Part 6 (1/2)

By the time of Purcell instrumental music had advanced beyond the dance measure, and arrived at a state of independence. It could stand by itself without the aid of singer or dancer to sustain it. The process of emerging from the parasitic stage of clinging to these arts for sustenance was completed, and it had struck its roots so deep down that future ages might well, with wondering amazement at its magnificent growth, find it difficult to grasp the idea of its humble origin. The compositions left, in this kind, by Purcell, such as the fantasias, sonatas, incidental music to plays, harpsichord and organ music, indicate only, it is true, the first offshoots of the wonderful tree that was destined to so fascinate the world, but they gave birth to many n.o.ble branches that helped to invigorate the initial life in its struggles for existence, and were the most prolific of the tendrils that make for healthy growth.

In conjunction with his sacred music, these amply justify the claim made for Purcell that he was, from whatever point of view he may be judged, the greatest of all English composers.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] The word ballad comes from _Ballare_, to dance.

[7] ”Shakespeare in Music.” Louis C. Elson. L. C. Page & Co., Boston.

[8] c.o.c.kle hat and staff were distinguis.h.i.+ng marks of a pilgrim.

[9] It may be mentioned that there are numerous variations of these, as of all traditional melodies.

[10] Burton: ”Anatomy of Melancholy,” 1621.

[11] William Chappell's ”Music of the Olden Time.”

[12] ”That will draw three souls out of one weaver” is a line of peculiar interest.

Although it shows a distinct lack of reverence, it is quite typical of the spirit of the time. The ”weavers” were mostly Calvinist refugees settled on the East Coast, whose austere manners and mode of life made them a constant source of ridicule to the people among whom they had taken shelter.

The imperious will of the Tudor monarchs had, hitherto, prevented the dissemination of Calvinism in England, and so, to the boisterous, happy-go-lucky temperament of the Elizabethan Englishman, the ostentation of religious phraseology, added, probably, to their quaint p.r.o.nunciation of the language, made them at once a b.u.t.t of scorn and contempt.

The expression used, too, by the clown ”By'r lady” shows that Protestantism had as yet made little inroad on the life of the people.

It is worthy of note that it was from this part of England sailed the first batch of emigrants to the new world in the ”Mayflower,” now immortalised in history.

[13] A canon is a form of composition in which a melody is started by one voice and followed by another, one or more bars later (or even less) in strict imitation of it.

CHAPTER III

EARLY ENGLISH COMPOSERS

THOMAS TALLIS (OR TALLYS)

Most of the pre-Reformation music destroyed--Tallis, the oldest English musician of which anything certain is known--Organist of Waltham Abbey at time of the suppression of the monasteries--Date of his birth unknown--Favourite of King Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth--State of difficulty and danger in intervening reigns--Chaotic state of things in the Church--Queen Elizabeth's policy--View of it taken by the present Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral--Greatness of Tallis as a composer--His death.

We are, unfortunately, not able to write of the earliest English composers, as much of their work (and with their work their very names) perished at the time of the destruction of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. in 1540, and what was left of it was destroyed by fire during the sacking of the cathedrals by the Puritans in the Commonwealth period. We are, then, obliged to begin with the _early_ English composers, who date no further back than the sixteenth century and the Reformation.

In dealing with these and their music, it is impossible to think without emotion of the terrible sacrifice of treasures of art caused by the veritable holocaust made of them by the Puritans, for, of the work of centuries, there is, practically, little or no trace left. What we do know of the works of those composers who lived before and during the early Reformation period, shews that ecclesiastical music had arrived at a point of great splendour, and if Tallis may be considered as the descendant of a great school of composers, which he undoubtedly was, it can help us to realize the extent of our loss.

He was, fortunately, able to protect his own work, or, doubtless, that would have perished with the rest, since all of his early music (and some of the n.o.blest specimens) was written for the monastery at Waltham Abbey.

Tallis stands out pre-eminent among the early Church composers, and, indeed, has been generally called the father of English music. The date of his birth is not known, but as he was organist and composer to an important monastery at the time of its dissolution in 1540, it is not only evident that he must have been born early in the century, but that his genius was decidedly precocious. Some authorities give the date as about 1529; Grove's Dictionary, on the other hand, as supposedly in the second decade of the century: this seems more probable, as the former would have found him holding such a conspicuous appointment at the age of eleven. It is a fact of much significance that he was a prominent composer before the Reformation, and thus a descendant of the ancient school of English Church music, pure and unalloyed.

His earliest compositions were, of course, written to Latin words, and the publication of his motets in that language in 1575, more than thirty years after its suppression, suggests that the call of his early training and a.s.sociations was greater than he could resist, for it must be borne in mind that those were days of fierce bigotry, and many had been undone for acts much less provocative of ”suspicion.”

Indeed, of all the immediate changes in the Church services effected under Henry VIII., perhaps the most important, after those a.s.serting severance from Rome, was the subst.i.tution of English in place of Latin in their administration, and on no point were the reformers more jealous, since it implied complete freedom from outside interference and, above all, that of the Pope.