A Short History of English Music

districts in early days-Performances of itinerant minstrels-Ban of the Church-Gradual improvement-Effect of the wars of the Roses-Earl

services-Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell-Early secular music-Old-time music occasionally traceable now in country districts-Ancient instruments-Effect on Eng

usical-once u

great a strain on our cre

2]-once upon a time.

n long ago, and

tial to the life of the people as ranting and canting apparently became in those dismal days after the Reformation, when the sp

magnificence in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, were but the successors o

y vitality, we must look to the Church, if not for their origin, at lea

inct, not only dramatise their own experiences when they would relate them, but dramatise with equal avidity, any ma

rolling players, regarded by the guardians of the law, doubtless with much excuse, as rogues and vagabonds, who tour

ult to imagine the excitement that a visit from one of these troupes would arouse; not only on account of the amusement they wou

ese itinerant players, was frequently of such a nature as to g

of vicious depravity, most of which cannot be written about, and the more innocent, including bear-baiting, drink

lt was i

ances, and threatened to exclude all who

instinct to purify it and dedicate it to the highest ends. From that time through many ages the performances were given with the

igh standard could be insisted upon. Such an attitude would have put the clergy out of touch

Adam and Eve being a particularly popular one, and presented with a crude e

rch had no desire to stifle the dramatic instinct; she simply used her power and authority to direct it to a nobler plane of thought, and help it to become a source of healthy edu

nd manner, but he was eminently susceptible to the call

all, the call of the music which played so large a part in all the functions, would, at least, help to c

ses and their attendant misery, bloodshed and abrogation of civil law, a period of brutality, rapine, and all the consequent horrors of a fratricidal conflict came to an end, and the power of the law, both ecclesiastic and civil, was once more able to activ

the manual work necessary to enable him to feed himself, had hitherto

s in full progress and the results already apparent. The appearance in the dramatic firmament of that

been slowly, it is true, but gradually developed, main

n began the short era that was afterwards to be known as "The Golden Age of Ecclesiastical Mu

ions of that extraordinary period, and is sufficient in itself to prove that music in England, like her lit

d that there is no proof that Tallis changed his faith, but the fact that he was requisitioned to set music for th

iance to the Pope-the many submitted to the behests of the day and declared themselves definitely on the side they thought would eventually become ascendant, always, however, end

r reasons it is not necessary to enter upon here-with one or two exceptions, no repudiation of the general tenets of the Catholic Church was insisted upon. In fact, like his wonderful daughter, Quee

es, as nearly as possible, as they had before, without the masses of the people recognising or understanding the true import of what had taken place. Had

death the succession to the throne of a sickly boy, whose fanatical spirit had been fire

no time in doing whatever lay in him to further the cause of Protestantism, and render it impossible for her to obliterate and make nugatory the work he had so much at heart. Edicts were issued ordering the clergy to abstain fr

hese tactics may be found in the undoubted

llness or other trouble. To them they had looked to supply, when in need, the necessities of life, and so, on the sudden cessation of these benefits they, in their ig

e in a constant state of change and confusion, a

d, and the little that was tolerated soon lapsed

m a debt of gratitude for the beauty of his work, which remains to-day, as the highest type of C

we have

s began to compose, the Latin language had been superseded by English in the Church liturgy, his music retains absolutely all the essential characteristics of the ancient Ecclesiastical style,

his works are one of the greatest

Catholic music may be said to

lished fact, and the country had accepted it, perhaps not entirely realising in all its bearings, the full extent of the consequences. Orlando Gibbons had only

equipped, on arriving at manhood, to deal with the position as he found it: that is to say, a firmly establi

ze upon anything he thought politic. But whatever he borro

ish musicians, and that he was the last of that original school of English music whose origin goes back to the dark a

ic along those bygone ages. Something at least is known of the ancient music of the East, and the probability is t

usic as existed among the people of England at the time of the Norman Conquest was not only c

ination to realise, to some extent at least, the result of the constant influx of returned soldiers and camp followers a

hape of novel rhythms and melodic features, or strange (probably percussion) instruments, was speedily absorbed

have an ancestry as complex as

modern invention. It is the result of centuries of research and experiment. It is doubtful if the music that Gurth, the swineherd of Cedric the Saxon, may have hummed to himself in his long and solitary vigils could indeed be expressed in it. The scales then in popular use were

ity, but beyond the fact that it seeme

ck me, and this was that even in the final cadence there was no leading n

the key suggested G minor, and the fi

cracy of the singer, but each verse, as I

il Sharp would be able to give an expl

e ear alone. The invention of a musical notation, even of the most primitive kind, being comparatively recent.

ading is only mastered by compara

majority of the people of Eng

sh vocal and instrumental music. For the moment we will consider

refer, since it is little susce

e bagpipe, hornpipe and others of a similar kind, together with stringed i

rrived at perfection in the seventeenth century, when Stradivarius, Amati and Guanarius were making their marvellous ins

se and s

y a man

ag

Dowced an

nerally accepted

ly a reed instrument of

e," numerous controversies have failed

ne mentions an instrument, of wh

oude wel he bl

rt of music itself, and the ever-increasing intercourse with the Continent since the Conquest would bring

in Shakespeare's

e only

t part of "

am as melancholy as a

r an old lion; o

the drone of a Li

Haml

ill you play u

rn: My lord

I know no touch

fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will

quotation. It consists of some lines o

thou, my music,

sed wood whose

ingers, when tho

ord that mine

se jacks, tha

tender inwar

ps, which should

oldness by thee

, shew. It may be mentioned in explanation of the words, "the viol best in setts," that it was customary in those days to enclose in one case

t repined to be

he hint, as with

e and sang each

there were, as th

ed hand with perfect

of skill might liv

some touch, some st

e were seene, the m

re affect the Gam

ngland could v

to touch the ste

Pandore, and th

he Kit the wander

againe, in this t

hat loved, the Cor

t deepe, Recorde

rillest Shawn un

ie up, that plaies

Pipe, some take

unknown to the majority of readers, I will select for

t with wire strings,

ariety of t

of the lute family. It somewhat resembles

guitar. Chaucer refers

inutive

to the sli

instrument of th

lden times used as an ac

on the morals of the people, with special reference to the musicians of the period. One of the first results would be to swell the numbers of it

with all the concomitant experiences, would permit them to again settle down to the life of quietu

trel" or the riotous life of the city roys

ted in Europe, one may justifiably argue that their presence was not lik

ed that musicians in those days had a most unenviable rep

as there is little doubt that a great distinction

musician, so the public, having no greater genius for fine discrimination then than now, came to regard all pers

hened later on when Puritanism came with fanatic intensity to still further deepen it. How

s regarded in a different lig

d Cambridge, where he proceeded to the high position

called themselves, things went from bad to worse. Doubtless reinforced again by cast-off camp-followers from the armies of the Wars of the Roses, they became, by the reign of Queen Elizabeth, not only a source of terror to the countryside, but a n

assed as "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggar

ranks, as, so far from being harmed by this threat, things must have got even wo

ny inn, ale-house, or tavern, or shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring, or intreating any to hear them play

who may be said to have, at last, cleared the country of what had become a positive menace to the security of life, since under the g

marked the birth of the new era, and with it the final disappearanc

TNO

t the hands of the foreigner for three c

teously joyful sense of living. Its popular significance after th

r than the keynote, and is essential to

miliarly kn

ies of the School