The Men of the Time.—While English music was not, at this period, very important, there were many composers whose names at least should be familiar. After the passing of the bards and minstrels, the monks controlled the composing of music until the dissolution of the monasteries, when it passed into the hands of the schoolmen of Cambridge and Oxford, where it remains today, though there are, at present, signs of an important awakening, presaging the passing of musical power from the hands of the conservative doctors of Oxford and Cambridge, to the present generation of younger and more talented writers. Walter Odington (1180-1250) was a pupil of the Paris school and a theorist of note, writing on the Mensural System as exploited in the French school. Robert DeHandlo (1326) was another theoretician who wrote on the same subject. John Dunstable (1400-1458) was contemporaneous with the men of the Gallo-Belgic school and did the same for English music in reforming it as the latter did for the foreign school. In recent years examples of his writings have been unearthed in the cathedral libraries of Trent and Bologna, as well as elsewhere, making it clear that in his lifetime he was regarded as one of the foremost composers of Europe. The theorist, Tinctoris, of the Netherlands school, considered in the next lesson, speaks of the “source and origin of the new art [Counterpoint] being among the English, the foremost of whom is John Dunstable.” A contemporary who was also well-known in Italy was John Hothby, who wrote several treatises on music. There were other musicians of prominence prior to the Reformation under Henry VIII, but we know little about them save their names. John Merbecke (1515-1585) adapted the Gregorian chant to the English prayer book, which was published in 1550. Christopher Tye (1515-1580) was a teacher and wrote much church music; so also was Thomas Tallis (1515-1585), one of the most learned composers of his time, who set the choral portions in the service to music. He is noted for a celebrated canon in forty parts and for a hymn-tune, known as “Tallis” or “Evening Hymn,” which contains a canon between the soprano and tenor parts. William Byrd (1538-1623) was another noted composer of this school, being also famous as a writer of instrumental music. Queen Elizabeth granted to Tallis and Byrd the exclusive right to print music and to rule music paper. Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) wrote motets and madrigals and is known as a writer of both polyphonic and monophonic music. Henry Purcell (1658-1695) was the greatest composer of the English Polyphonic school, writing operas in the English and Italian style, songs, sonatas, motets and anthems. He seems to have been in many respects a very able writer and musician, but died too young to make any decided impression on his times.
Summary.—From this it will be seen that while England had a musical people composed of a mixture of the most musical peoples of Europe, yet because of geographical position, political disturbances, religious troubles and wars, she was never able to produce a great and commanding school. She did not lack force, but it was directed into other, and for the time being, more important channels. Almost everything of an artistic nature was borrowed, or was a transplanted culture; and while the art of music never lacked men to cultivate it, yet these men were not of the calibre of the men employed in the other works of the nation, so that so far as the Polyphonic period is concerned, England is not important, and but for such men as Dunstable and Purcell and the canon “Sumer Is Icumen In,” England might be completely ignored in respect to her influence on polyphonic development.
- References.
- Crowest.—The Story of British Music. The entire book.
- Davey.—History of English Music, Chapters I to V inclusive.
- Grove.—Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Article on Schools
- of Composition, relating to England.
- Naumann.—History of Music, Vol. I.
- Oxford History of Music, Vol. I.
Questions.
Why did Music have so uncertain a growth in England?
What is the earliest English composition of value?
What were the causes for the loss of early English music manuscripts?
What principles are shown in this old Canon?
Who were the leading composers in England in the period considered in this lesson?