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Latin Church Music by Early English Composers.—Part II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

H. B. Collins
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Extract

Four years ago, in a paper read before this Society, I attempted (with such materials as were at my command) a short review of Latin Church music by English composers of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At the kind invitation of your Council I propose to continue the subject this afternoon, and especially to deal with some composers whom I was obliged to pass over on the last occasion owing to lack of time or lack of data. As before, I labour under the disadvantage of having to describe music which is to a large extent inaccessible at the present day—most of which never appeared in print even at the time it was written—and which has to be sought, collected, and compared from such manuscripts (scattered up and down the country) as have escaped the ravages of time and of political and religious changes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Musical Association , Volume 43 , 1916 , pp. 97 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1916

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References

∗ In the discussion which took place after the lecture it was shown by Mr. Barclay Squire that Fayrfax died in 1521.Google Scholar

∗ A sixth Mass, entitled “Sponsus amat sponsam,” is preserved in lute tablature at the British Museum (Addl. MS. 29246, fo. 49b).Google Scholar

† These are the Mass “O quam glorifica.” the Motet “Æternæ laudis lilium,” and a Magnificat (Primi Toni). The Magnificat entitled “Regale” (fo 67) is also by Fayrfax. (See Br. Mus. Addl. MS. 34191.)Google Scholar

∗ In the Lambeth MS., a quaver is written with a tail. See fo. 52b.Google Scholar

† “But that order of pricking is gone out of use now, so that wee use the blacke voides as they used their black fulles, and the black fulles as they used the redde fulles. The redde is gone almost quite out of memone, so that none use it, and fewe know what it meaneth.” “Plaine and Easie Introduction.” Annotations, p. 7. Ed. 1597.Google Scholar

∗ “So sehen wir denn, jedoch erst gegen ende des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, zuerst von dem Niederländer Dufay die weissen Noten gebraucht und die schwarzen nur in gewissen Fallen als Verminderungszeichen beibehalten. … Mit dem Beginn des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts sehen wir die weisse Note allgemein verbreitet, wenn auch einzelne Componisten vielleicht die veralteten schwarzen noch eine Zeitlang mögen beibehalten haben.” “Die Mensuralnoten und Taktzeichen des xv. und xvi. Jahrhunderts.” Zweite Auflage, 1906, p. 43. See also Macmillan's new “History of Music,” p. 100.Google Scholar

† In the 16th century the Missa Brevis would have been sung a fourth lower than written, and the Albanus probably a fifth lower.Google Scholar

∗ This and the following extracts are here transposed a fourth lower, so as not to give a wrong impression of how the music should sound.Google Scholar

∗ Palestrina uses the old Tempus perfectum in one or two of his earlier Masses, particularly in the Missa “L'homme armé,” which was professedly written in the style of an earlier period; and also in a single published Motet, “Tollite jugum,” in his first book of four-part Motets, which appeared (according to Baini) in 1563. It should he noted (1) that in the complete edition of Palestrina's works, published by Breitkopf & Hartel, the time-signatures in the Masses do not in all cases correspond with those given in the original editions; and (2) that the Missa “L'homme armé” (Band XII.) is barred throughout in imperfect time instead of perfect.Google Scholar

∗ MS. No. 1737, at the Royal College of Music, consists entirely of three-part extracts from longer works. The writer of the article on Tallis in Grove's Dictionary suggests that they may be three-part arrangements of five-part compositions. But this is not the case; they are merely three-part extracts from longer works.Google Scholar

∗ Particularly in the great Motets which appeared in the later publications of Petrucci, e.g., “Miserere met, Deus,” “Stabat mater dolorosa,” “Præter rerum seriem,” “Inviolata, integra at casta es,” &c.Google Scholar

∗ The words are too long to print in lull, but the following may be quoted:—

Ave, Dei Patris filia nobilissima;

Dei Filii mater dignissima;

Dei Spiritus sponsa venustissima;

Dei unius et trini ancilla subjectissima.

Ave, Summæ Æternitatis filia clementissima;

Summæ Veritatis mater piissima;

Summæ Bonitatis sponsa benignissima;

Summæ Trinitatis ancilla mitissima, &c.

∗ Continental treatment of this form is usually much freer than English. Palestrina frequently writes on a Plainchant Canto Fermo, but I can recall no instance of his treating the latter in notes of exactly the same value throughout, as in the English examples of which I am speaking. Reference may be made to his “Hymni totius anni,” 1589, and also to the Requiems of Orlando di Lasso and J. F. Anerio.Google Scholar

† In Byrd's setting the Plainchant is in the treble; in Parsons's, in the tenor.Google Scholar

∗ In the title-page of this work, a copy of which is preserved at Christ Church, the author's Christian name is not given, and it has several times been attributed to Alfonso.Google Scholar

† The Motet will be found in Gammer's “Musica Sacra,” Band 25.Google Scholar

∗ The same musical idea has of course been treated by many different composers—e.g., Mendelssohn, first Organ Sonata; Franck, Prélude, Choral and Fugue; Brahms, Rhapsodie in E flat, Op. 119, No. 4 (Coda).Google Scholar