HENRY, ROY (HENRY IV), 220,
228, 230, 234 (Ex. 25), 291, 111. 19

Herbit, William, 185

St. Patrick's, Dublin, org 1509

HOLYNGBORNE

His Gaude virgo salutata (incomplete)
is in the Eton Choirbook. A John H.
was monk of Canterbury 1443-d. c.
90 (W. G. Searle in Cambr. Ant.
Soc, 1902, p. 188); a Robert H. was
Fellow and Warden (150 1-4) of
Canterbury Coll, Oxford, monastic
college dependent on Canterbury,
1493-d. 1508 (W. A. Pantin in Rep.
of Friends of Canterbury Cath., 1942,

P- 37)
*HORWOOD, WILLIAM, 11, 177,
276-7, 307-9 (Exs. 88-9), 311
(Ex. 92), 349 (Ex. 131), 405
Lincoln, VC 1476-d. 84 (before July
17), inf 1477-84
HOSKINS, CHRISTOPHER

His Speciosa facta es is in Brit. Mus.
Add. 17802-5
Howard

King's, inf 1456-9
HUCHYNE (HOWCHYN),

NICHOLAS, 312, 315
HUNT, R., 336

*HYGONS, RICHARD, n, 179-80,
312, 315

Wells, VC 1459-c. 1509, master

1 479- 1 507
*HYLLARY, THOMAS

Ingleton, John

Lincoln, org 1439 (Maddison)

Janson

Eton, org 1539-40 (2 terms)
Jaquet, 178

Magdalen, inf 1536-9; a Jorkett was

clerk at Magdalen 1537-9
JERVAYS, 228
Johannes filius Dei, 133
John, organist, 207

York, 1236
*JOHNSON, ROBERT, 342-5 (Ex.

124), 401
*JONES, ROBERT, 24, 274, 420

Kegewyn, John, 11, 178

Salisbury, inf 1463
KELLYK, HUGH, 309, 310 (Ex. 91),

325, 349
KEMP, JOHN

His song 'Hey nowe' is in Brit. Mus.

Add. 31922
Kendall, George

Magdalen, 1502-9, chaplain 1509,

org 1510-16
Keyll, William, 174

Southwell, VC 1476 (admitted May

2i)-i502 (d. Nov 17)
Knolles, Nicholas, 103

Southwell, VC 1476-90 (d. Sept 11)
*KNYGHT, THOMAS, 11, 178, 200,

274, 288, 377-8 (Ex. 170), 410
Krey, John

New Coll, inf 141 2-1 3
KYRTON, 360

LAMBE, WALTER, 21, 194, 228, 307,
312-13, 3l7~I9 (Exs. 94-5), 321,
323, 328-30, 349
b. Salisbury; Eton, elected King's
scholar July 8, 1467, aged 15 on
Aug 15 previous; Windsor, 1479
(installed Feb i3)-84, 1492 (July 1)-
9, inf 1479-80

Lancaster, Lawrence, 175-6, 210
Ripon, org 1475- 1503

459

Langforth, Robert, 41

Durham, master 1510
Lawder, James, 1 5

Dunkeld, chaplain early 16th cent
Leslie, John, 15

Dunkeld, chaplain early 16th cent
Lessy

Duke of York's Chapel; Mus.B.

Cambridge 1470
Lewse (Leroys, Leys), 85

Magdalen, 1534; probably Thomas

Lees, Magdalen, 1538
Lisieux, Thomas, 13

Chapel Royal, 1436; St. Paul's, Dean

1441-56
Litster, Thomas

Ripon, org 1447-8
*LLOYD, JOHN, 24, 267-8 (Ex. 50),

111. 20
*LOVELL, THOMAS(?)
*LUDFORD, NICHOLAS, 20, 268-
70 (Ex. 51), 274, 285-7 (Ex. 69),
290-1, 330, 336, 351, 369, 376-7
(Ex. 168), 391-2 (Ex. 188)

St. Stephen's, Westminster, 1547-8

Makeblite, 133

Winchester, 13 th cent

*MARBECK, JOHN, 21, 192, 274,
336

Marshall, John
Wells, org 1428

Martin, William, 15

Dunkeld, chaplain early 16th cent

MARTYN, 291

MARTYN, EDWARD, 165, 336
Probably the Fellow of Magdalen
1 495- 1 504

Martyn, Henry

Magdalen, 149 1-6, inf 1495-6; later
Canon and Treasurer (15 14) of
Hereford

Martyn, John, 15

Dunkeld, VC early 16th cent

Masbrooke, Richard
Magdalen, inf i486

Mason, John, 336

Magdalen, 1508, chaplain 1509,
B.Mus. Oxford 1509 (Feb 12); Canon
(1525) and Treasurer (1545-7) °f
Hereford . The J . M . in the Cambridge,
Peterhouse part-books is called 'Ci-
cerstriensis' ('of Chichester')

Mend (Mendus), Thomas
B.Mus. Oxford 1535

Moneyman, John

Wells, org 1 46 1 -2, 1470-9

Moose, see Moss

MORGAN, JOHN

King's, 1506-8; probably the com-
poser in the Inventory of 1529 {see

P- 433)
Morris, Lewes

St. David's, master 1547-8 (Leach)
*MORLEY, THOMAS, 253, 318
Morsell, George, 176

Beverley, master 153 1-2
* MORTON, ROBERT, 250
Moss (Moose), Robert, 32

Winchester Coll, org 1542
Motte, William, 25

Archbishop of Canterbury's Chapel,

x396
MOWER, RICHARD, 337 (Ex. 119)
*Mulliner, Thomas, 387
*MUNDY, JOHN, 289, 373
*MUNDY, WILLIAM, 288-91 (Ex.

72), 377

MYCHELSON, ROBERT
Windsor, 1495-9; probably the com-
poser of a lost Magnificat in the Eton
Choirbook

Mylward, William
Wells, org 1513-14

Myrtone, William, 15, 184
Aberdeen Cath, master 1537

Nede, John

King's, 1503 (Mar)-ig (will made

Nov 24, proved Dec 19), left to the

college 'all my pricsonge books'
*NESBET(T), J., 194, 415-16 (Ex.

222)
♦NEWARK, WILLIAM, 23, 419
Nicholas, 213

Dartmouth, org 1530
Nicholas, 210

Westminster, org 1387-8
Noland(e), 166

Magdalen, 1529-32
*NORMAN, JOHN, 16, 35, 274, 336,
359-60 (Ex. 143)

St. David's, master c. 1509-c. 22;

Eton 1534-45
NORTHBROOKE, JOHN

Secular chaplain, B.Mus. Oxford

460

1 531; his Sub tuam protectionem is in
Cambridge, Peterhouse part-books
Northfolke, John, 201

St. Mary-at-Hill, London, conduct

1529-3°
Norys (Noresse), Robert

Eton, 1516-22, inf 1520-2
Nykke, see Packe

*OKELAND (HOCKLAND),

ROBERT, 24, 35, 288, 292 (Ex.

73)

Eton, 1532-4; Chapel Royal, 1547-8
Okeley, Thomas

Brailes (Warwickshire), org 1547-8

(Leach)
Olph', John, 1 90

Canterbury, cantor (?) c. 1530
OLYVER, 228, 231-3 (Ex. 24)

* Packe, Thomas, 278-9 (Ex. 62), 338

Possibly the Thomas Pykke (also

Nykke) of Eton, 1454-61
Palmer, Lewis

b. Wells; Eton, scholar 1470 (aged 12

on Mar 25) (Sterry), clerk 1479-1501

(Mar), inf 1492-9
PANTER,JOHN, 185

Glasgow Cath, master and org d. c.

1539; no compositions survive
Parkar

Magdalen, 1520; a Henry Parker of

Magdalen Hall (Grammar School)

graduated B.Mus. Oxford 1502 or

1504
Parker, John, 35

King's, 1 498- 1 506, inf 1502-3;

Mus.B. Cambridge 1502 having

studied there 3J years
Parker, Richard

Magdalen, 1494-1503, inf 1500-3
PARKER, Monk of Stratford

A single voice-part of his 'O my lady

dure' is in Brit. Mus. Royal App.

58. Stratford Abbey, Essex, was a

Cistercian, or more strictly Savi-

gnac, house; see also STRATFORD,

WILLIAM

* PARSONS, WILLIAM

Wells, VC 1548-54
*PASCHE, WILLIAM, 336

A William Pache of Wells was
Fellow of New Coll 1494 (admitted

Mar 14); M.A., went away 'promo-
tus' in 1506 (MS. Register)

Pen, Thomas

Canon regular, B.Mus. Oxford 15 19

PENNARD, 228, 240, 242 (Ex. 36)

Penne (Pend), Robert

Westminster, 1494- 1500, master
1 497-1 500 (Pine); Chapel Royal,
1 504-26

Pennicuke, John, 1 5

Dunkeld, VC early 16th cent

Pentrich (Penkridge), Adam, 112
Lichfield, Succentor i36i(?): Wind-
sor, VC 1362-6, inf 1366 (Jan-June) :
Lichfield, Succentor c. 1370-d. 78

Peper, Leonard

Lincoln, org 1508 (Maddison)

Perrot, Clement

Magdalen, 1523-34, org 1523; second
son of Robert Perrot; Fellow of
Lincoln 1535; Canon of Lincoln
Cath 1535-61; a Porret was clerk at
Eton 1 52 1-2 (3 terms)

Perrot (t), Robert, 165-6

King's, 1506-9, Mus.B. Cambridge
1507; Magdalen, 1510-48, inf 1510-
32, org 1530-48, D.Mus. Oxford
1515, d. 1550

Perse

Magdalen, org 1498

*PETYR (PETRE), HENRY, 278-80
(Ex. 64)
B.Mus. Oxford 15 16, having spent
30 years in study and practice of
music

*PHELYPPS, THOMAS, 419

A Phylypps was clerk at Winchester
Coll 1523-6

Plommer, John

King's, 15 1 5-1 7; a Plummer, priest,
was Mus.B. Cambridge 1516-17

*PLUMMER (PLOMER), JOHN,
23, 170, 222, 250, 299, 302-3 (Ex.
83), 306, 319
Chapel Royal, 1444-67

*POWER, LEONEL, 42, 190, 228,

23i-3» 235 (Ex. 26), 240, 242,

245, 250-2 (Exs. 38-9), 255, 291,

299> 3°2 (Exs. 81-2)

Canterbury, master(?), 1441-d. 45

(June 5)

PRENTYCE, HENRY, 24
Chapel Royal, c. 1 509-1 1 ; presumably

M.M.B.

-HH

461

the Prentes composer of a Magnificat

in Cambridge, Caius College MS.

667
Prentys, Richard, 22

Chapel Royal, 1393, Dean 1402-8
Preston, 192

Magdalen, inf 1543
*PRESTON, THOMAS, 192, 217,
364-6 (Exs. 152-5), 394-5 (Ex. 190)

In the Inventory of Leicester Abbey

c. 1493
PROWETH, STEPHEN

Two voice-parts of his antiphons 0

bone Jesu and Plaude potentissime are in

Cambridge, Univ. Lib. MS. Dd.

xiii. 27 and St. John's Coll MS. 234
Prynne, Nicholas

Wells, VC 1547-55, org 1547-8
*PYAMOUR, JOHN, 22, 243, 250

Chapel Royal, 1 420-1; Chapel of

Duke of Bedford, 1427; d. before

July 4, 1 43 1
PYCARD, 228, 235-40 (Ex. 29), 240,

242
*PYGOT(T), RICHARD, 24, 26, 171,

274, 336, 420
Pynbrygge, Edmund, 44, 190

Winchester Cath, master 1510-11
Pypis

Mus.B. Cambridge 1497

QUELDRYK, 228, 240, 242

*RASOR (RASAR, RASER),
WILLIAM, 35, 274
King's chor 1493-6, clerk 1509-15

Raynold, Walter

New Coll, inf 1423-4 (3 terms)

*REDFORD, JOHN, 13, 360-1 (Exs.
144-5), 386-8 (Ex. 182), 410 (Ex.
124)

Renynger, James, 44, 1 9 1

Eton, 1 528-9 (2 terms) : Glastonbury,
master 1 534; a James Runyger was
master and org at St. Dunstan-in-
the-East, London, 1547-8 (Leach)

Retford, John, 10

Lincoln, inf 1429, 1434

Richmunde, William

Queen's, Oxford, org 1518

Robert, John

New Coll, inf 1423 (2 terms)-5

Robynson, John

Fotheringhay, org 1546 (J. C. Cox in
Arch. Jour., lxi, 1904, p. 273)

Rochell, Robert, 174

Southwell, VC 1 484- 1 503

Roke, Adam

Eton, 1448-61, 1468-9; Windsor,
1461-3, inf 1462 (June)~3, resigned
1476 (Nov 18)

Rolfe, Thomas, 174

Windsor, c. 1460-9 (resigned July
31), 1476 (re-admitted Apr O-84,
inf 1 46 1 -2 (June), org 146 1-9, 1477-
84

Roper, George, 165
Magdalen, 1519-24

Rowland, Robert

Eton, 1526 (June)~7, inf 1526 (June-
Sept), 1527 (June-Sept)

ROWLARD, 228

Russell, John, 185

St. Patrick's, Dublin, master 1509

RYSBY, HENRY, 35

Eton, 1506-8; presumably the com-
poser of 'Whoso that wyll hymselff
applye' in Brit. Mus. Add. 31922

Saintwix (Seintjust), Thomas, 178

Mus.D. Cambridge 1463; Salisbury,

Precentor 1466, d. 1467
Salesbury, 25

Archbishop of Canterbury's Chapel,

1396
Samford, William, 11, 182

Chichester, inf 1544
*SAMPSON, RICHARD, 24, 338-40

(Ex. 121), 111. 21
SANDLEY (STANDLEY), 250

His Missa ad fugam and Quae es ista

are printed in Documenta Polyphoniae

Liturgicae
Savage, John

King's, conduct and inf 1472-4
Saxy, Robert

Eton, inf 1452-3, Succentor 1457-61
Scherar, William, 15

Dunkeld, VC early 16th cent
Scherman, Thomas
Supplicated B.Mus. Oxford 1508-9
Schete, John

New Coll, inf 1394-5
Sharpe, Richard

Eton, 1512-15; King's, 1517-24 (as

462

William or John), 1524-9; a R. S.

was org Coll Church of the Trinity,

Stratford-on-Avon, 1545-8 (Leach)

*SHEPPARD (SHEPHERD), JOHN,

36, 165-6, 283, 288-90 (Exs. 70-1),

345 j 356-7 (Ex. l4°)> 366> 37o-2
(Exs. 161-3), 373-4, 377 (Ex. 169),
379-80 (Exs. 171-2), 384-6 (Ex.
181), 397-400 (Exs. 195-7), 4OI"2
(Ex. 201), 405-6 (Ex. 207), 111. 26
Not a Fellow of Magdalen 1 549-5 1
*SHERYNGHAM, 419
*SMERT, RICHARD, 421

Exeter, VC 1428-c. 65
Smith, John

Eton, 1523 (Jan)-5, inf 1523 (Sept)-5
Smyth, John, 180

Wells, VC i534-44> org !534-5> inf
1538
Smythe, Richard

Montgomery, org 1547-8 (Leach)
Solber, William, 176
Ripon, org 1 540-1
SOULEBY (SULBY), HENRY

Eton,i444-5;Chapel Royal, 1 446-5 1 ;
perhaps the composer Soursby (also
Sorbi) in the Trent and Aosta MSS.
Stanys, John, 190

Canterbury, Precentor d. 1421 (Dec

19)
Steill, Thomas, 175

Southwell, VC 1508-23
Stele, John, 41, 187

Durham, master 1447
Stephen

Magdalen org 1529
Stevenson, John, 15

Dunkeld, Canon early 16th cent
Stonyng, Michael

Ottery St. Mary, secondary 1545

(Dalton)
* STONYNG, OLIVER, 35

Eton, Fellow 1530-47, Precentor

1533-5; formerly of Magdalen; pre-
sumably the composer Stonings

(Stenings)
STRATFORD, WILLIAM, Monk of

Stratford (see also Parker), 349
STROWGER, E., 360
♦STURGEON, NICHOLAS, 20, 22,
231, 245-7

Elected scholar of Winchester Coll

!399> aged 8-12 (Kirby)

STURMYS, HUGH, 336
*STURTON, EDMUND, 312, 327-8

(Ex. 108), 330 (Ex. m)
Summer

Eton, inf 1521 (3 terms)
SUTTON, JOHN, 35, 312, 314-15

Magdalen, M.A., Fellow 1476;

Eton, Fellow 1477-c. 79; a Sutton was

Mus.B. Cambridge 1489 (Grace

Book A)
Swawe, William, 176

Ripon, org 1513-14
SWYNFORD, 228, 240, 242
SYGAR, JOHN, 35, 164

King's, conduct 1 499-1 501 and

1508-15; presumably the composer

of a Magnificat, now fragmentary, in

the Eton Choirbook
Sylvester, John

B.Mus. Oxford 152 1-2; Westminster

Abbey, master 1522
Synet, Thomas

New Coll, inf 1434-5
Synger, Richard, of Malmesbury, 186

Worcester 1434-5

*TALLIS, THOMAS, 24, 44, 193,
200, 217, 287-8, 292, 334-6 (Ex.
118), 361, 366, 368 (Ex. 159), 369-
7o, 377, 384 (Ex. 179), 402
*TAVERNER, JOHN, 27, 30, 37, 176,
263, 268-73 (Exs. 52-4), 280-5
(Exs. 65-8), 287-8, 290-2, 330-3
(Exs. 1 12-14), 334, 336, 340-1,
351 (Ex. 135), 368-9 (Ex. 158),
377, 38i, 388-9 (Ex. 183), 392, 395,
397 (Ex. 194), 420
Tattersall, 1525
Taylor, Thomas

Supplicated B.Mus. Oxford 1531
Thatcher (Catherow), John, 11

Salisbury, inf 1462
Thetford, John of, 10

Lincoln, inf 1395
Thomas, John

Magdalen, inf and org 1498- 1500
Tildesley, John, 41, 187
Durham, master 1502
TROULUFFE, JOHN, 421

St. Probus, Exeter, Canon c. 1465-c.
78
Tucke, John, 44, 1 58

New Coll, Fellow 1500-7, B.A.;

463

Higham Ferrers, master from 1507;

Gloucester, master 15 15
Tucker, Nicholas

Magdalen, inf 1 532'
TUDER, JOHN, 366-7 (Ex. 156), 402,

407-8 (Exs. 210-11), 419
Tuke, John

Windsor, inf 1489-92 (resigned Dec

30
*TURGES, EDMUND, 259, 312, 350-

1 (Ex. 134), 419, 422
Tumour, William, 176

Crail, org 1522
Turton, 165

Magdalen, inf 1509-10
Tye

King's, chor 1508-13; clerk 1527-35

*TYE, CHRISTOPHER, 36, 283,

288, 290, 341, 344-5 (Ex. 122),

377, 392-3, 408

King^s, 1537-9
Tye, Richard

King's, 1535-45
TYES, J., 228, 233, 240, 253
Tygill (Tynghill)

King's, inf 1458-9
Tykhyll, Thomas, 103

Southwell, VC 1 470-1512
TYPP(E), WILLIAM, 27, 176, 228,
230, 233, 240-1 (Exs. 31-5)

Fotheringhay, Precentor 1438

Vaireson, Symond, 198
Veyle (Veale)

Magdalen, inf 1549-51
Vic(c)arye, 167

Magdalen, 1509-10
Vincent, George, 175

Southwell, org 1503-35

Wadeson, Ralph

Thornton (Lincolnshire) Coll Church,

master 1547-8 (Leach)
Warcop, John

Lincoln, org 1489 (Dec 18) (Mad-

dison)
Warde, William

Boston (Lincolnshire), org 1547-8

(Leach)
Warryn, William, 16

St. David's, org 1490-3

Watkyns, John

King's, 1515-24, without break,

Mus.B. 1516, having studied 7 years;

Maddison lists a J. W., Mus.B., VC

of Lincoln, 1521, d. by 1542
Watson, John, 1 76

Ripon, org 1511-12
Webbe, John, 161

Winchester Coll, clerk 1482-91,

chaplain 1492 (Jan) -4 (Dec), Fellow

1494, B.A.
Welles

King's, chaplain and inf 1465-6
Wells, 166

Magdalen, 1532
Wendon, John

B.Mus. Oxford 1509
Wetherton, William

Magdalen, 1524-6, org 1526
Wever (Weyver), John, 178

Chapel Royal, c. 1 509-1 1; Salisbury,

inf c. 1509-28
Wheler, Thomas

New Coll, inf 1425-6 (2 terms)
*WHYTBROOK, WILLIAM, 288,

290-1
Whyte, John

B.Mus. Oxford 1528
*WHYTE, ROBERT, 288, 402
*WHYTHORNE, THOMAS, 424
WICUMBE (WINCHECUMBE),
WILLIAM DE, 135-6

Reading, monk 13th cent (2nd half);

spent 4 years at Leominster
♦WILDER, PHILIP VAN, 341, 413

(Ex. 218)
William 'le organistre', 40

Glastonbury, 1322
William, Monk of Stratford, see Strat-
ford
Wilmot, John

Wells, org 1 490- 1
WINTON, W. DE, 135

Reading, monk; Leominster, monk

1276, sub-prior 1281; Reading,

monk from 1284 or earlier
Witworth, Roger

Eton, 1525-8 (Dec), inf 1526 (Mar-
Sept)
Wodde (Wood), Christopher

B.Mus. Oxford 15 13
Wood, John, 43, 190

Canterbury, master c. 1 530

464

Woods, Richard, 174

Windsor, org 1496-9
WRYGHT, THOMAS, 24

Chapel Royal, 1547-8; his Nesciens

mater is in Brit. Mus. Add.

17802-5
*Wydow, Robert

Eton, scholar c. 1460-4; King's,

scholar 1464, BA. 1467-8 (Sterry)
Wylde, William, 40
*WYLKYNSON, ROBERT, 35, 162,
312, 314-15, 321 (Ex. 100), 324,
328, 413-15 (Ex. 219)

Eton, 1496-15 1 5, inf 1500 (Jan)-
15

*WYNSLATE (WYNSLADE),

RICHARD, 195, 200, 361-2 (Exs.

1 4M)
Winchester Cath, master 1 540-1

Yerdlay

Magdalen, org 1520
Ylleway, John, 40

Worcester, inf 1394-5
Yong, Stephen

Dunkeld, VC early 16th cent
Yonge, Henry

Supplicated B.Mus. Oxford 1524-5;

a Yong was clerk at Winchester Coll

1516-17

465

INDEX OF TITLES

Ab inimicis nostris, 246

(anon.), 412-13 (Ex. 217)

Ab ortu solis, 71

Ad cantus laetitiae (anon.), 129, 142

Ad nutum Domini, 75

Aeterna Christi munera, 1 1 3

Aeternae laudis lilium (Fayrfax), 329

Aeternae virgo memoriae, 68-70 (Ex.

2), "9
Aeterne rerum conditor (Blytheman),
388

(Redford), 387

Aeterne rex altissime (anon.), 382
(Ex. 175)

(Redford), 387

(Sheppard), 385-6 (Ex. 181)

Albanus (Mass by Fayrfax), 263, 265-6

(Exs. 48-9)
Albanus roseo rutilat — Quoque feren-

dus — Albanus (Dunstable), 265
Alle psallite cum luya (anon.), 134
Alleluia, antiphon, 94-5

(anon.), 356

(Byrd), 357

(Mundy), 357

(Sheppard), 356-7

'Alleluia: A newe work' (anon.), 300
Alleluia canite (anon.), 137 (Ex. 8)
Alleluia psallat (anon.), 138
Alleluia, y. Angelus Domini, 114
Alleluia, f. Ascendens Christus (anon.),

375
Alleluia, f. Assumpta est (anon.), 138
Alleluia, f. Christus resurgens, 122
Alleluia. Y- Confitemini Domino, 375,
378

(Sheppard), 379 (Exs. 171-2)

Alleluia, f. Dies sanctificatus (anon.),

138, 375
Alleluia, f. Dulce lignum (anon.), 375
Alleluia, f. Dulce nomen (anon.), 378
Alleluia, f. Epulemur (Preston), 381
Alleluia, f. Laudate pueri, 94-5

(anon.), 375, 409

Alleluia, f. Nativitas (Perotin), 122, 132

(anon.), 132, 137

Alleluia, f. Obtine sacris (Knyght),

377-8 (Ex. 170)
Alleluia, f. Ora pro nobis (Tallis), 292
Alleluia, f. Paraclitus Spiritus (anon.),

375
Alleluia, f. Pascha nostrum (anon.),
136-8 (Ex. 8)

(Preston), 381

Alleluia, f. Post par turn, 134

(anon.), 130-1 (Ex. 7), 152, 375-6

(Ex. 167)
Alleluia, f. Posui adjutorium (anon.),

125 _

■ (Perotin), 122

Alleluia, f. Salve virgo (anon.), 374

(Ex. 166)

■ (Taverner), 292

Alleluia, "ft. Surgens Jesu (anon.), 374
Alleluia, f. Veni electa (Sheppard),

377 (Ex. 169)

(Taverner), 292, 377

Alleluia, f. Virga Jesse floruit, 292

(anon.), 138

Alma chorus Domini, 71, 391, 393~4

(anon.), 393 (Ex. 189)

Alma contio (anon.), 183

Alma proles regia — Christi miles inclite

— Ab inimicis (Cooke), 246, 412
Alma redemptoris, 81, 90, 304-5 (Ex.
85). 3*7> 327 (Ex. 108)

(Dunstable), 300

(Mass by Power), 251-2 (Ex. 38),

302
Angelus ad virginem (anon.), 155, 169
Anima mea liquefacta est, 90
Anna mater matris Christi (Plummer),

302-3 (Ex. 83), 306, 319
Ante diem festum, 97
'Apon the square' (Masses by Mundy>

Whytbrook), 290
Arae post libamina — Nunc surgunt

(Mayshuet), 226

466

INDEX OF TITLES

Archangeli Michaelis interventione,

271
Ascendit Christus, 90

(Forest), 304-5 (Ex. 85)

(Lambe), 317-8 (Ex. 94)

A solis ortus cardine, 217

(Binchois), 248

Asperges me, Domine, 58

(anon.), 354-5 (Ex. 138)

Aspiciens a longe, 61

Assumpta est Maria, 315, 321 (Ex. 100)

Audivi vocem de caelo, 107, 170, 371

(Tallis), 368 (Ex. 159)

(Taverner), 368

(Tuder), 366-7 (Ex. 156)

Austro terris (anon.), 132

Ave cujus conceptio (Fayrfax), 329
Ave decus saeculi (Smert), 421
Ave Dei patris filia (Fayrfax), 329

(Marbeck), 336

(Tallis), 334-5

(Taverner), 330-2 (Exs. 1 12-13)

Ave domina sancta Maria (Aston), 332
Ave gloriosa, 176, 184

(Panter), 185

Ave gratia plena Maria (Chamber-

layne), 336
Ave lumen gratiae (Fayrfax), 329
Ave magnifica Maria (anon.), 134,

138, 142
Ave Maria, antiphon, 168

(Mass by Ashewell), 274

, sequence (Ludford), 391

(Taverner), 341

Ave Maria ancilla Trinitatis (Aston),
332

(Sturton), 330 (Ex. in)

Ave Maria ave fuit prima salus (Mason) ,

336
Ave Maria divae matris Annae filia

(Aston), 332, 334 (Ex. 117)
Ave Maria mater Dei (Cornysh), 328
Ave maris stella (Dunstable), 381-2

(Ex. 174)
Ave miles caelestis curiae (anon.), 146,

148
Ave mundi spes Maria, 163

(Ludford), 391

Ave praeclara (Ludford), 391

Ave regina caelorum, ave domina, 81,

84, 88, 90
(Cooke), 297

(Dunstable), 300

Ave regina caelorum, mater regis, 85,
146

(anon.), 299 (Ex. 79)

(Binchois), 298

(Frye), 337

(Lloyd), 267

(Power), 299

Ave rex gentis Anglorum, 146

Ave rex noster, 92-3, 408

Ave rosa sine spinis (Tallis), 335

Ave virgo gloriosa (Jaquet of Mantua),

194
Ave vulnus lateris (Erley), 336

Balaam inquit vaticinans — Balaam

(anon.), 133, 142
Beata Dei genitrix, 90, 163

(Damett), 298

Beata mater (Dunstable), 299
Beata viscera, Communion, 150, 285

(anon.), 362-3 (Ex. 150)

conductus (Perotin), 122

Beati omnes (Sheppard), 345
Beatus Laurentius, 75

(Preston), 217

Beatus Nicholaus, 68
Benedicam te Domine, 240

'Be not afraide' (Mass by Sheppard),
290

Benedicamus Domino, 19, 56-7, 72,
74-6 (Ex. 3), 100, 105-111,
114, 116-22, 124-9, x34j 14^>
156, 227, 415-18, 111. 10

(anon.), 415 (Ex. 220)

(Hawte), 415-16 (Ex. 221)

(Nesbet), 415-16 (Ex. 222)

Benedicamus patrem, 75

Benedicta es caelorum regina, 85, 88,

295

(Josquin), 194 _

Benedicta et venerabilis, Gradual, 135,

138

(anon.), 372 (Ex. 164)

(Mass by Ludford), 268-9 (Ex, 51 )

Benedictus es Domine, 61

Benedictus Dominus Deus, 56, 59, 102,

106, 113, 187
Benedictus Mariae filius, 72, 247
Benedictus sit Deus pater (Ap Rhys),

293

Candida virginitas, 75
Candidi facti sunt (Tallis), 370

467

INDEX OF TITLES

Cantemus Domino — Gaudent in caelis

(anon.), 256
Caro mea, 98
Christe Jesu, 75

(Mass by Rasar), 274

Christe Jesu pastor bone (Taverner),

282, 341
Christe qui lux es et dies (Redford),

386-7
Christe redemptor omnium, 64
Christi virgo dilectissima (Sheppard),

370

(Mass by Ludford), 268, 274

Christus resurgens, 91, 95, 98, 1 16, 409

(Knyght), 410

(Redford), 410 (Ex. 214)

Christus vincit, 2 1

Clarifica me (Tallis), 217, 361
clementiam, Benedicamus, 75, 120,

154, 226
Coenam cum discipulis, 392
Collegerunt, 92, 408
Columbae simplicitas (anon.), 124
Comedentes convenite (anon.), 421
commutans lutea, Benedicamus, 75
Conditor alme siderum (anon.), 15 1-2

(Ex. 20), 230, 386
Conditor, Kyrie, 73, 130, 294
Conditor Mariae, Kyrie, 130
Confitemini Domino, 59

(anon.), 355

Congaudeant catholici (anon.), 119
Constantes estote, 107, 113
Constituit Deus pater (anon.), 378
contra inimici jacula, Benedicamus, 75
Corona spinea (Mass by Taverner),

271 (Ex.53)
Credo in Deum (Wylkynson), 414

(Ex.219)
Crucem tuam, 97
Crucifixum in carne, 91

(anon.), 409

Crux fidelis, antiphon, 75, 95

(Dunstable), 300-1

, hymn, 64, 97

Cultor Dei momento, 65
Cum venerimus, 90

Cunctipotens genitor, Kyrie, 73, 1 19, 129
Custodi nos (Mass, anon.), 276 (Exs.
56-7)

Da gaudiorum praemia (Credo and
Sanctus, Dunstable), 244

David ex progenie (anon.), 418

de Angelis, Kyrie (Binchois), 248

De profundis, 83, 181

De supernis sedibus (anon.), 139

Deo [dicamus] gratias, 56-7, 106. 109-

11, 226-8
Deo gratias Anglia (anon.), 417
Deo gratias persolvamus (anon.),

417
Descendi in ortum, 90, 162
Descendit de caelis, 91, 129
(anon.), 138

(Perotin?), 121, 127

Deus creator, conductus, 1 24
, Kyrie, 73, 182-3, 258

(anon.), 277 (Ex. 60), 278 (Ex.

61), 294

(Ap Rhys), 293

Deus misereatur, 97
Deus sempiterne, 73

Deus tuorum militum (Sheppard),
385-6

(Tallis), 385

Deus tuorum militum — De flore marty-

rum — Ave rex (anon.), 146
Dicant nunc Judei, 91, 95, 98
(anon.), 1 16-17 (Ex. 6), 128, 154,

409

(John Cornysh), 409-10 (Ex. 213)

(Knyght), 410

(Redford), 410 (Ex. 214)

Dies ilia, 61

Dirige, 54, 170

Dixit angelus ad Petrum, 75

Domine Jesu Christe (Marbeck), 336

Domine in virtu te tua (Johnson), 345

Domine ne in furore, 56

Domino, clausula (Perotin?), 123,

127
Dominus illuminatio mea, 93
Dulce nomen Jesu Christi, 38 1
Dulcis Jesu memoria, 392
Dulcis Jesus Nazarenus (anon.), 378,

393-4
Dum fabricator, 97
Dum sacrum misterium (Mass by

Carver), 193
Dum sigillum (Perotin), 122
Dum transisset sabbatum, 98

(Barber), 369 (Ex. 160)

(Sheppard), 370-1

(Tallis), 369

(Taverner), 369

468

INDEX OF TITLES

Ecce ancilla Domini, 3 1 8

Ecce carissimi, 90

Ecce jam coram, 113

Ecce lignum, 97

Ecce mitto angelum, 244

'Edi beo thu hevene quene' (anon.),

154
Ego sum Alpha, 90
En rex venit, 92

(anon.), 406-7, 111. 25

Epiphaniam Domino canamus, 133
Eructavit, Benedicamus, 75

, verse (anon.), 152-3 (Ex. 21)

Estimatus sum, 98

Esto nobis (Tallis), 334

et egrediens, Benedicamus, 75

Et exsultavit, see Magnificat

Et portae inferi (anon.), 289

Euge dicta Sanctis oraculis (Norman),

336
Ex ejus tumba, 68, 395-7 (Ex. 191)
Ex semine Abrahae (anon.), 132, 137
Exsultavit cor (anon.), 418
Exsultemus et laetemur Nicholaum

(anon.), 129
Exsultet caelum laudibus, 65

(anon.), 217

(Banester), 382-3 (Ex. 176)

Exsultet in hac die (Sturmys), 336
Exsultet jam angelica turba, 93
Exurge Christe (Mundy), 289

Fac nobis secundum hoc nomen

(Taverner), 341
Familiam custodi, 91
Felix Maria, 91

Felix namque, 138, 193, 214, 216, 285
—— (Preston), 365-6 (Ex. 155)
Filiae Hierusalem venite (Sheppard),

37o
Firmetur manus tuas, 244
flos filius, Benedicamus, 75, m, 118,
120, 129

, clausulae, 127

Flos regalis (Mass by Frye), 258 (Ex.

42)
Fons bonitatis, Kyrie, 73, 130
Fragrat virtus (Frennyngham), 190
'French Mass' (Sheppard), 289-90

(Exs. 70-1)
Fulgens praeclara, 143
(Preston), 394-5 (Ex. 190)

Fulget caelestis curiae (anon.), 141
Funde virgo ter beata (anon.), 299

'Gabriel from evene king' (anon.), 155
Gaude flore virginali, 315

(anon.), 307 (Ex. 87)

(Carver), 194

(Dunstable), 307

(Horwood), 308-9 (Ex. 89)

(Kellyk), 308, 325

(Lambe), 318-19 (Ex. 95)

Gaude gloriosa Dei mater (Tallis), 335-

6 (Ex. 118)
Gaude [gaude, gaude] Maria virgo,
70, 136, 169

(Johnson), 342-4 (Ex. 124)

(Sheppard), 370-1, 397-400 (Exs.

195-7)
Gaude mater matris Christi (Aston),

333
Gaude pastore (Pygot), 336
Gaude pia Magdalena (Benet), 306

(Ex. 86)
Gaude plurimum (Taverner), 332
Gaude rosa sine spina (Fawkyner),

319-20 (Ex. 97), 322 (Ex. 102)
Gaude sancta Magdalena (Packe), 338
Gaude virgo mater Christi (anon.),
337-8 (Ex. 120)

(Aston), 332-4 (Exs. 1 15-16)

(Cornysh, another text), 324

(Horwood), 307, 311 (Ex. 92)

(Sturton), 317, 327-8 (Ex. 108)

Gaude virgo salutata, 84-5, 88

(Fawkyner), 316, 322 (Ex. 103)

Gaudete in Domino (Mass by Packe),

278-9
Georgi martyr indite, 306
gladio, Benedicamus, 75
Gloria in excelsis, verse, 99, 107, 170,

37i

(anon.), 367 (Ex. 157)

(Sheppard), 370

(Taverner), 368 (Ex. 158)

Gloria laus et honor, 92
(anon.), 407

(Binchois), 248

(Blytheman), 408 (Ex. 212)

(Tuder), 407-8 (Exs. 210-11)

(Tye), 408

Gloria patri, 58-62, 68-70, 80, 91, 95,
102, no, 153 (Ex. 21), 347, 354-5
Gloria patri genitoque, 245

469

INDEX OF TITLES

Gloria tibi Trinitas, 330

(Mass by Taverner), 269-70 (Ex.

52), 272 (Ex. 54)
Glorificamus te, 217
— — (Redford), 361
'God Save Kynge Harry' (Mass by
Ashewell), 158

Hac clara die (Ludford), 391

Haec dies, 120, 123

(Ensdale), 373-4 (Ex. 165)

(Preston), 380-1 (Ex. 173)

(Sheppard), 373

— — , clausula (Perotin?), 123

Haec est praeclarum vas (anon.), 340

Hercules Dux Ferrariae (Mass by

Josquin), 267
Hoc in solemnio (anon.), 129
Hodie Christus natus est, 91
Hodie nobis caelorum rex, 107, 366-7
hodie processit, Benedicamus, 75
Hodie prodit virga Jesse, 68
Hodierne lux diei (Ludford), 391
THomme arme' (Mass by Carver), 193

(Mass by Dufay), 194

Homo quidam fecit coenam (Tallis),

37o
Honor, virtus et potestas, 74 (Ex. 3)

(Tallis), 370

Hostis Herodes impie, 64

Humanae linguae organis — Supplicum

voces — Deo gratias (anon.), 227

Ibo mihi ad montem, 90
Impetum fecerunt unanimes, 113

(Sheppard), 370-1

In die quando, 90

In exitu Israel, 95, 356

(Binchois), 248

(Sheppard, Byrd, Mundy), 357,

389
In hac die laudes cum gaudio (anon.),

118
In honore summae matris (Davy), 317,

329 (Ex. 1 10)
In manus tuas, 62

(Corbronde), 367

■ — — (Sheppard), 371-2 (Exs. 162-3),

111. 26
In natali novi regis (anon.), 129
In nomine Jesu (anon.), 362-4 (Ex.

150
in odorem, Benedicamus, 75

In omnem terram, 225

In pace factus est, 98

In pace in idipsum, 62, 98, 371

(anon.), 367

in perenni, Benedicamus, 74-5 (Ex. 3),
in

(Nesbet), 415-16 (Ex. 222)

In principio erat verbum, 114

in saecula, Benedicamus, 75

In saeculum, clausulae (Perotin ?), 123

, instrumental 'motets' (anon.),

126
Inclina Domine (Mass by Ludford),

274
Includimur nube caliginosa (anon.),

296
Inventor rutili, 93

(anon.), 409

Inviolata, 68, 70, 136, 169

(Sheppard), 371, 397-400 (Exs-

196-7)
Ipsum, 59, 345

Ista dies celebrari (anon.), 124
Iste confessor, 217

(anon.), 386

Ite missa est, 57,

227, 111. 10

72, 74-5, 100, 106,

Jacet granum, 75

Jam Christus astra ascenderat (Tallis),

385 (Ex. 180)
Jam lucis orto sidere, 64

(Redford), 387

Jesu Christe fili Dei, 62

(Gloria and Credo by Dunstable),

253-4
'Jesu Cristes milde moder' (anon.), 154
Jesu nostra redemptio, 65
Jesu salvator saeculi, 65

(Tallis), 385

Jesu spes poenitentibus (Taverner), 392
Jesus autem transiens, 413-15 (Ex.

219)
Jube domne benedicere, 119, 124
Jubilate Deo omnis terra, 61
Jubilate Deo universa terra, 61
Jubilemus exsultemus (anon.), 117
Judea et Jerusalem, 107, 1 13-14

(Perotin ?), 121

Judea Mariam, Benedicamus, 75
Justi in perpetuum vivent, 317

(Sheppard), 370

470

INDEX OF TITLES

Kyrie eleison, processional, 96-7
(anon.), 410-12 (Exs. 215-16)

Laetabundus (Ludford), 391-2 (Ex.

392)
Lamentationes Jeremiae, Lamenta-
tions, 70
(Tallis), 402

(Tuder), 402

(Whyte), 402

Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Mass by

Ludford), 268
Laudate Dominum, 378
Laudate pueri, 94-5
(anon.), 356

(Sheppard), 356 (Ex. 140)

Lauda vivi Alpha et O (Fayrfax), 329-

30
Laudem dicite Deo nostro (Sheppard),

370
Laudes Deo dicam, 71

(anon.), 400-1 (Exs. 198-9)

■ (Garnesey), 401 (Ex. 200)

(Sheppard), 401-2 (Ex. 201)

'le roy', Kyrie (Taverner), 290-2

Leniter ex merito (anon.), 124

Liber generationis, 71

Libera me, 61

Libera nos, salva nos, 3 1 5

(Sheppard), 357

(Mass by Knyght), 274

Loquebantur variis linguis (Tallis), 369
Lucem tuam, 101-2 (Ex. 5), 217

(Wynslate), 361-2 (Exs. 146-9)

Lumen ad revelationem, 59

(anon.), 353-4 (Ex. 137)

Lux aeterna (Mass, anon.), 164
Lux et gloria, Kyrie, 130

Lux et origo, Kyrie, 130

Magnificat, 56, 59, 102, no, 113, 156,
162, 164, 166, i 86, 193-4, 20I5
215-17, 219, 249, 273, 311-12,
344-52 (Exs. 125-36), 423

(anon.), 346 (Exs. 125-6), 348

(Ex. 130), 349 (Ex. 132), 352
(Ex. 136)

(Anthony), 347 (Exs. 128-9)

(Binchois), 347

(Cornysh), 350 (Ex. 133)

(Dufay), 347

(Dunstable), 346 (Ex. 127)

(Fayrfax), 349

Magnificat (Horwood), 349 (Ex. 131)
(Kellyk), 349

(Lambe), 194, 349

(Nesbett), 194, 349

(Stratford), 349

(Tallis), 352

(Taverner), 351 (Ex. 135)

(Turges), 351 (Ex. 134)

Magnus Dominus, 357
Mandatum novum, 97
Mane prima sabbati, 134
Maria ergo unxit, 313 (Ex. 93)
Maria plena virtu te (Fayrfax), 329, 334
Mariae virginis fecunda viscera (Bram-

ston), 336
Martinus Abrahae sinu, 316
'Mass for a Mene' (Appleby), 290
Mass of St. James (Dufay), 245
Mass of Toulouse, 227
Mass of Tournai, 227
Mater Christi sanctissima (Mass and

Antiphon by Taverner), 282-3,

287, 340-1
Mater ora filium, 83, 86, 88

(anon.), 295-6 (Ex. 75)

(Power), 302 (Ex. 82)

'Meane Mass' (Taverner), 280-2 (Ex.

65)
Media vita, 59-60

(Sheppard), 357-8 (Ex. 141)

Miles Christi gloriose (anon.), 300
Mirabile misterium, 109
Miserere mei Deus, 58

(anon.), 354-5 (Ex. 138)

—7- (Tye),_345

Miserere mihi Domine, 217-18

(anon.), 359 (Ex. 142)

(Ap Rhys), 360

(Kyrton), 360

(Norman), 359-60 (Ex. 143)

(Redford), 360-1 (Exs. 144-5)

(Strowger), 360

Misit impius Herodes, 75
Mors, clausula (Perotin), 122

Nato canunt omnia, 71

Naturas Deus regulis (anon.) , 1 24

Natus est nobis (Tallis), 217

Ne timeas Maria, 318

Nesciens mater, 83, 88

(Byttering), 297 (Ex. 77)

(Lambe), 317

Nobilis et pulchra (Mass by Frye), 258

471

INDEX OF TITLES

Non auferetur, 165

Non conturbetur cor vestrum (Shep-

pard), 370
'Notre Dame' Mass (Machaut), 227
Novi profusi gaudio (anon.), 418
Nunc Christe te petimus, 61, 174, 182

(anon.), 338

Nunc dimittis, 56, 59, 88, 101-2 (Ex. 5),
no, 164, 166

(anon.), 353-4 (Ex. 137)

(Tallis), 352

Nunc sancte nobis Spiritus, 64

(anon.), 114, 142

O adjutor omnium saeculorum, 1 19
O baptista vates Christi (Aston), 332
O benigne creator, 88
'O blessed Lord full of pity' (anon.),

421 (Ex. 225)
O bone Jesu (Carver), 193-4, 342_4
(Ex. 123)

(Mass and Antiphon by Fayrfax),

263
O certe precipuus, 306
O crux gloriosa, 95
O crux splendidior, 95
O Domine caeli terraeque creator

(Davy), 312
O felix templum jubila (Carmen), 236
O lux beata Trinitas (anon.), 150-1

(Ex. 19), 217, 283 (Ex. 177)
O Maria et Elizabeth (Banester), 309-

10 (Ex. 90)
O Maria et Johannes, 80
O Maria plena gratia (Lambe), 307,

3i3> 330
O Maria salvatoris mater (Browne),

315-16, 111. 23
O mater nostra, 68 (Ex. 2)
O Michael (Mass by Taverner), 271
O mitissime, 82, 88
Omnes gentes plaudite (Tye), 345
Omnipotens pater, Kyrie, 73
Omnis caterva (anon.), 421
Omnis terra — Habenti dabitur (anon.),

148-9 (Exs. 17-18), 111. 14
O morum doctor, 68
O nata lux (Tallis), 385
Oportet devota mente, 68, 70
O potores exquisiti (anon.), 256
O pulcherrima mulierum (A. de

Lantins), 298

O quam glorifica (Mass by Fayrfax),

263-5 (Exs. 46-7)
O quam suavis (Mass by Lloyd), 232,

267-8 (Ex. 50), 111. 20
Orbis factor, Kyrie (Binchois), 248
O redemptor sume carmen, 93

(anon.), 405, 408-9

O regina caelestis gloriae (Lambe), 3 1 2,

318
O regina mundi clara (Browne), 319-

21 (Exs. 96, 98), 323-4
O rex clemens, Kyrie, 73
O rex gloriose, 60

(Mason), 357

'O rosa bella' (Dunstable), 155

O splendor gloriae (Taverner), 332-3

(Ex. 114)
Ovet mundus laetabundus (anon.),

146-7 (Ex. 16)
O virum ineffabilem, 317, 325 (Ex.

105)
O Wilhelme pastor bone, 341

Paradisi porta per Evam (anon.), 296,

111. 22
Parit virgo filium (anon.), 418
Passio Domini nostri, Passion, 71, 162,
166, 170

(anon.), 402-3 (Exs. 202, 204)

(Davy), 403 (Ex. 203)

Pater noster, 162

(Wilder), 413 (Ex. 218)

Per arma justitiae (Mass by Marbeck),

274= 336
Per signum crucis (Mass, anon.), 164
Perspice christicola (anon.), 143-4 (Ex.

14)
Placebo, 54

'Playn Song' (Mass by Sheppard), 290
(Mass by Taverner), 280, 284-5

(Ex. 68), 290
Pontifici decori speculi (Carmen), 236-

7 (Ex. 27)
Portum in ultimo, 1 1 9
Post missarum sollemnia (Mayshuet),
226

(anon.), 227

Post partum, 393

(Ludford), 391

Potentem, clausula (anon.), 125
praeconia, Benedicamus, 75
Precatus est Moyses, 61

472

INDEX OF TITLES

Prima mundi seducta sobole (anon.),

117
Propter veritatem, 1 39

(anon.), 373

Psallite felices (Sampson), 339 (Ex.

121), 111. 21
Puer natus in Bethlehem, 109
'Puisque je suis amoureux' (Loqueville),

231 (Ex. 24)

Quales sumus O miseris (Mason), 336
Qualis est dilectus (Forest), 228, 304
Quam aethera, 91
Quam pulchra es, 90

(Dunstable), 301

(Sampson), 340

Quern quiritis, 98
Qui cum audissent, 75
Qui natus est (anon.), 421
Quicumque vult, 56, 59, no, 269
Quod chorus vatum (Tallis), 385
Quoniam, clausula (Perotin ?), 123

Rector potens verax Deus, 64

Regali ex progenie (Mass by Fayrfax),

164, 263, 265
Reges Tharsis (Sheppard), 370-1 (Ex.

161)
Regina caeli, 81-3, 86, 88, 95, 144, 302

(Dunstable), 300-1 (Ex. 80)

(Mower), 337 (Ex. 119)

Regis civis potentia (anon.), 129
Regnum mundi, 75, 153

■ ■ (Mass by Ludford), 274

Regnum tuum solidum, 72

(anon.), 136

(W. de Win ton), 135

Relegata vetustate (anon.), 124
Requiem aeternam, 54, 80, 183, 186
Rerum Deus tenax vigor, 64
Resurrexi (Preston), 364-5 (Exs. 152-

4). 394
Resurrexit Dominus (Mass by Norman),

274
Rex amabilis (Fayrfax), 334
Rex Carole — Laetitiae pacis (Royllart),

228
Rex clemens, Kyrie, 73
Rex genitor, Kyrie, 73, 130
Rex immense (anon.), 119
Rex saeculorum (Mass by Dunstable

or Power), 252-3 (Ex. 39), 255

Rex sanctorum angelorum, 93

(anon.), 409

Rex semper, Kyrie, 73
Rex summe, Kyrie, 73

(Mass by Packe), 278-9 (Ex. 62)

Rex virginum, Kyrie, 73, 130
Rorate caeli, 79, 1 73

Salus aeterna, 133
Salus populi, 54, 80
Salus salvandorem (anon.), 183
Salvator mundi Domine, 65, 151, 217,
386

(anon.), 383-4 (Ex. 178)

(Tallis), 384-5 (Ex. 179)

Salvator mundi salva nos, 96
Salvatoris hodie (Perotin), 122
Salvatoris mater pia — Sancte Georgi —

Benedictus Mariae filius (Damett),

246-7
'Salve', 183, 199

Salve festa dies, 64, 90-1, 99, 187,
403-4

(anon.), 404-5 (Exs. 205-6)

Salve intemerata (Mass and Antiphon

by Tallis), 287-8, 335
Salve Jesu mater vera (Davy), 315-16
Salve mater Domini — Salve templum

gratiae — it in nomine (Sturgeon),

247
Salve mater misericordiae (anon.), 139-

41 (Exs. 10-13), 295> !»• J3
Salve porta paradisi (Damett), 297-8
Salve radix (anon.), 338
Salve regina, 81-2, 85-8, 162-3, I68-9,
186-7, 302

(Browne), 313-14 (Ex. 93), 324,

328 (Ex. 109)

(Cornysh), 194, 328, 422, 111. 24

(Dunstable), 301-2

(Fayrfax), 324, 329

(Hacomplaynt), 315, 321-2 (Ex.

101), 324

(Hampton), 324

(Horwood), 307-8 (Ex. 88), 405

(Huchyn), 315

(Hygons), 315

(Lambe), 318, 323, 329

(Power), 302 (Ex. 81)

(Pygot), 336

(Wylkynson), 312, 314-15, 321

(Ex. 100), 324

473

INDEX OF TITLES

Salve sancta parens, Introit, 79

(anon.), 136, 138

, Mass, 79, 87, 177, 216, 285, 362,

372

, sequence, 392

Salve virgo mater pia (Frye), 259, 305

Salve virgo sacra parens, 297

Salve virgo tonantis solium (anon.),

295
Salve virgo — Vita via — Salve regina

(Billart), 229
Sancta Maria mater Dei (Pasche), 336
Sancta Maria virgo, 82-5, 88

(anon.), 296 (Ex. 76), 111. 22

(two anon, settings), 298-9

Sancte Dei pretiose, 96, 1 1 6
Sancte Deus, 60, 83-4, 168, 174, 338

(Tallis), 341

(Taverner), 338, 341

Sancti Dei omnes (Binchois), 249
Sedentem in superne, 70, 96
Sederunt principes (Perotin), 121
Sedit angelus, 90-1, 95, 409
Sepulto Domino, 98

Serena virginum (anon.), 124
Sermone blando angelus (Tallis), 385
Sine nomine (Mass by Tallis), 288
'Small Devotion' (Mass by Taverner),

271, 280 2, 285, 287
'So ys emprinted' (Frye), 396
Solem justitiae, 75
Sospitati dedit aegros, 68

(anon.), 395-6 (Exs. 191-2)

(Frye), 396-7 (Ex. 193)

(Taverner), 397 (Ex. 194)

Speciosa facta es et suavis, 90
Speciosa facta es . . . in deliciis virgin-

itatis, 90

(anon.), 298-9 (Ex. 78)

Spes nostra (Mass by Jones), 274
Spiritus et alme orphanorum, 72

(R. de Burgate), 135

Spiritus sanctus in te descendet, 162
Spiritus sanctus procedens a throno

(anon.), 394

(Sheppard), 370-1

Stabat juxta Christi crucem, 154

(Browne), 326-7 (Ex. 107)

Stabat mater, 67, 315, 324

(anon.), 278

(Browne), 321 (Ex. 99), 328

(Cornysh), 328

(Davy), 324, 326 (Ex. 106), 329

Stabat mater (Hunt), 336

Stabat virgo mater Christi (Browne),

324
Stella caeli, 85, 88, 158

(Cooke), 297

(Lambe), 323

Stellae claritatis, 80
Stephanus Dei gratia, 113
Stirps Jesse, 75, 127

Sub Arturo — Fons citharizantium — In
omnem terram (Aleyn), 224-6
(Ex. 22)

Sub tuam protectionem, 169

(Tye, another text), 341, 344

(Ex. 122)

Sub tuum praesidium (Benedictus) ,

340

(Taverner), 341

'Sumer is icumen in' (anon.), 135, 141-

4 (Ex. 14)
Summae Trinitati (Mass by Frye), 258-

9 (Ex. 43), 305

Tarn peccatum (Taverner), 381
Tecum principium (Mass by Fayrfax),

263, 265
Te Deum, 54-6, 61, 65-7 (Ex. 1), 71,

98-9, 106, no, 150, 187, 206,

216-17, 249, 330-1

(anon.), 389-90 (Exs. 184-6)

(Burton), 390-1 (Ex. 187)

(Taverner), 388-9 (Ex. 183)

(Antiphon by Aston, another

text), 334-5
(Mass by Aston), 272-3, 330,

334-5
Te Deum patrem, 86, 88
Te laudant alme, 91
Te lucis ante terminum, 65, 386

(anon.), 217

(Redford), 386-7

(Tallis), 385

Te matrem Dei laudamus, 334

■ (Aston), 334

Te mundi climata, 96

Tellus flumina (Tye), 392

Thomas gemma Cantuariae — Thomas

caesus in Doveria (anon.), 144-5

(Ex. 15)
Tota pulchra es, 90
(Forest), 303-4 (Ex. 84)

(A. de Lantins), 298

- — — (Plummer), 299, 302

474

INDEX OF TITLES

Totius mundi domina (Martyn), 336
Traditur militibus (Taverner), 392
Transgressus legem Domini (anon.),

132
Tu ad liberandum (Aston), 334
Tu angelorum domina (Aston), 334

Unde nostris eya (Tye), 392
Unus autem ex ipsis, 92

(anon.), 408

Ut tuo propitiatus, 96
(anon.), 1 16

Vae nobis miseris (Mason), 336
Vasilissa ergo gaude (Dufay), 245
vel carnis opera, Benedicamus, 75
Veni creator Spiritus, 64-5, 99, 129,

151
Veni redemptor gentium, 387

, carol (anon.), 420 (Ex. 223)

Veni sancte Spiritus (Mass by Pygot),

274
Veni sancte Spiritus — Veni creator —
Mentes tuorum (Dunstable), 228,
244, 256-7 (Ex. 41), 304, 306
Venit ad Petrum, 97
Venit dilectus meus, 314

(Mass by Cuk), 261-2 (Ex. 45)

Venite, 52, 62, 100, 102-3, io6> J63
Venite adoremus — Salve sancta (Car-
men), 238
Vera fides geniti (anon.), 362
Verbum caro factum est, 1 14

(Sheppard), 371

Verbum patris hodies, 108, 1 17-18,
129

, carol (anon.), 418, 421 (Ex. 224)

Verbum patris humanatur (anon.), 129
Verbum supernum prodiens a patre

(Redford), 386-8 (Ex. 182)
Vere quia dignum, 93
Vergente soli (anon.), 183

Veterem hominem (Mass, anon.), 253-

5 (Ex. 40), 258
Vexilla regis, 129
Victimae paschali laudes, 98, 134
Viderunt omnes (anon.), 1 17-18

(Perotin), 121, 132

Videte manus meas (Mass by Aston),

272-3
Videte miraculum, 75

(Tallis), 369

(Mass by Ludford), 268

Vidi aquam egredientem, 59

(anon.), 355-6 (Ex. 139)

Vidit beatus Stephanus, 113
Vir iste (anon.), 130

Vir perfecte (anon.), 130
Virginei lux, Kyrie, 130
Virginis Mariae laudemus praeconia —

Salve gemma virginum — Verita-

tem (anon.), 138 (Ex. 9)
Virginitatis amor, Kyrie, 130
Virgo Dei genitrix (anon.), 136

(W. de Winton), 135

Virgo pudititiae ferens titulum (anon.),

295
Virgo clemens et benigna (anon.), 194
Virgo mater ecclesiae, 301
Virgo prudentissima (Josquin), 331
Virgo templum Trinitatis (Davy), 317,

325-6 (Ex. 105)
Vultum tuum, 79, 393

'Western Wynde' (Mass by Taverner),
273, 283-4 (Exs. 66-7), 290

(Masses by Sheppard and Tye),

283, 290
'Woefully array'd' (Cornysh), 422-3

(Exs. 226-7)
'Worldes blisse have god day' (anon.),

153

'Y-blessed be that Lord' (Childe), 420

475

GENERAL INDEX

Aberdeen, Cathedral, 14, 184

— — , University, 14, 38, 169, 218

Abergwili, Collegiate Church, 15

Abingdon, Abbey, 38, 205

acolyte, 26

Adoration of the Cross, 59, 97

Aiguebelle, Collegiate Church, 49

d'Aigueblanche, Bishop Pierre, 49

d'Ailly, Bishop Pierre, 245

Aimar, Bishop of Le Puy, 87

albis, in, 53

Alcock, Bishop John, 40-1, 80, 186

Alexander I of Scotland, 26

Alleluia (Eastertide), 102, 109

Alleluia (of the Mass), 54, 57, 62-3, 67,
79, 106, 114, 116, 121-3, 127-8,
1 30- 1 (Ex. 7), 134-8 (Ex. 8), 166,
201, 204, 216, 285-7, 292, 369,
372, 374-80 (Exs. 166-72)

Alnwick, Bishop William, 27, 177

altarist, 6

alternatim, 58, 62, 64-5, 67, 69, 84, 1 1 1,
113, 216, 276, 279, 285-7, 357,
388, 392, 395, 400

Angers, Cathedral, 229

Anonymous IV, 121-2, 125, 130, 132-3

Anselm, Archbishop, 3

anthem, 99, 172, 184, 187-8, 196, 201,
288, 329, 423

Antiphonal, Antiphonarium, Antiphonale,
5-6) 39. 59> 100, 103, 121, i57-6°>
162, 165-6, 173, 214, 295

antiphon, processional, 88, 90-6

Antwerp, 318, 338-40, 413

Apostles' Creed, 162, 413-15 (Ex. 219)

Aqua blanca (bella), Bishop Pierre de,

49
Armagh, Cathedral, 16
armiger, 42

Arnold Organor', 209
Arthur, Prince of Wales, 1 70, 309, 340,

422
Artois, 223
Arundel, Collegiate Church, 26

Arundel, St. Nicholas, 26

, Archbishop Thomas, 18

, Bishop John, 84, 209

■ , Richard, Earl of, 26

, Thomas, 173

ascultor, 7

Asproys (Hasprois), Jo., 229
Athanasian Creed, 56, 59, no, 269
Augustinian Order, 3-4, 16, 37-8, 48,

130, 191-3, 195, 215, 221
Avignon, 222, 224-5, 227> 229

baculus, ruler's staff, 51-2
Baillie, Hugh, 20
Baldock, Ralph de, 13
Baldwin, John, 334, 381, 392
Balliol, John de, 30
Bar, Duke Robert of, 229
Barbye, 167
Barnet, John, 83
Bath, Abbey, 3, 195
Bayeux, Cathedral, 46, 128
Beaton, Archbishop James, 38
Beauchamp, Sir John, 83

, Bishop Richard, 5, 8-9

Beaufort, Cardinal Henry, 25, 159, 161,
173, 212, 244

, John, Duke of Somerset, 1 73

, Margaret, Countess of Richmond

and Derby, 25
Beck, Bishop Thomas, 15
Becklay, Thomas, 175
Bede, 205

Bedford, John, Duke of, 25, 243-4
Beert, Guisbertus de, 222
Bekynton, Bishop Thomas, 1 1 , 33, 1 79
Belmeis, Bishop Richard de, 13
Benedictine Order, 2-3, 38-44, 47, 50,
52> 55>63, 81, 88, 91-2, 95, 1 13-17
Benton (Beynton), Richard, 167
berefellarius, 17
Berkeleye, 214
Bermondsey, Priory, 190
Berry, Duke John of, 223

476

GENERAL INDEX

Beverley, Minster, 3, 17-18, 176, 207
Bewlye (Bewley), Manor, 171
Billart (Billardi), Albertus, 229, 235
Binchois, Gilles, 229, 245, 247-50, 257,

275> 298, 3°°> 347
Bishop Auckland, Collegiate Church, 50
Bishop's Waltham, 161
Blacader, Archbishop Robert, 14
Black Canons, see Augustinian Order
Blois, Bishop Henry de, 205
Bokingham, Bishop John de, 82
Bokyngham, Lady, 198
Boor, John, 2 1

Booth, Archbishop William, 81
Borne, John, 189-90
Borrow, Richard, 160
Bosco, J. de alto, 225
Boston, William, 164
Bothe, Bishop John, 42 1
Bourchier, Cardinal Thomas, 34, 190
Braga, Cathedral, 49
Brantyngham, Bishop Thomas de, 7,

48
Brether, Henry, 159
Breviary, Breviarium, 49, 100, 196, 398
Brewer, Bishop William, 77
Bridport, Bishop Giles de, 56
Briggitine Order, 82, 88, 193
Bristol, All Saints, 214
Brown, Bishop George, 15
Browne, Thomas, 165
Bryden, Thomas, 186
Bugby, John, 22
Bukofzer, M. F., 42, 305
burdon, 206, 249
Burgess, John, 165
Bury St. Edmund's, Abbey, 38, 113,

121, 146
Busnois, Antoine, 257
Butson, 167
Byzantine rite, 253

Caen, Abbey, 46
Calais, St. Nicholas, 222
Calendar, 49
Calixtus II, Pope, 118
Cambrai, Cathedral, 229, 245
Cambridge, Clare Hall, 77-8

, Corpus Christi College, 404

, King's College, 25, 33-6, 96, 163-

5, 170, 209, 259, 263

, St. John's College, 419

, University, 24, 1 78, 263

canon, 141-3 (Exs. 13-14), 234, 236-40
(Exs. 27-8, 30), 267 (Ex. 50),
270-1, 277, 303 (Ex. 83), 338, 385
(Ex. 180), 397 (Ex. 194), 414-15
(Exs. 219-20)

cantaria, 52

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 30, 48

, Christ Church, 3, 42-3, 173, 189-

90, 194, 222

, Province, 39

, St. Augustine's, 39, 78-9, 95,

113, 116, 205-6

canticle, 39, 56, 58, 187, 249

canticum organicum, 192

canticus, 159-60, 183, 186, 296

cantilena, 112, 159

cantoris, 51, 58

cantus crispus, 165, 181

diversus, 181

divisus, 28, 165-6, 168, 191

festivus, 65

fractus, 158 9, 163-5, 168, 176,

186, 191, 231

intortus, 168

Gregorianus, 15, 169

liricus, 185

organicus, 11, 19, 34, m-12, 114,

160, 182-3, 187, 190, 208

planus, 11, 28, 36, 176

capellanus conductitius, 32, 36

intrinsecus, 30

capis, in, 53

caput jejunii, 52

cardinal, 12-13, 183

Carlisle, Cathedral, 3, 194

Carmen, Johannes, 229, 236-7 (Ex.

27)> 245
carol, 155, 201, 275, 278, 298, 300,

340, 416-24 (Exs. 223-7)
Caron, Philippe, 257
Carpenter, John, 167

(chaplain), 244

Cashel, Cathedral, 16
Catherine de Valois, Queen of Henry
V, 25, 35, 228

of Aragon, Queen of Henry VIII,

285, 340
cauda, 140

Cawardyn, Thomas, 28-9
ceroferarius, see taperer
Cesaris, Jean, 229, 245
Chamberlayne, John, 167
Champion des Dames, Le, 229, 245, 250

M.M.B. II

477

GENERAL INDEX

Chandler, Bishop John, 7

chantry, 8, 14, 37, 41, 56, 80, 86, 161,

188
Chapel Royal, see Royal Household

Chapel

of Scodand, see Stirling

Charlemagne, 253

Charles I, 26

Charles V, Emperor, 339-40

of France, 223, 228

Charles VI of France, 223
Charles VII of France, 244
Charles (the Bold), Duke of Burgundy,

258
Chateaurenard, 119
Chaucer, 155
Chester, Abbey, 38

, Cathedral, 194

Chester-le-Street, Collegiate Church,

50
Chichele, Archbishop Henry, 33
Chichester, Cathedral, 3, 7, 9, 11-12,

84, 87, 181, 209, 336
Chillenden, Thomas, 43
choir-screen, see pulpitum
choir-step, gradus chori, 52, 82, 89, 103,

106, 112, 114
chorus, 51

Ciconia, Johannes, 236-7
Cistercian Order, 38-9, 210, 275
Citeaux, Abbey, 39
cithara, 221

Clarence, Thomas, Duke of, 33
classicum, 55

clausula, 12 1-8, 130, 133
clavichord, 177-8, 191
Clement VII, Pope, 224
clericus berfell, 17-18

choralis, 196

chori, 6

■ conductitius, 32, 36-7

extraneus, 40

generosus, gentleman, 2, 23-4, 27

socius, 27

valetus, 23, 27

clerk of the second form, 6, 18
Clarke, F. L., 36
Clerke, Edward, 160
Cloterboke, Richard, 158
Cluny, Abbey, 46
Codyngham, John, 1 1 3
Coldingham, Priory, 114
Colet, John, 13, 183

Collectar, Collectarium, 102, 151

collegium, 1, 17

Colles, John, 243

Cologne, Cathedral, 243

color, 121, 148

commemoration, commemoratio, 76, 135,
169, i75> 178, 185, 196, 274

Commune Sanctorum, 5, 18-19, 39, 54

Communion, Communio, 57, 60-1, 106,
114, 150, 285-6, 362

Comyn, Archbishop John, 1 6

conduct, 176, 197-8, 200-1; see also
capellanus conductitius, clericus con-
ductitius

conductus, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126-30,
i32-3> !36> !39-42 (Exs. 10-13),
146-7 (Ex. 16), 156, 296, 416-18

conjunctim, 187

Constance, Council of, 243, 245

Consuetudinarium, see Customary

contra, see counter

Cook, Jacobus, 222

Cor bridge, Archbishop Thomas, 1 7

Cornysh, Thomas, 165

Cote, John, 160

Cotterstock, Collegiate Church, 86

counter, contra, 152, 154, 177-8, 187

Courtenay, Archbishop William, 25, 83

Coventry, Priory, 3, 16

Crail, Collegiate Church, 1 76

Crediton, Collegiate Church, 3, 18, 210

Cromwell, Baron Ralph, 27

cross-bearer, cruciferarius, 94

Crow, Richard, 160

Customary, Consuetudinarium, Custumar-
ium, 47-54, 100, 105, 107, 109, in,
372, 386, 391

CUStOS, IO, 12, 30, 40

Dale, John, 29

Dalton, Bishop Adam of, 206

Darlington, Hugh, 205

Dart, R. T., 253, 267

Dartmouth, St. Saviour, 213

Davres, John, 167

decani, 51, 58,65, 94

decantare, 185

'defuse museke', 172

Delawarr, Thomas, 26

demy, 36

Denby, Robert, 200

Deposition of the Cross, 97-8

Derby, Henry, Earl of, see Henry IV

478

GENERAL INDEX

descant, discantus, discantare, 24, 38, 109,
118, 120, 123-6, 130, 132-3, 149-
55 (Exs. 19-21), 163, 169, 176-81,
185-7, 1 90- 1, i97> 214, 230 (Ex.
23), 232-4, 247-9, 286, 292, 296-7
(Exs. 76-7), 303, 319, 337 (Ex.
"9)> 345-6 (Ex. 125), 381, 420

Deus omnium (Sunday), 53

diatessaron, 207

difference, differentia, 18, 100-2, 146

diminution, 148-9 (Exs. 17-18), 270,

3°6, 33 *
Directorium Sacerdotum, 48
discantor, 121

discantus, discantare, see descant
distento, 179
divisim, 187

Doibglas (Douglas), Robert, 194
Domine ne in ira (Sunday), 52
Dominica in albis, 62
Dominican Order, 82
Dover, Priory, 144
doxology, 65
Droardus Trecensis, 120
Dublin, Christ Church, 16-17, 44> r94>
196-7, 350

, Palace of St. Sepulchre, 98

St. John the Evangelist, 98

, St. Patrick, 16-17, l&5> J97

Dufay, Guillaume, 194, 229, 245, 250,

256-7* 276, 283, 300, 318, 347
Dunbar, Bishop Gavin, 38, 185
Dunkeld, Cathedral, 15, 194
duplex, duplum, 62, 109, 1 13-14, 126,

132, 136, 154, 247
Durham, Cathedral, 3, 41, 97, 1 14-15,

187-9* *94> J97> 204-5, 210, 212-

14, 292
Dutton, William, 161

Ealdred, Archbishop, 207

Edington, Monastery, 84

Edmondes, Thomas, 214

Edward I, 19, 132

Edward III, 19-21, 28, 83, 85

Edward IV, 20, 23, 25, 28, 34, 158, 170,

174
Edward V, 25, 170
Edward VI, 19, 288, 350, 423
Egeblank, Peter de, 49
Eglesfield, Robert de, 3 1 , 84
ele{e)mosinarius, 13
Elgin, Cathedral, 14, 50, 185

Elizabeth I, 26, 213, 341, 370
Elizabeth of York, Queen of Henry VII,

309, 329
Ellendone, 205
Elphege, Bishop, 205
Elphinstone, Bishop William, 14, 38,

169, 218
Eltham, Manor, 171
Ely, Cathedral, 3, 194
Elys, Thomas, 86
Ember days, 64
Epistolarium, 100
epistoler, 23-4, 195
estampie, 122, 125
Eton, College, 16, 25, 33-5, 80, 96, 107,

16 1-3, 170, 182, 204, 209, 278,

419, 111. 7
Evangelarium, 100
Evesham, Abbey, 38, 115, 186
Evesham, Walter, 115
extra librum, 19

Ewelme, Collegiate Church, 176
Exeter, Cathedral, 3, 6-7, 9, 12, 18,
112, 182-3, 2°7> 209, 421, 111. 12

, Gradual, 74-5

, Ordinal, 47-8, 53, 68-9, 73, 76,

82, 93, 95> 98, 105, 107-11, 128,
294
, St. Petrock, 213

faburden, faburdon, 169, 174-5, I77-
9, 181, 187, 192, 249, 292, 356-7
(Ex. 140), 387 (Ex. 182), 389-91
(Exs. 184-5, l87), 393 (Ex. 189),
410-12 (Exs. 215-16)

facett (Facetus, a medieval Book of
Manners), 24

false relation, 325-7 (Exs. 105-7), 33°
(Ex. in), 355

Farnham, Castle, 161

Farr, 180

farsura, 72

Fauconbrigge, Bishop Eustace de, 78

fauxbourdon, 152, 245, 249, 347 (Ex.
128), 383

Fecamp, Abbey, 46, 92

ferial day, feria, 53, 58, 102-5, *7°> '91.
230, 275

Field of the Cloth of Gold, 228

figura, 119

figuratio, 169

Fischer, William, 194

fistula, 221

479

GENERAL INDEX

Fitzherbert, Archbishop William, 168

, Dr. William, 175

Fitzjames, Bishop Richard, 167
Fitzroy, Henry, Duke of Richmond,

25> 173
Fleming, Bishop Richard, 33, 218
Fletcher, Mark, 201
Fontaine, Pierre, 247
Fontaines, Michel de, 228
Forrest, William, 273
Fotheringhay, Collegiate Church, 26-7,

86, 176
Fountains, Abbey, 38, 227
Franc, Martin le, 229, 245, 250
Francis I of France, 228
Franciscan Order, 81, 1 15, 155, 417-18
Franco of Cologne, 225
fraternity, see Guild
Fromond, John, 161
fuga, 236
fugue, 269
Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, 1 18

Galloway, Diocese, 14

Gand, 223

garcio, 13

Gaston Phebus, Count of Foix, 224

Gaunt, John of. Duke of Lancaster, 1 5,

24,49, 221-2, 224
Gedney, Thomas, 210
Geet, Jan de, 339
gemellus, see gymel
Genealogy, 71
gentleman, generosus, 41-3; see also

clericus generosus
Gervase, Bishop, 50
Ghent, Bishop Simon of, 10, 89
Giso, Bishop, 3
Glasgow, Cathedral, 14, 185
Glastonbury, Abbey, 38, 40, 44, 46,

I9»> 205
Gloucester, Abbey, 38, 44, 158

, Cathedral, 194-5

, Humphrey, Duke of, 25

Glyn, Richard, 160

Gober, 159

Goldston, Thomas, 43, 173

Gombert, Nicholas, 290

gospeller, 170, 195

Gradual, Gradale, 67, 71, 74-5, 98, 100,

103, 116, 121, 157-8, 165-6, 173,

200, 214, 220, 290-2, 294-5, 394,

111. 10

Gradual (of the Mass), Gradale, 49, 57,
62-3, 106, 114, 1 16-17, 127-8,
130, 138-9, 204, 286, 372-4 (Exs.
164-5), 378, 380-1 (Ex. 173)
gradus chori, see choir-step
gradus superior, see senior stalls
grail, grale, grayle, see Gradual
Grandisson, Bishop John, 12, 18-19,
47-8, 55, 63, 78, 82, 86, 96, 102-3,
108-9, 111-12, 128, 182, 111. 4
Grantham, John, 24
Gravesend, Bishop Richard de, 10
Greenwich, Manor, 171
Gregorian chant, 15
Grenon, Nicolas, 229
Grey, Lord George, 28
Grosseteste, Bishop Robert, 112
Guaterius de Castello Rainardo, 119
Guild of St. George in Chichester
Cathedral, 87

of Jesus in St. Paul's, 14, 183

of Jesus and the Holy Cross in St.

Edmund's, Salisbury, 199
of Mary in St. Magnus the Mar-
tyr, London, 87
Guilielmus Monachus, 154
Guy of Burgundy, Bishop of Vienne,

118
Gyffard, Philip, 289
gymel, gemellus, 1 54-5

Hainault, 245

Hale, Thomas de la, 144

Haliburton, John and William, 1 93

Hamilton, Archbishop John, 38

Hampton Court, Manor, 1 7 1

Hanson, John, 167

Harding, Stephen, 275

harmonia, 121, 207, 218

Harris, 160

Harvey, John, 2 1 , 42

Haryngton, John, 29

Hasprois, see Asproys

Heath, Bishop Nicholas, 196

hebdomadary, hebdomadarius, 52-3, 84,

105
Hereford, Cathedral, 3, 7, 9, 12, 202

, Use, 46, 48-50, 53, 60, 69, 73,

75-6, 88, 90-92, 95, 1 01, 105,
108-9
Henry I, 20
Henry II, 16
Henry III, 6, 21, 133

480

GENERAL INDEX

Henry IV, 22, 24, 27, 220-3; see also

Index of Musicians, s.v. Henry,

Roy
Henry V, 22, 25, 33, 35, 82, 220-1,

228, 243, 246-7, 418
Henry VI, 22-3, 25, 33-4, 158, 161,

170, 209, 220, 244, 111. 9
Henry VII, 14, 25, 99, 170, 183, 216,

309
Henry VIII, see Index of Musicians
Hepburn, James, 37, 169
Hermannus Contractus, 87
Heywood, Thomas, 81
Higgons, Edward, 268
Higham Ferrers, Collegiate Church,

33, 158

Highclere, 161

historia, 74, 76

Hobbys, 35

Hocket, hoketus, hoquetus, 149 (Ex. 18),
242 (Ex. 36)

Hoker, Nicholas, 158

Homiliarium, 100

Hooper, Thomas, 180

Home, Robert, 160

Houghton, Bishop Adam, 15

Hours, see Office

, Book of, 76, 88, 99, 295, 301, 306-

7,341,111. 11

Howe, John, 163

Hungerford, Lady Mary, 28-9

Hyde, Abbey, 38

hymn, hymnus, 64-5, 88, 90-1, 93, 97,
100, 106, no, 1 13-14, 129, 146,
150-2 (Exs. 19-20), 156, 161, 184,
206, 216-17, 219, 229, 249, 264,
298, 365. 381-8 (Exs. 174-82),
393, 408-9

Hymnal, Hymnarium, 6, 39, 100, 151,
165-7, J 97, 201

Improperia, 97
inceptio, 101
injungere, 105
Innocent IV, Pope, 222
In nomine, 330
instrumentum organicum, 1 9
intonation, intonatio, 100-3, 249
Introit, Officium, 57, 60, 102, 105-6, 1 10,
116, 136, 138, 286, 362-5 (Exs.

151-4)
introitus, 232
introitus chori, 1 59, 202

Invitatory, Invitatorium, Venitarium, 18-

19, 39, 100
Invitatory, Invitatorium (of Matins),

53, 56, 61-2, 74, 103, 105-6, 187
Ipswich, 37
Isabella of France, Queen of Richard

II, 222
Islip, John, 2 1 1
isomelody, 242 (Ex. 36)
isorhythm, 146-9 (Exs. 17-18), 225

(Ex. 22), 227, 234, 236 (Ex. 27),

240-2 (Exs. 31-5), 247, 251, 253-7 ,

306 (Ex. 86), 381

James I of England, 213

James III of Scotland, 26

James IV of Scotland, 26, 174

Jaquet of Mantua, 1 94

Jaxson, James, 164

Joan of Arc, 244

John (the Fearless), Duke of Burgundy,

229
John of Parma, 81
John I of Aragon, 224
John I of Portugal, 49
John XXIII, Pope, 50
Josquin des Pres, 194, 257, 267, 331
Joyner, Robert, 161
jubilare, 63, 109, 258, 323
jubilus, 59, 63, 375

Kareville, Richard de, 5

Kells, Synod of, 16

Kemp, Archbishop John, 1 7, 78

Kendall, Nicholas, 160

Kenilworth, Castle and Priory, 221

Kennedy, Bishop James, 37

Kent, John, 214

Kever, John, 167

Keyes, Roger, 182

Kilkenny, Cathedral, 417

Kyd, Alexander, 184

Kyngeston, Richard, 50

Lacy, Bishop Edmund, 182
Ladrede, Bishop Richard de, 417
Lambertus, 291

Lancaster, Henry of Grossmont, Duke
of, 28, 222

, Thomas, Earl of, 300

Lanfranc, Archbishop, 3, 47, 205
Langham, Cardinal Simon, 222

481

GENERAL INDEX

Langley, Bishop Thomas, 41, 188
Langton, Bishop Walter, 6
Lantins, Arnold de, 247, 298

, Hugh de, 247

Laon, Cathedral, 229

Laudes, 21

Laurance (Laurence), William, 160

laus organicus, 180

lay-clerk, 181, 195

lectern, lectrinum, 52, 163, 175

Lectionary, Legenda, 100, 102

ledger, 162

Legendarium, 100

Leicester, 25

, St. Mary Newarke, Collegiate

Church, 28-30, 176, 222, 300
, St. Mary of the Meadows, Abbey,

192, 216
Leicester and Lancaster, Henry, Duke

of, 28, 222
Lekingfield, 26
Leofric, Bishop, 3
Leominster, Priory, 135
Leonin, Magister Leoninus, 120-1, 123
Lewes, William, 172
liber organicus, 182, 184
Lichfield, Cathedral, 3, 6, 9, 12, 51, 81,

91, 1 12-13, 209
, Statutes (Customary), 46-7, 76,

98-9
Limoges, Abbey of St. Martial, 1 17-19,

126, 129
Lincoln, Cathedral, 3, 5-7, 9-1 1, 14,

27,41,50-1,56,81-3, 112, 177-

8, 208-9, HI. 8

, Diocese, 31

, Ordinal and Customary, 48, 55,

58, 75, 82, 92, in
Litany, 93, 96-7, 197

(anon.), 410-13 (Exs. 215-17)

Llangadoc, Collegiate Church, 15

Lollards, 218

London, All Hallows, Barking, 213-14

, All Hallows, Staining, 213

, All Hallows the Great, 201

, Holy Trinity the Less, 201

•, Mercers' Company, 13

, St. Andrew, Holborn, 213

, St. Andrew Hubbard, 198

, St. Christopher-le-Stocks, 200

, St. Laurence, Pountney, 201

, St. Magnus the Martyr, London

Bridge, 87, 199

London, St. Margaret, New Fish Street,

200

, St. Margaret, Southwark, 213

, St. Mary and St. Ethelburga,

Barking, Nunnery, 50
, St. Mary-at-Hill, 198-201, 213-

, St. Mary-le-Bow, 201, 214

, St. Mary Woolchurch, 201

, St. Michael, Cornhill, 198, 213

■ , St. Michael-le-Quern, 201

, St. Olave, Hart Street, 201, 215

, St. Paul's Cathedral, 3, 6, 9, 12-

14, 78, 83, 87, 99, 113, 132-3,

182-3, 2I2> 2I7> 224
, St. Paul's, Use of, 48, 50, 73, 183,

208

, St. Paul's School, 13

, St. Peter in the Tower, 23

, St. Peter upon Cornhill, 201

, St. Peter, West Cheap, 201, 213

— — , St. Stephen, Colman Street, 201

, St. Stephen, Walbrooke, 198

, Whitington College, 86

Longland, Bishop John, 27-9
Loqueville, Richard de, 229, 231-2

_ (Ex. 24), 245
Losinga, Bishop Herbert, 58
Loundres, Archbishop Henry de, 16
Louth, 48
Lylly, John, 85

Machaut, Guillaume de, 147, 227, 232,

234
Macworth, John, 177
Magnus Liber Organi, 12 1-3
Magnus, Thomas, 87
Malatesta, Carlo, 245

, Cleophe, 245

Malmesbury, Abbey, 205
Manchester, Collegiate Church, 26
Manual, Manuale, 100, 173
Manuscripts (archival, etc.):

Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, gg6i,

111. 16
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum,
48, 111. 1 1

, King's College Library, Mun-

dum Books, 36, 163

, Inventories, App. IV

Chichester, Sussex County Library,
Chichester Cathedral Chapter
Act Book C.L.12, 11, 182, 209

482

GENERAL INDEX

Manuscripts (archival, etc.) — contd.

Chichester, Bishop Sherborne's Dona-
tions, ii, 181

Dublin, National Library of Ireland,
98, App. VI

Eton College, Audit Rolls and Books,

34-5> 107> l62"3

, Consolidation Charter, 111. 7

Exeter Cathedral Library, Calendar

of Documents of the College of

Vicars Choral, 42 1
London, British Museum, Add. 10336,

, Arundel 68, 42

, Cotton, Domitian A. xvii, 111. 9

Oxford, All Souls College, In-
ventories, 162

, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 845,

133

, Tanner 165, 42—3

, New College, Bishop Sher-
borne's Donations, 1 1

, Bursars' Rolls, 32, 158-60

, 288, 111. 6

, Register I, 158-9

, Register of Wardens, Fellows

and Scholars, 158-9

Salisbury Cathedral, Choristers' Ac-
counts, 178-9

, Harward's Memorials, 179

, Holt Register, 179

, Muniments, 84, 178, 200

, Newton Register, 178

Wells Cathedral, Transcripts of
Compotus Rolls, 179

, City Museum, 22, App. I

, Vicars' Minute Book 1542-93,

180

Winchester Cathedral, Enrolment Reg-
isters, 2, 3, 44, 1 9 1

College, Bishop Sherborne's

Donations, 1 1

, Bursars' Rolls, 160-1

, Inventories, App. V

Windsor, St. George's Chapel,
Attendance Book 1468-79,
20

, Treasurers' Rolls, 20-1, 174

York, Minster Library, Accounts of
Vicars Choral, 84, 175, 181
Manuscripts (musical):

Bologna, Bibl. G. B. Martini, Q15,
224-6

Manuscripts (musical)— contd.

Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, 5557,

258-9
Burgos, Las Huelgas Nunnery, 122,

133-4
Cambrai, Bibliotheque de la Ville,

1328, 149
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College,

473, "5-l6> !20, 129
, Gonville and Caius College,

334/727, 296
, 667, 157, 268, 350-1 (Exs.

133-4)

, Magdalene College, Pepys

Library, 1236, 277 (Ex. 60),
353-4 (Ex. 137), 359 (Ex.
142), 362-3 (Ex. 150), 366-8
(Exs. 156-7), 372 (Ex. 164),
375-6 (Ex. 167), 379, 382-4
(Exs. 176-8), 295-7 (Exs.
191-3), 400-2 (Exs. 198-200),
404-5 (Ex. 205), 407-13
(Exs. 210-11, 215-17)

, 1760, 340

, Peterhouse, 40, 41, 31, 32, 273-

4> 336, 34i » 357

, St. John's College, D.27, 114

, Trinity College, O.3.58, 400

, University Library, Ff.1.17,

128-9

, Ff.6.16, 296

, Kk.1.6, 296 (Ex. 76), 345-6

(Ex. 125), 111. 22
, Nn. 6.46, 267-8 (Ex. 50), 111.

20
Chantilly, Musee Conde, 1047, 224-6

(Ex. 22), 228
Chartres, Bibliotheque de la Ville,

109, 117
Chelmsford, Essex Record Society,

0/p Petre 1, 280
Dublin, Archbishop Marsh's Library,

Z4-2-20, 98

, Trinity College, B.1.1., 276

, L.i. 13, 88, 193

Edinburgh, National Library of
Scotland, Adv. 5.1.15, 193,
342-4 (Ex. 123), 111. 24

, University Library, Db. I.7,

194
Eton College, 178, 154, 162, 194, 232,
259-60, 307-29 (Exs. 88-110),
33 1 > 349 (Ex. 131), 403 (Ex.

483

GENERAL INDEX

Manuscripts (musical) — contd.

203), 405, 413-15 (Ex. 219),
422, 111. 23
Exeter, City Library, Town of Dart-
mouth ig8i, 349 (Ex. 132)
Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana,

Pluteus 29, Codex 1, 125
Ivrea, Chapter Library, 149
London, British Museum, Add. 5465,
419,422-3 (Ex.226)

, Add. 5665, 278-9 (Ex. 62), 337-

8 (Exs. 119-20), 359-60 (Ex.
143), 405 (Ex. 206), 410 (Ex.

213)

, Add. 10336, 44

, Add. 15233, 217

, Add. 17802-3, 35, 288-90 (Exs.

70-1), 341-4 (Exs. 122, 124),
354-7 (Exs. 138-40), 362-4
(Ex. 151), 369 (Ex. 160), 371-
4 (Exs. 162-3, l65)> 377-8°
(Exs. 169-72), 389-90 (Exs.
184-6), 393-4 (Ex. 189), 403
(Ex. 204), 408 (Ex. 212), 413
(Ex. 218), 111. 26

— , Add. 29996, 192, 216-17, 293-4
(Ex. 74), 352 (Ex. 136), 360-
2 (Exs. 144-9), 380-1 (Ex.
i73)> 386-7 (Ex. 182), 390-1
(Ex. 187), 394 (Ex. 190)

, Add. 30513, 217, 386-8

, Add. 30520, 187

, Add. 31390, 35

, Add. 34191, 336

, Add. 35295, 221

, Add. 36881, 117

, Add. 40011B, 227

, Egerton3307, 256, 275 (Ex. 55),

367> 379> 402-3 (Ex. 202),
404-9 (Exs. 208-9), 418, 420-
1 (Ex. 224), 111. 25

— , Hurley 978, 135, 143-4 (Ex- H)

, Harley 1709, 329, 334

, Harley 291 1, 398 (Ex. 195)

, Harley 4664, 114

, Lansdowne 462, 290-1 (Ex. 72)

, Royal 8 G.vii, 340

, Royal 11 E.xi, 338-40 (Ex.

121), 111. 21

, Royal App. 45-8, 285-7 (Ex-

69), 376-7 (Ex- J68), 391-2
(Ex. 188)

, Shane 1210, 150-1 (Ex. 19)

Manuscripts (musical) — contd.

London, Lambeth Palace Library, /,

263-6 (Exs. 46-7), 49, 268-9

(Ex. 51), 307, 329-30, 355

, 438, 411-12 (Ex. 216)

Manchester, Chetham's Library,

A.6.1, 71
, John Rylands Library, Lat. 20,

306
, Lat. 24, 74 (Ex. 3), 134, 394,

111. 10

, Lat. 127, 341

Montpellier, Bibliotheque de l'Ecole

de Medecine, H.159, 129, 133-4

Munich, Staatsbibliothek, Mus.

3232a, 154
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. C.87,

303-4 (Ex. 84), 306 (Ex. 86)
, Arch. Selden B.26, 298-9 (Exs.

78-9), 382 (Ex. 175), 417,

420 (Ex. 223)

, Ashmole 191, 396

, Barlow 22, 153 (Ex. 21)

, Bodley 257, 136

, Bodley 572, 116

, Bodley 775, 115

, Bodley 842, 13

, Canonici Misc. 213, 231 (Ex. 24),

236
, e Mus. 7, 148-9 (Exs. 17-18),

111. 14

, Eng. misc. 291, 391

, Hatton 81, 146-7 (Ex. 16)

, Lat. liturg. a.6, 348

, Lat. liturg. b.5, 394

, Lat. liturg. d. 20, 137 (Ex. 8)

, Lat. Th. e. 30, 346 (Ex. 126)

, Laud lat. 95, 15 1-2 (Ex. 20)

, Laud misc. 299, 66 (Ex. 1)

, Mus. e. 1-5, 260, 333

, Mus. e. 21, 260-1 (Ex. 44)

, Mus. Sch. e. 376-81, 270 (Ex.

52), 273-4
— — , leaves with printed Year-
Books (Pynson), 278-80 (Ex.

63)

, Rawl. c. 400*, 136, 138

, Rawl. c. 892, 1 1 6- 1 7 (Ex. 6)

, Rawl. liturg. d. 3, 295 (Ex. 75),

412 (Ex. 217)

, Rawl. liturg. d.4, 68 (Ex. 2), 98

— — , Rawl. liturg. e. 45, 411-12 (Ex.

216)

484

GENERAL INDEX

Manuscripts (musical) — contd.

Oxford, leaves in printed book Wood

591, 132, 139-41 (Exs. 11-13),

111. 13
, Christ Church, 45, 392, 401-2

(Ex. 201)
, 979^3, 34i> 357, 385 (Ex. 181),

401
, Corpus Christi College, 489, No.

22, 139 (Ex. 10), 366

, New College, 362, 1 33

Paris, Archives Nationales, L.499,

No. 1, 244
, Bibliotheque Nationale, lat.

U39> 37i9> 3549, "7

Princeton, University Library, Gar-
rett 119, 144-5 (Ex. 15)

Rome, Vatican Library, Reg. lat.
1 146, 291

Salisbury, Cathedral Library, 175, 75,
411 (Ex. 215a)

Santiago de Compostela, Codex Calix-
tinus, 1 1 8-20

Shrewsbury School, Mus. Hi. 42, 91,

99, 4°6
Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare

Birthplace Library, Archer 2, 278,

(Ex. 61)
Tenbury, St. Michael's College, 344,
386

, 1464, 280

Trent, Castello del Buon Consiglio,

87-93, 251, 254, 276, 302 (Exs.

81-2), 305, 307 (Ex. 87), 347-8

(Exs. 128-30)
Ware, St. Edmund's College, Old Hall,

21, 27, Il6, 153, 170, 220-3,

226-42 (Exs. 23-36), 245-8

(Ex. 37), 253, 268, 291, 296-9,

304,318,412,111. 19
Wolfenbuttel, Herzogliche Bibliothek,

677, 116, 125, 130-2 (Ex. 7),

i36, !52, 373
Worcester, Chapter Library, Add. 68,

No. xiii, 138 (Ex. 9)
York, Borthwick Institute, Masses,
261 (Ex. 45), 276-7 (Exs. 56-8),
291
Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry

VI, 43
Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 26
Marinis, John de, 102
Martin, Bishop Richard, 83

Martyrology, Martyrologium, 100]
Mary, Queen of England, 26, 273, 423
Massyngham, John, 161
Matheus de Sancto Johanne, 226
Maurienne, Diocese, 49
Maximilian Emperor, 339
Mayer, Wilhelm, 133
Mayshuet (Mayhuet de Joan), 224, 226,

228
mean, medius, 173, 360, 387
Meaux, Abbey, 38, 210, 275
medius chori, see mid-choir
melisma, 119
melodia, 218

Melton, Archbishop William, 17
memorial, memoria, 58, 74, 76-7, 108,

no, 219, 296
mensura, 169

Merton, Bishop Walter de, 30-1
metrum, 59
Metz, 3, 275
mid-choir, medius chori, 52, 67, 103, 106,

108, 114
Miller, Thomas, 215
Millward, Johanna, 8
minor canon, 12-14, 17, 183, 185, 195-

6,111.3
minster, 3,17
Missa familiaris, 79
Missal, Missale, 15, 48, 71, 79-80, 100,

166-7, 287, 376, 392, 400
mode, rhythmic, 120, 122, 125, 137
mode, tonus, 59, 65-6, 10 1-2, 146, 151,

323-7, 330-1, 335, 347, 349-51,

402
modula, 207
modulare, 85, 109, 152
Montfort, William de, 208
Moote, John, 206
Moray, Diocese, 14
Morgan, Bishop John, 16
Mortival, Bishop Roger de, 10, 77, 89
motet, 126-34, 136-9 (Ex. 9), 144,

146-9, 153, 156, 207, 214, 224-

9 (Ex. 22), 255, 339-4°, M- '4
Mozarabic rite, 57
Muchelney, Abbey, 43
Myllyng, Thomas, 1 59
Myln, Alexander, 15
Myrton, Sir William, 1 76

Naples, 257
Nele, John, 170

485

GENERAL INDEX

neuma, 57, 59, 63, 67-70, 74-6, 95,
118-20,122, 124-7, 13°~ij I33~4>
!37-8, i47> 150-1, 156, 207-8
323> 331, 372-6, 378, 389, 396

neume, 116, 119

Neville, Archbishop George, 43

Newark, Song School, 87

Newman, 165

Nicholas, 'joiner', 161

nocturn (of Matins), 56, 59, 106

nocturn (of the Psalter), 5, 58

Nonant, Bishop Hugh, 47

Normandy, 22, 25

Northampton, 81

Northumberland, Earl of, see Percy

Norwich, Cathedral, 3, 34, 40, 194

, Customary, 40, 58, 92, 95, 1 13—

14, 205

notatio, 158, 163-4, l&5

Notker Balbulus, 59

obedientiary, 39
Obrecht, Jacob, 257, 337
Ockeghem, Jan van, 257
Odington, Walter, 115, 130, 134
Offertory, Offertorium, 57, 60-1, 106,

no, 114, 130, 138, 216, 285-6,

293. 365-6 (Ex. 155)
Office, Hours services, 54-6, 64-72,

99-100, 120, 127, 193, 215-16,

2i9> 345, 366-7, 369
Officium, see Introit
Officium pastorum, 99
Oldham, Bishop Hugh, 48
orders, holy, 6, 51
Ordinal, 47-50, 52, 54-7, 59, 72, 98,

100, 123, 166, 173, 196, 275, 294,

378,407,411,417
ordo, 138-9
organ, organa, occasionally organum, 19,

24» 34> 38, 43> 78, 111-12, 126,

128, 157, 159-63, 165-7, l69> J74-

80, 182-3, 186-8, 1 9 1-3, i95-83

200-18, 223, 243, 249, 292-4 (Ex.

74), 352 (Ex. 136), 360-2 (Exs.

i44-9)» 364-6 (Exs. 152-5), 376-7

(Ex. 168), 380-1 (Ex. 173), 386-

8 (Ex. 182), 390-2 (Exs. 187-8),

111. 16
organicum instrumentum, 19
organicus, 207; see also cantus organicus
organista, 41-2, 1 14-15, 121, 161, 177,

185, 189-90, 200, 219

orgamzare, 109, in, 191

organum, 112, 115, 118-23, I32~3> 136,

173, 190, 206-7, 366
Orleans, Louis, Duke of, 224
Oseney, Abbey, 38, 195
ostinato, 265-6 (Ex. 49), 272 (Ex. 54),
282, 284 (Exs. 66-7), 331-2 (Ex.
"3), 334 (Exs- "6-1 17), 336,
360-1 (Ex. 145), 381, 387
0'Toole,St. Laurence, 16
Ottery St. Mary, Collegiate Church,
18-19, 26, 48, 55, 78, 86, 103, 204,
210-11, 111. 15
Oxford, All Souls College, 33-4, 162,

182, 419

, Balliol College, 30, 85

, Brasenose College, 86

— — , Cardinal College, 27, 30, 36-7,

168, 176, 332, 341, 369

, Christ Church, 37, 195

, Corpus Christi College, 85-6, 404

, Diocese, 195

, Exeter College, 30

, Halls, 85

, King Henry VIII's College, 37

, Lincoln College, 33, 218

, Magdalen College, 33, 36, 85,

165-7, x78, 192, 209, 218, 249,

260, 292, 334, 419
, Merton College, 30-2, 115, 167-

8, 204, 209
, New College, 31-3, 44, 157-61,

204, 111. 6

, Oriel College, 30

, The Queen's College, 31, 77,

84-5

, St. Bernard's College, 33

, St. John's College, 33, 86

, University, 24, 115

, University Church of St. Mary

the Virgin, 85
, University College, 30

Pace, Richard, 171

Pacy, Pierre de, 223

Padua, Cathedral, 236

Paleologus, Theodore, 245

Palestine, 222

Pales trina, 283

Paris, 25, 208, 223, 230, 245, 256

, Notre Dame, 1 17-18, 120-30,

229, 244
, Sainte Chapelle, 19, 169, 228

486

GENERAL INDEX

Paris, Saint Jacques de la Boucherie,

229
parish clerk, 198
parody Mass, derived Mass, 264, 282-3,

305, 335

parvus canonicus, 1 7

Passionarium, 100

Payne, John, 161

Percy, Henry, Earl of Northumberland,

26,173
Peregrini play, 99, 117
Perotin, Magister Perotinus, 12 1-3, 132
persona, 1 7
pes, 142-4
Peterborough, Abbey, 38

, Cathedral, 194

petty canon, 14; see also minor canon

Pewe, 87

Philip (the Bold), Duke of Burgundy,

223, 229
Philip (the Good), Duke of Burgundy,

245. 258
Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of John I

of Portugal, 49
Philippa, Queen of Edward III, 85
Pikard, John, 222
pisteller, see epistoler
pitch, 311-12, 324-5
'playn song', 197, 278, 341
Plymtree, 421, 111. 17
pneuma, see neume

point, 269, 309, 361, 368, 379, 387, 422
Pole, William de la, Earl of Suffolk,

176, 245
Pontefract, 25, 300
Pontifical, Pontificale, 100
poor clerk, 6

Poore, Bishop Richard, 5, 47, 77, 202
Popingay, Edmund, 161
Porte, William, 159
portionista, postmaster, 31, 168
Potingere, John, 44
praeceptor, 11, 15
Praty, Richard, 244
precantus, 176
preface, 93

Premonstratensian Order, 14, 82
presbyterus socius, see socius
prick-song, 'prykked song', 162-3, '65-

6, 168-9, '73-93 181-2, 184-7, I9I>

195-7, 200-1, 213
prima forma, see third form
principalis, 51

privatim, 63, 98

Processional, Processionale, 100, 103, 158,
166, 173, 295, 301, 411

proctor, 37

profestum, 53

Prophetae play, 134

Proprium de Tempore, de Sanctis, 54, 217

prose, prosa, 67-70 (Ex. 2), 90-3, 96,
105, 108-10, 113, 116, 119, 126,
i36> !58, 184, 205, 371, 395-4°°
(Exs. 1 9 1-7)

Prowell (Prowett), Alexander, 52

Prussia, 222

psallere, 50, 109, 191

psalm-motet, 345, 423

psalm-tone, psalm-intonation, 100-2

Psalter, Psalterium, 5-6, 39, 50, 56, 58,
100, 103, 151, 201, 306, 111. 16

puer de capella, 40

puer elemosinarius, 13

puerilisvox, 14

pulpitum, choir-screen, rood-loft, rood-
screen, 52, 84, 89, 91, 95, 106,
111-12, 128, 159-61, 176, 185, 197,
200-15, 400, Ills. 1, 8, 12, 15, 17

pulsar e, pulsatio, 160, 166, 177

Pulteney, Sir John, 83

punctum, 12 1-2, 125

Pythagoras, 225

quadruplum, 121, 197

quartus cantus, 139

Quatuor Principalia Musicae, 115, 152

Quatuor tempora, 64

quintuplum, 197

Quivil, Bishop Peter, 207

Ramsey, Abbey, 38

Reading, Abbey, 38, 1 13, 135-6

, St. Laurence, 201, 214

recita, 146

rector chori, see ruler of the choir

'Red Book of Ossory', 417

Regis, Johannes, 257, 318

repetitor, repetere, 179, 198

res facta, 169

responsio, 56

Rheims, 244

Rich, Edmund, see St. Edmund (Rich)

Richard II, 84, 222

Richard III, 21, 216

487

GENERAL INDEX

Richmond, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of, St.

see Fitzroy St.

Richmond, Palace, 17 1-2 St.

Rievaulx, Abbey, 38 St.

Ripon, Minster, 3, 17, 78, 175-6, 209- St.

10 St.

Ritson, Joseph, 42 1 St.

Rochester, Cathedral, 3, 194, 196 St.

Rogation Days, 96, 410-12 St.

roll, rotula, rotulus, 112, 135-6, 182-3 ' —

Roman use, 50, 275 St.

Rome, Papal Chapel, 229 St.

rondellus, 114, 134, 137-47 (Exs. 11, St.

12, 14-16), 302-3 (Ex. 83), 319- St.

20 (Ex. 97), 111. 13

rood-loft, rood-screen, see pulpitum St.

rota, 141-4 (Exs. 13-14), 162, 281-2 St.

(Ex. 65), 332-3 (Ex. 114), 414 St.

(Ex. 219) St.

Rothenhale, John, 243 St.

Rotherham, Archbishop Thomas, 37 St.

Rotherham, Jesus College, 37, 86-7 St.

Rouen, 25, 243 St.

, Cathedral, 46, 92, 99 —

Roullet, 154

Royal Household Chapel, 20-5, 1 70-2, —

198, 223-4, 289, 338, 419 St.

Royllart, Philippus, 228 St.

ruler of the choir, rector chori, 17, 33, St.

51-3, 65, 67, 76, 94, 105-6, 108, St.

in, 114, 166, 201, 215, 286, 356, St.

391-2 St.

Sacheverell, Sir Richard, 28-9
sacristan, sacrist, secretarius, 15, 18, 26,

28, 32, 36-9, 112, 176
Sadler, John, 261
Sagudino, 171
St. Adrian, 205
St. Alban, 206, 256, 263, 265
St. Alban's, Abbey, 38, 41-2, 78, 102,

206, 212, 249, 256, 265, 329
St. Aldhelm, 205
St. Ambrose, 212
St. Andrew, 8, 68, 76, 89, 120, 125, 136,

169, 180, 198
St. Andrew's, Abbey, 14, 116, 130

, College of the Assumption, 38

■ — — , St. Leonard's College, 37-8, 169

■ , St. Salvator's College, 37, 169

St. Anne, 183, 256, 302-3, 333
St. Augustine of Canterbury, 336
St. Augustine of Hippo, 3, 212

St.

Barnabas, 198-9

Benedict, 252

Bernard, 50, 59, 275

Birgitta, 82

Cecilia, 161

Chad, 76, 91, 99

Chrodegang of Metz, 3

Cuthbert, 187, 189

David's, Cathedral, 15-16, 50, 202

— , College of St. Mary, 1 5

Denis, 89

Dunstan, 205

Edmund, King and Martyr, 146

Edmund (Rich) of Abingdon, 89,

199
Edward, King and Confessor, 20
Elizabeth, 329
Ethelbert, 76, 90
Ethelwold, 2
Faith, 183

Ferdinand, Confessor, 49
Gall, Abbey, 50, 59-60
George, 246-7, 306, 404
— , Guild of in Chichester Cathedral,

87
— , Knights of, 20
Germanus of Auxerre, 256
Gregory, 212
Hugh, 48, 51, 112, 178
James, 1 18-19
Jerome, 212
John the Baptist, 40, 84, 89, 183,

218, 256, 306
John the Evangelist, 71, 96, 98, 108,

122, 205, 417
— , Passion according to, 97
Katherine, 68, 89, 18 1-2, 228, 256,

258, 3<>0> 306
Laurence, 59, 75, 89, 217
Laurence O'Toole, 16
Leonard, 169

Luke, Passion according to, 71,

402
Machar, 14
Margaret, 89
Mark, 97, 410
— , Passion according to. 71
Martial, Abbey, see Limoges
Martin, 89
Mary Magdalene, 79, 89, 218, 306,

338
. Matthew, Passion according to, 71,
162, 170, 402-3 (Exs. 202-4)

488

GENERAL INDEX

St. Michael, 89, 184, 193, 198, 206, 253,

256, 271
St. Nicholas, 34, 67-8, 75-6, 89, 96,

117, 163-4, 236, 306, 395
St. Norbert of Premontre, 14
St. Osmund, 3-5, 47, 89
St. Oswald, 2
St. Paul, 59, 76,82,218
St. Peter, 23, 75-6, 89, 98, 113, 218,

289, 341
St. Radegund, 183
St. Remigius (St. Remy), 244
St. Richard, 181
St. Sampson, 84
St. Sebastian, 183
St. Stephen, 79, 89, 96, 108, 113, 116,

1 2 1-2, 129, 198, 268, 417
St. Thomas of Canterbury, 43, 75-6,

80, 86, 89, 108, 144, 190, 196, 205,

228, 243, 274, 306, 336, 417
St. William of York, 168, 341
St. Yrieux, Gradual of, 67
Salinis, Hugh de, 232, 298
Salisbury, Cathedral, 3, 5— 11, 14, 34,
83-4, 1 12, 178-9, 200, 202, 111. 1

, St. Edmund, 199

, St. Thomas the Martyr, 200

Sanctorale, 5, 53-4, 100

Sandwich, Chantry of St. Thomas, 86

, St. Mary, 213

Santiago de Compostela, Cathedral,

118
Sarte (Showt), John, 167
schola cantus, see song school
Scone, Abbey, 193
scroll, 187
second form, secunda forma, 51, 77, 89,

91, 98, 105-6, 108
secondary, 6, 18
secretarius, see sacristan
Segar(y),John, 159
Selby, Abbey, 38
semel, semellus, 154
senior stalls, highest form, gradus

superior, 51, 64-5, 72, 89, 91-2, 98,

105-8
sepulchre, sepulchrum, 97-8, 409
Sequentiary, Sequentiarium, 100, 295
'set song', 165
shawm, 206, 217, 249
Shepprey, John, 36
Sherborne, Bishop Robert, 11, 181
Shevane, John, 165

Showt, John, 167

Shrewsbury, Bishop Ralph of, 6, 10

Sibthorpe, Collegiate Church, 86

Simon, 167

simphoniarus, 159

'Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight',

418
Skelton, John, 422
Skokysley, see Stoksley
Smith, John, 159
Smyth, Bishop William, 8 1
socius, presbyterus socius, 30, 32; see also

clericus socius
soggetto cavato, 267
Soignies, 318
soler, solium, solarium, 176, 185, 204;

see also pulpitum
solus tenor, 238, 242
Somerville, Sir Philip, 30, 85
song school, schola cantus, 9, 11, 13, 37,

40-1, 87, 176, 184-5, '89
Southampton, 243
Southwell, Minster, 3, 17-18, 81, 174-

5*204
Spyny, 14
square, square note, square book, 181,

186-7, 201, 290-2 (Ex. 72)
Stafford, Archbishop John, 173
Stafford, Bishop Edmund, 182
Stalys, 35

Stannford, William, 201
Stevyns, William, 23
Stirling, Castle and Royal Chapel, 26,

174
Stoksley, John, 165
Stone, John, 42-3, 173, 189
Storey, Bishop Edward, 12, 84
Strecche, John, 221
studium, 31, 39
subcantaria, 52

succentor canonicorum, vicariorum, 7
Suffolk, William de la Pole, Earl of, see

Pole
Sully, Odo de, Bishop of Paris, 121,417
supervisor of the choristers, 21,35
Susato, Tylman, 413
Sutton, Bishop Oliver, 6

, Sir Richard, 86

symphonia, 207

Syon, Nunnery, 82, 193, 302

tabula, 4, 52, 54, 159, 165
tabular, tabularius, 12

489

GENERAL INDEX

Talbot, Archbishop Richard, 17, 185,

111. 3
talea, 148

taperer, ceroferarius, 14, 94
Tapissier, Jean, 229, 245
Tattershall, Collegiate Church, 27, 176,

204
Temporale, 5, 53-4, 100, 114
Tenebrae, 70, 402
Tewkesbury, Abbey, 38
third form, tertia forma, also called first

form, prima forma, 12, 51, 89
Thorne, Nicholas, 79
thurifer, thuribularius, 9, 12, 14, 17-18,

94, 176
Thurlby, 160
Tinctoris, Johannes, 257
Tonale, 18, 59, 100-3, 324> 33 l
tonus, see mode
Tournai, 338
Tract, 54, 57, 63-4, 79, 106, n 6, 378,

381
trahere (organa), 112, 206
'trebill', 115, 199, 249
Tregury, Archbishop Michael, 185
Treves, 120

triplex, triplum, 1 13-14, 121, 126, 136
Trisere, Johannes de, 222
trombone, 243

Troper, Troparium, 100, 115, 133
trumpet, 217

Trumpington, William de, 78
truncatio, 149
Tuam, Cathedral, 16
Tunsted, Simon, 1 1 5
Turner, Richard, 214
Turstin, 46

Utrecht Psalter, 206

valectus, 41; see also clericus valetus

Valenciennes, 223

variation, 231, 233, 272-3, 283-4, 357

variation, variatio (of mode), 10 1-2, 105

Vaughan, Bishop Edward, 16

Venice, 171

Venitarium, see Invitatory

versiculus, 56, 162, 169

vicarius, 5

Villiers, George, 29

virilis vox, 18

Visitation to the sepulchre, 98, 117, 134

Volpiano, William of, 46

vox puerilis, 14

Walden, John (chaplain) , 244

(monk), 190

Walter, 161

Waltham, Bishop John, 84

Waltham Holy Cross, Abbey, 38, 44,

192-3
Ware, Richard de, 113
Water, John, 243
Waverley, Abbey, 38
Wayneflete, Bishop William, 33,161,218
Webber, Henry, 182
Wells, Cathedral, 3, 6-1 1, 33, 51, 76,

179-81, 202-3, 111. 2
Westminster, Abbey, 38, 43, 78, 82,

"3> io.o> I95> io7> 210-12, 222,

288-9
, Chapel of St. Stephen, 19, 28,

198, 201, 268, 338

, Palace, 19, 171

, St. Margaret, 199

Wheathamstead, John, 42, 191, 212,

2i9> 243
Whitby, Abbey, 38
Whitchurch, Edward, 196
White Canons, see Premonstratensian

Order
White, Sir Thomas, 86
Whithorn, Cathedral, 14
Whyngle, Thomas, 186
Whyte, 167

William of Malmesbury, 205
William of Volpiano, 46
Wilmer, 29

Winchcombe, Abbey, 135
Winchester, Cathedral, 2-3, 43-4, 133,

161, 173, 190-1, i94-53 205-6
, College, 31-4, 103, 159-61, 218,

246, 249, 419
, Collegiate Church of St. Eliza-
beth, 77
Winchester, David, 44
Winchester Troper, 11 5- 16, 120, 129
Windsor, Castle, 171
, Chapel of St. George, 19-21, 28,

34~5> 50, "2, 163, 174, 192, 224
Wodeford, John, 21
Wolf, Johannes, 42

Wolsey, Cardinal Thomas, 14, 26-7.
36-7, 168, 171, 173, 191-2, 215,
2i7> 332, 338, 341

49O

GENERAL INDEX

Wood, Anthony, 139 Wymark, John, 85

Woodstock, Manor, 17 1-2 Wynram, John, 169

, parish church, 172

Worcester, Antiphonal, 68, 80, 113, yeoman, see clericus valetus

116 York, Minster, 3, 6-7, 9, 12, 78, 84
, Cathedral, 2-3, 40-1, 113, 186, 96, 112, 175, 181, 207, 212, 216

194-5 , St. Leonard's Hospital, 96

Wordsworth, Christopher, 208 , St. Mary's Abbey, 38, 63, 79, 82,

Wotton (Wutton), William, 160, 167 92, 96-7, 99, 1 13-14

Wresile, 26 , St. Mary's Chapel, 96

Wulstan, 205 , St. Sampson, 84

Wydville, Elizabeth, Queen of Edward , Use of, 46, 48-50, 73, 88, 90, 92,

IV, 28 95, 98, 105, 130, 154, 341, 394

Wykeham, Bishop William of, 31-4, York, Edward, Duke of, 27

157, 160-1, 204, 218, 419

Wylliot, John, 7, 31 'Zonglouers', 192

49 1

Date Due

.. . . i j '■■:'■■

fox \%

MAY 4 '61

MAY 1 B '61

IN!

'.;*'« i .;-'

IQfift

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1959

DEC §

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WOV 2

NOV 3 n

HAY 1 9 19

DEC ^ *

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110 12 1!

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Library Bureau

Cat. Mo. 1137

3 5002 00403 5783

Harrison, Frank Llewellyn
Music in medieval Britain.

ML 285. 2 . H3

Harrison, Frank Llewellyn,
1905-

Music ±n medieval Britain

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