HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OF LITERATURE

AND THE ARTS

Jon Woronoff, Series Editor

Science Fiction Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2004.

Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes, 2007.
American Radio Soap Operas, by Jim Cox, 2005.
Japanese Traditional Theatre, by Samuel L. Leiter, 2006.
Fantasy Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2005.
Australian and New Zealand Cinema, by Albert Moran and Errol Vieth,
2006.
African-American Television, by Kathleen Fearn-Banks, 2006.
Lesbian Literature, by Meredith Miller, 2006.
Scandinavian Literature and Theater, by Jan Sjåvik, 2006.
British Radio, by Seán Street, 2006.
German Theater, by William Grange, 2006.
African American Cinema, by S. Torriano Berry and Venise Berry, 2006.
Sacred Music, by Joseph P. Swain, 2006.
Russian Theater, by Laurence Senelick, 2007.
French Cinema, by Dayna Oscherwitz and MaryEllen Higgins, 2007.
Postmodernist Literature and Theater, by Fran Mason, 2007.
Irish Cinema, by Roderick Flynn and Pat Brereton, 2007.
Australian Radio and Television, by Albert Moran and Chris Keating, 2007.
Polish Cinema, by Marek Haltof, 2007.
Old Time Radio, by Robert C. Reinehr and Jon D. Swartz, 2008.
Renaissance Art, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2008.
Broadway Musical, by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 2008.
American Theater: Modernism, by James Fisher and Felicia Hardison
Londré, 2008.
German Cinema, by Robert C. Reimer and Carol J. Reimer, 2008.
Horror Cinema, by Peter Hutchings, 2008.
Westerns in Cinema, by Paul Varner, 2008.
Chinese Theater, by Tan Ye, 2008.
Italian Cinema, by Gino Moliterno, 2008.
Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2008.
Russian and Soviet Cinema, by Peter Rollberg, 2008.
African American Theater, by Anthony D. Hill, 2009.
Postwar German Literature, by William Grange, 2009.
Modern Japanese Literature and Theater, by J. Scott Miller, 2009.
Animation and Cartoons, by Nichola Dobson, 2009.
Modern Chinese Literature, by Li-hua Ying, 2010.

9780810857506_Print.indb i 3/14/11 10:29 AM

 Middle Eastern Cinema, by Terri Ginsberg and Chris Lippard, 2010.
Spanish Cinema, by Alberto Mira, 2010.
Film Noir, by Andrew Spicer, 2010.
French Theater, by Edward Forman, 2010.
Choral Music, by Melvin P. Unger, 2010.
Westerns in Literature, by Paul Varner, 2010.
Baroque Art and Architecture, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2010.
Surrealism, by Keith Aspley, 2010.
Science Fiction Cinema, by M. Keith Booker, 2010.
Latin American Literature and Theater, by Richard A. Young and Odile
Cisneros, 2011.
Children’s Literature, by Emer O’Sullivan, 2010.
German Literature to 1945, by William Grange, 2011.
Neoclassical Art and Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2011.
American Cinema, by M. Keith Booker, 2011.
American Theater: Contemporary, by James Fisher, 2011.
English Music: ca. 1400–1958, by Charles Edward McGuire and Steven E.
Plank, 2011.
Rococo Art, by Jennifer D. Milam, 2011.

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 Historical Dictionary
of English Music:
ca. 1400–1958

Charles Edward McGuire

Steven E. Plank

The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2011

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 Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.scarecrowpress.com

Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom

Copyright © 2011 by Charles Edward McGuire and Steven E. Plank

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McGuire, Charles Edward.

Historical dictionary of English music: ca. 1400–1958 / Charles Edward McGuire,
Steven E. Plank.
p. cm. — (Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8108-5750-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7951-5 (ebook)
1. Music—England—Dictionaries. I. Plank, Steven Eric. II. Title.
ML101.E5M34 2011
780.942'03—dc22 2010049351
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

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 A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
—Samuel Johnson, 6 April 1775, recorded in
James Boswell, Life of Johnson

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9780810857506_Print.indb vi 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 Contents

Editor’s Foreword (Jon Woronoff) ix

Preface xi
Reader’s Notes xiii
Acronyms and Abbreviations xv
Chronology xvii
Introduction 1
THE DICTIONARY 15
Select Bibliography 317
About the Authors 341

vii

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9780810857506_Print.indb viii 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 Editor’s Foreword

The Historical Dictionary of English Music: ca. 1400–1958 deals with just
that—English music over the ages, here focused on music from the early Re-
naissance to the mid-20th century, ending with the death of Ralph Vaughan
Williams. Moreover, this is indeed English music and does not include Irish,
Scottish, or Welsh derivations. It may seem a bit nationalistic to focus on Eng-
lish music, but today the primary concern is what England has contributed to
the world of music, which it turns out is quite a bit. Some of the truly great
composers of English music figuring in this volume include Johann Christian
Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and George Frideric Handel, along with singers
like Jenny Lind and Farinelli. Yet they do not overshadow the remarkable
role of locals Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, and Sir Edward Elgar among the
composers, Sir Adrian Boult and Sir John Barbirolli among the conductors,
and John Dowland and Robert Lindley among the instrumentalists.
This historical dictionary begins with a list of acronyms, an ample chronol-
ogy that covers high points of approximately six centuries, and an introduc-
tion that provides a broader view of English music. The dictionary section
fills in many of the details in some 600 entries, which not only provide
considerable information but, in many cases, provide a point of view by
contemporaries or later observers. It covers the most significant and many of
the lesser but still remarkable composers, conductors, instrumentalists, and
singers as well as some of the impresarios and critics who made the music
scene vibrant for so long. Other entries are on the most popular theaters and
concert halls, numerous musical instruments, genres, particularly notable mu-
sical works, professional and other societies, and crucial technical terms. The
bibliography is last but hardly least, since it is the first step toward a much
broader literature.
This volume was written by two authors with a long and abiding interest in
English music. Both are American, not British, which gives them some physi-
cal and intellectual distance and perhaps a clearer perspective. Both have
been struck by the richness and beauty of English music, strongly enough
indeed for them to study it intensively and teach it at Oberlin College in Ohio,
which is known for its Conservatory of Music. The main interest of Charles

ix

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 x • EDITOR’S FOREWORD

Edward McGuire is British music of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly
that of Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He has written exten-
sively on both of these composers and other topics in leading journals and has
published two books. After teaching at various other universities, he is now
an associate professor of musicology at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Steven E. Plank is professor and chair of the Department of Musicology at
Oberlin, where he has been teaching since 1980. His main historical interest
is earlier, namely Restoration England, and also the role of liturgy in music
and the oratorio. He, too, has written numerous articles and two books. Be-
tween them, they have produced a reference work that is not only informative
but helps us understand just why English music is so special and delightful.

Jon Woronoff
Series Editor

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 Preface

This Historical Dictionary of English Music: ca. 1400–1958 seeks to iden-

tify and briefly annotate a wide range of subjects relating to English musical
culture, largely from the early 15th century through 1958, dates that reflect
the coalescence of an identifiable English style in the early Renaissance and
the death of the iconic Ralph Vaughan Williams in the mid-20th century. Al-
though the chronological span is an arbitrary one, its compass embraces the
emergence of distinctively English repertories until the successful establish-
ment of English modernism. Entries include people, venues, repertory, genre,
and sources: the landmarks in the geography of English musical history. But
in appropriating the notion of “landmark,” the authors also understand that
landmarks themselves range from the monumental to the mundane, and ac-
cordingly, the scope of the entries is, of necessity, selective, but of design
“democratic.” We also acknowledge that dictionaries, unlike encyclopedias,
are meant to be concise. Thus even a series of democratic descriptions needs
limits, else concision would be lost. Therefore, within this dictionary we have
focused on the music and musical infrastructure of England and those at work
within England and have not attempted to evaluate the rest of Great Britain,
including Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, in any detail, except when
individuals and institutions active in England overlapped with these areas.
Entries in the dictionary aim to be “first reference” sources for students
and researchers. Our aim is to give readers information in an efficient format
that will help clarify and position the landmarks of English music that readers
may encounter in the many scholarly and popular discussions now available.
The modern reference bibliography offers a number of possibilities for com-
prehensive articles on many of these subjects, with the New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians and its many contributors being the most notable
example. We are naturally indebted to the authors of this monumental source,
as well as to other writers who have pursued these topics at length, and seek
to complement them with material that is compellingly content-rich, though
less developed in scope.
These debts are acknowledged in the bibliography of this volume, which
includes both works consulted and works for further reference. Addition-

xi

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 xii • PREFACE

ally, in some cases where a specific reference proved necessary, we have

supplied an author-date note within the text itself. In all instances, we have
been deeply aware of our part in a chain of information and discourse and are
grateful for the enabling work of so many colleagues in the field of English
musical studies.
The writing of this dictionary is also an occasion for gratitude in the op-
portunity for collaboration that it has so richly presented. We have been
fortunate, indeed, to find our respective passions for English music to be
something that we have shared and celebrated for so many years as friends
and colleagues at Oberlin College. In general, our division of labor has been
a chronological one, with articles on subjects after Handel largely the work
of Charles Edward McGuire and those on subjects Handelian and earlier the
work of Steven E. Plank. Each of our individual efforts, however, has been
much enriched by an ongoing dialogue with each other over several decades,
and our efforts are much the richer and warmly congenial for it.
In the preface to his The Mirror of Music, 1844–1944: A Century of Musi-
cal Life in Britain as Reflected in the Pages of the Musical Times (1947),
Percy A. Scholes noted,

Of all historical study, the most interesting is that which leads us to a conception
of the means by which have come about the conditions of the period in which
we are ourselves living. That is what this book will, I hope, achieve for others,
as it had done for me. It will demonstrate to the British musicians and music
people of today the processes that have been at work to create their own artistic
and educational milieu.

Scholes published his two-volume social history of music through the lens
of the Musical Times in 1947, when few understood the history of all clas-
sical music to have been so affected by the tastes of the English. Fewer still
thought of writing a history that encompassed more than just national and
nationalist events. As authors of this dictionary, we have been lucky to have
Scholes and others break this flawed supposition before us, so that we can
present elements of the rich landscape of English music over the course of
some six centuries. We can, further, identify with Scholes’s notion that the
demonstration of the historical process is an edifying one: the more than
600 entries in this dictionary allowed us latitude to explore concepts, genres,
people, and places that were new to us, and continually illuminated just how
complex the history of music in England has been—and still is. It is our hope
that you, gentle reader, will find at least some of our excitement and wonder
at the revelations within these pages.

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 Reader’s Notes

1. Cross-references are indicated through the use of bold type within the
entry or in a See also at the end.
2. Acts in plays, operas, and operettas are identified by capital Roman nu-
merals while scenes are identified by lowercase ones; thus The Tempest
II/ii would mean the second act, second scene of Shakespeare’s play,
and The Mikado I/iii would mean the first act, third scene of Gilbert
and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
3. References to manuscripts follow the library sigla standardized in
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales.

xiii

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9780810857506_Print.indb xiv 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 Acronyms and Abbreviations

ADCM Archbishop of Canterbury’s Diploma in Church Music

ARCM Associate of the Royal College of Music
ARCO Associate of the Royal College of Organists
Blwl Blackwell History of Music in Britain (Ian Spink, general
editor)
CBE Commander, Order of the British Empire
CBSO City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
CH Companion of Honour
CHM Choir Training Diploma of the Royal College of Organists
CVO Companion of the Victorian Order
DBE Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire
DipCHD Choral Directing Diploma of the Royal College of Organists
DNB Reference to the corresponding article in the Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography
FRAM Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music
FRCM Fellow of the Royal College of Music
FRCO Fellow of the Royal College of Organists
GCVO Grand Cross, Victorian Order
GSM Guildhall School of Music
KB Knight Bachelor
KCVO Knight Commander, Victorian Order
LSO London Symphony Orchestra
MBE Member, Order of the British Empire
MT The Musical Times
MVO Member of the Victorian Order
NG Reference to the corresponding article in the New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians
OHEM Oxford History of English Music (John Caldwell, editor)
OM Order of Merit
RAM Royal Academy of Music, London
RCM Royal College of Music, London
RMA Royal Musical Association

xv

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 xvi • ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

RMCM Royal Manchester College of Music

RNCM Royal Northern College of Music
RVO Royal Victorian Order
SPCK Society for the Propagation (later “Promotion”) of Christian
Knowledge
SPNM Society for the Promotion of New Music

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 Chronology

ca. 1325 Robertsbridge Codex written.

1382 Winchester College founded.
1399 Accession of Henry IV.
1413 Accession of Henry V.
1415 25 October: Battle of Agincourt.
ca. 1415–1421 Major compilation of the Old Hall Manuscript.
1422 Accession of Henry VI.
1440 Eton College founded.
1441 King’s College, Cambridge, founded.
1461 Accession of Edward IV.
1483 Incorporation of Chapel Royal; Accession of Edward V; Accession
of Richard III.
1485 22 August: The Battle of Bosworth Field; Accession of Henry VII.
ca. 1490 Eton Choirbook copied.
ca. 1505 Birth of Thomas Tallis.
1509 Accession of Henry VIII.
1520 Field of Cloth of Gold.
1535 Coverdale English Bible translation published.
ca. 1540 Birth of William Byrd.
1547 Accession of Edward VI.
1549 First Book of Common Prayer published.
1550 Marbeck, The Booke of Common Praier Noted, published.

xvii

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 xviii • CHRONOLOGY

1553 Accession of Mary I.

1558 Accession of Elizabeth I.
1564 Birth of William Shakespeare.
1575 Tallis and Byrd, Cantiones Sacrae, I, published.
1581 1 December: Execution of Edmund Campion.
1583 Birth of Orlando Gibbons.
1587 8 February: Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
1588 8 August: Defeat of the Spanish Armada.
1593 3 April: Birth of George Herbert.
1597 Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musick, pub-
lished.
1599 Morley, The First Booke of Consort Lessons, published.
1601 The Triumphs of Oriana published.
1603 Accession of James I.
1604 Dowland, Lachrimae or Seven Teares, published.
1611 The King James Bible published.
1613 Parthenia published.
1617 Jonson and Lanier, Lovers Made Men, first performed.
1621 John Adson, Courtly Masquing Ayres, published.
1623 Shakespeare, The First Folio, published.
1625 Accession of Charles I.
1646 Westminster Confession of Faith.
1649 Beginning of the Commonwealth. 30 January: Execution of Charles I.
1656 Davenant, The Siege of Rhodes, performed.
1659 Birth of Henry Purcell.
1660 Restoration of the Monarchy; Accession of Charles II.
1663 Drury Lane Theatre built.
1671 Father Smith appointed royal organ maker.

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 CHRONOLOGY • xix

1672 Bannister’s public concerts begun.

1676 Performance of Musick: or a Parley of Instruments.
1683 22 November: First of the annual St. Cecilia’s Day Musick Feasts in
London.
1685 Accession of James II; Grabu and Dryden, Albion and Albanius, first
performed; Birth of Handel.
1689 Accession of William and Mary.
1691 Purcell and Dryden, King Arthur, first performed.
1700 Blow, Amphion Anglicus, published.
1701 Judgment of Paris first performed.
1702 8 March: Accession of Anne.
1705 Clayton, Arsinoe, performed.
1711 Handel, Rinaldo, first performed.
1714 1 August: Accession of George I.
1719 Durfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy, published; First Royal Academy
of Music begun.
ca. 1720 Three Choirs Festival Founded.
1727 11 June: Accession of George II.
1728 Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, first performed.
1729 Second Royal Academy of Music begun.
1732 Opening of Covent Garden.
1733 “The Opera of the Nobility” begun.
1738 Fund for Decayed Musicians (later Royal Society of Musicians)
founded.
1742 13 April: Handel’s Messiah first performed in Dublin.
1753 British Museum founded.
1760 25 October: Accession of George III.
1761 Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club founded.
1772 Opening of the Pantheon.

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 xx • CHRONOLOGY

1776 Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music,

published; Concerts of Ancient Music founded.
1784 Birmingham Musical Festival founded.
1785 Professional Concert founded.
1813 Philharmonic Society (later Royal Philharmonic Society) founded.
1820 29 January: Accession of George IV.
1822 Royal Academy of Music (RAM) founded.
1830 26 June: Accession of William IV; Opening of Novello & Co.
1831 Opening of Exeter Hall.
1832 Sacred Harmonic Society founded.
1834 Society of British Musicians founded.
1837 20 June: Accession of Victoria.
1839 Society of Female Musicians (later Royal Society of Female Musi-
cians) founded.
1844 1 June: Musical Times began publication as Mainzer’s Musical Times
and Singing Class Circular.
1845 Musical Union founded.
1846 August 26: Mendelssohn, Elijah, first performed.
1849 Mendelssohn Scholarship founded.
1850 St. Martin’s Hall opened for concerts.
1851 Crystal Palace completed; Tonic Sol-fa Association founded. 1 May
1–15 October: Great Exhibition.
1854 Bach Society founded.
1855 Henry Leslie Choir founded.
1858 St. James’s Hall opened; Hallé Orchestra founded.
1864 Royal College of Organists founded.
1866 Royal Society of Female Musicians and Royal Society of Musicians
merged.
1869 Tonic Sol-fa College founded.

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 CHRONOLOGY • xxi

1871 Royal Albert Hall opened.

1872 Church Choral Society (forerunner of Trinity School of Music)
founded.
1875 Musical Association (later Royal Musical Association) founded.
1876 National Training School for Music (forerunner of the RCM) founded.
1878 People’s Concert Society founded. 25 May: Gilbert and Sullivan,
H.M.S. Pinafore, first performed.
1879 D’Oyly Carte Opera Company founded; A Dictionary of Music and
Musicians (edited by Grove) began publication; Richter Concerts com-
menced.
1880 3 April: Gilbert and Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance, first performed
in London (New York premiere: 31 December 1879). 7 September: Parry,
Prometheus Unbound, first performed; traditional date for the beginning of
the “English Musical Renaissance.”
1882 Royal College of Music (RCM) founded.
1885 14 March: Gilbert and Sullivan, The Mikado, first performed.
1893 Manchester College of Music (later Royal Northern College of Music
[RNCM]) founded.
1895 Proms and Queen’s Hall Orchestra founded.
1898 Folk-Song Society (forerunner of English Folk Dance and Song So-
ciety) founded.
1899 19 June: Elgar, Variations on an Original Theme (“Enigma”), first
performed.
1900 3 October: Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius, first performed.
1901 22 January: Accession of Edward VII.
1904 London Symphony Orchestra founded.
1910 6 May: Accession of George V. 6 September: Vaughan Williams,
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, first performed.
1911 Society of Women musicians founded.
1920 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra founded.
1922 BBC began broadcasting.

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 xxii • CHRONOLOGY

1925 Haslemere Festival founded.

1927 School of English Church Music (later Royal School of Church Mu-
sic) founded.
1931 8 October: Walton, Belshazzar’s Feast, first performed.
1932 MacNaughten-Lemare Concerts founded.
1936 20 January: Accession of Edward VIII. 11 December: Accession of
George VI.
1943 Society for the Promotion of New Music founded.
1944 19 March: Tippett, A Child of Our Time, first performed.
1945 Philharmonia Orchestra founded.
1948 Bryanston Summer School (forerunner of Dartington International
Summer School) founded.
1951 3 May: Festival of Britain opens; Opening of the Royal Festival Hall.
1952 6 February: Accession of Elizabeth II.
1958 26 August: Death of Vaughan Williams.

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 Introduction

The musical history of a nation brings diverse notions into play. “Nationalis-
tic” music, for instance, is a music that in its gestures, idioms, and expression
evokes something of the character of the nation itself, and something that the
people of the nation might recognize as familiarly their own. Ralph Vaughan
Williams in his lectures entitled National Music explores this moment of
recognition in the music of Edward Elgar. He fondly writes, “When I hear
the fifth variation of the ‘Engima’ series I feel the same sense of familiarity,
the same sense of the something peculiarly belonging to me as an English-
man which I also felt when I first heard [the English folk songs] ‘Bushes and
Briars’ or ‘Lazarus.’”1
“National style,” on the other hand, is a concept that identifies the musical
procedures of a nation as distinctive, whether the style particularly evokes
the nation or not. With respect to English music this idea of distinction is
well established in the early 15th century, the start of the European musical
Renaissance. English composers such as Leonel Power and John Dunstaple
pioneered a musical style rich in consonant thirds and full triadic sonorities
that was held to be both identifiably English and a foundation of the emerg-
ing Renaissance style. The music theorist Johannes Tinctoris, writing of the
modern Franco-Flemish composers, notes that

At this time [ca. 1476], consequently, the possibilities of our music have been
so marvelously 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.2

And the French poet Martin le Franc in his Le champion des dames describes
the Franco-Flemish composers of the day, composers like Dufay and Bin-
chois, as following Dunstaple and wearing an “English guise”: “Et ont prins
de la contenance / Angloise et ensuy Dunstable.” Additionally, it seems that
national distinctiveness extended to the manner of performance as well. Tinc-
toris, for example, writes that the English cannot be compared to the French,
for they are “popularly said to shout while the French sing.”3 More favorably,

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 2 • INTRODUCTION

Ornithoparcus, in his Musice active micrologus (1517), translated by John

Dowland in 1609, notes that

Every man lives after his owne humour; neither are all men governed by the
same lawes, and divers Nations have divers fashions, and differ in habite, diet,
studies, speech, and song. Hence is it, that the English doe carroll; the French
sing; the Spaniards weepe; the Italians, which dwell about the Coasts of Ianua
caper about with their Voyces; the others barke: but the Germanes (which I am
ashamed to vtter) doe howle like Wolves.4

Yet another strand in considering the musical history of a country would

be the tension between a country’s reliance on native composers on the one
hand and a reliance on musical importation on the other. This, too, surfaces
relatively early and is certainly prominent in the record of English music,
where it often bears the stamp of political and religious circumstance. In 1575
the preface to William Byrd and Thomas Tallis’s Cantiones Sacrae declared
with confidence the strength of “British Music”:

British Music, already contemplating battle, saw that she, who yields to none of
the nine Muses in art, could safely proceed by one course: if the Queen would
declare herself her [British music’s] patron, and if she could include as her own
such distinguished authors who if they would compose would astonish the rest
of the multitude. Therefore, blessed with the patronage of so learned a Ruler, she
fears neither the boundaries nor the reproach of any nation. Proclaiming Tallis and
Byrd her parents, she [British music] boldly advances where no voice has sung.5

However, the confidence here would bow to foreign incursion, especially in

the 17th and 18th centuries. In writing the royal opera Albion and Albanius
(1685), the poet John Dryden chose not an English composer but rather the
Francofied Spaniard Louis Grabu, long resident in England. If the choice
of composer for this patriotic opera seemed unpatriotic, Dryden explained,
“When any of our Countrymen excel him, I shall be glad, for the sake of old
England, to be shown my error.”6 The issue was keen in the 18th century
as well. In a 1732 letter to Handel, himself an import, the theater manager
Aaron Hill pleaded for an operatic liberation from Italy: “My meaning is, that
you would be resolute enough, to deliver us from our Italian bondage; and
demonstrate, that English is soft enough for Opera, when compos’d by poets,
who know how to distinguish the sweetness of our tongue, from the strength
of it, where the last is less necessary.”7 Such pleas proved idle. At the end of
the 18th century, the redoubtable music historian Charles Burney lamented
the short lives of Orlando Gibbons, Pelham Humfrey, and Henry Purcell,
concluding that “If these admirable composers had been blest with long life,
we [the English] might have had a music of our own. . . . As it is, we have no

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 INTRODUCTION • 3

school for composition, no well digested method of study, nor indeed, models
of our own.”8 For Burney the perception of foreign ascendancy was complete,
even if the reality differed greatly, as this Dictionary shows.
What picture emerges? England’s music in the early 15th century estab-
lishes aesthetic norms for the new Renaissance style, a style in which the
formerly dissonant interval of the third became sweetly consonant, a new
fullness of sound was essayed, and a fluidity of rhythm with frequent vertical
and horizontal hemiolas graced the whole. This music, in the main Marian
motets and mass movements, features in manuscript collections like the lav-
ish “Old Hall Manuscript,” wherein the chief composer is Leonel Power.
The nature of the transmission of this style to the Continent, where it became
“mainstream,” remains speculative. However, John Dunstaple, Power’s more
famous contemporary, perhaps found his way to the Continent in the retinue
of the Duke of Bedford, a possibility that would help to explain the transmis-
sion of this style to the Franco-Flemish world.9
Inherent in this early 15th-century style is a striking sense of sonority, a
robust embrace of the sound itself—its amenity—that seems to trump the
objective mathematics governing counterpoint. It is easy to hear the continu-
ity of this interest in sonority in the generation of English composers coming
into blossom around 1500. Notably, in the music of the Eton Choirbook we
see a dramatic expansion of range in both bass and treble registers; the old
three-voice core polyphony of the earlier generation has now added soaring
treble lines on top and profound bass lines below, as well as oftentimes an
enrichment of the middle voices. And while this does indeed extend contra-
puntal technique, it more substantially seems to revel in the creating of new
sound effects, as heard for instance in works like Robert Wylkynson’s stun-
ning nine-voice Salve Regina in the Eton collection.
The English exploration of sonority in the 15th and early 16th centuries
was distinctive. So too, to a degree, was their exploration of musical form and
genre, as seen in the cultivation of the carol. Compilations like the Fayrfax
Manuscript and the Ritson Manuscript document the prominence of the carol
at the early Tudor court, where one finds it not only celebrative but also af-
fectively contemplative, as in the Passion carols by John Browne, William
Cornysh, and others. And while the carol remains much an English form, its
reliance on periodic repetition—it is strophically set with a refrain (the bur-
den)—is suggestive of the appetite for repetition that one also encounters in
the continental formes fixes.
The 16th century in England is marked by both a striking degree of exi-
gent heterogeneity as well as a “Golden Age” at the end of the century. The
heterogeneity is sparked chiefly by the religious reforms and reversals that
characterized the reigns of Henry VIII and his children. The establishment of

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 4 • INTRODUCTION

the autonomous Church of England gave reform-minded clerics an arena in

which to establish a vernacular liturgy—the first Book of Common Prayer ap-
peared in 1549—and to explore a concomitant simpler, devotional style. This
simpler style, eschewing counterpoint, melisma, and development, is clear in
collections like the Lumley Partbooks—Anglican devotional music before
the Book of Common Prayer—and the Wanley Partbooks from the reign of
Edward VI, and it commanded the attention of major composers like Thomas
Tallis, whose proficiency in the earlier, elaborate style was both masterful
and well established. The austere style was in some contexts explicitly urged.
Archbishop Cranmer, architect of the Book of Common Prayer, famously
wrote to the King about his English Litany (1544), saying:

I trust it will much excitate and stir the hearts of all men unto devotion and
godliness; but in mine opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto would not
be full of notes, but, as near as may be, for every syllable a note; so that it may
be sung distinctly and devoutly.10

The return to the Roman Church under Mary Tudor (1553–58) saw the return
to the more florid, contrapuntal style as well, with Tallis and others able to re-
animate the earlier tradition with works like his sumptuous Missa Puer Natus.
The reign of Elizabeth (1558–1603), while often characterized as a
“Golden Age,” buoyed by Shakespeare, western exploration, the rousing de-
feat of the Spanish Armada, and a general flourishing of the arts, proves to be
complex. With the Act of Supremacy of 1559, Elizabeth severed England’s
ecclesiastical ties to Rome. This did not, however, prompt a uniform return
to an austere liturgical practice; the Elizabethan church forged its now much
heralded via media between Roman and Protestant sensibilities, and in that
middle path liturgical music continued to embrace the Latin motet, as seen
in Byrd and Tallis’s famous Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, as well as to nurture
vernacular forms of anthem and service music that show little signs of aus-
tere constraint, as the complexity and ebullience of works like Byrd’s “Great
Service” or his anthem “Sing Joyfully” attest. Additionally, developing out
of the consort song, the verse anthem moved church music in a new formal
direction that would stay active well into the 18th century. Tellingly, too, the
coexistence of different scorings for verse anthems—versions for viols and
versions for organ—likely point to different venues, a reminder that sacred
music was often a domestic concern as well as a public ecclesiastical one.
Elizabethan secular music fostered the ayre, generally a strophic compo-
sition of an accompanied melody, often taking the form of a lute song, but
equally apt as an ensemble partsong, as one sees in the music of John Dow-
land, Thomas Campion, and others. The strophic form made declamation and

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 INTRODUCTION • 5

textual emphasis rare, in contrast to the direction in which Italian monodic

song was notably developing. (Dowland’s through-composed “In Darkness
Let Me Dwell” is a significant exception.) However, the influence of the
Italians in Elizabethan music is especially evident in the cultivation of the
madrigal. The English madrigal drew more directly on lighter Italian forms
like the canzonetta than it did on the more literary Italian madrigal itself,
although several collections of “Englished” Italian madrigals appeared in the
1580s and 1590s, suggesting that the Italian influence was broad. The English
form, like its Italian counterparts, reveled in iconic text painting, a technique
that sought to render the meaning of the word audible, but at the same time a
technique that was prone to exaggerated extreme.
Instrumental music also flourished under Elizabeth, royally blessed by the
monarch’s own abilities to play both the lute and the virginals. Solo music
for lute and for keyboard well documents the virtuosic abilities of their most
accomplished practitioners—lutanists like John Dowland, keyboardists like
John Bull—and ensemble music for full and mixed consorts shows a high
degree of cultivation. The full consort, in England most classically the chest
of viols, is often, though not exclusively, associated with the contrapuntal
fantasia, learned and sophisticated: the instrumental equivalent of the motet.
The mixed consort, here most notably the so-called English Consort, was
more associated with dance and popular music, and in its florid divisions gave
to the lute one of its most characteristic solo outlets.
The Stuart 17th century is marked by the rise of Puritanism and its clash
with the monarchical government, a pronounced and heightened interplay of
foreign and native musical elements, the development of the English music
drama, and the cultivation of public concert life. Although these may seem
discrete elements, in many ways they are closely intertwined. The turbulent
mid-century saw the continental exile of Prince Charles and others of the
nobility, and this exile nurtured continental tastes in those who upon the res-
toration of the monarchy would have the power to gratify them. Accordingly,
the musical establishment of Prince Charles, now Charles II, was infused
with a violin band on the model of the French court; foreign musicians, such
as Louis Grabu, placed in leadership positions in the royal musical establish-
ment; and a ceremonial-liturgical style in the modern symphony anthem that
imitated the ceremonial musical idioms of J. B. Lully. The foreign queens
consort—Henrietta Maria of France, Catherine of Braganza, and Mary of
Modena—were also influential in heightening a foreign presence; Catherine
of Braganza’s Roman Catholic Chapel, for instance, featured musicians such
as the organist Giovanni Battista Draghi and the castrato Siface. In part, Lon-
don’s professional public music-making was a lure to foreign virtuosi, who
were featured in early public concerts and in the theater. Indeed, the presence

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 6 • INTRODUCTION

of foreign singers in the theater both anticipated the rise of Italian opera in
the early 18th century and also undermined the English theater, where the
integrity of productions was strained in order to give the singers an outlet.
Similarly, the presence of foreign instrumentalists, especially violinists like
Nicola Matteis, would undermine the contrapuntal viol consort tradition, as
sonatas and concertos for violin began to replace fantasias for viols.
The development of English music drama in the 17th century charts a dis-
tinctive path, not oblivious to the development of fully sung opera in Italy,
but tellingly different in its course. The Jonsonian masque at the early Stuart
court—a dazzlingly multimedia genre of dance, music, and stagecraft—was
strongly monarchical in its allegorical content and lavish in its style, both
qualities that would render the genre problematic for the ascendant Puritans.
Unsurprisingly, the Commonwealth (1649–60) sounded the death knell for
the masque in its courtly form. However, following the Restoration of the
monarchy, masquelike entertainments resurfaced, not so much in their own
right, but inserted into the tradition of the spoken play, where they gave rise
to the popular hybrid of “semi-opera” or “dramatick opera,” masterfully ren-
dered at the end of the century in collaborations by Henry Purcell and John
Dryden, and pioneered in works like Psyche (1675) by Thomas Shadwell,
Matthew Locke, and G. B. Draghi. To the English audience, this was “opera.”
The fully sung music drama, on the Italian model, had several notable 17th-
century manifestations, but they were not to the native taste; in 1692 Peter
Motteux pointedly observed that “experience hath taught us that our English
genius will not relish that perpetual singing.”11 Most notable among the fully
sung music dramas are Purcell’s stunning Dido and Aeneas and John Blow’s
Venus and Adonis, but even as early as 1617 Nicholas Lanier had attempted
a fully sung work in the masque Lovers Made Men.
Establishing the theatrical trajectory of the 17th century is especially im-
portant as it sets the stage for the Handelian decades at the beginning of the
18th. The first decade of the 18th century featured Italian operas in transla-
tion—newly set, as for example Arsinoe (1705), and old scores adapted to
English words, as for example Camilla (1706), a work that eventually was
performed bilingually, as were works like the 1707 Thomyris or the 1708
Love’s Triumph. The most “English” of the operas performed in this decade
was Joseph Addison and Thomas Clayton’s decidedly unsuccessful Rosa-
mond (1707), a work that was conceived from the beginning as an English
work, and as such found little sympathy or echo. Against this background,
it is easy to envision the operatic triumph of Handel with his London per-
formance of Rinaldo in 1711. In its wake, the ascendancy of Italian opera
and foreign musicians was well launched. Though for a period the fashion-
ability of Italian opera was generally uncontested, its expense, its status as

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 INTRODUCTION • 7

an import, its close ties to the aristocracy, and a rivalry between theater
companies eventually led to the its demise in 1737 with the closing of both
the Royal Academy of Music (Handel’s opera company) and the “Opera of
the Nobility.” Early signs of the demise were apparent in the huge success of
John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728), a ballad opera that drew on popular
melodies and lowlife Hogarthian situations to satirize the aristocracy and the
conventions of opera seria.
Handel was naturalized as an English citizen in 1727, a situation that
seems in retrospect handily to emblemize foreign culture taking root in
England. Certainly Handel, the Anglicized Saxon, historically emerges as a
touchstone of musical Englishness. This is vividly seen in ceremonial works
like his coronation anthem, “Zadok the Priest,” but more extensively in his
establishment of English oratorio. Developed in part to try to offer a viable
theatrical alternative to opera, English oratorio has endured as one of the
more long-lived, distinctively English genres, especially as the backbone of
the 19th- and 20th-century choral festivals; Handel’s model has both inspired
and haunted later oratorio composers.
George Bernard Shaw would eventually claim that Handel’s pervasive influ-
ence on English music led to “withering religion into dead bones,”12 yet the
oratorio Messiah was more than partly responsible for democratizing music
throughout the English classes. The 18th-century charity festivals of the Three
Choirs (Hereford, Worcester, and Gloucester) and at Birmingham, Cambridge,
Oxford, and York—inter alia, founded to present Messiah and selections of
other works—were increasingly controlled not by the higher echelons of the
church and members of the nobility (though such individuals would remain on
their lists of patrons for many years to come), but by middle-class volunteers
out to “improve” their own localities through the introduction of good music
to the public. Such festivals ensured two things: first, that the English public
would never forget Handel’s music; second, that the provincial audiences (or
congregations, as they became styled at cathedral and church festivals at the
end of the 19th century) would hear the best choral music from both the Con-
tinent and England. In the 18th century this meant glees, opera selections, and
newly composed or pastiche oratorios that were derivative of Handel. In the
19th century this meant that composers and performers with the best reputa-
tions from England and abroad were invited to present works, sometimes in the
“English style” (oratorios and cantatas), and sometimes not. The parade of for-
eign composers that benefited from the English love of Handel is far too long
to list here but includes Ludwig van Beethoven (Christus am Ölberg [Norwich,
1836]), Hector Berlioz (Damnation of Faust, L’Enfance du Christ), Antonin
Dvorak (St. Ludimilla), Charles Gounod (Redemption), Franz Liszt (Christus),
Felix Mendelssohn (St. Paul and Elijah), and countless others.

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 8 • INTRODUCTION

While the oratorio steadily lost its hold on the musical festival in the 19th
century, the idea that festivals could cultivate the best music did not, and
increasingly symphonies, concert overtures, opera excerpts, cantatas, and
even chamber music were mixed into the programs. Such mixing of genres
was especially welcome to the domestic composers, who at the end of the
19th century were able to take great advantage of the opportunity to compose
oratorios if they wished to do so. Many, including Edward Elgar, Hubert
Parry, Alexander Mackenzie, Charles Villiers Stanford, Arthur Sullivan,
and William Walton, did, while others, including Benjamin Britten, Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, Gustav Holst, Ethel Smyth, and Ralph Vaughan Williams,
did not—at least for the traditional musical festivals. Their works, both choral
and instrumental, showed that English composers could not only break away
from the genres supported by the middle class but also become successful not
just nationally, but internationally.
The love of Handel brought another great democratizing ideal to English
music: a long-standing belief in the power of music was turned proactive
throughout the 19th century. Part of this can be seen in the purpose of many
of the 18th- and 19th-century festivals. These concerts had a purpose, and that
was not merely entertainment, but to raise money for a particular charity, be
it a fund for widows and orphans of the clergy (the Three Choirs Festival), a
local hospital (Birmingham, Leeds, and Norwich), or a cathedral restoration
fund (Lincoln and Peterborough). The other part, the more powerful part,
which led England to be the most important country for the production of
all music—classical, popular, world, or otherwise—through the first half of
the 20th century, was the idea that music should be learned by all, because it
could be good for all. Such was the constant refrain in magazines and jour-
nals throughout the century, as here in an anonymous excerpt from the Tonic
Sol-fa Reporter:

Music was not merely amusing, but an important element in education, physical,
mental, and moral. Plato had said so, and the moderns concurred. He contended
for music linked with poetry as a vehicle of high and holy truth, tending to se-
cure its reception, and to aid its development. It exerted a mighty sympathetic
influence, to which none were insensible. Children were led by it to yield them-
selves to feelings which they heard so pleasantly expressed. While it thus helped
to raise the heart to God, statistics proved that the practice of public singing and
speaking was conductive to longevity. Those who loved song were less liable to
waste their time and associate with vile companions.13

This belief in music’s power could be as simple as the trope that singing moral
words would help instill a moral message into the heart, or as complex as us-
ing classical music as a distraction from other potential vices, as Evangelical

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 INTRODUCTION • 9

philanthropists such as John Curwen and John Spencer Curwen believed.

Whatever the reason, the educational establishments—the Royal Academy of
Music, the National Training School for Music, the Royal College of Music,
the Guildhall School for Music, among others—founded to teach profession-
als their craft for churches, orchestras, opera companies, and the like were
increasingly joined by the end of the 19th century by institutions dedicated to
teaching the amateur, or teaching others to teach amateurs, such as the Tonic
Sol-fa College and competition festivals. The latter combined an English
love of competition with the desire to promote good music to the working
and middle classes and employment opportunities—either as commissioned
composers of test works or as adjudicators—for many English music teachers
and composers. The nominal founders of the competition festival movement,
Henry Leslie (Oswestry Fetival), John Spencer Curwen (Stratford Festival),
and Mary Wakefield (Kendal Festival), borrowed the Welsh eisteddfod and
turned it from a solo competition into one that included both solo and com-
munity elements, almost always with a large, combined performance at the
end, as Vaughan Williams would concentrate on within the Leith Hill Festi-
val at Dorking. These festivals are one of the reasons that adult summer music
camps for amateurs are still so popular within England today.
Opera, too, benefited from the hybrid ideals of English music-making and
spurred on the production of popular music in ways heretofore not seen in the
West. The London opera houses of the 18th century sponsored a truly European
amalgamation of composers, singers, and instrumentalists: Germans compos-
ing Italian opera (Handel), English composers trained in Italy (Stephen Storace)
or writing Italian opera (Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes [1729]), and Italian singers
whipsawing between the English and Italian languages. For most of the 18th
century, Italian opera was the most prestigious genre in England, but this is not
saying much: operas themselves were not the only thing on the program at the
great opera theaters of Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and elsewhere. Pastiches,
afterpieces, and oratorio seasons were all part of the mix, and most of the
London opera musicians worked as well in the many pleasure gardens such as
Marylebone, Ranelagh, and Vauxhall. Here, the high costs that prohibited all
but the elite to attend were relaxed, and members of many classes could—and
often did—rub shoulders while listening to popular works often in the same
style as many of the operatic greats of the time. Some of the pleasure gardens
even included dramas and operalike pieces in their repertoires.
The 18th-century pleasure garden begat the 19th-century music hall (one of
the potential vices the Curwens were ever so vigilantly on guard against with
the promotion of singing), where popular music continued on its own way;
the polyglot opera of the 18th century begat in the 19th even more presenta-
tions of Italian opera by English companies, but now also French, German,

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 10 • INTRODUCTION

and even Russian opera made inroads, as well as interesting pastiches (Henry
Bishop’s rendering of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, for instance) and con-
tinual attempts at English opera. Some, like Sullivan’s Ivanhoe (1891), were
presented on a grand scale; others, like Frederic Corder’s Nordissa (1887),
were much more modest in their pretensions. Into the 20th century, English
composers still sought to present a convincing opera: Elgar attempted one
(The Spanish Lady, which remained unfinished at his death); and Vaughan
Williams and Holst both wrote operas that were somewhat successfully pre-
miered. By the middle of the 20th century, Britten could boast several that
traveled well beyond the shores of England. Throughout the period, though,
operetta, in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan, remained much more popular
both nationally and internationally than other English-language opera and
would further lead English music down a successful populist path.
Sullivan, Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Britten were all conscious of
working and composing in a new musical environment, one in which English
music was once again accepted by the populace as something good in and of
itself, not necessarily something that had to be hybridized. The self-conscious
notion was referred to at the time as the “English Musical Renaissance” (now
sometimes called the “Second English Musical Renaissance” and the “British
Musical Renaissance”). The pedigree of the title is as venerable as the title
itself is misleading. In 1907, for instance, Ernest Walker identified “a Renais-
sance of English composition” within his History of Music in England.14 The
litany of developments causing this purported “renaissance” is well-known:
the increase of musical literacy, the foundation of professional musical train-
ing institutions, and the gradual acceptance of the musical profession as a
proper middle-class career were all important in the increase in literature
written in English about music, both popular and scholarly, and led to a wide
discussion of indigenous composers involved with these institutions. By 1882
the music critic Joseph Bennett could easily champion British composers and
discuss such renewal, as he did in the Daily Telegraph (4 September 1882).
A few years later, Morton Latham could make a passing reference to the idea
of an “English Musical Renaissance” in a lecture at Trinity College, Oxford,
and in 1890 publish a book entitled The Renaissance of Music in which he
linked burgeoning contemporary British musical composition with that of the
Tudor and Elizabethan schools.15 By 1892 critics could discuss the hoped-for
end of a long period of musical derision, with British music “on the rise” and
matching international standards, as in the November 1892 issue of the Musi-
cal Herald in an article titled “Dr. Parry and the English School”:

Already there are in our land the first stirrings of a revolution which may raise
English music once more to the position which it has abrogated. Our means
of musical education are wide-spread and successful, our choral societies are

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 INTRODUCTION • 11

growing more numerous in aim, the level of performance is steadily rising

throughout the country: all that is needed is a proper direction and impetus
that these newly awakened forces may be trained to serve the national cause.
In one word, we have everything ready for the establishment of a school of
composition through which, and through which alone, we can take our place in
the musical art of Europe. . . . We have not so far degenerated as to have lost
the gift of song which we possessed in “the spacious times of great Elizabeth.”
The capacity may have been weakened by misuse, but it still exists latent in the
hearts of our people. Let English music recover its national language, let it work
in its own field, and develop its own resources, and it may look forward to the
future not only with hope, but with confidence.16

Typical of this passage is both the optimistic enthusiasm with which the
writer speaks of an English “Golden Age” of music during the Elizabethan
period and addresses the potential of contemporary English music, and the
complete dismissal of the music that had come between the two from the
time of Purcell to his own. While this was not the case (as has been discussed
above), it remained a common trope throughout most of the 20th century.
Indeed, there was a great deal of music to be had in England between
Charles Burney and the English Musical Renaissance, some made by foreign-
ers, either resident in the country (Michael Costa, Alberto Randegger, etc.) or
visiting, either in person (Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahms, Fryderyk Cho-
pin, Charles Gounod, Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann, Pyotr
Tchaikovsky, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, etc.) or through their com-
positions (Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in D minor, op. 125,
was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Society, under the auspices
of Sir George Smart). But even more music was composed by indigenous
English composers, frequently working within the churches and cathedrals
on predominantly sacred music (Samuel Sebastian Wesley), and sometimes
presenting secular instrumental music to the London public (William Crotch
and Sir Henry Bishop). Such would be the pattern for the rest of the 19th and
the 20th centuries: England would welcome some of the best musicians from
the Continent (and increasingly, the rest of the world), sometimes temporar-
ily, sometimes permanently, while its own composers and musicians grew
steadily more prestigious in the eyes of England’s public. By the beginning
of the 20th century, more classical music from more parts of Europe and
North America was available to the London middle-class music lover than
to his counterpart anywhere else in the world, a situation that continued long
into the 20th century. Other English cities followed suit, founding orchestras
and theaters that supplemented the still-booming provincial musical festivals.
This has led to an interesting tension throughout the entire 20th century:
England has great music, celebrates great music, and studies great music from
all over the world daily within its borders. But what attention does it pay to

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 12 • INTRODUCTION

its own great music? Even by the 1920s English composers split into mul-
tiple aesthetic camps, including those who would follow a “National Style”
in their works, in a conscious attempt to keep the attention of the audience
for classical music that peaked at the end of the 19th century, and those who
would follow a more “International” style. The aesthetic divide is much more
complicated than between those composers who used folk music and antique
music as their models and those who used serialism, aleatoricism, and other
high-modernist methods within their works, as befits a musical culture com-
ing to terms with its own newfound international appeal in an age when the
audience for classical music began shrinking. Even after the artificial end
date of 1958 used in this Dictionary, both coexist. Perhaps the only differ-
ence between the two is that “Internationalist” composers could always find
acceptance in the work of academic musicologists and music theorists, while
those following the “National Style” were frequently celebrated by amateur
music lovers, until the renaissance of scholarship on English music, alluded
to above, when the importance of all elements of English music, especially
that created by the English themselves, became open for inquiry, criticism,
and celebration. England is a place with so much vibrant classical music to-
day because England was a place, from the 15th century until the late 20th,
that continued to strive for a balance between the foreign and the domestic,
to value the music of yesterday and today, and never feared to juxtapose all
of these things.

NOTES

1. Ralph Vaughan Williams, National Music (London: Oxford University Press,

1934), 76.
2. Proportionale musices in Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History: The Re-
naissance, ed. Gary Tomlinson (New York: W. W. Norton, 1998), 14–15.
3. Ibid., 15.
4. John Dowland, Andreas Ornithoparcus His Micrologus . . . (London, 1609; rpt.
New York: Dover, 1973), 208.
5. William Byrd, Cantiones Sacrae (1575), ed. Craig Monson (London: Stainer
and Bell, 1977), xxv.
6. The Works of John Dryden, vol. 15, ed. Earl Miner, George Guffey, and Frank-
lin B. Zimmerman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), 8.
7. In Christopher Hogwood, Handel (London: Thames and Hudson, 1984), 101.
8. Charles Burney, A General History of Music, vol. 2 (1789; rpt. New York:
Dover, 1957), 405.
9. See Margaret Bent, Dunstaple (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), 1; An-
drew Wathey, “Dunstable in France,” Music & Letters 67 (1986): 5.

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 INTRODUCTION • 13

10. In Oliver Strunk, Source Readings in Music History (New York: W. W. Nor-
ton, 1950), 351.
11. Gentleman’s Journal, January 1692.
12. George Bernard Shaw, Music in London, 1890–1894, vol. 3 (New York: Vi-
enna House, 1973), 210.
13. Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, May 1856, 133.
14. Ernest Walker, A History of Music in England (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1907), 286.
15. Robert Stradling and Meirion Hughes, The English Musical Renaissance,
1860–1940: Construction and Deconstruction (London: Routledge, 1993), 34.
16. Musical Herald, November 1892, 323–26.

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9780810857506_Print.indb 14 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 A
ABEL, CARL FRIEDRICH (1723–87). Composer, impresario, and bass-
violist. Abel was born in Cöthen, held an early position in Dresden with the
court orchestra there under Johann Adolph Hasse, and arrived in England
for the 1758–59 season. After several years of presenting his own concerts,
he began a long association with Johann Christian Bach; their first concert
together occurred in 1764, and the famous Bach-Abel subscription concert
series occurred between 1765 and 1781. The Hanover Square Rooms were
partly built to house this series. After J. C. Bach’s death in 1782, Abel at-
tempted his own series and, following a trip to the Continent, produced fur-
ther concerts at Hanover Square until his death. At these concerts, Abel was a
composer, performer (on both harpsichord and bass viol), and conductor. His
music, as described by Roger Fiske, was Italianate and galant, and consisted
of symphonies, concerti, and solo sonatas. It was published contemporane-
ously and available to the London public. Abel was a well-regarded figure
within the London musical establishment; according to Charles Burney,
Abel “became the umpire in all musical controversy, and was consulted in
difficult and knotty points as an infallible oracle.”

ABELL (ABEL), JOHN (1653–AFTER 1716). Countertenor, lutanist, and

composer. Abell enjoyed royal favor at the courts of Charles II and James II
as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, the Private Musick, and, during the
reign of James II, the monarch’s Roman Catholic Chapel. With the accession
of William and Mary, Abell joined the exiled Stuart court at Saint-Germain,
returning to England in 1699, where he sought to recover financial stabil-
ity through concerts and teaching. As a countertenor, he was known for his
high range; as the diarist John Evelyn described his voice, “one would have
sworne it had been a Womans it was so high, and so well and skillfully
manag’d” (27 January 1682).
The Post Boy, the Post Man, the London Post, the English Post, the Daily
Courant, and the Edinburgh Courant document his concert activity in the
early 18th century, including performances in his native Scotland. Though
he seems not to have been involved in stage music to any significant de-
gree, he performed the title role in Daniel Purcell’s The Judgment of Paris

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 16 • ABRAMS, HARRIET

(1702). The early years of the century also saw the publication of several
song anthologies, including A Collection of Songs, In English . . . (1701),
A Collection of Songs, In Several Languages . . . (1701), and A Choice
Collection of Italian Ayres . . . (1703). Of his two contributions to Thomas
Durfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, Sir John Hawkins noted that they
were “very elegant tunes.”
Several aspects of Abell’s career seem colorful to the modern reader.
Hawkins, for example, describes how the singer had spurned a royal request
to sing at the Polish court in Warsaw; upon finally appearing at court Abell
was given a choice of singing or being thrown to wild bears that had been
assembled in the hall. Wisely, he chose to sing. Contemporary advertisements
also underscore his ability to sing in many different languages, including not
only the expected English, Italian, and French, but Greek, Latin, Danish,
Swedish, Turkish, and two varieties of Dutch, among others.

ABRAMS, HARRIET (ca. 1758–1821). Singer (soprano) and composer.

Abrams came from a musical family: her sister Theodosia was a contralto;
her sister Eliza, a singer and pianist; her brother Charles, a cellist; and her
brother William, a violinist. The family may have been Jewish immigrants
from Germany; Abrams and her siblings were baptized at St. George’s, Ha-
nover Square, in 1791. Though Roger Fiske and others state that she was a
pupil of Thomas Arne (citing her performance in his 1775 afterpiece opera
May Day as evidence), she was likely trained by her family, since Arne
complained of David Garrick engaging “a jewess” for the performance
instead of one of Arne’s own pupils. Her career at Drury Lane lasted from
her 1775 debut until 1780, when she left the dramatic stage to concentrate
on oratorio singing, especially at the provincial musical festivals. She held
a yearly benefit concert for herself from 1781 to 1796, at times singing in
the Hanover Square Rooms. Abrams published four collections of vocal
music, including ballads such as the popular “Crazy Jane” and “Orphan’s
Prayer”, duets, and trios; the last of these collections was dedicated to
Queen Charlotte in 1803.

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC (ALSO ACADEMY OF ANCIENT

MUSICK AND ACADEMY OF ANTIENT MUSICK). A London musical
society founded to promote the “study and practice of vocal and instrumen-
tal harmony” with a focus on 16th-century composers as well as those who
“in our own Time have become famous” (Sir John Hawkins). Founded in
1726 as the Academy of Vocal Music, it changed its name to the Academy
of Ancient Music in 1731, and remained active until 1797. Prominent at its
founding were Henry Needler, John Ernest Galliard, Bernard Gates, and

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 ACTS OF UNIFORMITY • 17

Johann Christoph Pepusch, whose antiquarianism and library were well

suited to the aims of the society. Other early members include Maurice
Greene, Giovanni Bononcini, Agostino Steffani (elected president in 1727),
Francesco Geminiani, Nicola Haym, Jean Baptiste Loeillet, Giuseppe Riva,
and the celebrated castrato Senesino. The number of foreign musicians in
such a list is a significant indicator of the musical cosmopolitanism of Lon-
don at the time. See also COOKE, BENJAMIN.
Through its many decades of activity, the nature of the society varied.
Initially, the private meetings were held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on
alternate Friday evenings. In the 1730s the academy became a “seminary for
the instruction of youth in the principles of music and the laws of harmony”
(Hawkins), with Pepusch providing the tutelage. The scale of its concerts in-
creased toward the end of the century, prompting a move to the Freemasons’
Hall in 1784, where it remained until 1795.
The Academy was much involved in the plagiarism scandal involving
Greene, Bononcini, and Antonio Lotti. Greene had performed before the
Academy a madrigal, “In una siepe ombrosa,” ostensibly by Bononcini.
When several years later (1731) the same madrigal resurfaced as a work by
Lotti in an Academy performance by Gates, scandal ensued. The Academy’s
investigations were reported in Letters from the Academy of Ancient Music
at London to Signor Antonio Lotti of Venice, with answers and testimonies
(London, 1732) and confirmed Lotti’s authorship.
In 1776 Hawkins summarized the Academy’s achievement as allowing stu-
dents and performers “to form an idea of classical purity and elegance; and, in
short, to fix the standard of a judicious and rational taste. One of the principal
ends of the institution was a retrospect to those excellent compositions of for-
mer ages . . . ; and in the prosecution thereof ere brought forth to public view,
the works of very many authors, whose names, though celebrated with all the
applauses of panegyric, had else been consigned to oblivion.”

ACTS OF UNIFORMITY. Various statutes enacted in 1549, 1552, 1559,

and 1662 to establish a common liturgical rite in England and other royal
dominions. The provisions made the Book of Common Prayer the exclusive
liturgical text and mandated its use without interference or derogation. In
establishing a vernacular rite, the effect on musical practice was strong, as
was the reduction of the daily offices to two—Matins and Evensong. Signifi-
cantly, exceptions to the rule were granted in particular circumstances. For in-
stance, private prayer might be in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew if one understood
those languages (1549), and the University Chapels at Cambridge and Oxford
were similarly allowed to use Latin, Greek, or Hebrew liturgically, except in
the service of Holy Communion (1549).

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 18 • ADAMS, THOMAS

ADAMS, THOMAS (1785–1858). Organist and composer, chiefly in Lon-

don, considered one of the most important of his time. A pupil of Thomas
Busby, Adams served as organist at Carlisle Chapel, Lambeth (1802), St.
Paul’s, Deptford (1814), St. George’s, Camberwell (1824), and St. Dunstan-
in-the-West, Fleet Street (1833). Between 1817 and 1821, and again from
1823 to 1825, he directed other organists, including at times C. Guichard,
Walter Augustus Lord, George Cooper, Alfred J. S. Moxley, and Joseph
Warren, in performances of oratorios on Benjamin Flight and Joseph Rob-
inson’s Apollonicon. Here he introduced the English public to sacred music
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joseph Haydn, and frequently
performed the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1819 these
concerts included a quartet of vocalists and began to include popular operatic
and oratorio arias. A virtuosic player and skilled improviser (he was called
“the Thalberg of the organ” by Edward John Hopkins), English firms fre-
quently used him to advertise the capabilities of their instruments. His com-
positions—mostly for organ and piano—were highly contrapuntal, differing
from his contemporaries by density of texture and his attempts to strive for
orchestral-like effects using keyboard instruments.

ADCM. See ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS; ROYAL SCHOOL OF

CHURCH MUSIC.

ADSON, JOHN (1587?–1640). Wind musician and composer. Following a

time of employment on the Continent, Adson was appointed a member of the
London Waits (1614), and documentary references to him as a player of both
cornett and flute (recorder) are suggestive of the waits’ versatility. In 1633 he
was appointed a court wind player. Adson supplemented his activities at court
and in the city wind band with work in the theater, playing in productions of
the King’s Men, an association that prompted his being named in William
Cavendish’s play The Country Captain. When asked for music in the play,
a musician questions: “Do you meane Master Adsons new ayres sir?” The
Captain replies, “I sir. But they are such phantasticall ayres, as it puts a Poet
out of his witts to ryme them.”
In 1621 he published his collection of five- and six-voice pieces, Courtly
Masquing Ayres for Violins, Consorts and Cornetts, dedicated to George,
Duke of Buckingham, “remembering how I have hereby in some measure
discharged my present obligation of duty and have taken a happy incourage-
ment for a future service.”

AKEROYDE, SAMUEL (fl. 1684–1706). Violinist and composer. Ak-

eroyde was sworn a musician-in-ordinary to James II in 1687, taking the

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 ALCOCK, JOHN • 19

place of the deceased John Twist; in 1689 he was sworn a member of the
Private Musick at the court of William III, in whose entourage he traveled
to Holland in 1691. As a composer, he contributed to a number of song col-
lections and plays, and he was described by his contemporary John Blow as
a “good scholar,” knowing French and Italian. Ian Spink (1974) notes that “he
composed fluently but innocuously.”

ALBERT HALL. See ROYAL ALBERT HALL.

ALBRICI, VINCENZO (1631–90 OR 1696), BARTOLOMEO (ca. 1640–

AFTER 1687), AND LEONORA (n.d.). Italian musicians in service to
Charles II and (Bartolomeo) James II. The brothers Vincenzo and Bartolomeo
entered royal service as musicians in 1665, as confirmed in official documents.
Their sister likely entered royal service as a musician at the same time as well,
though she is not named apart from references to “the Woman.” Later, with
the establishment of James II’s Roman Catholic Chapel, Bartolomeo was ap-
pointed as a “Gregorian” and also played the organ. As a mark of royal favor,
all three siblings received gold medals and chains from Charles II (1668).
The high esteem in which the brothers were held is confirmed by the
diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Evelyn employed Bartolomeo as
music master to his daughter: “My daughter Mary now first began to learne
Musick of Signor Bartholomeo, and Dauncing of Monsieur Isaac, both re-
puted the best Masters, etc.” (7 February 1682). Pepys records that Vincenzo
was the “chief composer” among the Italian musicians at court (12 February
1666/67).
The initial connection between the Albrici family and England was likely
Bulstrode Whitelocke, Oliver Cromwell’s representative to the Swedish
court, where both brothers were employed in the 1650s. Westrup (1941) re-
ports that Queen Christina’s musicians visited and played for Whitelocke on
several occasions.

ALCOCK, JOHN (1715–1806). English organist, composer, and novelist.

Trained as a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral (London) under Charles King,
he was later an apprentice to John Stanley. He took the BMus and DMus
from Oxford (1755 and 1766) and was employed as organist of Lichfield Ca-
thedral and a number of parish churches, including St. Andrew’s (Plymouth),
St. Laurence’s (Reading), Sutton Coldfield (Warwickshire), and Tamworth.
Alcock’s interest in earlier English church music forms an important pres-
age of William Boyce’s Cathedral Music, a connection made all the more
compelling in that both he and Boyce were choristers together at St. Paul’s. In
1752 Alcock published a proposal to print editions of English church music

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 20 • ALDRICH, HENRY

by such composers as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and Orlando Gib-

bons, “[h]aving observed how incorrect the Services, &c. are at Cathedrals,
and as I have now by me an exceeding valuable Collection of the choicest an-
tient and modern Services[.]” However, Maurice Greene’s ongoing activity
to the same end caused Alcock to abandon his plan: “As I have the Pleasure
of assuring my Friends that the famous Dr. GREENE designs to publish a
Collection of the choicest Cathedral SERVICES, I take this Opportunity of
thanking those Gentlemen, &c. who have already subscribed to my Scheme
of that Kind . . . and likewise of acquainting them, that I think it advisable to
decline that Undertaking . . .” (London Evening-Post, 29–31 March 1753).
Alcock’s experience at Litchfield was an unhappy one, characterized by
difficulties with the vicars-choral. The trials and tribulations of his cathedral
years surface in his novel, The Life of Miss Fanny Brown (1761), written
under the musically suggestive pseudonym John Piper.

ALDRICH, HENRY (1648–1710). Scholar, cleric, amateur composer,

and collector. Aldrich was strongly associated with Christ Church, Oxford,
where he both studied as a young man and spent the full length of his career
in various capacities, notably as canon (from 1681) and dean (1689–1710);
for several years he also served as vice-chancellor of the University. He was
a man of diverse abilities and interests. Charles Burney describes him as
not only a musician but a “polemical writer, a polite scholar, a theologian, a
profound critic, an architect, and a man of sound judgement, and exquisite
taste in arts, science and literature in general.” His architectural skill remains
evident in his design of Peckwater Quad at Christ Church and the Chapel of
Trinity College. Although he was an amateur musician, he exercised signifi-
cant authority over musical matters at Christ Church. Burney notes that “he
became so profound and skilled in the theory and practice of harmony, that
his compositions, particularly for the church, equal in number and excellence
those of the greatest masters of his time.”
Aldrich’s classical education, his strong Tory convictions, and his high-
church views would all predispose him to embrace historical music with an
appreciative sense. One manifestation of this was his activity as a music col-
lector. Sir John Hawkins records that Aldrich “made a noble collection of
church-music, consisting of the works of Palestrina, Carissimi, Victoria, and
other Italian composers for the church,” a sizeable collection given to Christ
Church upon his death. Burney, who relied on the collection for source mate-
rial in the writing of his history of music, said that it was “one of the most
complete [collections], in old masters, that I have seen.” Aldrich’s reputation
has been extensively associated with the amassing of this important musical
library; however, recent research (Pinto, 1990, and Wainwright, 1997) has

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 ALEYN, JOHN • 21

clarified that much of the collection was actually obtained and built by the
Hatton family, the first Baron Hatton of Kirby (Christopher Hatton III) pass-
ing the collection to Aldrich ca. 1670. Significantly, the collection supported
Aldrich’s extensive practice of “recomposing” works by Giacomo Carissimi,
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, and others,
a practice that may be seen to be resonant with the Renaissance educational
ideal of imitatio (Shay, 1996). Although newly supplied with English texts,
the recomposed pieces were more extensively adapted than the simple mak-
ing of a contrafactum. Aldrich employed variously truncation, the addition of
reworked material, and conflation of material from different contexts in the
act of adaptation. Hawkins likened the practice to “naturalizing” the pieces,
“accommodating them to an English ear, by words perhaps as well suited to
the music as those to which they were originally framed.”
As a churchman, Aldrich’s interest in sacred music is unsurprising. In a
lighter vein, he also composed the catch “O the Bonny Christ Church Bells.”
It and similar fare may have found a place in the music meetings held in his
rooms, along with, more predictably, choral church music. An extant Latin
verse by Aldrich seems to confirm that he possessed a convivial side:

If on my theme I rightly think

There are five reasons why men drink,
Good wine, a friend, or being dry,
Or lest we should be, by and by,
Or any other reason why.
(Oxford Book of Oxford, 1978)

ALEXANDRA PALACE. Recreation grounds in North London including a

concert hall, built as a companion to the Crystal Palace. Initially proposed in
1860, Alexandra Palace was completed in 1873, only to be destroyed by fire
shortly thereafter. A new Palace was built and opened in 1875, which included
a 3,500-seat concert hall and a concert organ designed by Henry Willis & Sons.
The BBC leased part of the site from 1935 onward, using it for broadcasting.

ALEYN, JOHN (?–1373). Canon of the Chapel Royal and composer. Aleyn
was a canon at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, from 1362, where inventories
from the late 14th and early 15th centuries note music given by him to the
chapel. He composed a three-voice motet, “Sub Arturo plebs vallata” in I Bol
Q15 and Fch 1047, the text of which names not only English musicians but
English music theorists as well. There is speculation that this Windsor John
Aleyn may also be the composer of two works, a Gloria and an Agnus Dei,
in the Old Hall Manuscript. However, the ascriptions in the manuscript are

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 22 • ALLEN, SIR HUGH PERCY

inconclusive: the Gloria lacks an initial, and the Agnus, as Margaret Bent
(NG, 2001) observes, “appears to read ‘W. Aleyn,’” thus challenging a link-
age to the Windsor canon.

ALLEN, SIR HUGH PERCY (1869–1946). Musical administrator, con-

ductor, and organist. When Allen held joint appointments as professor of
music at Oxford (1918–46) and director of the Royal College of Music
(RCM; 1918–37), there were few elements of music-making in Great Britain
not directly or indirectly touched by him. Early training with the organist
Frederick John Read culminated with his being named Read’s assistant at
Chichester Cathedral (1887). Allen took a BMus at Oxford in 1892 and was
then an organ scholar at Christ’s College, Cambridge (1892–95). He passed
the examination for DMus at Oxford in 1895 but was not awarded the degree
until 1898. Early appointments at St. Asaph Cathedral (1897) and Ely Cathe-
dral (1898) culminated in his being named organist at New College, Oxford
(1901); within this position, he conducted the Oxford Bach Choir and an
orchestra. Allen also conducted musical festivals (including Peterborough
and Leeds), was the conductor of the Bach Choir (1907–20), and was the
director of music at University College, Reading (1908–18), and Cheltenham
Ladies’ College (1910–18). Following his appointments as professor of mu-
sic at Oxford and director of the RCM, his conducting slowed for administra-
tion, including being head of the Music Advisory Committee for the British
Broadcasting Corporation (1937). He expanded the faculty and staff of
the RCM and helped create the music faculty at Oxford in 1944. Allen was
knighted in 1920, made CVO in 1926, KCVO in 1928, and GCVO in 1935.

ALLISON, RICHARD (1560/70?–BEFORE 1610). English composer of

consort music and settings of metrical psalms. Allison contributed a number
of works scored for the so-called English Consort to Thomas Morley’s
First Booke of Consort Lessons (1599) and to the Walsingham partbooks. In
his consort pieces he shows an affinity for varied textures and instrumental
dialogue. In 1599 he published The Psalmes of David in Meter, which pro-
vided harmonizations of standard psalm tunes in the Sternhold and Hopkins
Psalter. His settings were published with an eye toward flexible performance:
“the common tunne to be sung and plaide upon the Lute, Orpharyon, Cittern
or Base Violl, severally or altogether, the singing part to be either Tenor or
Treble to the Instrument, according to the nature of the voice, or for fowre
voices. . . .” In other words, one might sing the tune in either octave, with
diverse instrumental accompaniment, or as a four-part vocal setting, a flexible
approach embodied in the printer’s format as well. Moreover, the particular
instruments involved strongly suggest the domestic performance of devo-

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 ALWOOD, RICHARD • 23

tional works. Richard Day, holder of a monopoly for printing the Sternhold
and Hopkins psalms, claimed that Allison’s psalter infringed upon his rights,
although the outcome of the dispute is unclear.
Contemporary praise of Allison was strong. Anthony Wood, for instance,
noted that he “was then most excellent in his facultie, as several of his com-
positions which we have in our musick school shew.” Morley’s dedication to
the First Booke of Consort Lessons includes Allison among “the most perfect
men in their quality, that in the censure of many which can well judge in
Musicke, have beene, and are at this day held very rare and excellent, both
for their skill and practice.” Charles Burney was less enthusiastic in the
18th century. Of Allison’s psalter he wrote: “If the author’s friends may be
credited, . . . it abounds with uncommon excellence. However, the puff-direct,
in the shape of friendly panegyrics prefixed to books, was no more to be
depended on by the public in Queen Elizabeth’s time, than the puffs oblique
of present newspapers. The book has no merit, but that was very common, at
the time it was printed.”

ALTERNATIM. The liturgical practice of alternating monophonic chant with

sung or played polyphony based on that chant or its faburden. The practice
was established in the Middle Ages, documented, for instance, in the 14th-
century Exeter Ordinal of Bishop Grandisson that specifies that the Gloria of
the Lady Mass could be performed in this fashion, and in England extends
well into the 16th century. The practice was associated with masses, hymns,
Te Deums, and Magnificats.
Early examples include John Dunstaple’s hymn “Ave maris stella” and
his Magnificat on the second tone, a work existing in two versions, one that
alternates three- and two-voiced polyphony and another that alternates the
three-voiced sections with monophonic chant. Thomas Tallis’s eight chant-
based hymns and Robert Fayrfax’s Magnificats document the persistence
of the practice.
The only surviving English organ mass is that of Philip ap Rhys (GB lbl
add 29996), where troped Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus alternate organ
and vocal sections. Nicholas Ludford’s Lady Masses (ca. 1520–30) are pre-
served in partbooks that include a separate book giving the chant melodies for
alternating sections. As the chants are given with only text incipits, it seems
likely (Harrison, 1963) that they were used for organ improvisation.

ALWOOD, RICHARD (fl. 16th CENTURY). Composer and priest.

Allwood is the composer of five works in the Mulliner Book, including a
contrapuntal piece entitled “Voluntary,” one of the earliest examples of this
nomenclature. His In nomine in the Mulliner Book is distinctive in being

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 24 • AMNER, JOHN

based not on the Gloria tibi trinitas melody but rather on the cantus firmus
of his Mass, “Praise Him Praiseworthy.” This cantus firmus—F, G, A, B-
flat, A—has been associated with the plainsong “Sponsus amat sponsam” by
Roger Bray (Blwl, v 2).

AMNER, JOHN (1579–1641). Organist and composer. Amner was informa-

tor choristarum at Ely Cathedral from 1610 until the year of his death. He
took a BMus from Oxford in 1613 and shortly before his death received a
MusB from Cambridge (1640). Unsurprisingly, his compositions are chiefly
Anglican church music, including several services and a large number of an-
thems, a significant number of which were published in his Sacred Hymnes
of 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts for Voyces and Vyols (1615). Amner’s anthems were
in use beyond Ely, as Anthony Wood confirms: Amner was well known for
“certaine Anthemes, wh[ich] were in his time & after sung in Cathedralls.”
His keyboard variations on “O Lord in Thee is all my trust” (US NYp) are
unusual in being based on a psalm tune.
Amner’s family was a musical one that included an uncle, Michael, who
was a lay clerk at Ely and a brother or cousin, Ralph (d. 1644), who was a
bass singer at Ely, Westminster Abbey, St. George’s, Windsor (where he was
curate of the Castle and Dean’s Curate), and the Chapel Royal.

ANACREONTIC SOCIETY. Society for amateur and professional musi-

cians founded in 1766. At a series of 12 to 14 weekly or biweekly concerts
starting in November of each year, “honorary members” (professional musi-
cians) would entertain the music-loving members (up to 80 gentlemen and
members of the professional classes, plus their guests) with glees and songs,
some written especially for the society, such as John Stafford Smith’s “The
Anacreontic Song” or “To Anacreon in Heaven”—a tune popularly known
today as that for the “Star Spangled Banner.” A supper would be served af-
terward. By the end of the 18th century, the Society’s season included mixed
concerts of vocal and instrumental music, including symphonies by Franz
Joseph Haydn.

ANGLICAN CHANT. A 19th-century term for harmonic formulas composed

for the sung recitation of prose psalms and canticles, chiefly employed in the
Prayer Book liturgies of morning and evening prayer. In its classic form, An-
glican chant consists of a top-voice melody harmonized in four parts (SATB),
arranged in a binary structure of three measures, followed by four measures.
The first three measures correspond to the first half of the psalm verse (to the
asterisk in the Prayer Book orthography); the last four bring the verse to conclu-
sion. The first measure of each half is a chord of recitation, accommodating a

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 ANTHEM • 25

varying number of text syllables. Since the 19th century, this chord of recitation
has been of flexible length, lasting as long as is necessary to accommodate the
words in a free, declamatory recitation, while the other measures move in a
more mensural fashion to the cadence. This combination of flexibly free time
and measured time is confirmed in Benjamin Jacob’s National Psalmody of
1817: “The metronomic figures do not apply to the recitation, which is unmea-
sured, but to the succeeding bars.” Nicholas Temperley (1979) has documented
that in the 18th century the chord of recitation had an equal length in each verse:
“When [in the 18th century] there are many syllables to be recited, they are not,
as in modern chanting, sung in natural rhythm to a note of indefinite length;
they are provided with shorter notes, so that the total time taken up is the same
in each verse.” The classic seven-bar form is often doubled in its length (3+4;
3+4) in what are termed “double chants.”
Anglican chant has its roots in earlier practices including both the improvised
harmonization of psalm tones (faburden) and written harmonizations of psalm
tones with the melody in the tenor, harmonizations that were associated with
festal as opposed to daily usage. Thomas Tallis wrote the earliest examples
of these harmonized festal psalms, using a measured declamation throughout.
Thomas Morley also gives examples in his Plaine and Easie Introduction to
Practicall Musicke (1597). Restoration sources, specifically Edward Lowes’s A
Short Direction for the Performance of Cathedrall Service (1661), James Clif-
ford’s Brief Directions for the understanding of that part of the Divine Service
performed with the Organ in S. Paul’s Cathedrall on Sundayes and Holy-dayes
(1664), and John Playford’s The Order of Performing the Divine Service
in Cathedrals and Collegiate Chappels (1674), document the persistence of
psalm-tone based chanting; although, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, the
repertory embraces newly composed melody, the later norm.
Anglican chanting in the modern day has achieved a highly stylized per-
formance practice in the daily offices of cathedrals and collegiate chapels,
where expert choirs lavish attention on nuanced declamation. This emphasis
on declamation has generally made Anglican chanting ill suited for congre-
gational use.
The musical content provided by the harmony, in distinction to the textual
content of the declamation, seems analogous to the lyricism of the antiphons
that accompany plainsong recitation. In both cases, declamation receives an
added musical layer, though in the one case it is successive and in the other
simultaneous.

ANTHEM. A vernacular composition set to devotional, biblical, or liturgical

texts to be sung most particularly at Anglican services of Morning and Eve-
ning Prayer, but also finding broader use in various ceremonial contexts and

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 26 • ANTHEM

in domestic settings. The musical style of the anthem varies with historical
period under the influence of changes in both aesthetics and piety, but signifi-
cantly the anthem has at times commanded the attention of leading composers
and has been an area in which national style has received much development.
Anthems were first rubrically specified in the fifth edition of the Book
of Common Prayer (1662). In the liturgies of both Morning and Evening
Prayer, following the third Collect—thus toward the end of the service—a
rubric specifies: “In Quires and Places where they sing, here followeth the
Anthem.” And though here explicitly authorized, a more general authoriza-
tion is found a hundred years earlier in the Elizabethan Injunctions of 1559:
“[I]t may be permitted, that in the beginning, or in the end of Common
Prayers, either at morning or evening, there may be sung an hymn, or such-
like song, to the praise of Almighty God, in the best sort of melody and music
that may be conveniently devised, having respect that the sentence of the
hymn may be understanded and perceived.”
The positioning of the anthem at the end of the liturgy allows a compel-
ling link to be forged between this modern usage and the earlier tradition
of votive antiphons, most particularly those to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Pre-Reformation Roman rite usage prescribed one of four seasonal Marian
antiphons—Regina caeli, Alma redemptoris mater, Ave regina coelorum, and
Salve regina—at the conclusion of Compline. Harrison (1963) documents the
extensive allegiance to this practice, which reaches its apex around 1500, as
seen in the richly sonorous repertory of the Eton Choirbook. It is a short leap
from a lyrical coda at the end of the Office to the lyrical pause close to the end
of the Prayer Service. Additionally, the linkage is strengthened by the close
etymological relationship between “antiphon” and “anthem.”
Early forms of English anthem coincide with or predate the advent of the
first Book of Common Prayer (1549), as seen in the works of Thomas Tal-
lis, John Sheppard, and Robert Okeland in the Wanley Partbooks. Tallis’s
well-known “If Ye Love Me” and “Hear the Voice and Prayer” from this col-
lection exemplify the note-against-note style and simplicity of counterpoint
that were typical. Drawing on the model of consort songs and modes of
performing metrical psalms, subsequent development was in the direction
of the verse anthem. The verse anthem features extensive passages for solo
singer(s) accompanied by organ or viol consort in alternation with choral tut-
tis. The existence of the two different instrumentations reflects the diversity
of venue—organ in church and viols in domestic contexts. Notable examples
include William Byrd’s “Christ Rising” and Orlando Gibbons’s “This is
the Record of John.”
With the restoration of the monarchy in the 17th century, the verse anthem
received much attention with infusions of continental idioms, including

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 ANTHEM • 27

Italianate declamation, harmonic pathos, and passages of French-style dance

music. The substantial instrumental contribution in the Restoration anthem—
overtures and ritornelli—make some pieces appropriately styled “symphony
anthems,” represented at their grandest by the coronation anthems of John
Blow and Henry Purcell—for example, Blow’s “God Spake Sometime in
Visions” or Purcell’s “My Heart is Inditing.”
Full anthems, those not written in a verse style, persisted, often with
intricate interplay, as in Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully,” or rich contrapuntal writ-
ing, as in Purcell’s expressive “Hear my Prayer.” George Frideric Handel
furthered the tradition in a number of anthems for the Duke of Chandos, and
his coronation anthem “Zadok the Priest” has become iconic of the English
ceremonial style.
The period after Handel’s death witnessed two trends in the singing of
anthems in cathedrals and churches with sufficient forces: one was the adap-
tation of music from Handel’s oratorios, especially Messiah, to be sung as
anthems; the other was a sense of preservation of older anthems in the reper-
tory; both continued well into the next century. Choirs sang anthems primar-
ily from manuscript partbooks, and therefore many anthems had only local
or regional significance. But composers could still be known for their con-
tributions to the genre, including William Boyce and William Crotch, who
alternated simple styles and forms with counterpoint occasionally inspired by
the counterpoint and harmonies of Johann Sebastian Bach, as can be heard
in Crotch’s “How Dear are Thy Counsels” (1796). Crotch also advocated a
return to 16th-century counterpoint, believing that modern secular styles were
not appropriate for anthems; well into the 19th century, “antique” touches,
such as plainsong incipits (Thomas Attwood, “Enter Not into Judgment”
[1834]) could be found.
Thus, creativity did not decline in the beginning of the 19th century, but
standards of singing—in both cathedral and parish church—did. Simpler and
shorter anthems consequently appeared, such as Attwood’s “Turn Thy Face
from My Sins” (1835), a reserved, even touching verse anthem with mostly
homophonic choral tutti sections, occasionally poignant in its harmonies.
The number of anthems composed in the century would continue to rise, a
phenomenon helped in the 1830s when Novello & Co. began publishing a
cheap anthem service in octavo scores. Parish churches largely discarded the
manuscript partbooks (cathedrals would retain them until the 1860s). The
Gresham Prize for best service or anthem was also instituted in this decade,
made possible by a subvention from Maria Hackett; Crotch was one of the
first judges, ensuring that “antique” styles would continue. The anthem
continued a journey to the affective and even sentimental throughout the
middle of the century, partially because of the harmonic flexibility borrowing

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 28 • AP RHYS, PHILIP

from the ancients provided, and partly too because the congregation began
to believe that the anthem was to be sung to them—not just the officiants.
Churches and cathedrals still adapted music from other sources—particularly
oratorios—for their anthems; Sir William Sterndale Bennett’s “God is a
Spirit” from his Woman of Samaria (1867) was particularly popular, and few
oratorios were composed without an eye toward such recycling. The music
of non-English composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Joseph
Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Ludwig Spohr, and
many others, was translated and rearranged a great deal.
From the middle to the end of the 19th century, composers sought increas-
ingly dramatic effects (to cater to the congregation) while still maintaining a
good sense of text setting. The Twelve Anthems (1853) of Samuel Sebastian
Wesley are a particularly good example of this. In the last 40 years of the
century, the number of anthems exploded, just as did the composition of
oratorios and cantatas, and composers increasingly looked to these other
genres as models for drama and effect. Congregations demanded facility and
emotion from church and cathedral choirs since they could easily find them
in concerts by amateur choral associations. Additional organ registers and
colors helped give a sense of drama to late-century works, and the parade
of great composers (Sir George Smart, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir John
Stainer, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Hubert Parry, and Charles
Wood, among many others) wrote poignant examples of anthems where the
organ accompaniment sounds almost like an orchestra.
Of course, some anthems were orchestrated. Parry’s “I was glad” (1902),
used for the coronation of Edward VII, is a good example. This explosion
of anthem development was not to last. After 1914 composers increasingly
turned away from church music, as they did from most choral music. Those
who did continue to compose frequently used older styles or worked to make
modern styles palatable to both choir and congregation. Successful examples
of the latter include Herbert Howells’s “Take Him Earth for Cherishing”
(1964), which is poignant in its expression of grief—made even more so by
its a cappella setting.

AP RHYS, PHILIP (fl. 1545–60). Welsh composer and organist. Ap Rhys

held appointments at two London churches, St. Mary-at-Hill and St. Paul’s
Cathedral, the latter position confirmed in a descriptive note in GB Lbl Add.
Ms. 29996. This manuscript contains all of Ap Rhys’s compositions, which
are exclusively liturgical organ works, in all likelihood written for use before
the advent of the Prayer Book liturgies of 1549. His organ mass is the only
such surviving English work, and consists of a troped Kyrie (Deus Creator),
Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus, and, unusually, an Offertory (Benedictus sit for the

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 ARNE, MICHAEL • 29

Feast of the Holy Trinity). The organ movements are chant based and to be
played in alternatim with sung sections.

APOLLONICON. Five-console, equally tempered finger and barrel organ

built and used at the premises of Benjamin Flight and Joseph Robinson be-
tween 1817 and 1832. It took five years to construct, had 45 stops, and was
one of the largest organs of its time. Its home, the business premises of Flight
and Robinson, became one of the first venues in England for secular organ re-
citals. The high status of these recitals was assured through the direct patron-
age of the Prince Regent. The instrument was likely designed for a museum
(never built) to promote English trade and industry. Originally, Flight and
Robinson proposed a subscription for the estimated £10,000 to complete the
organ, but eventually paid for the instrument themselves. In their 1814 pro-
spectus for the Apollonicon, Flight and Robinson stated that the instrument
was designed to “produce the real effect of a whole orchestra of performers.”
The four types of performances heard on the Apollonicon included concerts
of self-playing music as a barrel organ; solo organ recitals by figures such as
John Purkis and Thomas Adams, five-player ensemble performances, and
organ and vocal recitals. Repertoire performed on the instrument included
popular opera overtures, variations on popular songs, and oratorio and opera
arias. The Apollonicon remained a fixture of the London concert scene until
the bankruptcy of Flight & Robinson in 1832. After this, the Fleet Street
premises were purchased by Hill & Co., who used the instrument sporadically
until 1840, selling it off as spare parts in 1865.

APPLEBY, THOMAS (?–1563/64). English organist and composer. Apple-

by’s surviving works consist of a Magnificat in GB Cu Peterhouse 471–74
and a Mass in the so-called Gyffard Partbooks (GB lbl Add. Ms. 17802–5).
He maintained a long association with Lincoln Cathedral as organist and
master of the choristers (1537–38; 1541–50; 1559–63) but was also briefly
informator choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford. Harrison (1963) notes
that in 1539 this was a post he held jointly with a “Master Jaquet.”

ARNE, MICHAEL (1740–86). Composer, keyboard player, conductor, and

singer. Michael Arne was thought by contemporaries to be the illegitimate son
of Thomas Arne; during his early childhood he lived with his aunt, the famous
stage actress Susannah Maria Cibber. After an early attempt on the stage as
an actor and singer, he turned to keyboard playing (particularly the works of
Thomas Arne) and composing for London’s theaters and pleasure gardens. On
tour in Germany, he conducted the first public performance of George Frid-
eric Handel’s Messiah there (Hamburg, 1772). His compositions were mostly

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 30 • ARNE, THOMAS AUGUSTINE

songs (such as “Lass with the Delicate Air”) and stage works. Aside from mu-
sic, he also dabbled in alchemy, which led him to debtors’ prison twice.

ARNE, THOMAS AUGUSTINE (1710–78). English composer, especially

prolific in the realm of theater music. While a student at Eton, Arne devel-
oped his interest in music. Like George Frideric Handel, with whom he is
frequently compared on grounds of both proximity and devotion to the theater,
he was for a time trained at law, though musical interests in both cases won
out. Arne’s setting of Milton’s masque Comus (1738), his settings of William
Shakespeare’s songs for Drury Lane productions (published in a 1741 collec-
tion, The Songs in As You Like It and Twelfth Night), and the masque Alfred
(1740) all served to establish and strengthen Arne’s leading position in musical
circles. And in Alfred he gives us one of England’s most enduring icons of
musical patriotism, the song “Rule, Britannia,” a song that in the early 1740s
would have had compelling resonance with the so-called War of Jenkins’ Ear.
Arne’s long career was prolific—he wrote for over 80 stage productions, for
instance—but was not uniformly successful. A telling example is his attempt to
write an Italian language opera seria, L’Olimpiade (1765), which closed after
only two performances. His output is largely music for the theater, although he
also wrote oratorios, a few masses (he was Roman Catholic), keyboard concer-
tos, overtures, and catches. His stylistic range is notable, often elegant, lilting,
and gallant, sometimes Handelian. Holman and Gilman (NG, 2001) have also
underscored the imaginative capacity of his orchestration.
A look at Arne’s career also interestingly documents the interconnected-
ness of the London performance world. His sister, Susannah, married to
Theophilus Cibber, son of the poet laureate, was one of the leading tragic
actresses of the day and a notable singer as well (she was, for instance, one
of the soloists at the first performance of Handel’s Messiah); his wife, Cecilia
Young, was an accomplished singer whom he married, as he confessed in a
draft of his will, seeking “profit or advantage” from her skill as a “Public
Singer”; his mistress, Charlotte Brent, under his tutelage and nurture also be-
came a prominent singer; and his supposed natural son, Michael Arne, who
later went on to become a keyboard player and composer in London, came
into his keyboard skills at an early age and was featured as a child soloist in
an organ concerto by his father.

ARNOLD, SIR MALCOLM (1921–2006). Composer, conductor, trum-

peter. Arnold, initially a self-taught trumpeter (inspired by Louis Armstrong,
which led him to include blues idioms in his compositions), attended the
Royal College of Music, studying composition with Gordon Jacob and
trumpet with Ernest Hall. Between 1941 and 1948, he played in the London

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 ASTON, HUGH • 31

Philharmonic Orchestra and the British Broadcasting Corporation Sym-

phony Orchestra (with a short hiatus in the army). After this, he turned to
composition full-time. As a composer he was prolific and popular, working in
genres from overtures, dance suites, concertos, and symphonies to film mu-
sic; his score to The Bridge on the River Kwai won the 1957 Academy Award
for best score. His melodies and mostly tonal harmony (Jackson [2003] refers
to his idiom as “proto-postmodern”) have made his music especially popular
for student bands and orchestras. He was knighted in 1993.

ARNOLD, SAMUEL (1740–1802). Composer, organist, conductor, impre-

sario, editor. He was thought by some to be the illegitimate child of a com-
moner and Princess Amelia. His early education was at the Chapel Royal,
and throughout his life he held posts such as harpsichordist and composer in
Covent Garden (1764), composer at the Little Theatre, Haymarket (1777
until his death), organist of the Chapel Royal (appointed 1783), conductor of
the Academy of Ancient Music (1789–94), and organist of Westminster Ab-
bey (appointed 1793). He also owned and managed the Marylebone pleasure
garden between 1769 and 1774. His compositions were mostly vocal, and
he frequently created pastiches of operas and oratorios (the former drawing
from sources as diverse as Irish folk melodies, Franz Joseph Haydn, and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the latter based mostly on the work of George
Frideric Handel). He edited or contributed to numerous magazines and
music books, and for a time attempted a complete works edition of Handel’s
music (26 volumes, published between 1787–97).

ASHEWELL, THOMAS (ca. 1478–AFTER 1513). English composer.

Ashewell was trained as a chorister at Windsor and held posts at Tattershall
College, Lincolnshire (a clerk, 1502–3), Lincoln Cathedral (informator cho-
ristarum, 1508–13), and Durham Cathedral (cantor, from 1513). Two masses,
Missa Jesu Christe and Missa Ave Maria, survive complete and reveal a
notable complexity of structure. Among his other masses is one to Saint
Cuthbert, unsurprising from the Durham cantor, and one on “God Save King
Harry.” Bray (Blwl, vol. 2) links the cantus firmus to Sponsus amat sponsam
and thus postulates it may have been written in celebration of the wedding of
Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

ASTON (ASHTON), HUGH (ca. 1485–BURIED 1558). English composer.

Aston took the BMus at Oxford in 1510 by supplication and in 1528 is found
as magister choristarum at St. Mary Newarke Hospital and College in Leices-
ter. His compositional output unsurprisingly focuses on liturgical settings
(Missa Te Deum, Missa Videte Manus, possibly a third mass as well, and

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 32 • ATKINS, JOHN

several motets and antiphons). However, he is best known as the composer

of a keyboard “Hornepype” in GB L Roy App 58, distinctive in its unusually
expansive right-hand figuration.
Aston has a nominal appearance in William Byrd’s “My Ladye Nevells
Booke” with “Hugh Ashton’s Grownde”; the same work appears in the Fitz-
william Virginal Book as “Treg[ian’s] Ground.” Byrd’s variations are on an
ostinato that corresponds to the missing bass part of “Hugh Ashton’s Maske.”

ATKINS (ATKINSON), JOHN (?–1671). English violinist and composer.

Atkins became a member of Charles II’s Twenty-four Violins at the Resto-
ration and is also referred to as a member of the king’s “private consort.”
A number of his songs survive in US Nyp Drexel 4041, suggesting he was
active in the pre-Commonwealth theater. Some of the songs are dance airs,
while some include declamatory elements. His setting of “This lady ripe and
fair and fresh” may have been written for the 1629 production of Sir Wil-
liam Davenant’s The Just Italian. This significantly not only places him in
important theater circles, but also helps document the chronological range of
what appears to have been a long career.

ATTEY, JOHN (fl. 1622; d. ca. 1640). Lute song composer. Attey’s single
publication of lute songs, The First Booke of Ayres (London, 1622), marks
the end of the lute ayre tradition in print. Little is known of him, although
the text of the dedication of his book of airs documents a time of service to
the family of John Egerton, Earl of Bridgwater. Poulton and Spencer (NG,
2001) point to the singularity of Attey’s suggestion that these four-part ayres
might be performed not only with one voice, lute, and bass viol—a customary
alternative—but also on lute alone.

ATTWOOD, THOMAS (1765–1838). Composer and organist. His early edu-

cation was as a chorister in the Chapel Royal (1774–81), a student in Naples
with Felipe Cinque and Gaetano Latilla (1783–85), and a student in Vienna
with Mozart (1785–87)—the latter two likely under the patronage of the Prince
of Wales. Upon his return to London, Atwood served as a hired musician to
members of the nobility before being appointed organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral
and composer to the Chapel Royal (both in 1795). He was a founding member
of the Philharmonic Society (1813) and one of the original professors at the
Royal Academy of Music (2; 1823). He was appointed organist at the Chapel
Royal in 1836. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s influence remained with him
throughout his life, whether it was as a point of imitation for his early dramatic
vocal music, or in introducing the English public to Mozart’s symphonies at the
concerts of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Most of his operatic and dramatic

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 “THE AWAKENING” • 33

works were composed before 1800, after which he turned predominantly (but
not exclusively) to organ and sacred music.

AVISON, CHARLES (1709–70). Composer, organist, and writer on musical

topics. The son of a Newcastle wait, Avison spent his entire career attached to
Newcastle as longtime organist at St. Nicholas and as director of the Newcastle
Musical Society. He also was active in producing concerts concurrently in Dur-
ham. His musical prominence brought him job offers in London, Edinburgh, and
York, but his allegiance to Newcastle was unseverable. As a composer he wrote
a large body of concertos that show the influence of Francesco Geminiani, with
whom tradition holds he studied; his concertos include as well arrangements of
harpsichord pieces by Domenico Scarlatti. He also composed “accompanied
sonatas,” which were keyboard works accompanied by violins and cello.
Modern appraisal of Avison’s concertos has been positive; late 18th-
century views were less flattering. However, Sir John Hawkins held that
“the music of Avison is light and elegant, but it wants originality, a necessary
consequence of his too close attachment to the style of Geminiani, which in
a few particulars only he was able to imitate.” Charles Burney wrote that
Avison’s compositions “want force, correctness, and originality, sufficient
to be ranked very high among the works of masters of the first class.” One
suspects that Burney’s harsh view in part reflects a degree of resentment at
Avison’s critique of George Frideric Handel.
Avison was much given to writing about music and in 1752 published his
significant Essay on Musical Expression, “the most notable contribution of
the period to musical aesthetics” (Caldwell, OHEM, vol. 2). The Essay was
controversial enough to engender a printed attack and defense between Avi-
son and William Hayes. The range of the Essay is broad, covering issues of
emotional response, the performance of concertos, and critiques of individual
composers. Avison praised Benedetto Marcello and Francesco Geminiani as
ideals (for vocal and instrumental composition, respectively), and found fault
with Handel—a bold move—for privileging counterpoint over melody. Bur-
ney saw Avison as a lone and pioneering figure in English music criticism:
“Indeed, musical criticism has been so little cultivated in our country, that
its first elements are hardly known. In justice to the late Mr. Avison, it must
be owned, that he was the first, and almost the only writer, who attempted
it.” And though he found his judgment biased, he noted that Avison was “an
ingenious man, and an elegant writer upon his art.”

“THE AWAKENING.” Suffrage song by Teresa del Riego (1876–1968)

with lyrics by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) first published in 1911 and
used especially by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

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 34 • AYLIFF, MRS.

AYLIFF, MRS. (fl. 1692–96). Soprano. Mrs. Ayliff was one of the leading
sopranos on the Restoration stage, and in contrast to the singing-actor model
of performer, she performed exclusively as a musician. John Dryden makes
this distinction in describing her as one “whose trade it was to sing.” She was
praised in the press by Peter Motteux for her performance of Henry Purcell’s
“Ah Me! To Many Deaths Decreed,” and as that song features an ornamental
cast to the line, one might infer from this and other songs (“When First I Saw
the Bright Aurelia’s Eyes,” for instance) that she was adept at florid rendition.

AYRE (ALSO AIR). The term ayre has diverse usage in 16th- and 17th-
century England, but is particularly associated with the genre of lute song
appearing in print from 1597 (John Dowland’s First Booke of Songes or
Ayres) to 1622 (John Attey’s The First Booke of Ayres). The lute ayre was
typically a strophic composition, often setting texts of high quality. The liter-
ary quality and its close synergy with the music was brought into focus by the
poet-composer Thomas Campion, who observed, “In these English ayres I
have chiefly aymed to couple my words and notes lovingly together, which
will be much for him to doe that hath not power over both.” And Campion
was ardent in defense of the ayre’s brevity and sometime lightness. He notes,
“Short ayres if they be skillfully framed, and naturally exprest, are like quicke
and good epigrammes in poesie, many of them shewing as much artifice, and
breeding as great difficultie as a larger poeme.” Elsewhere he adds, “The
Apothecaries have Bookes of Gold, whose leaves being opened are so light
as that they are subject to be shaken with the least breath, yet rightly handled,
they serve both for ornament and use; such are light Ayres.”
The musical style of the lute ayre is varied. Some are simple accompanied
melodies, as for instance Campion’s “Never Weather-beaten Sail”; others
conform to dance-patterns, such as Dowland’s “Can She Excuse,” “If my
Complaints,” or “Now, O Now, I Needs Must Part,” this latter known else-
where as the “Frog Galliard.” Less common are those that seem to show
the influence of Italian monody, such as Dowland’s intensely brooding “In
Darkness Let Me Dwell,” a work unusual in being through-composed as well.
The publication format of the lute ayres promoted a commercially advan-
tageous flexibility of performance. The page layout included the solo voice
part with intabulated lute accompaniment as well as alto, tenor, and bass
vocal parts and a part for bass viol. Thus the ayre could be performed as an
accompanied solo or as a partsong.
“Ayre” was also used in the 17th century for instrumental movements
of various sorts, often with the implication of something tuneful. (See for
instance the fantasia-suites of John Hingeston.) Thomas Mace compared
the ayre to the allmain: “Ayres, are, or should be, of the same Time [as All-

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 AYRTON, WILLIAM • 35

maines] . . . only they differ from Allmaines, by being commonly Shorter,

and of a more Quick and Nimble Performance.” Ayre was also treated as an
aesthetic quality in the writings of Roger North. See also ADSON, JOHN;
BARTLET, JOHN; CAVENDISH, MICHAEL; COPRARIO, JOHN; FAN-
TASIA-SUITE; FORD, THOMAS; HILTON, JOHN; HUME, TOBIAS;
LAWES, HENRY; MUSICA BRITANNICA; NORTH, ROGER; PILKING-
TON, FRANCIS; PLAYFORD, JOHN; ROSSETER, PHILIP; WILSON,
JON.

AYRTON, WILLIAM (1777–1858). Editor, historian, and collector. While

not a prolific performing musician himself, Ayrton was known for his or-
ganizational skills. Institutions he aided included the Royal Philharmonic
Society and the King’s Theatre, Haymarket (1816–17, 1821, and 1825).
He is perhaps best known, though, for his editorship of the early musical
journal the Harmonicon (1823–33) and its successor, the Musical Library
(1834–37), and for his large collection of materials for a music dictionary he
never completed.

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9780810857506_Print.indb 36 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 B
BABELL, WILLIAM (ca. 1690–1723). Harpsichord virtuoso, organist,
violinist, and composer. Babell was a student of his father, a long-serving
bassoonist in the orchestra at Drury Lane, and later with Johann Christoph
Pepusch and perhaps with George Frideric Handel. He was a member of
the Private Musick of George I (appointed 1709), active at Lincoln’s Inn
Fields, and the organist at the parish church of All Hallows, Bread Street
(London) from 1718. Most distinctive, however, was his presence in London
concerts as a harpsichord soloist. Charles Burney suggests his virtuosity was
empty, gratifying “idleness and vanity,” and he likens his performance to the
“glare and glitter” of tinsel. However, Sir John Hawkins describes his play-
ing as “admirable proficient.”
Babell is particularly associated with keyboard arranging of material from
Handel operas, as seen in his 1717 Suits of the Most Celebrated Lessons Col-
lected and Fitted to the Harpsicord or Spinnet . . . with Variety of Passages
by the Author, arrangements that can require an unusual degree of virtuosic
technique. Additionally, his sonatas, likely for oboe, are supplied “with
proper graces adapted to each Adagio by the author.”

BACH, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1735–82). Composer, impresario, and

keyboardist of German origin. The 11th son of Johann Sebastian Bach, his
early training occurred in Leipzig at the studio of his father and then in Berlin
in 1750, where he studied with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. From 1755 to
1762 he worked in Milan as a student of Padre Martini and under the patron-
age of Count Agostino Litta, eventually taking a position as an organist in
the cathedral. Bach arrived in England in 1762 to take up an appointment as
music master to Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. Other than short trips to
the Continent, he made London his home for the rest of his life. For the next
two decades he became one of the most visible members of London’s musical
establishment through working intermittently at the King’s Theatre, Hay-
market, as a performer and composer, publishing, and, with Carl Friederich
Abel, organizing the Bach-Abel series of subscription concerts at various
locations before settling finally at the Hanover Square Rooms. In London
Bach was most famous for his opera seria and his contributions to pasticcios,

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 38 • BACH CHOIR

but he also composed and published numerous symphonies, keyboard sonatas,

concerti, and vocal works for such contemporary institutions as the Vauxhall
Gardens. His style was heavily influenced by galanterie, and he was an early
adopter of publishing for and performing on the pianoforte.

BACH CHOIR. London amateur choir founded in 1875 to perform the mu-
sic of Johann Sebastian Bach, particularly the Mass in B minor. The impetus
to found the choir was from Arthur Duke Coleridge, barrister and amateur
musician. The first conductor was Otto Goldschmidt (1875–85), and the first
concerts occurred in 1876. The Choir quickly became one of the most impor-
tant amateur ensembles in Great Britain, conducted by many significant fig-
ures, who broadened the repertoire from Bach to contemporary music. These
included Charles Villiers Stanford (1885–1902), Henry Walford Davies
(1902–7), Sir Hugh Percy Allen (1907–21), Ralph Vaughan Williams
(1921–28), Gustav Holst (1928), Sir Adrian Boult (1928-31), Reginald
Jacques (1932–60), and Sir David Wilcocks (1960–98). Under Jacques and
Wilcocks, the choir became well-known for its recordings.

BACH SOCIETY. Organization active between 1849 and 1870, founded to

promote Johann Sebastian Bach’s music in Great Britain. Aside from present-
ing concerts of Bach’s music including four dedicated to the St. Matthew Pas-
sion, the Society also collected an extensive library of scores and biographies
of Bach and his family, housed at the Hanover Square Rooms.

BACHELER, DANIEL (1572–1619). Lutanist and composer. Bacheler

served an apprenticeship with his uncle, Thomas Cardell, a lutanist and danc-
ing master at the Elizabethan court; subsequently, in 1587 his apprentice-
ship was transferred to Sir Francis Walsingham. He later entered the service
of Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex—Lady Essex was Sir Francis’s
daughter, Frances—and his song “To Plead my Faith” represents a musical
approach to the Queen on Essex’s behalf. In 1603 Bacheler received appoint-
ment as Groom to Queen Anne’s Privy Chamber.
In addition to a substantial quantity of lute solos there are also a number of
pieces for English consort (broken consort) in the Walsingham Consort Books
under his name. The date of compilation of this source—1588—has given rise
to the suggestion (Poulton, 1982; Caldwell, OHEM, vol. 1) that these consort
pieces may represent the work of an older member of the family. Failing that,
they would well document a degree of precocity in so young a composer.

BAIRSTOW, SIR EDWARD CUTHBERT (1874–1946). Organist, con-

ductor, lecturer, and adjudicator. After early training at Westminster Abbey

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 BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM • 39

with Walter Alcock, Bairstow held organ posts in London and Wigan before
being named organist at Leeds Parish Church in 1907. From this point on,
he became a fixture in music-making of the north. He was organist of the
Leeds Triennial Musical Festival from 1910, was appointed organist at York
Minster and director of the York Musical Society in 1913, directed the Leeds
Philharmonic Society from 1917, and was appointed professor of music in
Durham in 1929. His few liturgical compositions were offset by his many
appearances as a guest conductor, lecturer, and adjudicator at competition
festivals.

BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM (1808–70). Composer, conductor, and

singer of Irish origin. He was one of the premier composers of 19th-century
London (a posthumous article in the Times referred to him as “our Rossini”).
As a singer, he was a protégé of Gioachino Rossini and performed with Maria
Malibran (for whom he composed The Maid of Artois) and Gulia Grisi. He
worked with or composed works for most of the well-known singers of the
day, including the previously mentioned Malibran and Grisi, as well as Jenny
Lind, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini, Luigi Lablache, and
others. While Basil Walsh’s description of Balfe as the “Dickens of music”
(2007) may be an exaggeration, it is only a slight one: Balfe’s music was well
known and enjoyed in the British Isles and far beyond.
After early training with his father in Dublin and as an articled pupil of
C. F. Horn in London, Balfe spent from 1825 to 1835 on the Continent, study-
ing, singing, and composing operas primarily in Italy and Paris. Upon his
return to London, he quickly established himself as one of the most popular
composers in Great Britain with two operatic triumphs: The Siege of Rochelle
(1835) and the aforementioned The Maid of Artois (1836), both performed
at Drury Lane. Over the next few years, Balfe’s operatic successes in Lon-
don—as both a composer and a singer—were many, which led him to attempt
an English opera company at the Lyceum Theatre. While initially success-
ful, it quickly ran aground financially, and Balfe returned to the Continent
for several years of performances and commissions. In 1843 his best-known
opera, The Bohemian Girl, premiered at Drury Lane and quickly became both
a national and an international success.
Balfe directed the Italian Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket,
from 1846 to 1852, during which time he published several pedagogical
manuals for voice training. He spent the middle of the 1850s traveling on the
Continent, visiting Germany, Austria, and Russia. In the last years of his life,
he composed The Rose of Castille for the newly formed Pyne-Harrison Opera
Company at the Lyceum Theatre (1857) and then retired to the country in
1864, though he continued to work on a number of operas until his death in

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 40 • BALLAD

1870. Besides stage works, Balfe was particularly noted for his songs (which
became staple repertoire at chamber concerts at numerous musical festivals
in the last part of the 19th century).

BALLAD. The ballad is a genre of popular song in England that emerged

in the Middle Ages, though it came into particular blossom in the 16th and
17th centuries, especially with the so-called broadside ballad, printed on large
single folios and popularly vended. The genesis and transmission of ballads is
complex to trace, combining elements of oral tradition as well as professional
authorship. The text subjects are diverse, though oftentimes narrative, and in
the genre’s heyday, the ballad could be dynamically political. Ballad meter, a
commonly found pattern for the texts, consists of a quatrain with alternating
eight- and six-syllable lines, the second and fourth of which rhyme.
The tunes to which ballads were sung come from diverse sources—folk
song, fiddle tune, and theater songs—Henry Purcell’s “If Love’s a Sweet
Passion” from The Fairy Queen, for instance—all contribute to the repertory,
and sources like John Playford’s The English Dancing Master or Thomas
Durfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy are helpful in recovering melodies that
were associated with ballad texts. Significantly, melodies were rarely notated
with ballad texts, but most typically were indicated with a verbal reference of
“to the tune of . . .” Thus, like the popular musician of our own day, the ballad
singer would draw on a repertoire of familiar and standard tunes.
The ballad’s impact on the English theater is significant. Several theatri-
cal genres, notably the jig and the ballad opera, drew on ballads for their
musical substance. Additionally, Ross Duffin (2004) has shown the striking
degree to which William Shakespeare alluded to ballads, allusions that show
great potential for adding multiple layers of interpretative meaning to the
plays. See BALLAD OPERA, PERCY SOCIETY.

BALLAD OPERA. Ballad opera is a form of musical play combining spo-

ken dialogue and integral songs, often set to popular, familiar melodies. Price
and Hume (NG, 2001) caution that the term ballad opera is something of a
misnomer as the majority of the songs are not from the ballad repertory. The
progenitor of the ballad opera was the hugely successful The Beggar’s Opera
by John Gay, performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1728 an impressive 62
times. Fiske (1986) called it “the greatest theatrical success of the century.”
Over 100 ballad operas followed in the wake of The Beggar’s Opera, al-
though by and large the success of Gay’s work proved unrepeatable and the
genre had waned by the late 1730s.
Notable features of The Beggar’s Opera include its lowlife setting and cast
and its satire of the Whig administration of Robert Walpole and the reigning

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 BALLS, ALPHONSO AND RICHARD • 41

conventions of Italian opera seria. (Modern comment has cautioned against

an exaggerated view of its satirical thrust, however.) The prison setting and
thieving cast were distinctive at a time when opera librettos followed an an-
tique, heroic model; later ballad operas took on a variety of subjects, includ-
ing English rurality, as for example in Charles Johnson’s The Village Opera.
The music for The Beggar’s Opera incorporates not only ballad tunes but
also works by Henry Purcell, John Eccles, and George Frideric Handel.
Tellingly, the original context of the music can inform its use by Gay,
showing that the selection of the music was not casual. Johann Christoph
Pepusch composed an overture for the work, as well as supplied basses for
the melodies.

BALLETT. The ballett in England represents an adaptation of the ensemble

dance song associated with Giovanni Gastoldi. The naturalization of the style
is much the fruits of Thomas Morley, who described the ballett in his A
Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597):

There is another kind [of music] more light than this which they term Balletti
or dances, and are songs which being sung to a ditty may likewise be danced.
These, and all other kinds of light music (saving the Madrigal) are by a general
name called “airs.”
There be also another kind of Balletts commonly called “Fa las.” The first set
of that kind which I have seen was made by Gastoldi; if others have labored in
the same field I know not, but a slight kind of music it is and, as I take it, devised
to be danced to voices.

The Gastoldi model establishes dancelike character, prominent use of ho-

mophony, fa-la refrains, and bipartite construction. In Morley’s The First
Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces (1595)—a work significantly published
in both English and Italian versions—the relationship to Gastoldi can be
parodistic (see for example, the well-known “Sing We and Chaunt It” and
Gastoldi’s “A lieta vita”). However, Morley seems to reject this as music for
dancing and accordingly enriches the fa-la refrains. As Kerman (1962) notes:
“This expansion of the ballet is the most characteristic feature of the English
variety and immediately sets it above its Italian model.” In some balletts
Morley took the model of the canzonet, not the Italian balletto, with more
complicated texture and counterpoint the result.

BALLS (BALES), ALPHONSO (?–1635) AND RICHARD (d. 1622).

Lutanists and singers. Both Bales were London waits and entered into the
service of Charles Stuart during his years as Prince of Wales; Alphonso was
also in service to Charles after he ascended the throne. The ornamented song,

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 42 • BALTZAR, THOMAS

“Chloris Sigh’d” is attributed to “Mr. Balls,” and its survival in six manu-
scripts speaks to its popularity.

BALTZAR, THOMAS (1631?–1663). German violin virtuoso and com-

poser. The early stages of Baltzar’s career find him performing in Sweden and
in his native Germany; however, he began to perform in England in 1655 and
worked there until his untimely death, playing in the theater (including Sir
William Davenant’s landmark The Siege of Rhodes), Oxford music meetings,
and from 1661 at court as a member of the King’s Private Musick. Along
with other foreign virtuosi like Nicola Matteis, he was responsible for estab-
lishing the violin in England as a solo instrument of high regard. And consider-
ing technique, Sir John Hawkins specifies he was instrumental in introducing
“shifting and the use of the upper part of the finger-board” to the English.
Early historians like Charles Burney and Hawkins, the diarist John
Evelyn, and the Oxford antiquary Anthony Wood all were enthusiastic in
their accounts of Baltzar’s playing. Evelyn, for instance, much taken with his
dexterity, perfection, and “ravishing sweetnesse,” said, “I stand to this houre
amaz’d that God should give so greate perfection to so young a person.” His
virtuoso abilities brought him into competition with Davis Mell, a competi-
tion that we can imagine nurtured his celebrity.
Both Hawkins and Burney observe that Baltzar drank heavily, and Hawkins
attributes his early death, in part, to these excesses.

BANASTER, GILBERT (ca. 1430–87). Composer and poet. Banaster was

appointed gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1468, and perhaps had been a
chorister there as well. He became master of the choristers in 1478. His com-
positions survive in only small quantity and include an antiphon in the Eton
Choirbook (possibly commemorating the pregnancy of Elizabeth Tudor in
1486) and a Passion carol, “My feerfull dreme,” in the Fayrfax Manuscript.

BANDORA (ALSO PANDORA). The bandora is described by Michael

Praetorius as “an English invention of the lute type. It is rather like a large
cittern, and is strung with brass and steel strings each of one, two, three,
four, or even more strands.” Characteristic details of its construction include
a scalloped body with flat belly and back. Its invention can be traced to John
Rose, the elder, in 1562.
A bass-register instrument, it was one of the standard members of the so-
called English consort, in which it provided both harmonic realization as
well as lower octave doubling of the bass viol line. Following one of the most
famous collections of this repertory by Thomas Morley, the tuning is C D
G c e a, although the number of courses and tuning was subject to variation.

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 BANISTER, JOHN • 43

In addition to its role in the English consort, it was used in the theater
and also claimed a solo repertory of pieces by composers such as Antony
Holborne, Alfonso Ferrabosco, and John Dowland. Although an English
invention, it was also used on the Continent as a continuo instrument. Filippo
Bonanni in his Gabinetto Armonico tellingly called it a cetera tedesca.

BANISTER, JOHN (1624/25–79). Violinist, composer, and flageolet solo-

ist. Banister received an appointment to the royal violin band late in 1660 and
soon thereafter studied in France. The Francophilic taste of the court owed
much to Charles II’s continental exile during the Commonwealth; Banister
was among the first of the young king’s musicians to study there, anticipating
Pelham Humfrey’s more noted trip by several years. In 1662, likely showing
the influence of the French La Petite Bande, Banister established and led a
small select ensemble at court. In addition to activity at court, Banister was
also much involved in theater music, a telling example of the overlapping of
personnel in various London venues.
Banister fell from grace in the mid-1660s. In part this was due to the ascen-
dancy of the Frenchman Louis Grabu as Master of the King’s Music (1666),
who asserted his own leadership of the violin band, and in part the result of
accusations of embezzlement. In contemporary comment, Anthony Wood
also noted that the king was angry with Bannister for “some saucy words.”
In the wake of his eclipse at court, Banister became a key figure in the
promotion of public concerts in London. The London Gazette advertised his
daily afternoon concerts in “White Fryers” in December 1672. And Roger
North (1959) described them in detail:

The first attempt [at public concerts] was low: a project of old Banister, who was
a good violin, and a theatricall composer. He opened an obscure room in a publik
house in White fryars; filled it with tables and seats, and made a side box with
curtaines for the musick. . . . Here came most of the hack-performers in towne,
and much company to hear; and divers musicall curiositys were presented, as, for
instance, Banister himself, upon a flageolet in consort, which was never heard
before nor since, unless imitated by the high manner upon the violin.

Holman (1993) has drawn attention to a surviving wordbook from a concert

of odes titled “Musick: or a Parley of Instruments” from 1676. The word-
book documents not only the large scale of the undertaking, but also, through
an address to the reader, that Banister ran a school that offered instruction in
music, dance, painting, foreign languages, and mathematics, inter alia.
His son, John, was also a violinist and composer, succeeding his father in
the King’s Violins. Another Banister in the royal violin band, Jeffrey, may
have been the elder John’s brother.

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 44 • BANTOCK, SIR GRANVILLE

BANTOCK, SIR GRANVILLE (1868–1946). Composer, editor, conduc-

tor, and adjudicator. After studies at Trinity College of Music and the Royal
Academy of Music (2), Bantock worked as an editor of the New Quarterly
Musical Review and conducted numerous ensembles, including dance bands
and touring musical companies. He was appointed principal of the Birming-
ham and Midland School of Music in 1900 and became the second Peyton
Professor of Music at Birmingham University (succeeding Sir Edward
Elgar), a position he held from 1908 to 1934. Bantock was a prolific com-
poser, working within all of the idioms of the English Musical Renaissance:
besides successful compositions for the great musical festivals, such as the
highly popular secular cantata Omar Khayyám (1906–9), Bantock composed
numerous programmatic compositions for orchestra, works for brass band,
and a handful of operas. Bantock’s style was tonal, leaning to chromaticism,
and heavily melodic. There was a decline in interest in his work after World
War I. In his teaching and conducting careers, he was a great promoter of
British music. Bantock was knighted in 1930.

BARBIROLLI, SIR JOHN (ALSO GIOVANNI BATTISTA; 1899–

1970). Conductor and cellist. Early studies at Trinity College of Music and
the Royal Academy of Music (2) prepared him for a dual career, and for a
time starting in 1916 he predominantly played cello and conducted on the
side. Starting from 1928, he received several important guest-conducting ap-
pointments, including for the British National Opera Company and at Covent
Garden. A guest conductorship with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
in 1936 turned into an appointment as conductor from 1937 to 1942. His
longest association was with the Hallé Orchestra, where he was appointed
conductor in 1943; Barbirolli remained associated with this ensemble for
the remainder of his life, while also conducting the Houston Symphony Or-
chestra (1961–67) and guest conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
(1961–70). Barbirolli had a wide repertoire of instrumental music, but was
most famous for his recordings of Sir Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Wil-
liams, and some Benjamin Britten (his recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto,
op. 85, is particularly and justly famous), but, possibly because of the jeal-
ousy of Sir Thomas Beecham, he never cultivated conducting opera after
his early stint at Covent Garden. Barbirolli was knighted in 1949 (KB); he
became a CH in 1969.

BARNARD, JOHN (fl. 1641). Music editor and composer. Barnard is best
known for his publication The First Book of Selected Church Musick, con-
sisting of Services and Anthems, such as are now used in the Cathedrall and
Collegiate Churches of this Kingdome (London, 1641), a significant anthol-

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 BARRETT, JOHN • 45

ogy of English liturgical music from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
The anthology includes works by Thomas Tallis, Elway Bevin, Orlando
Gibbons, William Mundy, Thomas Morley, Richard Farrant, Adrian
Batten, William Byrd, Robert Whyte, and Thomas Weelkes. As none of
the composers represented were alive at publication, the anthology in many
cases documents the persistence of older repertory in church practice. A sec-
ond collection in manuscript (GB Lrcm mss. 1045–51) also survives, includ-
ing two of his own works.

BARNBY, SIR JOSEPH (1838–96). Composer, conductor (primarily cho-

ral), educator, and organist. Barnby was known throughout his professional
career for championing the music of Charles Gounod and Johann Sebastian
Bach, for introducing lavish choral services into the churches where he
worked, and as a popular composer and conductor on the provincial musical
festival circuit (through works such as his oratorio Rebekah [1870]). After
training as a chorister at York Minister, Barnby attended the Royal Academy
of Music (2; where he won the first Mendelssohn Scholarship) and took a
series of organist positions in and around London, including prestigious ones
at St. Andrew’s, Wells Street (1866–71), and St. Anne’s, Soho (1871–1886),
and was precentor of Eton College (1875–92). He was the principal of the
Guildhall School of Music from 1892 until his death in 1896. Barnby
founded the London Musical Society choir (1878–87), conducted choirs
sponsored by publishing firm Novello & Co., and was the conductor of the
Royal Choral Society (1873–96). He was knighted in 1892.

BARNETT, JOHN FRANCIS (1837–1916). English composer, pianist, and

occasional conductor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music (2) and
then in Leipzig with Julius Rietz and Ignaz Moschelles, among others. His
career in England was split between writing dramatic choral works for musi-
cal festivals (including those at Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds, and Norwich)
and choral societies, teaching piano students, and editing an edition of Franz
Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony.

BARRETT, JOHN (ca. 1676–1719?). Composer and organist. Barrett was

trained in music as a chorister in the Chapel Royal under the mastership of
John Blow. He later held London posts at the church of St. Mary-at-Hill and
Christ’s Hospital. His work is largely theatrical—he wrote incidental music
for 17 plays—although diverse keyboard pieces and a trumpet sonata also
survive. He is anthologized by Thomas Durfey in Pills to Purge Melancholy
and also adapted in The Beggar’s Opera. Sir John Hawkins describes Bar-
rett as a “skilful musician.”

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 46 • BARRETT, WILLIAM ALEXANDER

BARRETT, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1834–91). Writer and singer.

Barrett wrote musical criticism for the Morning Post and edited most of the
major music periodicals of the second half of the 19th century, including the
Monthly Musical Record, the Orchestra, and the Musical Times. He was a
professional lay clerk at Magdalene College, Oxford, and at St. Paul’s Cathe-
dral in London. Aside from his duties as a lay clerk and an editor, he was also
for a time the assistant inspector of schools for music (working with John
Hullah and Sir John Stainer), and he wrote on topics as diverse as glees,
madrigals, folk song, music festivals, and church musicians.

BARSANTI, FRANCESCO (1690–1772). Composer, flautist, oboist, and

viola player of Italian origin. He arrived in London in 1714 and, except
for occasional trips back to Lucca, remained in Great Britain for the rest of
his life. He initially played oboe in the orchestra of the Italian Theatre and
gained a reputation in London as an excellent player and composer. He left
London for Edinburgh for eight years in 1735, where he married and worked
under the patronage of Scottish nobility. When he settled back in London in
1743, he did not regain his earlier fame and played viola in various orches-
tras within the city. His output included liturgical music but was primarily
focused on solo sonatas and concerti.

BARTHÉLEMON, FRANÇOIS-HIPPOLYTE (1741–1808). French-born

violinist, composer, and orchestra leader. Fanny Burney, daughter of the
historian Charles Burney, immortalized him in her book Evelina; or the
History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World as “a player of exquisite
fancy, feeling, and variety.” After early work in various Parisian orchestras,
Barthélemon settled in London in 1764 and played violin for most of the
opera orchestras, playhouses, and pleasure gardens of the time. He was
well connected to the London musical scene, being friends with and the mu-
sical associate of Johann Peter Salomon, Franz Joseph Haydn, Johann
Christian Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel, among others. He married the
famous singer Polly Young in 1766. Aside from several trips to Ireland and
the Continent, he remained in England for the rest of his life. He composed
a number of operas, an oratorio, dramatic cantatas, and numerous ballets,
as well as violin sonatas. No work of his—aside from the hymn “Awake my
soul”—survives in the modern repertoire.

BARTLET, JOHN (fl. 1606–10). Composer. Bartlet enjoyed the patronage

of Sir Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, who received the dedication of his
only publication, the Booke of Ayres with a Triplicitie of Musicke (London,
1606). The dedication praises Seymour’s “singular skill and exquisite knowl-
edge [of music].” As was typical of many lute ayre publications, the Book of

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 BATHE, WILLIAM • 47

Ayres offered songs in both monophonic and four-part versions. Spink (1974)
suggests that here the four-part versions may constitute the original form.

BASSANO. A family of wind instrumentalists and instrument makers active

through several generations in England from the middle of the 16th century
well into the 17th. The musical family descends from Jeronimo, a musician
in Venice, possibly a wind player in service to the Doge in the first part of
the 16th century. Five of his sons—Alvise, Gasparo, Zuane, Antonio, and
Baptista—received appointments as musicians at the court of Henry VIII as
trombone and recorder players. Four of the five are listed as playing both;
Baptista’s appointment is as a recorder player, though references in the Sey-
mour accounts from the 1530s may suggest that he, like his brothers, also
played trombone (Ashbee and Lasocki, 1998).
The family’s activity as instrument makers was extensive and multigenera-
tional. Their workshop produced highly regarded wind instruments (record-
ers, cornetti, crumhorns, inter alia) as well as lutes and viols.

BATES, JOAH (1740–99). Organist, impresario, and conductor. Bates was the
husband of the singer Sarah Bates and one of the greatest experts on George
Frideric Handel during the second half of the 18th century. With his family,
he organized an early choral society in Halifax (The Messiah Club) and an early
local festival of Handel’s oratorios nearby; conducted the Concerts of An-
cient Music from 1776 to 1793; and was one of the major organizers—along
with his patron, John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich—of the great Handel
Commemoration festival in Westminster Abbey in 1784. He was Montagu’s
private secretary for some years starting in 1771 and before that likely the sing-
ing tutor of Montagu’s mistress, Martha Ray, and their children.

BATESON, THOMAS (1570/75?–1630). Organist and composer. Bateson

was appointed organist at Chester Cathedral in 1599 and by 1609 had taken
up an appointment at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. He is known chiefly
for his two publications of madrigals, appearing in 1604 and 1618. Kerman
(1962) underscores his musical indebtedness: “Bateson is . . . a derivative
composer, though his writing is pleasing enough. From [Thomas] Morley he
takes his basic style and some characteristic narrative subjects; from [John]
Wilbye a delicacy, sometimes successful, that is an advance over Morley’s
writing, and an occasional tendency to take a poem quite seriously, though
with varying success.”

BATHE, WILLIAM (1564–1614). Irish writer and priest. While a student

at Oxford, Bathe authored a nonextant music treatise, A Brief Introduction
to the True Art of Musicke. Its publication in 1584 makes it the first musical

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 48 • BATTEN, ADRIAN

textbook to appear in English (Rainbow, 1982). A second undated version

appeared under the title A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Song (1596).
Sir John Hawkins is dismissive of the work and critical of the author’s
temperament: “They say of this William that he was of a sullen saturnine
temper, and disturbed in his mind that his family was fallen from its ancient
splendour.” Elsewhere he notes that Anthony Wood “says of him that he had
a most ardent zeal for the gaining of souls; and that though of a temper not
very sociable, he was much esteemed by those of his own persuasion for his
extraordinary virtues and good qualities.”
The work of Bernarr Rainbow (1982; NG, 2001) underscores the in-
novative nature of Bathe’s method for teaching one to read music. Bathe
systematized a seven-note mixolydian scale (ut re mi fa sol la fa) that was
transposable. Thus he could avoid the complexity of mutation in solmization
and offers a pre-echo of modern “moveable doh” sight-singing.
Bathe seems to have abandoned musical interests when he undertook theo-
logical training abroad and entered the Society of Jesus in the mid-1590s. His
subsequent language treatise, Janua Linguarum (1611) was highly regarded.
On the basis of the new directions his career took in the 1590s, Rainbow ar-
gues for a date of ca. 1587–90 for the revision of his musical treatise.

BATTEN, ADRIAN (1591–1637). Composer. Batten can be identified as a

student of John Holmes, which suggests that he was a chorister at Winchester
Cathedral, where Holmes was a lay vicar. In 1614 Batten became a lay vicar
at Westminster Abbey; in 1626 he became a vicar-choral at St. Paul’s Ca-
thedral (London) and can be documented there until 1635.
He was prolific in the composition of anthems and services, though mod-
ern comment faults his harmonic conservatism. Charles Burney planted the
seeds of this view: “He [Batten] seems to have jogged on in the plain, safe,
and beaten track, without looking much about him, nor if he had, does he
seem likely to have penetrated far into the musical terra incognita.”
The “Batten Organbook” (GB Ob Ten 791) is a major source of church
music from ca. 1630; its attribution to Batten is, however, not secure.

BATTISHILL, JONATHAN (1738–1801). Composer, keyboardist, and

singer. Known for the anthem “Call to Remembrance,” he was the organist
at St. Clement Eastcheap and St. Martin Orgar (1764) and Christ Church,
Newgate (1767). However, aside from a few pieces in the sacred vein, his
compositions largely reflect work for Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the
London pleasure gardens (an opera, a pantomime, and several collections
of songs). His education was at St. Paul’s Cathedral under William Savage
(starting in 1747), and he frequently deputized for William Boyce at the

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 BEDFORD, ARTHUR • 49

Chapel Royal. By the mid-1750s his rise into London musical society began
with an appointment as conductor at Covent Garden, as well as membership
in the Madrigal Society, the Royal Society of Musicians, and the Noble-
men and Gentlemen’s Catch Club. Most of his secular compositions were
published in the fertile period between 1760 and 1775. After this period, Bat-
tishill became dissolute through drink, possibly caused in part by his wife—
the singer and actress Elisabeth Davies—abandoning him.

BAX, SIR ARNOLD (1883–1953). Composer, poet (many of his writings

were published under the pseudonym Dermot O’Byrne), and adjudicator. Bax
was considered to be one of the most important composers of the 1920s. He
composed several film scores for the Ballets Russes when they were resident
in England. The popularity of Bax’s music declined in the 1930s but enjoys
a revival today, thanks in part to the efforts of the scholar Lewis Foreman.
He is remembered primarily for his symphonies and film scores, though he
touched upon most British genres of his day, save for opera. Bax had early
private lessons on piano and was later trained at the Hampstead Conservatory
by Cecil Sharp and later at the Royal Academy of Music (2; 1900–1905). A
wide reader, Bax was early inspired by the Irish Literary Revival (especially
the work of William Butler Yeats) and translations of Nordic literature—
which matched his early enthusiasm for Wagerian opera—and Russian music
and literature. As Bax was born into an upper-middle-class family and had
no need of a private income, he was able to travel widely; he lived for a time
in Ireland and had significant trips to Russia and Germany. His personal life
was tumultuous; he left his wife Elsita Sobrino for the pianist Harriet Cohen
and for a time maintained a relationship with both Cohen and Mary Gleves.
Though his music was no longer popular, Bax was knighted in 1937 (KB; he
was made a KCVO in 1953) and made Master of the King’s Music in 1942.

BBC. See BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION.

BEDFORD, ARTHUR (1668–1745). Priest and writer. Bedford was a

central figure in promoting the cause of “ancient music,” in this case the
music of Elizabethan composers, as part of a campaign of moral reform. In
his The Great Abuse of Music (London, 1711), dedicated to the Society for
the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, he characteristically laments that
“[N]othing is admired [today] but what is new, and nothing hath the Air of a
new composition, but what is profane or lewd.” His concern with the connec-
tion between modern music and licentiousness found an echo in his criticism
of the theater as well, as developed in his The Evil and Danger of Stage Plays
(Bristol, 1706).

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 50 • BEECHAM, SIR THOMAS

BEECHAM, SIR THOMAS (1879–1961). Conductor, impresario, and

writer. In his time Beecham was one of the best-known English conductors
and did a great deal to professionalize British institutions by forging regular
seasons and rehearsal schedules. Until the early 1920s, Beecham could count
on a personal fortune to help him finance his conducting and promotional
activities; after this time, he was able to push most of his artistic endeavors
through networking and his reputation. He was the founder of the Beecham
Symphony Orchestra (1909), the Beecham Opera Company (1915), and the
London Philharmonic (1932). Beecham conducted opera at both Covent
Garden and Drury Lane, and was a conductor, artistic director, or guest
conductor for many of the major orchestras and opera companies in Great
Britain, including the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Society,
and others. He worked internationally as well, with a North American tour
in 1928 that set the stage for his conducting the Seattle Symphony Orchestra
(1941–43) and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (1942–44). His
funding was key in bringing the Ballets Russes to London in the 1910s. His
repertoire was wide-ranging, and he was especially known for his champion-
ing of Sir Frederick Delius, as well as his interpretation of operas by Hector
Berlioz and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He recorded widely, and many of
his interpretations are still available at the time of writing.

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA. See BALLAD OPERA; GAY, JOHN; PEPUSCH,

JOHANN CHRISTOPH.

BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST. Dramatic cantata or short oratorio for baritone

soloist, chorus, and orchestra by Sir William Walton, premiered at the Leeds
Triennial Musical Festival in 1931. The composition’s subject is the Baby-
lonian captivity from the Old Testament. Osbert Sitwell compiled the libretto
from the Bible. The commission came from the British Broadcasting Cor-
poration and was originally meant to be a work for a soloist, a small chorus,
and a chamber orchestra, appropriate for broadcasting. Like many of Wal-
ton’s works of the 1930s, Belshazzar’s Feast has a strong rhythmic contour
and borrows from jazz and popular music. Belshazzzar’s Feast established
Walton as one of the leading British interwar composers.

BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS (1804–85). Composer, conductor, teacher, and

pianist of German origin. Benedict arrived in London in 1835, after long ap-
prenticeships in Germany and Austria (studying at times with Johann Nepo-
muk Hummel and Carl Maria von Weber) and Italy, where he conducted two
opera theaters in Naples. Once in England, Benedict conducted at most of the
opera houses in London, including the Lyceum Theatre (1836–38), Drury

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 BENNETT, SIR WILLIAM STERNDALE • 51

Lane (1838–48), and Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket, and Covent Gar-
den. He composed English operas for these venues (the most famous was The
Lily of Killarny [1862]), most of which were produced on the Continent as
well. He was also the director of the Norwich Musical Festival (1845–70),
for which he composed a number of cantatas; his sole oratorio, St. Peter
(1870), which influenced Sir Edward Elgar’s works The Apostles and The
Kingdom, was premiered at the Birmingham Musical Festival.
Benedict was well known as both a teacher (his obituary in MT stated, “As
a teacher he was at the head of his profession for many years. To be able to
write ‘Pupil of Sir Julius Benedict’ was an honour coveted by almost every
young musician.”) and an accompanist in his own time, so much so that he
was the conductor and accompanist for Jenny Lind on her tour of North
America between 1850 and 1852. With Henry Thomas Smart he founded
the Vocal Association (1855–65), a large choir that performed regularly at
the Crystal Palace. He was knighted in 1871.

BENNETT, JOSEPH (1834–1911). Music critic, writer, librettist, adjudi-

cator, and organist. As a critic, Bennett wrote for numerous publications,
including the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, Musical Standard, Musi-
cal World, Lute, and MT. He was also one of the best-known music festival
librettists of his day, contributing to Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie’s
The Rose of Sharon and Sir Arthur Sullivan’s The Golden Legend, as well
as compositions by Sir Herbert Brewer, Frank Bridge, Sir Frederic Hy-
men Cowen, and C. Lee Williams (longtime organist of Gloucester Cathedral
and oratorio composer). His books include volumes of biography on Hector
Berlioz, Frederic Chopin, and Gioachino Rossini, as well as an epistolary
report from Bayreuth and a history of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.

BENNETT, SIR WILLIAM STERNDALE (1816–75). Composer, con-

ductor, pianist, and teacher. The Leipzig circle of Felix Mendelssohn and
Robert Schumann also held Bennett in great regard, and composers of the
English Musical Renaissance considered him to be one of the most impor-
tant mid-19th-century figures, as evidenced by the ample appreciations and
tributes in 1916, the centenary year of his birth. Bennett’s initial training
came as a chorister in Cambridge followed by attendance at the Royal Acad-
emy of Music (2) starting in 1826 (he would teach piano there from 1837 to
1858, and became the principal of the institution in 1866). He composed his
first successful instrumental works in the early 1830s and had a successful
career as a concert pianist (he played at the Royal Philharmonic Society
concerts regularly until 1848 and held his own series of chamber music con-
certs between 1842 and 1856 at the Hanover Square Rooms). He spent time

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 52 • BERKELEY, SIR LENNOX

with Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann in Leipzig on several visits between

1836 and 1842, which coincided with his greatest period of creativity.
From 1849 until his death, he was engaged with almost every aspect of
the English musical infrastructure. Bennett was a founding member of the
Bach Society (1849) and conducted the English premiere of the St. Matthew
Passion in 1854, conducted the Philharmonic Society Concerts (as a guest in
1855 but as its conductor from 1856 to 1866), conducted the musical festival
at Leeds in 1858, and was appointed Professor of Music at Cambridge (1856).
His music was well regarded in his own time: his symphonies were per-
formed by both English orchestras and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig,
and he had important choral works that appeared at the musical festivals
(May-Queen at Leeds in 1858 and The Woman of Samaria at Birmingham in
1867). He was knighted in 1871.

BERKELEY, SIR LENNOX (1903–89). Composer, teacher, and writer on

music. As Malcolm Williamson notes in Berkeley’s MT obituary, the com-
poser was “the most inconvenient to place or position” within 20th-century
English music, as he was a “cosmopolitan” composer and not a “national-
ist” one. Berkeley’s initial education occurred in England (he took a BA
from Merton College, Oxford), but his musical training took place largely in
France, under the influence of Maurice Ravel via studies with Nadia Bou-
langer (1926–32). A lifelong friendship with Benjamin Britten began in
1936; the two lived together for a time, set music to some of the same poets,
and collaborated on occasion. He was a professor of composition at the Royal
Academy of Music (2) between 1946 and 1968. Like many of Boulanger’s
students, his compositions show influence from Les Six and Igor Stravinsky’s
neoclassical works; he also began working with expanded twelve-tone tech-
niques in the 1960s. He composed in every available genre, from chamber
works to grand opera. He was named a CBE in 1957 and knighted in 1974.

BERNERS, LORD (GERALD TYRWHITT; 1883–1950). Composer,

writer, and painter. Berners came from an aristocratic family and after his
initial education spent a great deal of time abroad. He traveled widely in
France, Germany, and Italy in the 1900s and became an honorary attaché of
the Foreign Service between 1909 and 1920; under these auspices he spent
time in Constantinople and Rome. His early work was humorous, modernist,
and followed the model of Erik Satie; his cosmopolitanism can be seen in the
many works that have non-English titles and texts. From the 1920s forward,
his music became less modernist and more exoticist, focused at first on opera
and ballet (such as The Triumph of Neptune [1926] and A Wedding Banquet
[1936], which Stravinsky admired), as well as film scores. In addition to mu-
sic, he was a prodigious painter and published a number of novels and plays.

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 BLISS, SIR ARTHUR • 53

BEVIN, ELWAY (ca. 1554–1638). Welsh composer and organist. De-

scribed by Charles Burney, perhaps exaggeratedly, as a “man of genius,”
to be numbered among the “musical luminaries,” Bevin was a vicar-choral
at Wells (1579), followed by a long tenure as master of the choristers (1585)
and organist (by 1589) at Bristol Cathedral. His dismissal from that post close
to the end of his life perhaps derives from recusancy. He was also appointed
gentleman extraordinary to the Chapel Royal in 1605.
In addition to Anglican service music and anthems, Bevin was prolific in
the composition of canons, an enthusiasm reflected in his tutorial, Briefe and
Short Instruction in the Art of Musicke (1631).

BIRMINGHAM MUSIC FESTIVAL. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

BISHOP, SIR HENRY RAWLEY (1786–1855). Composer, conductor,

impresario, and editor. Bishop was one of the most important musicians of
his day, involved in most contemporary institutions. Thomas Panchon, the
racehorse owner, sponsored his musical training in harmony by Francesco
Bianchi, but otherwise Bishop was largely self-taught. He served from 1810
to 1824 as the musical director of Covent Garden and at Drury Lane from
1824. He directed music at the pleasure gardens at Vauxhall from the 1820s
to 1840, was the principal conductor of the Concerts of Ancient Music from
1840 to 1848, held the Reid Professorship at Edinburgh University from 1841
to 1843, and was Professor of Music at Oxford from 1848 until his death.
Bishop was the composer of over 80 dramatic works and pastiches for the
London stage, many songs, and glees. While extremely popular in his own
life, he is all but forgotten today, save for the song “Home, Sweet Home.”
Bishop was knighted in 1842, the first musician recognized for his talent and
musical services to the realm.

BLAGRAVE, THOMAS (ca. 1620–88). Cornettist, violinist, composer, and

singer. Blagrave’s career is marked by versatility. His initial appointment at
the court of Charles I was as a wind player (1637), the colleague and later
successor to his father, Richard, in the cornett and sackbut ensemble. Later
under Charles II he held appointments as a wind player, a member of the
court violin band, and a member of the Chapel Royal. From 1664 to 1670 he
was master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey.

BLISS, SIR ARTHUR (1891–1975). Composer, conductor, pianist, and

teacher. After initial studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Bliss studied
conducting for a year at the Royal College of Music. His early compositions
were cosmopolitan in nature, showing the influence of contemporary French
composers, Igor Stravinsky, and Arnold Schoenberg; later, he would adopt

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 54 • BLITHEMAN, JOHN

a more romantic idiom more in line with Sir Edward Elgar. His composi-
tions were premiered both in British institutions, like the Three Choirs and
Norwich musical festivals and Covent Garden, and internationally, by the
Philadelphia Orchestra and at the New York World’s Fair of 1939. Bliss
served as the conductor of the Portsmouth Philharmonic Society (1921),
taught at the University of California at Berkeley (1931–41), and was the
music director of the British Broadcasting Corporation (1942–44). He was
knighted in 1950 and named both a KCVO (1969) and a CH (1971). In 1953
he was named Master of the Queen’s Music.

BLITHEMAN, JOHN (ca. 1525–91). Organist and composer. Blitheman,

a gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1558, is best known for his key-
board compositions, which appear in both the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
and the Mulliner Book. Some are liturgical organ works to be performed
in alternatim, such as his verses to the chant Aeterne rerum. Others, though
chant-based, are not tied to the liturgy, such as his several settings of the
In nomine (Gloria tibi trinitas). In these settings Blitheman shows a pen-
chant for virtuosic passagework, a trait echoed in the music of his pupil,
John Bull. Blitheman’s epitaph documents this teacher-student relation-
ship, as well as his membership in the Chapel Royal and his ability on
the organ:

Of Princes Chappell Gentleman

Unto his dying day;
Whom all tooke greate delight to heare
Him on the Organs play.

BLOW, JOHN (1648/49–1708). Composer. Blow’s musical career well

positioned him to be one of the most prominent musicians of the Restoration,
holding appointments twice as organist of Westminster Abbey (the second
time followed the death of Henry Purcell, who himself succeeded Blow
there in 1679), several positions within the Chapel Royal (gentleman, master
of the choristers, organist, and composer), and also master of the children at
St. Paul’s. His long tie to the Chapel Royal began even earlier as a chorister
under Captain Henry Cooke, who likely recruited him from his hometown
of Newark in 1661. The Chapel Royal in the early years of the Restoration
was in a stage of rebuilding, but the formidable talents of a number of the
boy choristers like Pelham Humfrey and Blow made it the seedbed of the
new anthem style born of Charles II’s continental tastes. In the account of
Thomas Tudway, Blow is described as “one of the brightest and forwardest
children of the chapel” to whom fell the composition of anthems in the roy-
ally favored style.

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 BONONCINI, GIOVANNI • 55

Blow’s prominence emerges with the greatest clarity in his large body of
church music, which includes a number of services and an impressive quan-
tity of anthems in both the full and verse style. Significantly, as Blow was
one of its progenitors, the Restoration symphony anthem—a verse anthem
with ample independent participation of instrumental forces—also reached its
greatest proportions in his work, along with that of Purcell. The 1685 coro-
nation of James II occasioned several anthems from the pair; Blow’s “God
spake sometime in visions” extends the dimensions and scoring to create a
work on a monumental scale.
Blow’s secular music includes a body of songs, many of which were an-
thologized in his Amphion Anglicus of 1700, harpsichord dances and grounds,
and organ voluntaries. In contrast to Purcell, his interest in theater seems
relatively small, though the court masque Venus and Adonis is important as
one of the first fully sung English music dramas. Performed at court (likely
in 1683), it was also performed at Josias Priest’s school in Chelsea, a circum-
stance that links it with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and a circumstance that
also suggests that Purcell’s work may similarly have been performed at court
and at Chelsea, though a court performance remains only speculative.
The evaluation of Blow’s work has frequently focused on what seems ei-
ther his harmonic boldness and individuality or a degree of harmonic incom-
petence. Charles Burney was one of the first to underscore the issue: “I am
as sorry to see, as to say, how confused and inaccurate a harmonist he was;
but as it is necessary to speak of an artist so celebrated and honoured by his
cotemporaries, to dissemble his faults would surpass candour, and incur the
censure of ignorance and partiality.”

BONONCINI, GIOVANNI (1670–1747). Composer and cellist. Born into a

musical family, Bononcini was musically accomplished at a young age, being
both a published composer and active in Bologna’s Accademia Filarmonica
and San Petronio while still in his teens. In the 1690s he was active in Rome
and later worked at the Viennese court.
Bononcini’s first major impact on London came in the form of his opera
Il Trionfo di Camilla (1696), first performed at Drury Lane Theatre in an
English translation in 1706; an impressive 63 performances would follow
through 1709. The impact of Camilla may be gauged through an anonymous
account in A Critical Discourse upon Operas in England:

[B]efore this every man that had the least smattering in music undertook to
compose an opera, but upon the appearance of Camilla all their projects van-
ished into nothing: . . . at least six or seven embryos of operas that had no being
but in the airy conceptions of their pretended composers became abortive, and
everyone joined in the admiration of Camilla.

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 56 • BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

That it was performed in English translation underscores a transitional at-

titude toward Italian opera in the decade after the death of Henry Purcell.
Bononcini came to London in 1720 to be one of the composers for George
Frideric Handel’s opera company, the Royal Academy of Music (1), and
in this close theatrical proximity the perception of rivalry between the com-
posers was a marked one. The rivalry was lampooned by John Byrom in a
contemporary epigram:

Some say, compar’d to Bononcini,

That Mynheer Handel’s but a Ninny;
Others aver, that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle:
Strange all this Difference should be
’Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!

Bononcini was a member of the Academy of Ancient Music from 1726,

though in 1731 he was embroiled in a case of plagiarism there. He left Lon-
don in 1733.

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Liturgical book giving texts, structures,

and rules for the liturgy of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer, the
archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII, was the leading architect and au-
thor of the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549. Cranmer sought to establish
a liturgy in the vernacular and a liturgy that might simplify and reform the
complexities of late medieval worship. The vernacularism of the 1549 Book
had a number of precedents: the Creed, Our Father, and the Decalogue had
been recited in English since 1538; Cranmer’s Litany was published in 1544;
in 1547 the Epistle and Gospel were recited in English; and in the next year,
vernacular communion texts were introduced. Thus, when the 1549 Book ap-
peared, the ground was well prepared.
In composing the Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer drew on a number of
liturgical sources familiar to the English church—the missal, breviary, and
primers, among them—as well as continental, Reformed material. Its con-
tents are comprehensive, containing liturgies of Morning and Evening Prayer,
Holy Communion, Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Burial, and Visitation
and Communion of the Sick, as well as a calendar, lectionary, collects, and
epistle and gospel readings for Holy Communion.
In the Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer’s contribution is not only liturgi-
cal but literary to a degree, providing devotional language of great beauty that
has been notably long lived. Gordon Jeannes observes that “while Cranmer
could produce the most majestic phrases and seem to imply much by them,
he could also be deliberately vague. At times his language resembles a kind

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 BOULT, SIR ADRIAN CEDRIC • 57

of verbal incense that offers an attractive religious haze but no clarity of

meaning. This may have contributed to the way in which the Prayer Book has
served as a vehicle of prayer and worship over many centuries and in many
cultures” (Hefling, 2006). A musical companion to the first prayer book by
John Marbeck, The Book of Common Praier Noted, appeared in 1550.
Given the religious turbulence of England in the 16th and 17th centuries,
it is no surprise that the Prayer Book would see significant revision with edi-
tions in 1552, 1559, 1604, and 1662. The 1662 Book endures as the liturgical
standard of the Church of England to the present day. Significantly, however,
liturgical reform has seen the appearance of several alternate liturgies au-
thorized for use: the Alternative Service Book of 1980 and its successor, the
several volumes of Common Worship, begun in 2000.
The constituent churches of the Anglican Communion manifest their com-
munal bonds in allegiance to the notion of a Book of Common Prayer, though
as autonomous churches, each has its own Prayer Book.

BOUGHTON, RUTLAND (1878–1960). Composer, writer, pianist, and

impresario. Boughton’s music and writings on music frequently included
a political agenda. In writings such as The Death and Resurrection of the
Music Festival (1913), he positioned communal music as a way to purify
and ennoble society. Boughton also, in the periodical the Sackbut, assaulted
both modernism (as being too removed from humanity) and his contemporary
British composers (for not finding a proper musical language to reach the
ordinary individual). His own musical style was at times simple to extremes,
but always approachable. Accessibility and the musical education of society
were always his aims, be it during his time teaching at the Midland Institute
School of Music (1905–11) or in his organization of the Glastonbury Fes-
tivals (1914–26), which combined music-dramatic performances, chamber
concerts, lectures, and exhibitions. It was for this festival that he planned a
British response to Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle, a series of operas on Ar-
thurian stories. Boughton retired from active music organizing in the 1930s
to complete his cycle of Arthurian dramas and write about music. His best-
known composition is the music drama The Immortal Hour, premiered at the
first Glastonbury Festival of 1914.

BOULT, SIR ADRIAN CEDRIC (1889–1983). Conductor. With Sir

John Barbirolli, Sir Thomas Beecham, and Sir Malcom Sargent,
Boult was a long-standing champion of British music and premiered
and recorded many important works. Education at both the Westminster
School (1901–8) and Christ Church, Oxford (1908–12; BMus), allowed
him to hear many concerts and perform a great deal of music. He studied

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 58 • BOWEN, JEMMY

at Leipzig Conservatory from 1912 to 1913, being particularly taken with

the work of Arthur Nikisch. He took a DMus from Oxford in 1914 and
began working with various ensembles, including Covent Garden in that
year. He taught conducting at the Royal College of Music from 1919 to
1930 and again from 1962 to 1966, and became music director of numer-
ous ensembles, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
(1924–30; 1959–60), the Bach Choir (1928–31), the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation (BBC) Symphony Orchestra (1930–50; he was also
music director of the BBC from 1930 to 1942); and the London Philhar-
monic Orchestra (1950–57). Boult raised each of these ensembles to a
high standard of performance and presented adventurous programs includ-
ing a great deal of contemporary British and continental music. After 1957,
Boult guest conducted many ensembles and began a series of important
recordings of English music, including the symphonies of Sir Edward El-
gar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His final public appearance occurred
in 1978. Boult wrote articles on a variety of musical subjects, two books
on conducting (The Point of the Stick [1920] and Thoughts on Conducting
[1963]), as well as an autobiography (My Own Trumpet [1973]). Boult was
knighted in 1937 and named a CH in 1969.

BOWEN, JEMMY (ca. 1682–AFTER 1701). Singer. Bowen sang in a

number of Henry Purcell’s theater works, including Abdelazer and Indian
Queen. He has been anecdotally immortalized in Purcell’s famous defense
of his youthful ability. To those who would instruct him in ornamentation,
Purcell reputedly said, “O let him alone . . . he will grace it more naturally
than you, or I, can teach him.”

BOWMAN, JOHN (ca. 1660–1739). Singer and actor. Bowman was ap-
pointed to the Royal Private Musick in 1684 as a bass singer, a position he
held into the 18th century. His theatrical career was notably as both an actor
and a singer, appearing in London productions from 1677. He is particularly
known for several important Henry Purcell roles, including Grimbald in
King Arthur and Cardenio in Don Quixote. In the latter role his performance
of the famous mad song, “Let the Dreadful Engines Roar,” would seem to
suggest an accomplished degree of versatility (Spink, 1974).

BOYCE, WILLIAM (1711–79). Composer and organist. Boyce was one

of the most prominent English musicians in the mid-18th century, despite
his developing deafness, and a composer of numerous anthems, odes,
music for the theater, and instrumental ensemble music. As a chorister at
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, he forged a long-lasting relationship with the

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 BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE • 59

organist Maurice Greene, with whom he studied both during his years in
the choir and afterward; in 1755 he succeeded Greene as Master of the
King’s Music.
He was appointed a composer to the Chapel Royal in 1736, at which time
he also took on some of the organist’s duties as well. A contemporaneous
reference notes: “whereas the place of Organist has much more duty and at-
tendance belonging to it than the place of Composer . . . , I the said William
Boyce do promise and agree that so long as I shall continue in the place of
Composer, I will perform one third part of the duty and attendance belonging
to the Organist . . . ,” a revealing glimpse of hierarchy and duty in the chapel.
In 1758 Boyce was formally appointed as one of the organists.
His success was clear with works like the serenata Solomon, the 1743 pub-
lication of which had an impressive number of subscribers, and at the end of
the decade he received a Cambridge DMus, followed by a two-day festival
devoted to his works. In the 1740s, as well, he brought out a collection of 12
trio sonatas (1747) that reveal his debt to Corelli. His musical interests and
procedures characteristically bear the stamp of this kind of historical bent.
Charles Burney makes this explicit in his description: “There is an original
and sterling merit in his productions, founded as much on the study of our
own old masters, as on the best models of other countries.” Boyce’s historical
activity is most notable as the compiler of Cathedral Music (1760–73), an an-
thology of church music from the 16th into the 18th centuries. It was a collec-
tion that had not only practical value but, significantly, musicological value
as well. Burney, for instance, in writing his own history of music, makes rich
use of it as a resource and reference. Additionally, Cathedral Music bears the
stamp of Boyce’s relationship with Greene, for Boyce inherited the project
from his own teacher.

BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE (1671–1748). Actress and singer. Between 1688

and 1707 Bracegirdle was an actress on the London stage, developing a ca-
reer of great prominence as a member of the United Companies; in 1695 she
became, along with Thomas Betterton and Elizabeth Barry, one of the leading
figures in the new company formed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields; the last year of
her professional life (1706–7) was spent at the Queen’s Theatre, Haymarket.
Her ability to sing was praised by John Dryden, and she performed only mu-
sic written by John Eccles (Price, 1984). Her following was ardent. Colley
Cibber remarked that “her Youth and lively Aspect threw out such a Glow of
Health and Chearfulness, that on the Stage few Spectators that were not past it
could behold her without Desire.” Such desire had dire consequences in 1692
when, in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt at her abduction, one of her
stalkers—Captain Richard Hill—murdered the actor-singer Will Mountfort,

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 60 • BRADE, WILLIAM

whom he believed to be her lover. The situation was doubly freighted given
that Bracegirdle’s public persona was celebratedly virginal.

BRADE, WILLIAM (1560–1630). Violinist and composer. Brade left his

native England in the 1590s to develop a career in Germany and Scandina-
via, a move that placed him in the company of other English musicians like
John Dowland. He held appointments at courts in Berlin, Copenhagen, and
Bückeburg, and also was active in Hamburg. He was a prolific composer of
dance music.

BREWER, SIR HERBERT (ALSO ALFRED HERBERT; 1865–1928).

Organist, conductor, and composer. After being a chorister and organist
at various institutions, Brewer was trained at the Royal College of Music
under Sir Walter Parratt. His most important post was as the organist of
Gloucester Cathedral, a position he held from 1896 until his death, and he
was heavily involved in the Three Choirs musical festival. Many of his com-
positions were either for the festivals, such as his oratorios Emmaus (1901)
and The Holy Innocents (1904), or for Church of England services. Brewer
was knighted in 1926.

BRIAN, HAVERGAL (ALSO HAVERGAL WILLIAM; 1876–1972).

Composer, critic, and organist. Brian had working-class origins, little formal
training, and—apart from a half-year teaching job at the Royal College of
Music—did not fit into the usual infrastructure of English music during the
first half of the 20th century. His career ran hot and cold with the British
public. At times he had the encouragement of important parts of the musical
establishment, including Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Frederick Delius, and Sir
Granville Bantock, and even several years’ support from a patron, so he
would not have to find teaching work. Early fame in his home region of Staf-
fordshire from shorter choral works written for the competition festivals was
followed by success with a concert at the Queen’s Hall Proms in 1907. After
moving to London in 1913, Brian worked in a variety of capacities, including
as the assistant editor of Musical Opinion (1924–40), and published smaller
compositions. Brian lost some popularity in the 1930s, but his audience
returned in the late 1940s. From this point until his death, Brian composed
numerous symphonies (he wrote 32 in all) and a number of dramatic works
as well. While some late honors came to him (he was named composer of
the year by the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain in 1972), few complete
performances of his works occur at the time of writing.

BRIDGE, FRANK (1879–1941). Composer, violist, conductor, and teacher.

Bridge attended the Royal College of Music (1899–1903) and studied with

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 BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION • 61

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. He was in demand throughout most of his

career as a violist, performing with the English String Quartet between 1906
and 1915, and a conductor, leading, at times, the Savoy Theatre (1910–11)
and Covent Garden (1913), deputizing for Sir Henry Wood at the Proms,
and guest conducting other orchestras. He is best known today for his cham-
ber music, though he wrote widely in many genres, and for his tutoring of
Benjamin Britten.

BRIDGE, SIR FREDERICK (1844–1924). Organist, composer, adjudicator,

teacher, and writer. As an organist, Bridge served at Holy Trinity Church, Ox-
ford (1865–69), Manchester Cathedral (1874–75), and at Westminster Abbey
(deputy organist, 1875–82; organist, 1882–1918). His compositions concen-
trated on church and choral works; the most famous of these, The Repentance
of Nineveh (Three Choirs Musical Festival, 1890), included Wagnerian
touches and was called “quite modern” by MT. As an establishment musician,
Bridge contributed music to the jubilees of Queen Victoria in 1887 and 1897, as
well as to the coronations of Edward VII (1901) and George V (1910). Bridge
was interested in elements of performance practice, and at the request of Sir
George Grove, he studied the manuscript score of George Frideric Handel’s
Messiah in order to return to a smaller orchestration. He used this version while
conducting the Royal Choral Society (1896–1922). Bridge also organized
commemorative concerts at Westminster Abbey for Orlando Gibbons (1907).
He held several teaching positions, including the Gresham Professor of Music,
and the King Edward Professor at the University of London; taught at the Na-
tional Training School for Music and at the Royal College of Music; and was
chairman of Trinity College of Music for a time. He held both a BMus and
a DMus from Oxford University (and led the fight, contra Sir John Stainer,
against a residency requirement there) and was an FRCO. He was knighted in
1897 and named an MVO in 1901 and a CVO in 1910.

BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION (BBC). Britain’s state-

sponsored media outlet began broadcasting via radio in 1922 and television
in 1936. Along with a national service, the BBC has long maintained various
regional services and has become one of the premier media platforms for
international news and arts coverage via its broadcast, satellite, and cable
channels. Aside from a broadcasting unit, the BBC has also been a thorough
patron of the arts since its origins, through commissions (such as Sir Edward
Elgar’s Third Symphony); support of ensembles such as the BBC Singers
(1924), the BBC Symphony (1930), the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (for-
merly the Northern Wireless Orchestra), and the BBC Northern Orchestra
(1931); and sponsorship of various musical festivals and concerts, most
notably the London Proms since 1927.

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 62 • BRITISH LIBRARY

BRITISH LIBRARY (BRITISH MUSEUM). The British Library is one of

the premier resources in the world for the study of music, English and other-
wise. Initially part of the British Museum (founded 1753), the British Library
became its own institution in 1973. The collection includes reference works,
prints, manuscripts, and sketches. Even as early as the 18th century, the cura-
tors of the museum collected selections of composers’ musical autographs.
It has also acquired numerous other reference libraries to build up its collec-
tion, notably the National Sound Archive (founded 1955; incorporated with
the British Library in 1983) and the Royal Music Library (indefinite loan in
1911; given to the library in 1957).

BRITTEN, BENJAMIN (1913–76). Composer, writer, and conductor.

With Sir Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, Britten is consid-
ered one of the leading English composers of the 20th century and is much
more frequently studied by contemporary musicologists and music theo-
rists than the others. Britten is best known internationally for his operas,
such as Peter Grimes (1944–45), Billy Budd (1950–51), Turn of the Screw
(1954), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1959–60), but he also scored a
great many films, wrote pieces for choirs and orchestras of all abilities, and
realized scores of historical works, such as John Gay and Johann Christoph
Pepusch’s The Beggar’s Opera and Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Brit-
ten’s musical language depends on long, spun-out melodies (at times, like
Vaughan Williams, borrowing elements of folk melodies) and consonant
tonality, but with a greater proportion of dissonance than the older composer,
and his rhythmic structures are freer, frequently controlled by neoclassical
and exoticist tendencies, such as ostinato.
Britten had early musical training through composition lessons with
Frank Bridge and had some compositions published while studying at
Gresham’s, an English public school. He attended the Royal College of
Music between 1930 and 1932. In 1935, he joined the General Post Of-
fice Film Unit, where he met the poet W. H. Auden, and came to terms
with his own left-leaning political ideals (including his pacifism) and his
homosexuality. He met his lifelong partner, the tenor Peter Pears in 1937,
while there. With Pears he visited America between 1939 and 1942, where
he composed his first opera, Paul Bunyan, with a libretto by Auden. When
Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942, Britten began to work furi-
ously within opera, completing works for Sadler’s Wells, the English Op-
era Group, the Glyndenbourne English Opera Company, and eventually,
the Aldeburgh Festival (founded 1948). Success in these ventures brought
him additional commissions, including for the 1951 Festival of Britain,
which premiered Billy Budd (libretto by E. M. Forster). Pears and Brit-

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 BROADWOOD, LUCY • 63

ten visited Asia in 1955–56, where Britten heard as much music as he

could, including Japanese Noh opera and both the Balinese and Javanese
gamelans.
With the death of Vaughan Williams in 1958, Britten became the de facto
center of English composition, as seen in his commission to compose the War
Requiem for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral (1961). For the next 15
years, Britten continued to compose and travel (Venice, America, and India,
the latter for a year) and solidified his position as the public face of British
music. Britten declined a knighthood but was named a CH in 1953 and a life
peer in 1976.

BRITTON, THOMAS (1644–1714). Concert producer. Britton was a

charcoal dealer in London whose business premises became the venue for
a long-running series of weekly public concerts. He opened his business in
Clerkenwell in 1677 and in the next year began to indulge his interest in mu-
sic by sponsoring music meetings in the long, narrow room above the ground-
floor business space. One entered, apparently awkwardly, from an external
staircase, and the room offered little amenity besides the music. Sir John
Hawkins notes that “in every respect [the site was] so mean, as to be a fit
habitation for only a very poor man.” Yet, until Britton’s death, concerts were
held there that attracted people of quality and musicians of considerable note,
such as George Frideric Handel and Johann Christoph Pepusch. Hawkins
enthusiastically tries to claim for the concerts the palm of primacy—“the first
meeting of its kind and the undoubted parent of some of the most celebrated
concerts in London”—although John Banister’s concerts, begun in 1672,
would have preceded those of Britton.

BROADSIDE BALLAD. See BALLAD.

BROADWOOD, LUCY (1858–1929). Folk music collector and editor,

amateur singer, and adjudicator. Broadwood was one of the major intellectual
figures in the collecting and publishing of English folk music in the first half
of the 20th century, working within the English Folk Dance and Song Soci-
ety. She served variously as its secretary (1904), editor (1906), and president
(1928); she was also a patron of numerous pianists (including Fanny Davies)
and helped found the Leith Hill Music Festival. For the early part of her
career, her publications of folk music were collaborative acts, including the
reissuing of her uncle John Broadwood’s 1843 Old English Songs as Sussex
Songs (1890; with piano harmonizations by H. F. Birch Renayrdson) and
English Country Songs with J. A. Fuller-Maitland (1893). She later published
English Traditional Carols and Songs (1908).

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 64 • BROWNE, JOHN

Broadwood was born in Scotland and lived on the Surrey-Sussex border

before moving to London in 1894. In London she continued to edit folk
songs and began writing on collecting while frequently maintaining a salon
of contemporary singers and pianists. Some of her collected songs and songs
composed to emulate folk songs became standard fare for singers in the first
decade of the 20th century.

BROWNE, JOHN (fl. ca. 1480–1505). Composer. Little is known of

Browne’s life, though he seems to have had an as-of-yet unspecified tie to
Oxford; Bowers (NG, 2001) suggests he may have been chaplain to John de
Vere, Earl of Oxford. His antiphons are prominent in the Eton Choirbook,
where his compositions open the manuscript, a sign of both the extent of his
contribution and the high regard in which he was held. It is also likely that he
is the “Browne” represented in the Fayrfax Manuscript (GB Lbl Add. 5465)
with three vernacular settings, including the Passion carols “Woffully araid”
and “Jhesu, mercy.” The modern assessment of his works has, at times, been
exuberant. Harrison (1963) notes that “Browne’s technical command, the
deeply penetrating quality of his imagination, and his capacity for strikingly
dramatic expression place him among the greatest composers of his age.”

BROWNING. The popular melody associated with the text “The Leaves be
Green” or “Browning my dear” was often the basis of instrumental settings
by composers such as William Byrd and Elway Bevin, and the settings were
known as “Brownings.” The melody is given in a canonic form in Thomas
Ravenscroft’s Deuteromelia of 1609. Many settings employ the tune as the
foundation of continuous variations and allow the melody to migrate from
voice to voice. As with settings of In nomine, the popularity of Brownings
confirms the prominence of preexistent melody in consort practice.

BULL, JOHN (1562/63?–1628). Composer and keyboard virtuoso. Bull was

a prolific composer of keyboard music, including plainsong-based works,
fantasias, grounds, variations, and dances, and the degree of technical de-
mand in many of them—his “customary figurative exuberance” (Neighbour,
NG, 2001)—suggests his own virtuosic ability. He was a chorister at Hereford
in 1573; in the next year he appears as a chorister in the Chapel Royal. He
returned to Hereford in 1582 as organist, becoming master of the choristers
as well in the next year. In 1586 he was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel
Royal. He held music doctorates from both Cambridge and Oxford.
At the recommendation of Queen Elizabeth, Bull was appointed the first
public reader in music at Gresham College (London) in 1597. His duties
required him to give two “solemn” lectures a week, with the content divided

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 BURNEY, CHARLES • 65

between theoretical and practical matters (the latter by “concert of voice or

of instruments.”)
In 1613 Bull left England for the Low Countries, working under the patron-
age of the Austrian Archduke Albert and later as organist of the cathedral at
Antwerp. His relocation to the Continent placed him in the company of other
English musicians—notably Peter Philips—who had gone there as Roman
Catholics seeking religious tolerance. Bull would avow that this was his mo-
tivation as well; although, as he was at the time being prosecuted for adultery
in England, his motivation must have been mixed at best. His degree of dis-
repute in the scandal is clear in the remarks of the archbishop of Canterbury,
George Abbott: “The man hath more music than honesty and is as famous for
marring of virginity as he is for fingering of organs and virginals.” Situated
in the Low Countries, he was a strong link in the connections between the
English and Dutch styles.

BURDEN. The refrain of a carol is known as a burden. In its classic 15th-

century form it was marked not only by the repetition of music and text at the
end of stanzas, but also by a shift from two-part writing to three-part and a
change from solo singing in the verses to choral singing in the refrain. Some
carols, famously the Agincourt carol, have two burdens, one in two and three
parts respectively.

BURNEY, CHARLES (1726–1814). Writer of music history, composer,

keyboardist, and impresario; father of the novelist Fanny Burney. Burney’s
initial musical training occurred at Chester Cathedral under the organist Ed-
mund Baker. He was apprenticed to Thomas Arne from 1744 to 1748, who
introduced him to a wide network of London musicians and institutions; he met
George Frideric Handel in 1745 and played regularly at Drury Lane and the
pleasure gardens at Vauxhall. In 1748 Fulke Greville purchased Burney’s
remaining period of apprenticeship from Arne, and Burney briefly became
Greville’s personal musician and companion. Greville released him from obli-
gation in 1749, and Burney found work as an organist at St. Dionis Backchurch
and in the theaters and concert series in London. From 1751 to 1760 Burney
was the organist at St. Margaret’s in King’s Lynn (relocating there because of
health reasons), where he also taught music to local families. He returned to
London in 1760, reestablished himself within musical life (especially within the
theater), and began studying and writing about music. He was appointed organ-
ist at the Oxford Chapel in 1773 and at Chelsea Hospital in 1783.
Burney’s accounts of long travels on the Continent in the early 1770s,
The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771) and The Present State
of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces (1773),

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 66 • BUSH, ALAN

became the basis of his great work, A General History of Music from the
Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1776–89). Burney’s music writings
were rivaled only by those of his contemporary Sir John Hawkins. In the
last years of his life, he received an annual pension from the Crown. His large
collection of music books was sold on his death to the British Museum; they
became the core of the music collection of the British Library.

BUSH, ALAN (1900–1995). Composer, pianist, teacher, and conductor.

Bush was known throughout his career as a composer who integrated his
left-wing and communist politics into his music. As a consequence, many of
his operas were more widely performed in the German Democratic Republic
than in Great Britain. Wat Tyler, for instance, was completed in 1951, pre-
miered in Leipzig in 1953, and had a run of more than a dozen performances
in its first season and numerous revivals there before being given its British
professional premiere in 1974 at Sadler’s Wells. Bush received early train-
ing in composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music (2; RAM;
1918–22) and studied composition further with John Ireland (1921–27) as
well as musicology and philosophy at the University of Berlin (1929–31).
He taught composition at the RAM from 1925 until 1978. In the years before
World War II, he avidly mixed music and politics by conducting the London
Labour Choral Union (1929–40), joining the Communist Party (1935), found-
ing and chairing the Worker’s Music Association in 1936 (he was named its
president in 1941, a position he retained until his death), and conducting the
London String Orchestra (1938–51). He was also central to the creation of
large classical-music events for the working class, such as the Pageant of
London (Crystal Palace, 1934) and a staging of George Frideric Handel’s
oratorio Belshazzar as an opera with the London Co-Operative Society
(Wembley Stadium, 1938), among others.
Bush’s politics did not always suit the British musical establishment;
the British Broadcasting Corporation banned performances of his music
between March and June 1941 because he signed the People’s Convention.
During the war he was a reception clerk for the Royal Army at the Millbank
Military Hospital in London, where he organized an army choir. His music—
which includes several operas, four symphonies, and a great deal of chamber
music—is marked by an engagement with serial techniques (he was an early
admirer of Arnold Schoenberg), but within a tonal context and often using
folklike materials.

BUTLER, CHARLES (ca. 1560–1647). Cleric and man of learning. In

addition to his priestly vocation, Butler studied bees, philology, and music,
writing treatises on all three. His musical treatise, The Principles of Musik

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 BYRD, WILLIAM • 67

in Singing and Setting: with the Two-fold Use thereof, Ecclesiasticall and
Civil (London, 1636), was dedicated to Charles I and discusses rudiments,
church music, instruments, and matters of composition and performance. His
work was highly regarded by both Sir John Hawkins and Charles Burney.
Hawkins described the Principles as a “very learned, curious, and entertain-
ing book.” Burney noted that “the book contains more knowledge, in a small
compass, than any other of the kind, in our language.”
Butler’s work on bees, The Feminine Monarchie (Oxford, 1609), includes
musical transcriptions of apiarian buzzing.

BUTTERWORTH, GEORGE (1885–1916). Composer, folk dancer, folk

song and dance collector, and teacher. Butterworth became—primarily
because of his early death in World War I—frozen as an example of the
pastoral school from the second generation of the English Musical Renais-
sance. Much of his existing music has been constructed in what Frogley
refers to as “a ruralist and often Elegiac vision of ‘Englishness’” (DNB).
His most famous surviving works are a handful of orchestral pieces based
on English folk songs and 18 songs, many of them set to the rural paeans
of A. E. Housman.
Butterworth had a privileged background, attended Ayrgath, Eton, and
Trinity College, Oxford (at the latter he was the President of the University
Music Club for a season); his family wished him to be a solicitor. Leaving
Oxford in 1908, he abandoned his family’s plans and worked briefly on the
music staff of the Times and taught at Radley before enrolling at the Royal
College of Music (1910–11). His interest in folk music and dance had already
manifested itself by this point; he joined the English Folk Song Society in
1906, was a founding member of the English Folk Dance Society in 1911,
collected morris and sword dances with Cecil Sharp, and was an intimate
friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams. He destroyed a good deal of his ju-
venilia, and most of the music that survives was published and premiered
between 1910 and 1914, including the rhapsody A Shropshire Lad (Leeds
Triennial Musical Festival, 1913) and the idyll The Banks of the Green Wil-
low (1913). He enlisted in the army at the end of August 1914 and was killed
in action in July 1916 at Pozières, France.

BYRD, WILLIAM (ca. 1540–1623). Composer. Byrd’s prominence in

Elizabethan music is unrivaled, and in this world he emerges as a prolific
composer of consort songs, the leading voice in shaping the English verse
anthem, the fount of the so-called English virginal school, a master figure
in giving the late 16th-century Latin motet its English accent, and an icon of
English Romanism and recusancy.

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Much of Byrd’s life was spent in association with the Chapel Royal,
where he had perhaps been a chorister—the implications of his being identi-
fied as a student of Thomas Tallis makes this likely—and where he was ap-
pointed “Gentleman” in 1572, remaining in that appointment until his death
some 50 years later. Prior to coming to London, he held an appointment at
Lincoln Cathedral (1563–70), and tellingly, after his move to London, Lin-
coln continued in a contractual arrangement with him so that he might con-
tinue to send compositions to the cathedral. This early acknowledgment of his
value as a composer was amply echoed in his long tenure at court, where, one
feels certain, his musical gifts trumped any official difficulty with his illegal
practice of Roman Catholicism.
Byrd’s religious faith had a number of musical manifestations, both ex-
plicit and implicit. His patrons, such as Thomas, Lord Paget, and the Petre
family of Essex, were leaders in the often-underground Catholic community,
and Byrd’s relocation to Essex in the later years of his life (1593) suggests
he was involved in providing music for the covert liturgies. Additionally, late
in his life he took on the composition and bold publication of explicit Roman
forms: three masses from the 1590s and two volumes of polyphonic mass
propers, the Gradualia (1605, 1607). The Gradualia has been recently identi-
fied with Jesuit contemplative practice (McCarthy, 2007), and this mystical
dimension is resonant with the composer’s remarks in the preface about the
power of the holy words themselves:

Moreover in these words, as I have learned by trial, there is such a profound

and hidden power that to one thinking upon things divine and diligently and
earnestly pondering them, all the fittest numbers occur as if of themselves and
freely offer themselves to the mind which is not indolent or inert.

And much of Byrd’s music seems to offer poignant comment on the state
of Roman Catholics in England at the time. His song “Why Do I Use My
Paper, Ink, and Pen” addresses the execution of the Jesuit Edmund Campion.
And the profusion of penitential, lamentative Latin motets, especially those
employing exilic Psalm texts, seems also to express the plight of his own
religious exile. It may be, of course, that this also reflected a degree of tem-
perament. Henry Peacham in 1622 noted that Byrd was “naturally disposed
to gravity and piety.”
Byrd’s Romanism seemed no impediment to his important contributions to
Anglican liturgical and devotional repertories, much of which he wrote while
at Lincoln. He is one of the principal shapers of the verse anthem, with works
like “Christ rising again” an important example. Similarly, his impressive
“Great Service” draws on the verse principle of accompanied solo passages
in alternation with choral tuttis to achieve a stunning array of textures, here

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 BYRD, WILLIAM • 69

amplified by the alternation of cantoris and decani. His full anthems can be
tinged with a madrigalistic approach to the text, as in the exuberant “Sing
Joyfully.”
Latin motets figured on both sides of church divisions, and the Latin motet
had the blessing of the ceremonially minded Queen Elizabeth, most famously
in accepting the dedication of Byrd and Tallis’s 1575 Cantiones Sacrae.
Byrd’s motets here draw in part on the model of the instrumental fantasia—
“Laudate pueri,” for instance, exists in an earlier instrumental version—and
in all seem to bring an English accent to mainstream contrapuntal procedures,
evident in richness of sonority and the use of the so-called English cadence.
In the preface to the volume, the authors, in fact, offer a fervent salute to the
strength of English composition:

British Music, already contemplating battle, saw that she, who yields to none of
the nine Muses in art, could safely proceed by one course: if the Queen would
declare herself her patron, and if she could include as her own such distinguished
authors who if they would compose would astonish the rest of the multitude.
Therefore, blessed with the patronage of so learned a Ruler, she fears neither
the boundaries nor the reproach of any nation. Proclaiming Tallis and Byrd her
parents, she boldly advances where no voice has sung. (trans. Monson, 1977)

Byrd’s prolificity in writing consort songs provided a distinctively English

repertory, and one that easily influenced both the verse anthem and poly-
phonic ensemble singing. Much of his ensemble vocal music, as in the 1588
Psalmes, Sonets, & Songes . . . , are versions that supply text to earlier instru-
mental lines. This permeability of medium surfaces in Byrd’s instrumental
music as well, where fantasias and dance music appear in collateral keyboard
and consort versions.
Byrd’s keyboard music presents fantasias, song variations, grounds, and
dance music (chiefly Pavans and Galliards), much of which was collected
in the retrospective My Lady Nevells Booke (1591), a collection that also in-
cludes programmatic keyboard music, such as “The Battell.” To this body of
writing, one may also add several cantus-firmus organ works from Lincoln.

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 C
CAIUS CHOIRBOOK. GB Cgc 667 is one of the principal surviving
sources of early 16th-century English liturgical polyphony. Copied in the
1520s, it contains five- and six-part Masses and Magnificats by Robert Fayr-
fax, Nicholas Ludford, and William Cornysh, inter alia. The source bears
the inscription of “Ex dono et opere Edwardi Higgons,” a confirmation that
it, like the Lambeth Choirbook, a similar source from the same scribe, was
commissioned by Edward Higgons. The Caius Choirbook was likely intended
for St. Stephen’s, Westminster Palace, though Salisbury Cathedral, a later
owner, is also a possibility.

CAMPION, THOMAS (1567–1620). Poet and composer. Campion was a

prolific author and composer of ayres as well as an important contributor
to the early 17th-century court masque. Though not a professional musi-
cian—he studied law in the 1580s and received a medical degree at Caen in
1605—Campion emerges as a significant figure both literarily and musically,
theoretically and artistically.
His ayres, settings of his own poetry, are generally straightforward, tune-
ful, and unencumbered by artifice. The unsigned preface to his collaborative
collection with Philip Rosseter (1601) is presumably of his authorship and
brings into focus the qualities he sought in writing ayres:

What Epigrams are in Poetrie, the same are Ayres in musicke, then in their
chiefe perfection when they are short and well seasoned. . . . [T]here are some,
who to appeare the more deepe, and singular in their judgement, will admit no
Musicke but that which is long, intricate, bated with fuge, chaind with syncopa-
tion, and where the nature of everie word is precisely exprest in the Note. . . .
But such childish observing of words is altogether ridiculous, and we ought to
maintaine as well in Notes, as in action a manly carriage, gracing no word, but
that which is eminent, and emphaticall.

Unsurprisingly from a poet-composer, he sought a close relationship between

word and music, but did not find madrigalistic text-painting a fruitful route to
this end. Interestingly, one ayre, “Come let us sound with melody,” engages

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 72 • CANTATA

quantitative measure on the model of musique mesurée, echoing his own con-
cerns with classical scansion in his literary treatise, Observations in the Art of
English Poesie (1602). Campion was the author of an influential musical trea-
tise as well, A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counter-Point (1613–14).
Campion contributed text and music to several masques, including that for
Lord Hayes (1607), the Lords’ Maske (1613), and a masque celebrating the
wedding of the Earle of Somerset and Lady Frances Howard (1614). Signifi-
cantly, these works are documented by his published descriptions.

CANTATA (ALSO DRAMATIC CANTATA, SACRED CANTATA,

SECULAR CANTATA, ETC.). Composition for voice or voices and ac-
companiment. In the first half of the 18th century, English composers began
essays in the genre by copying Italian solo cantatas, alternating recitative and
aria structures, setting music to pastoral texts (e.g., Henry Carey’s Cantatas
for Voice and Accompaniment [1724]). By the 1740s the nymphs and shep-
herds of the first half of the century were joined by texts celebrating hunting
and drinking. In the second half of the century, the cantata became one of
the major genres heard in the pleasure gardens; such cantatas had larger
accompaniments (often small orchestras) and featured a more fluid presenta-
tion of recitative and aria styles. Composers of such cantatas include Johann
Christian Bach, James Hook, and John Worgan.
In the 19th century the English cantata began to track the oratorio in its
style and construction. Cantatas might be classed as “sacred” or “secular,”
but the groups that produced them and the audiences that heard them re-
mained largely the same: they were performed at the many musical festivals
extant throughout the century, as well as by local amateur choral societies.
The 19th-century cantata was a work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra;
if secular, it might have a poetic text, such as Sir Hubert Parry’s Blest
Pair of Sirens (1887) or a dramatic one, such as Sir Edward Elgar’s King
Olaf (1896). If sacred, it might be based on either lauda-type texts (texts of
purely a prayerful/praising nature instead of texts that were narrative; see,
for instance Thomas Adams’s The Immortal Hope [1892]), or they might be
narrative texts that were shorter than the typical oratorio, like Sir Arthur
Sullivan’s The Martyr of Antioch (1877). Cantatas reflected all of the major
stylistic innovations of the century, such as emulation of Felix Mendelssohn,
like Sir William Sterndale Bennett’s The May Queen (1858), and a passion
for exoticism, as found in Frederic Clay’s Lalla Rookh (1877) and Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor’s Scenes from the Song of Hiawatha (1898–1900), or
nationalism, heard within Elgar’s Caractacus (1898).
British composers in the 20th century gradually turned away from the
named genre of the cantata itself, but its elements may be found in many

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 CANTORIS AND DECANI • 73

like works, such as Gustav Holst’s Hymn of Jesus (1917), Ralph Vaughan
Williams’s Five Tudor Portraits (1936), and Benjamin Britten’s Cantata
Academica (1960). Like their 19th-century predecessors, these are works for
soloists (usually), choir, and orchestra. See also BANTOCK, SIR GRAN-
VILLE; BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST; BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS; CHORLEY,
HENRY FROTHERGILL; CURWEN PRESS; DELIUS, SIR FREDER-
ICK; GAUL, ALFRED R.; GIBBS, CECIL ARMSTRONG; HANDEL,
GEORGE FRIDERIC; HEAP, CHARLES SWINERTON; HILES, HENRY;
LLOYD, CHARLES HARFORD; MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE ALEX-
ANDER; MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL; MAD SONGS;
NOVELLO & CO.; ODE; ROSEINGRAVE, THOMAS; SCOTT, CYRIL;
A SEA SYMPHONY; SILAS, EDOUARD; SMART, HENRY THOMAS;
SOMERVELL, SIR ARTHUR; STANLEY, JOHN; THOMAS, ARTHUR
GORING; WESLEY, CHARLES (2).

CANTICLE. Generally a biblical song, not one of the Psalms, used as a pre-
scribed part of the liturgy, as for example, the Magnificat at Vespers or the
Nunc Dimittis at Compline. The Magnificat enjoyed particular cultivation in
the late 15th and early 16th centuries in England, as evidenced by the Eton
Choirbook. With the reform of the English Church and the development of
the Book of Common Prayer, canticles from the monastic daily office were
incorporated for use at Morning and Evening Prayer. Thus, the vernacular
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis follow the lessons at Evening Prayer. The
modern prominence of evensong has seen these canticles achieve particular
attention.
The use of the Te Deum as a canticle at Morning Prayer is a significant
exception to the canticle’s typical reliance on biblical text.

CANTIONES SACRAE. Three volumes of late 16th-century Latin polyphony

were published under this title in 1575, 1589, and 1591 by William Byrd,
the first of which was a collaborative venture with Thomas Tallis. Byrd and
Tallis, both Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, were granted a monopoly on
the printing of music in 1575; Cantiones Sacrae I is their first venture under
that patent. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth in the 17th year of her reign, it has
become traditional to see the 17 motets of each composer in the collection as
a numerical salute to the monarch. Significantly, the royal dedication allows
one to infer the acceptability of Latin works in certain circumstances at a date
when the Book of Common Prayer would have enshrined vernacular texts.

CANTORIS AND DECANI. These terms refer to the two sides of a divided
choir. Cantoris, that is, “of the precentor,” is the side of the choir on the

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 74 • CAREY, HENRY

liturgical north, and decani, “of the dean,” is the side of the choir on the li-
turgical south. The division was manifest both in the antiphonal recitation of
psalms—verses alternating from side to side—and also in the subdivision of
the ensemble in 16th-century liturgical polyphony.

CAREY, HENRY (1687–1743). Composer and librettist. Sir John Hawkins

called Carey a “man of facetious temper,” a “musician by profession, and one
of the lower order of poets.” Modern opinion continues to note the problem
of quality: he was “a butterfly figure of charm but little substance, who left
his mark on the London theatres in surprisingly varied ways” (Fiske, 1986).
Among those varied ways is his significant pro-English satire of the Italian
opera. In verse this could be quite pointed, as in his “Satyr on the Luxury and
Effeminancy of the Age”:

I hate this Singing in an unknown Tongue,

It does our Reason and our Senses wrong;
When Words instruct, and Music cheers the Mind,
Then is the Art of Service to mankind:
But when a Castrate Wretch, of monstrous size,
Squeaks out a Treble, shrill as Infant cries,
I curse the unintelligible Ass,
Who may, for ought I know, be saying Mass.

His libretto to The Dragon of Wantley, set by John Frederick Lampe (1737),
brought the lampooning of the Italian opera to the stage and was both suc-
cessful and influential on public taste. Carey had also attempted to promote
serious English opera with two librettos, Amelia and Teraminta. He was a
prolific song composer, generally setting his own texts.

CARL ROSA OPERA COMPANY. Operatic company founded in 1867 as

the Parepa-Rosa Grand Opera Company by the conductor Karl August Nikolaus
Rosa and the soprano Euphrosyne Parepa in America. When the company came
to Great Britain in 1873, Parepa was too ill to sing, and the company was renamed
the Carl Rosa Opera Company. From 1873 until its final dissolution in 1960, the
company presented operas in English (both originally composed in English or
translated from their original languages). The repertoire included both premieres
and operas from repertoire. Following long provincial tours, the company would
usually give seasons in London, Manchester, and Liverpool. Besides Rosa (who
died in 1889), many famous conductors in England were associated with the
company, including Sir Eugene Goossens, Walter van Noorden, Sir Thomas
Beecham, and Sir Henry Wood. The company commissioned a number of
operas from English composers, including Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (The

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 CAROL • 75

Canterbury Pilgrims, 1884), Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (Colomba,

1883), and Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (Pauline, 1879).

CAROL. English song genre. In early 15th-century England, the carol, a

genre with likely roots in the French round-dance song, the carole, took
the classic form of a strophically set song whose verses are punctuated by a
repeating refrain, the burden. Textural distinctions also help demarcate the
structure, with two-voice solo verses and three-voice choral burdens typical.
The texts are vernacular, Latin, or macaronic (a combination of the two) and
often address celebrative occasions, with the tie to Christmas being the most
enduring and best known. Carols from the later 15th and early 16th centuries
in sources like the Fayrfax Manuscript focus on the Passion of Jesus, some-
times with a significant amount of affectivity in both text and music, as in
William Cornysh’s “Woffully araid.” Other texts skirt devotion and address
political events, as in the famous “Agincourt Carol,” celebrating the victory
of Henry V over the French forces of Charles VI in 1415.
In terms of use, some carols may well have been used liturgically in pro-
cessions—the formal similarity to processional hymns is compelling—or
as substitutes for Office Antiphons like the “Benedicamus.” Others in Har-
rison’s (1963) memorable phrase were “moral and convivial,” with usage at
banquets and the like.
Formal elements may have been defining, but themselves show variability.
The “Agincourt Carol,” for instance, is one of many with two burdens; car-
ols in the Fayrfax Manuscript extend to four voices, have burdens that may
or may not recur, and can be through-composed. By the late 16th century,
carols had grown more rare, though not without some formal echoes of the
earlier style persisting. William Byrd’s “From Virgin’s Womb” (1589), for
instance, is set as a consort song, though preserving a refrain, which is sung
with the angelic scoring of high voices.
The Puritan ascendancy in the 17th century saw the neglect of the carol,
unsurprisingly so for its ties to the suspect observance of Christmas. And
while at the Restoration popular forms of the carol were published in broad-
sides, the composed tradition remained in a state of decline. Rejuvenation of
the carol emerged under the influence of High Church Anglicans in the 19th
century, a group that often looked to the medieval church and in that look
would also have glimpsed both a richer sense of the celebration of Christmas
and the carol’s role in it. Significantly, the rise of this Tractarian movement
also coincided with Charles Dickens’s much-heralded “rediscovery” of
Christmas in works like A Christmas Carol (1843).
The modern enthusiasm for carols draws on an international Christmas
repertory in diverse styles, but one in which the English have maintained a

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 76 • CARVER CHOIRBOOK

leading voice, especially as arrangers, with the works of Sir David Willcocks,
Reginald Jacques, and John Rutter particularly influential. The Service of
Nine Lessons and Carols begun at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1918 has
also in itself become an icon of the modern Christmas celebration and the
model for services worldwide. See also BANASTER, GILBERT; BROAD-
WOOD, LUCY; CONSORT SONG; “GREENSLEEVES”; HESELTINE,
PHILIP; MUSICA BRITANNICA; PASSION; RITSON MANUSCRIPT;
STAINER, SIR JOHN.

CARVER CHOIRBOOK. An early 16th-century manuscript source (GB En

5.15) perhaps associated with the Scottish Chapel Royal. It includes liturgical
works by Robert Carver (1484/87–after 1567), one of the leading Scottish
musicians of the early 16th century, who was an Augstinian canon associated
with Scone Abbey. It also includes English works from ca. 1500, as well as
Netherlandish compositions, including a mass on L’homme armé by Guil-
laume Dufay. The Netherlandish works help document the close ties between
Scotland and the Continent.

CASE, JOHN (ca. 1539–1600). English philosopher. Case was a fellow at

St. John’s College, Oxford, described by Anthony Wood as “the most noted
disputant and philosopher that ever set foot in that college.” His musical
writings, in continuity with various writers of antiquity, focus on the relation-
ship of music, civil life, and virtue. This discourse appears in both Sphaera
Civitatis (1588) and Apologia Musices (1588). The anonymous The Praise of
Musick (1586) has traditionally been attributed to Case, in part buttressed by
the Thomas Watson/William Byrd madrigal “A Gratification unto Mr John
Case, for his Learned Booke, Lately Made in the Praise of Musicke,” though
recent writing (Binns, NG, 2001) has called the attribution into question.

CATCH. Canonic vocal form. The catch is a round sung by male voices,
typically in taverns and similar settings, with humorous, often bawdy, text.
The collections by Thomas Ravenscroft, Pammelia (1609), Deuteromelia
(1609), and Melismata (1611), show the catch at an early stage; later collec-
tions, such as John Hilton’s Catch That Catch Can (1652), which extended
into numerous editions, well document the catch’s popularity. Moreover, it
attracted the attention of notable composers; Henry Purcell, for instance,
wrote over 60 catches and in doing so extended the vocal demands beyond
the typical amateur. By the late 18th century, the catch’s low humor had be-
come problematic, and its popularity declined. The signature gesture of the
catch is the contrapuntal juxtaposition of innocent words and phrases whose
new polyphonic proximity reveals a risqué expression.

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 CEREMONIAL MUSIC • 77

CATCH CLUB. See NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN’S CATCH CLUB.

CAUSTUN, THOMAS (ca. 1520/25–1569/70). Composer. Caustun was a

member of the Chapel Royal from as early as 1553 and was active there
until his death in 1569 or 1570, whereupon Richard Farrant succeeded to
his place as Gentleman. As a composer he contributed both to John Day’s
Mornyng and Evenyng Prayer (1565)—he was the largest contributor, in
fact—and to The Whole Psalmes in Foure Parts (1563). Some of his music,
in the severity of its style, well exemplifies the Edwardian Protestant ethos of
the middle of the century.

CAVENDISH, MICHAEL (ca. 1565–1628). Composer. Cavendish’s songs

and madrigals appear in his 1598 printed collection, 14 Ayres in Tabletorie,
where his ayres show the influence of the consort song. One of his madrigals
in the collection, “Come gentle swains,” is an early instance of the refrain
“Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana, long live fair Oriana,” a re-
frain that would a few years later become the signature motive in the madrigal
collection The Triumphs of Oriana (1601). “Come gentle swains” appears in
a revised version in this latter collection.

CELLIER, ALFRED (1844–91). Composer, conductor, and organist. Cel-

lier was in the orbit of his fellow Chapel Royal choirboy Sir Arthur Sul-
livan for most of his viable career. While he was an organist at All Saints,
Blackheath; St. Albans, Holborn; and (for a brief period) in Ireland, he is
best known as a composer and conductor of operetta. He held conducting
appointments at the Court Theatre (London), the Prince’s Theatre (Manches-
ter), the Criterion, and St. James’s Theatre, and was long associated with
the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company as their conductor both in England and
for touring abroad in North America. He contributed overtures to Sullivan’s
H.M.S. Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance. One of his operettas, Dorothy
(1886), held the record for the longest running operetta of its time (931 per-
formances). He wrote several works with libretti by Sir William Schwenck
Gilbert, including Topsyturveydom (1874) and the posthumously produced
The Mountebanks (1892).

CEREMONIAL MUSIC. The formal public life of both church and state
was musical in varying degrees. Although functional at its root—music for
processions, music to accompany ritual actions, fanfares to summon atten-
tion, etc.—the degree of elaboration that ceremonial music might attain was
a powerful element in rendering the ceremony itself impressive. Particularly
prominent examples include Henry Purcell’s “Funeral Music for Queen

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 78 • CHANGE RINGING

Mary” and George Frideric Handel’s coronation anthem “Zadok the

Priest.” See also CORONATION MUSIC.

CHANGE RINGING. Change ringing is a method of sounding multiple

bells—typically rope-pulled tower bells—in a variety of sequences that explore
the permutations of order offered by that particular number of bells. Control
of the sequence is in part derived from systems that see a bell move directly
through the succeeding positions (the so-called plain hunt). Change ringing was
first theorized in the 17th century in two sources, Tintinnalogia (1668), perhaps
by Richard Duckworth with contributions by Fabian Stedman, and Campano-
logia (1677) by Fabian Stedman. Anthony Wood’s remark that the sound of
church bells offered “the music nighest bordering upon heaven” suggests some-
thing of the 17th-century taste for the bell music from the tower.
One of the most widely known literary evocations of the cult of change
ringing is Dorothy L. Sayers’ 1934 mystery novel The Nine Tailors, in which
not only the bell tower and a memorable ring figure prominently in the plot,
but also a key alphabetic cipher is solved on the basis of its likeness to a peal.
Sayers is exuberant in her enthusiasm for change ringing in her foreword:

From time to time complaints are made about the ringing of church bells. It
seems strange that a generation which tolerates the uproar of the internal com-
bustion engine and the wailing of the jazz band should be so sensitive to the
one loud noise that is made to the glory of God. England, alone in the world,
has perfected the art of change-ringing and the true ringing of bells by rope and
wheel, and will not lightly surrender her unique heritage.

CHAPEL ROYAL. The Chapel Royal is the body of clerics and musicians
attached to the court to supply the liturgical needs of the monarch. Although
there were earlier forms, the Chapel Royal was first incorporated under
Edward IV in 1483 as the “Royal Free Chapel of the Household,” at which
time the chapel was comprised of 24 chaplains and gentlemen clerks as well
as eight choristers. These numbers would vary over the years, although the
division of personnel into choristers, gentlemen of the chapel, and clerics is
long standing. And at various times, the musical personnel would include the
master of the children (almost all of whom were drawn from the ranks of the
gentlemen of the chapel), organist, bell ringer, lutanist, and violist. Choristers
in the premodern era were recruitable by impressment. Since the early 17th
century the dean of the chapel has generally been in Episcopal orders, and
since the early 18th century this office has almost always been the preroga-
tive of the bishop of London. Musical supervision has traditionally been the
purview of the office of subdean.

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 CHAPPELL & CO. • 79

In addition to musical duties, children of the chapel have at times also been
called upon to act in dramatic productions, notably at the Blackfriars Theatre
during the reign of Elizabeth I.
It is important to stress that the Chapel Royal is a body of people rather
than a dedicated liturgical building, although in the 19th century, internal
power struggles suggest that this was sometimes misunderstood. The chapel
is a mobile ensemble; however, when Queen Anne located her court at St.
James in 1702, the chapel at St. James in Colour Court became and has re-
mained in effect the home of the chapel. The Chapel Royal Choir School was
established in 1886; prior to this time choristers had traditionally lodged with
the master of the children. The school closed in 1923, after which time the
choristers have studied at the City of London School.
Appointment to the Chapel Royal has been a sign of distinction, and gen-
tlemen and masters have included many of England’s most well-known com-
posers, such as Samuel Arnold, Thomas Attwood, John Blow, William
Boyce, William Byrd, William Croft, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Lawes,
Thomas Morley, Henry Purcell, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Thomas Tom-
kins, and Samuel Sebastian Wesley. See also ABELL, JOHN; ALEYN,
JOHN; AMNER, JOHN; BANASTER, GILBERT; BARRETT, JOHN;
BATTISHILL, JONATHAN; BEVIN, ELWAY; BLAGRAVE, THOMAS;
BLITHEMAN, JOHN; BULL, JOHN; CAUSTUN, THOMAS; CELLIER,
ALFRED; CHILD, WILLIAM; CHOIRBOY PLAYS; CLARKE, JER-
EMIAH; CLUB ANTHEM; COOKE, HENRY; CORNYSH, WILLIAM;
CORONATION ANTHEM; EDWARDS, RICHARD; FARRANT, RICH-
ARD; FAYRFAX, ROBERT; GATES, BERNARD; GIBBONS, CHRIS-
TOPHER; GILES, NATHANIEL; GLEE; GOSTLING, JOHN; GREENE,
MAURICE; HEATHER, WILLIAM; HINGESTON, JOHN; HOOPER,
EDMUND; HUMPHREY, PELHAM; IMMYNS, JOHN; ISAACK,
BARTHOLOMEW; KENT, JAMES; LLOYD, CHARLES HARFORD;
MUNDY, WILLIAM; NARES, JAMES; ODE; PARSONS, ROBERT;
PORTER, WALTER; PURCELL, DANIEL; RANDALL, JOHN; RIM-
BAULT, EDWARD FRANCIS; ST. CECILIA’S DAY OBSERVANCE;
SHEPPARD, JOHN; SMART, SIR GEORGE THOMAS; SMITH, JOHN
STAFFORD; TUDWAY, THOMAS; TURNER, WILLIAM; TYE, CHRIS-
TOPHER; WELDON, JOHN; WILSON, JOHN; WISE, MICHAEL.

CHAPPELL & CO. Music publishing and instrumental sales firm, founded
in 1810. It was bought by Philips in 1968 and then acquired in 1987 by War-
ner Communications. As a company, Chappell was heavily involved in the
growing infrastructure of 19th-century English music. Its influence helped
create the Royal Philharmonic Society (1813), the Musical Antiquarian

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 80 • CHARITY FESTIVALS

Society (1840), and the Monday and Saturday Popular Concerts at St. James’s
Hall (1858), and it organized the Proms at Queen’s Hall from 1915 to 1926.
Early on, the firm took an active role in publishing antiquarian music and folk
music, especially under the auspices of William Chappell, son of one of the
firm’s founders. The firm also took an early interest in publishing lighter music
and published most of the operettas of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and
Sir Arthur Sullivan in the 19th century and the works of artists such as Noël
Coward and Ivor Novello in the 20th. It began to sell pianos in 1812, manufac-
turing them by 1840, and did so until the Chappell Piano Company became an
independent entity in 1919. Like many large publishing concerns, by the end
of the 19th century, Chappell had offices in both North America and Australia.

CHARITY FESTIVALS. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

CHILD, WILLIAM (1606/7–97). English composer and organist. Child is de-

scribed as a pupil of Elway Bevin by Anthony Wood. In 1630 he was elected
clerk of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and succeeded John Mundy (son of Wil-
liam Mundy) as organist of the chapel in 1632. He served in this capacity until
1644 when the Civil War saw the disbanding of the chapel. His last composition
before leaving Windsor was a setting of verses from Psalm 79, whose references
to the inheritance of the heathen become especially poignant in this context.
At the Restoration, Child resumed his duties at Windsor and also took up
royal appointments as organist of the Chapel Royal as well as composer of
the Wind Musick and cornettist. Active as a composer both before and after
the interregnum, his music is stylistically diverse, including conservative imi-
tative counterpoint and also music that reflects the modern Italian advances
of the 17th century. His publication First set of Psalmes of III voices fitt for
private chappells, or other private meetings with Continuall Base, either for
the Organ or Theorbo, newly composed after the Italian way (1639; reissued
as Choise Musick in 1650 and 1656) is explicit in its stylistic orientation.
Child’s friendship with the Restoration diarist Samuel Pepys is well
documented, and on at least one occasion (26 February 1665/66) he was a
gracious host to both him and his wife on a trip to Windsor, treating them to
a performance by the choir. Additionally, Sir John Hawkins records several
instances of his charitable bent.
Child was admitted to the BMus at Oxford in 1631 and the DMus in 1663.
The Faculty of Music at Oxford houses an anonymous painting of him in
doctoral dress.

A CHILD OF OUR TIME. Oratorio by Sir Michael Tippett, written be-

tween 1939 and 1941 and premiered in London on 19 March 1944. A Child

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 CHORAL HARMONISTS SOCIETY • 81

of Our Time was Tippett’s first attempt to harness his political beliefs into a
large, abstract musical structure. Tippett drew the story from contemporary
events: the 1938 murder of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by teenage
Polish refugee Herschel Grynszpan. The oratorio is patterned after George
Frideric Handel’s Messiah (a three-part structure) and the Passions of Jo-
hann Sebastian Bach (substituting African American spirituals for chorales).
Since its premiere, A Child of Our Time has been a regular feature at musical
festivals.

CHILMEAD, EDMUND (1610–54). Oxford musician and man of letters.

Chilmead spent much of his short life at Oxford, taking the BA (1628) and
MA (1632) and holding a chaplaincy at Christ Church. He was also for a time
a clerk at Magdalen College. A classicist, he compiled a catalogue of Greek
manuscripts at the Bodleian Library as well as being active as a translator.
The political and religious upheavals of the 1640s caused him to leave Ox-
ford, from whence he located in London. There he was active in setting up
weekly music meetings in Aldersgate, “deriving from the profits thereof the
means of a slender subsistence” (Sir John Hawkins).

CHM. See ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS.

CHOIRBOY PLAYS. During the reign of Henry VIII on into the 17th
century, boy choristers from various chapels, including the Chapel Royal;
St. George’s, Windsor; and St. Paul’s, London, were engaged as actors in
entertainments at court and theaters such as Blackfriars. Their musical talents
within these entertainments gave rise to the consort song, with examples by
Robert Parsons, Richard Edwards, and Nathaniel Patrick especially asso-
ciated with the choirboy plays. William Shakespeare confirms the fashion-
ability of the boy actors in Hamlet (II/ii): Rosencrantz says, “. . . but there is,
sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and
are most tyrannically clapped for’t: these are now the fashion.”

CHORAL FESTIVALS. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

CHORAL HARMONISTS SOCIETY. Amateur concert-giving group ac-

tive between 1833 and 1851. Like many amateur groups active in the first half
of the 19th century, the Choral Harmonists Society met not in a concert hall
or rehearsal rooms, but in drinking establishments: either the New London
Tavern on Bridge Street, Blackfriars, or the London Tavern on Bishopsgate
Street. The Society’s conductors included at times Vincent Novello, Charles
Lucas, Charles Neate, and Henry Westrop. It presented a varied repertoire

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 82 • CHORLEY, HENRY FROTHERGILL

within its concerts, featuring works like Henry Purcell’s King Arthur, and
including perhaps the first performance of the Credo from Johann Sebastian
Bach’s Mass in B minor in Great Britain and the first public performance of
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, op. 123, in Great Britain.

CHORLEY, HENRY FROTHERGILL (1808–72). Writer, librettist, and

critic. While a novelist, playwright, and poet of some ability, Chorley is
remembered for his music criticism for the Athenaeum (he began writing
articles for them in 1830 and was a member of the staff there from 1834 to
his retirement in 1868) and the Orchestra, which were frequently reprinted
in other contemporary music magazines. He wrote or translated opera and
cantata libretti for figures as diverse as Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, Sir
William Sterndale Bennett, Domenico Cimarosa, Christoph Willibald von
Gluck, Charles Gounod, and Sir Arthur Sullivan, though his original libretti
never became popular.

CHURCH CHORAL SOCIETY. See TRINITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC.

CITTERN. A plucked string instrument, generally with four courses of

strings strung in metal, and played with a plectrum. A flat back, narrow sides,
and fixed frets are all characteristic of the Cittern. Much has been made of its
availability in barbershops for the amusement of the clientele, but it was an
instrument with higher attainments as well. It was an integral member of the
so-called English consort (or “broken consort”), playing strummed harmo-
nies, and it also claimed a solo literature as seen in two English publications:
Antony Holborne’s The Cittharn Schoole (1597) and Thomas Robinson’s
New Citharen Lessons (1609).

CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (ALSO CITY

OF BIRMINGHAM ORCHESTRA; CBSO). Symphony founded in 1920
by Appleby Matthews. Early performances of the CBSO occurred in the
Birmingham Town Hall; the ensemble moved to Symphony Hall in 1991.
The orchestra became a full-time ensemble in 1944. Numerous important
conductors have served as the orchestra’s director, including Sir Adrian
Boult (1924–30 and 1959–60), Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1957–59), and Simon
Rattle (1980–98).

CLARKE, JEREMIAH (ca. 1674–1707). Composer and organist. Clarke

was brought up in the Chapel Royal, documented as a chorister there as
early as 1685. He emerges later as organist at Winchester College, followed
by an appointment as vicar-choral at St. Paul’s, London, where he also of-

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 CLAYTON, THOMAS • 83

ficially assumed the position of master of the choristers in 1704. In 1700 he

was named a gentleman extraordinary of the Chapel Royal, where he also
assumed the duties of organist in 1704.
Clarke’s works include theater pieces—the 1700 anthology A Choice
Collection of Ayres for Harpsichord identifies him in association with the
Theatre Royal at Drury Lane—church music, odes, and keyboard works.
Sir John Hawkins notes that “his anthems are remarkably pathetic, at the
same time that they preserve the dignity and majesty of the church style.” A
bent for pathos may have been typical, for Hawkins relates that he died by
suicide, having “a hopeless passion for a very beautiful lady in a station of
life far above him.”
In the modern day he is best known as the composer of the piece that
“Henry Purcell didn’t write”—the so-called “Trumpet Voluntary”—which
has long been standard fare as a bridal march.

CLARKE, REBECCA (1886–1979). Composer and violist. Clarke was a

groundbreaking composer and performer in the first four decades of the 20th
century. She attended the Royal Academy of Music (2) from 1903 to 1905
and the Royal College of Music (RCM) from 1907 to 1910, where she was
one of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s first female composition students,
and she studied the viola with Lionel Tertius. After leaving the RCM, she
performed in chamber ensembles and joined the formerly all-male Queen’s
Hall Orchestra in 1912 at the invitation of Sir Henry Wood. Between 1916
and 1924 she lived in America and performed chamber music with the cellist
May Muckle (long associated with the British women’s suffrage movement).
During her last period in England (1924–39), she was once again a solo and
ensemble viola player, being one of the founding members of the quartet the
English Ensemble (1927). She moved permanently to America in 1939, and
her composition slowed considerably. Clarke is best known today for her
early chamber music, such as the Viola Sonata (1919), her Piano Trio (1921),
and a number of important songs.

CLAY, FREDERIC (1838–89). Composer. Clay was known primarily as a

melodist and composer of operetta, and is famous today for having introduced
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert to Sir Arthur Sullivan at a rehearsal of his
composition Ages Ago (1869; libretto by Gilbert). His operettas were per-
formed at both Covent Garden and the Alhambra Theatre, and his cantatas,
such as Lalla Rookh (Brighton, 1877), at music festivals.

CLAYTON, THOMAS (1673–1725). Composer and violinist. Clayton is

an important figure in the history of opera in England, especially in the

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 84 • CLEMENTI, MUZIO

transition to Italianate fully sung forms in the early 18th century. In 1705 his
Arsinoe, a fully sung musical pasticcio to an Italian libretto (Tommaso Stan-
zani) translated by Peter Motteux, was given at Drury Lane. Popular in its
day—Price (1979) calls it “the first work without spoken dialogue to achieve
such success on the London stage”—it nonetheless received pointed critical
scorn by later generations. Price postulates that the fact that it was performed
on a shared bill with parts of other stage works may have contributed to its
success by rationalizing the performance of the opera.
Arsinoe was followed in 1707 by Rosamond to a libretto by Joseph Addi-
son; the production was famously unsuccesful. One might reasonably specu-
late that Addison’s satirical view of Italian opera in the Spectator (6 March
1711) is colored by this failure.

CLEMENTI, MUZIO (1752–1832). Composer, virtuosic pianist, conduc-

tor, instrument manufacturer, and publisher of Italian birth. Clementi was a
giant in the London music scene, though his compositions were frequently
out of fashion with the public, particularly after Franz Joseph Haydn’s two
visits to London. Born and trained in Italy, he was brought to England and
indentured in Dorset for seven years by the family of Peter Beckford. He
moved to London in 1774 and began to slowly make a name for himself as
a solo pianist and teacher; during this period he also conducted (from the
keyboard) at King’s Theatre, Haymarket. Aside from the 1783–84 season,
he spent 1780–85 abroad touring. He returned to London in 1785, when
he performed at the Hanover Square Rooms as a soloist (until 1790) and
conducted his symphonies (until 1796). During this time, his reputation as a
teacher also grew; John Field became one of his students. Aside from teach-
ing and performing, he also began active participation in the music publishing
and instrument manufacturing fields; when he returned to the Continent in
extended tours from 1802–10, 1816–17, and 1822, he frequently represented
the firm of Clementi & Co. In the last period of life, he continued composing
but was more known for his business acumen and as a conductor, such as at
the Royal Philharmonic Society (conducting from the keyboard between its
1813 founding and 1824) and the Concerts of Ancient and Modern Musics
(founded in 1824; not to be confused with the Concerts of Ancient Music).
He composed several symphonies (now forgotten), over 100 keyboard works,
and pedagogical works still in use today.

CLEMENTI & CO. Shorthand name for a publishing firm active in London
between 1798 and 1832 owned and managed by the composer Muzio Clem-
enti and a number of other individuals. Clementi & Co. originally took over
the premises of the defunct company Longman & Broderip in Cheapside,

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 COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, SAMUEL • 85

but in 1806 it became one of a number of music publishers with quarters

on Tottenham Court Road. The firm built and sold pianos, and published
the virtuosic music of Clementi, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Joseph
Haydn’s The Seasons. Upon Clementi’s death, the firm was renamed Col-
liard & Colliard.

CLUB ANTHEM. A setting of “I Will Alway Give Thanks,” composed

jointly by three choristers of the Restoration Chapel Royal—Pelham Hum-
frey, John Blow, and William Turner. Significantly, as confirmed by the
account of Thomas Tudway, the forging of a new style of anthem during
the Restoration was the fruit of choristers’ compositional activities and the
king’s interest in them.

COATES, ERIC (1886–1957). Composer, conductor, and violist. Coates was

a prolific composer who eagerly embraced new technology and new musical
styles. Aside from his songs and works for orchestra, he wrote for radio, tele-
vision, and film, including the march from The Dam Busters (1955) around
which Leighton Lewis composed the rest of the film’s music. Coates was
trained in viola and composition at the Royal Academy of Music (2) from
1906 to 1910. He was a member of Sir Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orches-
tra from 1910 to 1919 and was principal violist for the last seven years of this
period. His waltz “By the Sleepy Lagoon” is still used to introduce the British
Broadcasting Corporation radio program Desert Island Discs.

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, SAMUEL (1875–1912). Composer, conductor,

adjudicator, and teacher. Coleridge-Taylor was one of the finest and best-
regarded composers of his generation, and one of the individuals actively
promoted by August Jaeger of Novello & Co. His achievement is extremely
impressive given the prejudice he faced daily in turn-of-the-century England
because of his mixed-race heritage (his father was from Sierra Leone and his
mother from England). He studied at the Royal College of Music from 1890
to 1897, starting out as a violinist, but increasingly working on composition,
studying with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford by 1892. Success as a composer
came early through publications by Novello & Co., commissions from musi-
cal festivals (starting in 1898), and the genre-shifting premiere of Hiawatha’s
Wedding Feast (1898), part of a trilogy of cantatas entitled Scenes from the
Song of Hiawatha (1900). This cantata became immensely popular among
choral societies and was eventually presented with costumes and scenery at
the Royal Albert Hall between 1928 and 1939.
Coleridge-Taylor was active as a conductor, directing the Westmorland
Musical Festival (1901–4) and the Handel Society (1904–12); he also taught

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composition at Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Mu-

sic. Aside from his cantatas and festival works, Coleridge-Taylor also had an
avid interest in promoting African themes within his music, which stemmed
in part from his meeting with the American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and
his trips to the United States (1904, 1906, and 1910), where he also met the
composer and singer Henry Burleigh.

COLLEGE OF CHURCH MUSIC, LONDON. See TRINITY COLLEGE

OF MUSIC.

COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS. See ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS.

COMMUNITY SINGING. Community singing was the name given to

organized, public, audience-participation singing during the middle of the
1920s. The phenomenon started in London and seems to have originated in
the demise of the music halls, where audience participation had been a regular
feature. Cinemas, concert halls (including the Royal Albert Hall), and other
large buildings were opened for singing, led by a conductor and accompanied
by either organ or piano and, on rare occasions, orchestras. The Community
Singers Association was formed in 1925 to promote the movement; by 1926
large newspapers, such as the Daily Express, sought to capitalize on it, pub-
lishing songbooks for use by community singers. The songs sung at such
events were limited to national songs, hymns, and songs about World War
I. The Australian-born violinist turned choir director Gibson Young was as-
sociated with the movement.

COMPETITION FESTIVALS. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

CONCERT ROOMS. Using advertisements from the London Gazette, Sir

John Hawkins constructs a helpful overview of public concert venues in the
late 17th century, including concerts at White Fryers, Shandois-street (Chan-
dos Street; Covent Garden)—a concert every evening except Sundays—the
Academy at Little Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Musick School in the Essex
buildings (the Strand), Bow Street (Covent Garden), and the York Buildings
(Villiers Street). Many of these venues were associated with the concerts of
John Banister; Roger North noted that “he [Banister] opened an obscure
room in a publik house in White fryars; filled it with tables and seats, and
made a side box with curtaines for the musick,” a description that documents
the tavernlike setting of the early concerts.
A long-standing series of concerts was given by the small-coal merchant
Thomas Britton in rooms above his coal shop in Clerkenwell, accessed with

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 CONSORT SONG • 87

difficulty via an external staircase. Hawkins records it was a long and narrow
room with a low ceiling, and “the house itself was very old and low-built, and
in every respect so mean, as to be a fit habitation for only a very poor man.
Notwithstanding all, this mansion, despicable as it may seem, attracted to it
as polite an audience as ever the opera did.”
Not all the early concert venues were tavernlike or ill-suited to “sober
recreation” (Hawkins). The York Buildings in Villiers Street offered a
venue specifically constructed for music, described by North as a “great
room.” See also HANOVER SQUARE ROOMS; HICKFORD’S ROOM;
PANTHEON.

CONCERTS OF ANCIENT MUSIC (ALSO CONSERTS OF ANTIENT

MUSIC; CONCERTS OF ANCIENT MUSICK; CONSERTS OF ANTI-
ENT MUSICK). A London concert society founded by a group of noble-
men in 1776, sometimes referred to as the “King’s Concerts.” The concerts
presented music that was 20 years old or older. While usually conducted by
a professional (or at least an extremely talented amateur), the programs were
organized by the amateur members of the board of directors, in rotation.
Musicians associated with the concerts included Joah Bates (director, 1776–
79), Thomas Greatorex (director, 1779–1831), Sir George Smart, and
Sir Henry Bishop (director, 1843–49). The concerts were held first in the
Queen’s or West London Theatre (1776–95) and later at the Hanover Square
Rooms (1804–49). The Concerts of Ancient Music ended in 1849, though
efforts were made to revive them in 1867 and 1870. See also COOKE, TOM;
CRAMER, JOHN BAPTIST; DRAGONETTI, DOMENICO; HANDEL
COMMEMORATION; MENDELSSOHN, FELIX; PUBLIC CONCERTS;
SMART, HENRY.

CONSORT SONG. A setting of vernacular, strophic poetry for solo voice

or voices and an accompanying consort of instruments, generally assumed to
be viols. The consort song (or “concerted song,” as Wulstan [1985] proposes)
arose in the 1580s with antecedents in the choirboy plays, the popularity of
viol consorts, and flexible attitudes toward modes of performance. A number
of composers are associated with the genre, include Richard Farrant and
Robert Parsons, but it is chiefly with William Byrd that the consort song
finds its richest development. Byrd’s consort songs are typically contrapuntal
with the sung voice part, but one strand in an imitative weave. As imita-
tion assumes an equality of voice parts and as attitudes toward scoring were
decidedly flexible, this meant that the instrumental parts were also ripe for
singing as well, transforming the consort song into a vocal ensemble piece.
This relationship is made explicit in collections like Byrd’s 1588 anthology

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 88 • COOKE, BENJAMIN

Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, where the composer explains
that many of the five-part texted works originated in versions for one voice
and instrument. Additionally, he singles out the original vocal line as the
“first singing part.”
Consort songs with choral sections—the repetition of the last line of a
stanza, for instance, or a concluding coda, as in the carol “From Virgin’s
Womb”—show the close relationship between the consort song and the verse
anthem. See also CAVENDISH, MICHAEL.

COOKE, BENJAMIN (1734–93). Organist and composer. Cooke was

from a family of musicians (his father, also named Benjamin, was a London
music publisher, and his son, Robert, was a somewhat successful organist).
He is remembered today primarily for his Service in G as well as a num-
ber of glees, which won prizes from the Catch Club. As a child he sang
under Johann Christoph Pepusch at the Academy of Ancient Music. His
positions included master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey (1757)
and its organist (1762), and organist at St. Martin-in-the-Fields (1782); he
held all three positions until his death. He was also widely involved in the
contemporary London musical infrastructure, being conductor of the Acad-
emy of Ancient Music from 1752 to 1789 and a member of the Society of
Musicians, the Madrigal Society, and the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s
Catch Club; he was also the assistant director of the 1784 Handel Com-
memoration.

COOKE, HENRY (ca. 1615–72). Singer, composer, lutanist. Although

Cooke held a number of positions in the Royal Music, he is chiefly known as
the master of the choristers of the Chapel Royal at the time of the Restoration
until his death in 1672. In this position, Captain Cooke—“Captain” by virtue
of his service in the Royalist Forces during the Civil War—trained notable
musicians of the next generation, including Pelham Humfrey and John
Blow, advanced the verse anthem, became a catalyst for musical Italianism,
and rebuilt the chapel choir after years of forced inactivity, especially a prob-
lem with respect to treble voices.
Writers of the day noted his abilities with the Italian style, perhaps reflect-
ing the influence of Walter Porter in the Chapel Royal of Charles I, in which
Cooke was a chorister. John Playford goes so far as to refer to him as the
“Orpheus of our time,” a significant anticipation of Henry Purcell’s appella-
tion as the “Orpheus Britannicus.” Samuel Pepys, though impressed with his
singing, disparaged his degree of vanity and called him a “vain coxcomb.”
(Pepys did not tolerate the vanity of musicians easily, as his description of
Cooke’s son-in-law, Humfrey, also demonstrates.) John Evelyn, in describ-

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 CORBETT, WILLIAM • 89

ing being entertained by Cooke, notes that he did so “with his voice and
theorbo,” likely a reference to self-accompaniment.
Outside the activities of the Chapel Royal, Cooke participated in impor-
tant theatrical ventures including Sir William Davenant’s Rutland House
Entertainment and The Siege of Rhodes. Humfrey married Cooke’s daughter,
Katherine, in 1672, and succeeded him as master of the choristers.

COOKE, TOM (ALSO THOMAS SIMPSON; 1782–1848). Tenor, instru-

mentalist, composer, and teacher of singing of Irish birth. Cooke arrived in
London in 1813 after having trained as a violinist and composer in Dublin
and fallen into singing. He sang at the Lyceum Theatre in 1813, and by 1815
he was heard regularly at Drury Lane, where he became the principal singer
and orchestral leader for some years (he could play more than six instruments
with great facility). Most of his compositions and arrangements were for the
theater, though he did write a number of glees and catches, particularly for
pleasure gardens at Vauxhall (where he served as one of the musical man-
agers between 1828 and 1830) and the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch
Club, where he was named a professional member in 1821. He was a member
of the Royal Philharmonic Society and was the last director of the Concerts
of Ancient Music (1846–48).

COPRARIO, JOHN (ca. 1570/80–1626). Violist and composer. Coprario,

whose name is an Italian transformation of “Cooper” or “Cowper” that the
composer had adopted by 1601, composed in a variety of genres, including
two volumes of lute ayres (1606, 1612) that “contain duets and solos of a
passionate gravity that finds no exact parallel in the songs of the period”
(Caldwell, OHEM, vol. 1). However, his chief contribution lies in the innova-
tion and development of the so-called fantasia-suite, or “set.” The fantasia-
suites were popular at the court of Charles I, blessed by royal participation;
John Playford notes that the king “could play his Part exactly well on the
Bass-Viol, especially of those Incomparable Phantasies of Mr. Coperario to
the Organ.” Scored for one or two violins, bass viol, and organ—the organ
part is sometimes independent—the fantasia-suites consisted of a contrapun-
tal fantasia movement followed by two dances (Almain and Galliard). His
consort fantasias for five and six players survive with Italian titles, suggestive
of the notion that they were for vocal and/or instrumental performance.
Coprario was a composer-in-ordinary to Charles I and also the teacher of
both William and Henry Lawes.

CORBETT, WILLIAM (ca. 1675–1748). Violinist and composer. Corbett, a

onetime leader of the orchestra at the Haymarket Theatre prior to the advent

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 90 • CORDER, FREDERICK

of George Frideric Handel, is best known as a collector of music and in-

struments and the composer of Le Bizzarie universali (1728), 35 concertos
(without concertino) written to evoke national and place-specific styles. His
collection was amassed during a long residence in Italy and caused Sir John
Hawkins to report he was involved in espionage: “Those who . . . were oth-
erwise at a loss to account for his being able to lay out such sums as he was
observed to do in the purchase of books and instruments, confidently asserted
that besides his salary he had an allowance from the government, and that his
business at Rome was to watch the motions of the Pretender [James Francis
Edward Stuart].” Charles Burney refers to him as a “worthy professor”;
Hawkins describes him as “a good composer, and a great collector of music
and musical instruments.”

CORDER, FREDERICK (1852–1932). Teacher, conductor, keyboardist,

writer, and composer. Corder studied at the Royal Academy of Music (2;
RAM; 1873–75) and won the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship, which
allowed him to travel to Cologne (1875–78, where he studied with Ferdinand
Hiller) and Milan (1878–79). For most of the 1880s, he attempted a career as
an opera composer; Nordissa—his most successful work—was premiered in
1887 by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. During this period, he also took
on numerous jobs as a conductor (of the Brighton Aquarium [1880–82] and
the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne), organist, and music writer. He
is perhaps best known as a teacher; he joined the staff of the RAM as a com-
position professor in 1888 and remained there until retirement in 1924 (Sir
Arnold Bax was one of his students). He wrote articles for the first edition
of A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Sir George Grove, trans-
lated the libretti of Richard Wagner’s operas and music dramas, and wrote oc-
casional pieces for the Musical Quarterly and the Musical Times. He was one
of the founders and an early chairman of the Society of British Composers.

CORNELYS, THERESA (BORN TERESA IMER; ALSO MADAME

TRENTI; 1723–97). Singer and impresario of Italian birth. As a singer,
Cornelys toured much of Europe from her debut in Verona in 1741 until
1759, when she settled permanently in England. Arriving in London, she
began organizing a series of concerts; from 1760 these concerts were held in
Carlisle House in Soho Square. In 1765–67 part of this series was directed
by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friederich Abel. On the departure of
Bach and Abel to Almack’s and eventually the Hanover Square Rooms,
Felice Giardini and Mattia Vento directed the concerts at Carlisle House.
Due to bankruptcy, she lost control of Carlisle House in 1772 but continued
to organize concerts there until 1778. In addition to concerts, Cornelys also

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 CORONATION MUSIC • 91

mounted masquerades at Carlisle House, sometimes attracting more than

2,000 guests. She had a daughter with Giacomo Casanova.

CORNETT. Wind instrument of wood with fingerholes, played with a cup-

shaped mouthpiece. The cornett was made in three sizes: treble (in G), tenor
(in C), and a descant form (cornettino) in C or D. In England, as elsewhere,
the treble cornett was frequently used as the soprano member of the trom-
bone consort, both in secular repertories and as a voice-doubling instrument
in church. Its purity of tone and vocal quality is attested by Roger North
(1742), who wrote: “What can yield a tone so like an eunuch’s voice as a true
cornet pipe?” Though North also observes that it is “seldom well sounded,”
this likely reflects the instrument in a period of decline. John Evelyn (21
December 1662) observed with regret the replacing of the solemn wind music
in the Chapel Royal with French-styled violin music: “This was the first time
of change, and now we no more heard the cornet which gave life to the organ:
that instrument quite left off in which the English were so skilful.”
English music specifying cornetts includes John Adson’s Courtly Masqu-
ing Ayres (1621), two fantasia-suites by John Hingeston, and Matthew
Locke’s “[Music] ffor his Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts” and “5 partt things
ffor the cornetts.”

CORNYSH, WILLIAM (?–1523). Composer and dramatist. Cornysh was

active as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal during the reigns of both Henry
VII and Henry VIII and was master of the children of the Chapel Royal from
1509. In addition to his musical duties, he was active as a dramatist and actor
in court entertainments as well. His partsong contributions to the Fayrfax
Manuscript, where he is identified as “William Cornyssh Junior,” are no-
table both for their expressive quality and their extension of the medieval
carol. Several liturgical works in the Eton Choirbook have been assumed to
be his, works that show a range of style from the impressively florid to sim-
pler textures. Recent work by David Skinner (1997) suggests these liturgical
works, on the grounds of maturity of style and archival evidence, may be by
the elder William Cornysh (d. ca. 1502), informator choristarum at Westmin-
ster (1479–91) and likely the father of the younger composer.

CORONATION MUSIC. As tradition plays a strong part in the formation

of the coronation rite, it is unsurprising that certain texts and musical settings
have much continuity in the crowning of the English monarch. For example,
“I Was Glad” has been traditionally sung at the monarch’s entry into West-
minster Abbey since the coronation of Charles I in 1626; “Zadok the Priest”
has been sung at the anointing since the 10th century, with George Frideric

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Handel’s setting, written for the coronation of George II in 1727, being

particularly long-lived. Handel’s expatriate status was no impediment to his
role in defining the English royal idiom. That he was asked to provide mu-
sic for George II’s coronation, though not a member of the Chapel Royal
nor appointed to Westminster Abbey, amply documents his celebrated
status. And the use of the “Hallelujah” from Messiah at the coronations
of George IV (1821) and Victoria (1838) speaks to the way his music had
become royally iconic.
As iconic as the music for these two 19th-century coronations was, it
was also entirely—save for Handel’s donation—homegrown. The music
at Victoria’s coronation (1838) included English music from only the 18th
and 19th centuries: works by Thomas Attwood, William Boyce, William
Knyvett, and Sir George Smart alternated with Handel’s “Zadok the Priest,”
the “Hallelujah” chorus, and the Occasional Overture. In the first half of
the 20th century, coronation music became an increasingly broad statement
about England’s place within the cultural and political world, and, as a conse-
quence, much more music was included in the ceremonies, and a great deal of
it was commissioned explicitly for the occasion—and not only from British
composers. Edward VII’s coronation (1902) included commissioned marches
from Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, Camille Saint-Saëns, Sir Fred-
eric Hymen Cowen, and Percy Godfrey, along with previously written
marches by Sir Edward Elgar, Charles Gounod, Pytor Il’ych Tchaikovsky,
and Richard Wagner. The music took in a much broader historical sweep, as
well, with Thomas Tallis and Orlando Gibbons rubbing shoulders with Sir
Hubert Parry, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and
Samuel Sebastian Wesley within the coronation service itself. George V’s
coronation (1911) followed suit: new marches by Mackenzie and Elgar for
the processionals vied with new service music by Walter Alcock, Sir Freder-
ick Bridge, Elgar, Parry, and Stanford, as well as the reintroduction of Henry
Purcell; the marches before the service included music by many non-English
composers. George VI’s coronation (1937; Edward VIII abdicated before his
coronation) included more before-service music by non-English composers,
as well as a new Coronation March by Sir William Walton. Only with Eliza-
beth II’s coronation in 1953 did the coronation music retreat to all English
(plus Handel); Walton’s specially composed Orb and Sceptre March and Te
Deum were heard along with English music from the 15th century forward,
much of which had been written for the coronations from 1902, 1911, and
1937. At the very point when Great Britain was beginning to become a truly
multicultural nation, it presented a ceremonial face of a long-standing tradi-
tion—which, to that point, existed nowhere else, save in the creation of that
tradition itself.

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 COUNTERTENOR • 93

COSTA, SIR MICHAEL (1808–84). Conductor and composer of Italian

birth. Costa was one of the most important conductors in mid-19th-century
England. He brought to his ensembles a sense of discipline and worked within
the opera theaters he conducted to eliminate as much of the deputy system
(where members of the ensemble would send a deputy to rehearsal, but play
for the performance themselves, thus destroying any hope of cohesion) as he
could. Costa was trained in Naples and arrived in England in 1829 to con-
duct a cantata by his teacher Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli at the Birmingham
Musical Festival. He remained in England and quickly established himself
as a leading conductor, moving from a keyboardist employed by the King’s
Theatre, Haymarket, in 1830 to the director and conductor there (1833–46;
by the time he left the institution, it had been renamed Her Majesty’s The-
atre). He founded the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden in 1847 and
conducted it until 1868, returning to conduct at Her Majesty’s Theatre,
Haymarket, between 1871 and 1882. He was also well known for his choral
conducting, as the director of the Sacred Harmonic Society from 1848 to
1882, the Handel Festivals at the Crystal Palace between 1857 and 1880,
and the Birmingham Musical Festivals from 1849 to 1882, among others. He
was also conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society from 1846 to 1854.
Costa’s compositions, while few in number, were mostly dramatic or
choral. In his own time, his best-known works were the oratorios Eli (1855)
and Naaman (1864), both of which premiered at the Birmingham Musical
Festival. He was knighted in 1869.

COSYN, BENJAMIN (ca. 1580–1653). Organist and composer. Cosyn held

several organ posts, the longest and last of them at Charterhouse (1626–43),
brought to an end by the Puritan curtailment of organs in church. He was a
significant anthologizer, as seen in the “Cosyn Virginal Book” (GB Lbl R.M.
23.L.4) from 1620, a collection of works by Orlando Gibbons, Cosyn, and
others, and a 1652 collection (F Pc Rés 1185) containing likely autograph fair
copies of music by John Bull and others.

COUNTERTENOR. A mature male voice generally singing in the alto

register. Etymologically an Anglicization of “contratenor,” “countertenor”
often has the implication of a falsettist, though historically in the 17th century
it may likely have referred to tenors singing in their high range. Purcellian
countertenors included John Freeman and John Pate, the latter of whom
Samuel Pepys lauded in superlative tones.
The English cathedral practice of an all-male choir with men, not boys,
on the alto part has given the countertenor a particularly long-lived English
identity, though the emergence of the modern countertenor soloist is deeply

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 94 • COUNTRY DANCE

indebted to the career of Alfred Deller (1912–79), whose concerts and record-
ings beginning in the 1940s were important in the revival not only of early
repertories but of the voice type itself. Although some will make a distinction
between the choral falsettist and the soloist, it is important to note that Deller
himself was a member of the cathedral choir at Canterbury.
The modern repertory for countertenor most notably includes the role of
Oberon in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, originally
written for Deller. In the modern day, as well, countertenors have had some
notable success in singing some of the operatic castrato roles.

COUNTRY DANCE. A body of dances and associated tunes that represent

rustic dance traditions translated into genteel and aristocratic settings. The
most famous collection of English country dance is John Playford’s The
English Dancing Master: or, Plaine and Easie Rules for the Dancing of
Country Dances, with the Tune to each Dance (1651). Reprinted well into the
18th century, the collection presents both choreography and melodies, many
of which are ballad tunes. In the prefatory material Playford underscores the
refinement of the pursuit, claiming that dancing is “excellent for recreation,
after more serious studies, making the body active and strong, gracefull in
deportment, and a quality very much beseeming a Gentleman.”

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE. Opera house, ballet theater, and dra-

matic theater in London, known variously throughout its history as the Royal
Italian Opera (1847–92) and the Royal Opera House (1892–present). The
original Covent Garden Theatre was built in 1732 and used for a mixture of
theatrical, operatic, and ballet performances. Fires destroyed the theater in
1808 and 1856; it was rebuilt each time. A major renovation of the space oc-
curred between 1996 and 2000, and Covent Garden now seats 2,238 people.
George Frideric Handel conducted operas and oratorios there between
1735 and 1759, Sir Henry Bishop was a music director there between
1810 and 1824, Sir Michael Costa directed the Royal Italian Opera there
from 1847 to 1868, Sir Thomas Beecham used the theater frequently in the
1920s, and the Carl Rosa Opera Company staged works there between
1921 and 1924. It also briefly housed the Royal English Opera (1858–64).
See also ARNOLD, SAMUEL; BARBIROLLI, SIR JOHN; BATTISHILL,
JONATHAN; BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS; BLISS, SIR ARTHUR; BOULT,
SIR ADRIAN CEDRIC; BRIDGE, FRANK; CLAY, FREDERIC; DIBDIN,
CHARLES; ELLA, JOHN; FARINELLI; FISHER, JOHN ABRAHAM;
GALLINI, GIOVANNI ANDREA BATTISTA; HOOK, JAMES; JUL-
LIEN, LOUIS ANTOINE; LOCK HOSPITAL; MACCUNN, HAMISH;
MAZZINGHI, JOSEPH; MESSIAH; RANDEGGER, ALBERTO; SHIELD,

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 COWEN, SIR FREDERIC HYMEN • 95

WILLIAM; SMART, HENRY; STANLEY, JOHN; WEBBE, SAMUEL;

WESLEY, SAMUEL; YOUNG, POLLY.

COVERDALE, MILES (1488?–1569). Cleric and translator. Best known

for his edition of the English Bible (1535), the first English version in
print, Coverdale also published a Lutheran-influenced anthology of Goostly
Psalmes and Spiritual Songes (ca. 1635) that contained a number of metrical
psalms set to unharmonized melodies.

COWARD, SIR HENRY (1849–1944). Choral conductor, teacher, writer

on music, and composer. Largely self-taught, Coward became one of the
greatest proponents of his age for sight-singing, especially using Tonic Sol-
fa, and one of the best regarded choral conductors of his time. He began
teaching Tonic Sol-fa to singers in the Sheffield area when he was 17 and
founded several choirs in the area while working as a schoolteacher and then
a headmaster. When his school closed in 1888, he decided to turn to music as
a full-time profession, consequently taking degrees at Oxford (MusB in 1889
and MusD in 1894). From this point forward, he conducted most of the major
choral associations in the north of England as their conductorships opened,
including ones at Sheffield, Huddersfield, Barnesley, Preston, and Newcas-
tle-on-Tyne, among others. He founded and was the choral conductor of the
Sheffield Musical Union (1876) and the Sheffield Musical Festival (1896),
and took 200 voices on a tour of North America in 1911 with the composer
Sir Edward Elgar. In the 1920s Coward became a frequent contributor to
the Musical News and Herald, the house magazine of the Curwen Press;
within it, he continued to promote singing but also frequently criticized jazz
in a racist way. He was the president of the Tonic Sol-fa College from 1926
until his death. Coward was knighted in 1926.

COWEN, SIR FREDERIC HYMEN (1852–1935). Conductor, composer,

pianist, and writer on music. During his life, Cowen was most famous as a
conductor, but well known for his Symphony no. 3 in C minor (“The Scan-
danavian”; 1880, London) and the oratorio Ruth (1887, Three Choirs Festi-
val). While he was a regular contributor to the musical festival circuit until
1910, most of his works are forgotten today. Private study in England was
followed by training in Leipzig (nominally under the teachers at the conser-
vatory there, though he was not enrolled) and at the Stern Conservatory in
Berlin. His parents funded concerts in London that were his first forays into
piano performance and composition, starting in 1869. Aside from conducting
his own compositions, he began regular work as a conductor in 1880, conduct-
ing the Proms, the Royal Philharmonic Society (1888–92 and 1900–1907),

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 96 • CRAMER, JOHN BAPTIST

the Hallé Orchestra (1895–99), the Liverpool Philharmonic Society (1896–

1913), the Bradford Festival Choral Society (1897–1915), the Scottish Or-
chestra (1900–1910), the Cardiff Festival (1902–10), and the Handel Festival
(1903–23; his last appearance as a conductor was at this festival in 1923). He
was the author of several books, including autobiographical works and stud-
ies of Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gioachino Rossini,
and Felix Mendelssohn. Cowen was knighted in 1911.

CRAMER, JOHN BAPTIST (ALSO JOHANN BAPTIST; “GLORIOUS

JOHN”; 1771–1858). Pianist, publisher, teacher, and composer of German
birth. Cramer’s family was active in the London musical scene. His father,
Wilhelm Cramer, was a prominent London violinist, associated with Johann
Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel and founder of the Professional
Concert; his brother, François Cramer, was Master of the King’s Music
from 1837 to 1848 and was the leading violinist of the Concerts of Ancient
Music for several decades. John Cramer was well known as a pianist, espe-
cially for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolf-
gang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven (he introduced many
of Beethoven’s piano works to the London public). According to Ferdinand
Ries, Beethoven considered Cramer to be the best contemporary pianist and
thought Cramer’s pedagogical method, Studio per il pianoforte (2 vols., 1804
and 1810), to be excellent preparation for the performance of Beethoven’s
works. Cramer toured the Continent on several occasions, meeting all of the
major composers of his day.
Cramer invested in publishing ventures beginning in 1805. The third itera-
tion of Cramer’s publishing firm, J. B. Cramer and Co., existed from 1824 to
1964, when it was taken over by Kemble & Co. He was one of the founding
members of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1813—where his piano con-
certos were heard with some frequency) and the Royal Academy of Music
(2; 1822). His farewell concert in 1829 included appearances by Domenico
Dragonetti, Felix Mendelssohn, and Ignaz Moscheles.

CRANFORD, WILLIAM (d. ca. 1645). Singer and composer. Cranford

was a vicar-choral at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, from 1624 or likely
earlier. Sir John Hawkins describes him as a “singing man of St. Paul’s, the
author of many excellent rounds and catches in [John] Hilton’s and [John]
Playford’s Collections.” The catches may show a light side; he is, however,
also the composer of verse anthems and a number of consorts, which may
accord better with Lord North’s description: “Mr. Cranford, whom I knew,
a sober plain-looking Man: his pieces mixed with Majesty, Gravity, Honey-
dew Spirit and Variety.”

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 CROTCH, WILLIAM • 97

CROFT, WILLIAM (1678–1727). Composer and organist. Croft emerged

as one of the leading English composers in the first part of the 18th century—
significantly, a time when foreign importation was ascendant. Brought up in
the Chapel Royal under John Blow, his tie to the elder composer would echo
in his succeeding him as composer and master of the children of the Chapel
Royal as well as organist at Westminster Abbey in 1708. Croft received the
DMus at Oxford in 1713 upon the submission of two odes (“With Noise of
Cannon” and “Laurus Cruentas”). A composer in a number of genres, he is
best known for his church music, published in a two-volume collection, Mu-
sica Sacra (1724). Although his verse anthems may be seen to develop the
form, they also show the influence of the Restoration style, as in, for instance,
solo writing over an ostinato.
Croft composed several hymn tunes still in use today, none more popularly
so than “St. Anne” (familiarly sung to the text “O God Our Help in Ages
Past”). First published anonymously, there are later ascriptions to Croft, but-
tressed by the fact that he was at one time the organist of St. Anne’s, Soho.
Charles Burney’s description of his character suggests an admirable array
of qualities: “We hear of no illiberal traits of envy, malevolence, or insolence.
He neither headed nor abetted fiddling factions; but insensibly preserving the
dignity of his station, without oppressing or mortifying his inferiors by re-
minding them of it, the universal respect he obtained from his talents and emi-
nence in the profession seems to have been blended with personal affection.”

CROSS, LETITIA (1682–1737). Actress and singer. Cross, notably early

in her teenaged years, came to prominence on the London stage in produc-
tions that featured the late works by Henry Purcell. Songs that she first sang
include “I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly” (Indian Queen) and the
demanding mad song “From Rosy Bowers” (The Comical History of Don
Quixote).

CROTCH, WILLIAM (1775–1847). Composer, teacher, organist, and

painter. Crotch was one of the most famous musicians of his own time, both
as a lecturer on music and as a composer. His oratorio Palestine (1812)
was performed frequently in London and at provincial musical festivals for
several decades before falling out of favor. (Sir Michael Costa revived it
somewhat successfully in 1874, but it, like most of Crotch’s music, is now
largely forgotten.)
Crotch was a child prodigy; in his early years he toured throughout Great
Britain to show off his prodigious talents at sight-reading and keyboard per-
formance. He was named an assistant (1786–88) to John Randall, music
professor at Cambridge, and then continued his musical studies at Oxford,

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 98 • CRYSTAL PALACE

involving himself in the musical infrastructure of that city, where he became

organist of Christ Church in 1790, took degrees (BMus in 1794; DMus in
1799), and taught from 1797 until his death as the Heather Professor of
Music. In the early years of his Oxford professorship, Crotch’s talents as a
lecturer on music history, theory, and aesthetics became well known. He de-
livered similar lectures at the Royal Institution in London between 1805 and
1807. By 1807 Crotch resigned his Oxford organist positions and settled per-
manently in London. (Since there were no residentiary duties for the Oxford
Professor of Music at this time, he retained that post.)
While not greatly active as a performer, Crotch composed and continued
lecturing on music. He was named the principal of the Royal Academy of
Music (2) on its founding in 1822 and taught harmony, counterpoint, and
composition there until 1832. He frequently directed the Royal Philhar-
monic Society and conducted his works at musical festivals. His last public
appearance was as organist of the Handel Commemoration in Westminster
Abbey in 1834, though he continued to write on music and other subjects.
His most influential books in the 19th century were the Elements of Musical
Composition (1812; reprinted twice) and The Substance of Several Courses
of Lectures (1831; drawn from his musical lectures starting in the 1800s).

CRYSTAL PALACE. London exhibition and performance venue. The

Crystal Palace was built in 1851 in Hyde Park as part of the Great Exhibition.
It was moved to Sydenham and enlarged in 1854. It had two performance
venues that were in use for concerts of all varieties until it was destroyed
by fire in 1936. Initially, the ensemble housed a military-style wind band;
when Sir August Manns took over the direction of the ensemble in 1855, it
was gradually turned into an orchestra that presented 10 concerts per week.
Manns introduced many English composers to the public at these concerts,
as well as continental composers such as Pytor Il’ych Tchaikovsky. A promi-
nent feature of these concerts were the analytical programs written by Sir
George Grove between 1856 and 1894, who was for a time the secretary
of the company that ran the building. Manns continued these concerts until
1900. The building also became a venue for large competitions, celebrations,
and musical festivals. The London Handel Festivals used the Crystal Pal-
ace as its performance venue from 1857 until their dissolution in 1926. The
Tonic Sol-fa Association frequently held gigantic exhibition concerts and
choral contests there, directed by such stalwarts as Joseph Proudman and
Henry Coward. Brass bands, temperance choral organizations, and others
held yearly contests. It was also the location for the 1911 Festival of Em-
pire. See also BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS; BUSH, ALAN; COSTA, SIR MI-
CHAEL; EXETER HALL; HANDEL COMMEMORATION; MACCUNN,

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 CURWEN, JOHN • 99

HAMISH; MCNAUGHT, WILLIAM GRAY; PROUT, EBENEZER; SA-

CRED HARMONIC SOCIETY; STANFORD, SIR CHARLES VILLIERS;
VOCAL ASSOCIATION.

CURWEN, JOHN (1816–80). Writer, publisher and propagator of the Tonic

Sol-fa sight-singing notation and system; father of John Spencer Curwen.
Curwen initially trained to be a Congregationalist minister and held a degree
from Wymondly Independent College (later Coward College) of the Univer-
sity of London. Long interested in children’s pedagogy, he created a reading
method called “Look and Say” and wrote a moral instructional children’s
book titled The History of Eleanor Vanner (1841).
While not a musician himself, he was charged by the Congregational
Church in 1841 to find a method to teach children congregational psalmody.
Research led him to a book by Sarah Glover describing a Sol-fa system
(later called the “Norwich Sol-fa”) that he adapted (without her permission)
into Tonic Sol-fa. Curwen published numerous method books on the nota-
tion, starting in the 1840s, and founded institutions to promote it, including
the Tonic Sol-fa Association (1851), the Tonic Sol-fa College (1869), and
a publishing company, the Tonic Sol-fa Agency (later called J. Curwen and
Sons and the Curwen Press) to provide method books and music and a
magazine, the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter (with two issues published in 1851 and
a regular run starting in 1853), to publicize it. Until 1864, Curwen worked on
Tonic Sol-fa in tandem with his Congregationalist ministry; in that year, he
turned to music promotion full time.
Within Curwen’s work, music was always of secondary importance. The
focus of his activities at all times was to use music to improve the morals of
the individual and to aid moral philanthropic causes, including church music,
temperance, missionary work, children’s education, the antislavery move-
ment, and many others. He continually noted the use of Tonic Sol-fa by such
philanthropic movements, and he frequently provided subventions for them,
so long as they would use Tonic Sol-fa notation. He modeled his promotion
of Tonic Sol-fa notation on the temperance movement, including publiciz-
ing it through large, traveling evangelical-style meetings and demonstrations
that created local classes and societies to study and sing from the notation in
their wake and the issuing of pledgelike certificates denoting various levels
of certificates of Tonic Sol-fa “proficiency.” Curwen believed in the power
of music to aid in the moral reform or the moral decay of the individual, and
consequently he used his growing publishing apparatus to produce music
that would reflect his dissenting, philanthropic values while “improving” the
taste of the individual. Tonic Sol-fa methods would thus begin with hymns,
simple songs about patriotism, hard work, and the beauty of the country, and

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 100 • CURWEN, JOHN SPENCER

work toward the oratorio choruses of George Frideric Handel and Felix
Mendelssohn.
By the end of Curwen’s life, the popularity of Tonic Sol-fa eclipsed all of
the other rival sight-singing systems in Great Britain (including those of John
Hullah and Joseph Mainzer); the Reporter claimed that hundreds of thou-
sands of British subjects had been trained using the system, and its use spread
far beyond the island to missionary fields touched by British organizations
(including Australia, China, India, Japan, Madagascar, New Zealand, South
Africa, and many other territories), as well as being used in North America by
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Later-Day Saints and through-
out the world by the Salvation Army.

CURWEN, JOHN SPENCER (1847–1916). Composer, musician, writer,

and publisher; propagator of the Tonic Sol-fa sight-singing notation sys-
tem; son of John Curwen. While throughout his career as Tonic Sol-fa’s
primary propagator, John Curwen treated music as a means to a moral and
philanthropic end, he realized that the various branches of the Tonic Sol-fa
organization needed the imprimatur of a professional musician, in order to
explain, defend, and promote the sight-singing notation to the British musical
establishment. Consequently, Spencer Curwen attended the Royal Academy
of Music (2; RAM), taking lessons from Sir George Alexander Macfar-
ren, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and Ebenezer Prout. He began writing articles
and editorials for the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter in 1870 and was named a fellow
of the RAM in 1879. At this point, the apparatus of the Tonic Sol-fa As-
sociation and the Curwen Press was too large to be controlled by a single
individual. Spencer Curwen therefore became the de facto head of the Tonic
Sol-fa movement upon his father’s death in 1880, editing the Reporter and
heading the Tonic Sol-fa College, while his brother, Joseph Spedding Cur-
wen (?–1919), took over the day-to-day aspects of running the business and
publishing company.
Spencer Curwen’s interests were always in the improvement of the individ-
ual’s musical tastes, whether or not those tastes were aided by Tonic Sol-fa.
Throughout his career as publisher of the Curwen Press magazines, he gradu-
ally turned them from catering to especially philanthropic-minded musicians
to amateur musicians in general, by increasingly including articles on items
of general interest, such as discussions of the musical festivals and laudatory
descriptions of modern composers. About the time he renamed the Reporter
to the Musical Herald (1889), he began to distance the journal from dissent-
ing philanthropic causes, including temperance and missionary work (though
the Curwen Press would remain prominent publishers of temperance music
and would fund a prize at temperance choir contests well into the 1910s). In

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 CUTTING, FRANCIS • 101

spite of these reforms, under his control, the journal and publishing company
remained firmly committed to the amateur singer, and not the instrumental-
ist. He was an early supporter of competition festivals for amateur musicians
(he sometimes erroneously claimed to be their founder) and used them as a
way of encouraging an excellent standard of choral music—though through
promoting a relatively conservative repertoire of oratorios, cantatas, and
partsongs.

CURWEN PRESS (ALSO THE TONIC SOL-FA AGENCY; CURWEN

& SONS). Music publishing firm. The company was initially incorporated in
1863 and existed until 1984. It was the major printer of Tonic Sol-fa notation
throughout the 19th century and published the journals associated with the
Tonic Sol-fa Association, including the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, the Musical
Herald, and the Musical News and Herald. In its first decades the Curwen
Press printed pedagogy books, oratorio and cantata scores (both the classics,
such as George Frideric Handel’s Messiah and works specifically written
in Tonic Sol-fa notation), and Tonic Sol-fa journals almost exclusively under
the aegis of founder John Curwen and his sons John Spencer Curwen and
Joseph Spedding Curwen. In the first decades of the 20th century, the press
published many well-known figures of the second generation of the English
Musical Renaissance, such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Philip Heseltine,
and Dame Ethel Smyth, releasing a mixture of vocal and instrumental music.
In 1908, the press also began limited printings of high-quality books.

CUTTING, FRANCIS (?–1596). Lutanist and composer. Cutting’s com-

positions, including dances, divisions, and arrangements of keyboard works,
appear prominently in William Barley’s 1596 anthology, New Booke of Ta-
bliture, alongside works by John Dowland.

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 D
D’OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY. Organization founded by the im-
presario and composer Richard d’Oyly Carte, principally for the promotion
of operettas by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
The company existed as an entity from 1879 to 1982, held as a private, for-
profit venture until 1961 and a charitable trust from 1961 to 1982. While it
celebrated its centenary in 1975, this was more to mark the anniversary of
the collaboration of Richard d’Oyly Carte, Gilbert, and Sullivan for Trial by
Jury, which was presented in a theater managed by d’Oyly Carte. The D’Oyly
Carte Opera Company followed a shorter venture organized by Richard
d’Oyly Carte to promote Gilbert and Sullivan, the Comedy Opera Com-
pany (1877–79), which produced The Sorcerer (1877) and H.M.S. Pinafore
(1878). When the company formed in 1879, it promoted London productions
of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and touring companies in the British prov-
inces and North America, and licensed other companies to tour the works on
other continents.
The company built the Savoy Theatre (1881) especially for the produc-
tion of operetta, and the English Opera House for the production of grand
opera in English. The Savoy survived, flourished, and still exists today; the
English Opera House had one successful production (Sullivan’s Ivanhoe,
1891) before being sold. After Richard d’Oyly Carte’s death, the company
was run by his widow, Helen Lenior d’Oyly Carte (1901–13), Rupert d’Oyly
Carte (1913–48; a son by a previous marriage), and Bridget d’Oyly Carte
(Richard’s granddaughter). Aside from Gilbert and Sullivan, the Company
employed such composers and conductors as Alfred Cellier, Sir Edward
German, Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, and Edward Solomon. An
attempt was made to revive the company in 1988, but the new version of the
organization folded in 2003.

DANNREUTHER, EDWARD (1844–1905). Pianist, impresario, Wagne-

rian, writer, teacher, and composer of German origin. Dannreuther, along
with William Ashton Ellis, was one of the most important Wagnerians living
in England in the second half of the 19th century. His translations and emen-
dations of Richard Wagner’s prose works, as well as his articles on Wagner

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 104 • DARTINGTON INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

for Sir George Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians and his read-
ing of a Ludwig van Beethoven/Wagner axis, influenced his writing in The
Oxford History of Music (1905 edition) and powered the Anglophonic read-
ing of music history for decades. In a series of concerts at his Orme Square
home (1876–93), Dannreuther introduced English intellects and musicians to
the chamber music of Johannes Brahms, Pytor Il’ych Tchaikovsky, Richard
Strauss, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, and Sir Hubert Parry. He was also
a noted pianist and presented English premieres of a number of English and
continental piano concertos.
Dannreuther was born in Germany, though he moved with his family to
Cincinnati in 1846. He attended the Conservatory at Leipzig from 1860 to
1863. The American Civil War halted his family’s ability to support him,
and consequently, he left Lepzig in 1863 for London, under the sponsor-
ship of Henry Frothergill Chorley. Aside from concert tours, he spent the
remainder of his life in England. On his arrival, he quickly began to orga-
nize fellow Wagnerians, through being part of the so-called Working Men’s
Society (founded in 1867), which played through most of Wagner’s music
dramas; being a founder of the London Wagner Society (1872; president,
1895–1905); promoting the London Wagner Festival in 1877 (hosting Wag-
ner in his home); and writing and lecturing. He was also a piano professor at
the Royal College of Music (1895).

DARTINGTON INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL. Summer

school and musical festival for music and the arts held at Dartington Hall
in Devon. It began as the Bryanston Summer School in 1948 and moved to
Dartington Hall in 1953. Notable teachers in residence at the school include
Luciano Berio, Nadia Boulanger, Elliot Carter, Aaron Copland, Georges
Enescu, Paul Hindemith, Imogen Holst, and Luigi Nono. William Glock,
sometime conductor of the British Broadcasting Corporation Proms, di-
rected the school between 1948 and 1979. Peter Maxwell-Davies directed it
from 1980 to 1984, succeeded by Gavin Henderson.

DAVENANT, SIR WILLIAM (1606–68). Dramatist and poet. Davenant

figures prominently in the establishment of opera in England in the 1650s. In
1656 his The First Dayes Entertainment at Rutland-House by Declamations
and Musick: after the manner of the Ancients was performed; its nature, as
Dent (1967) describes it, was as a “lecture-recital in costume,” a format that
would allow it to gratify operatic taste while subverting Puritan bans on stage
productions. Later that same year he produced The Siege of Rhodes . . . a Rep-
resentation by the Art of Perspective in Scenes . . . the Story sung in Recitative
Musick. This might properly be seen as the first English opera, though none of

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 DAVY, RICHARD • 105

the music by Henry Lawes, Henry Cooke, Matthew Locke, Charles Cole-
man, and George Hudson survives. Following the Restoration, Davenant turned
his attention to semi-operatic adaptations of William Shakespeare.
As a royalist, he fled England in the 1640s and went abroad to France,
where he would have been exposed both to Roman opera as well as to French
operatic works. Davenant was knighted in 1643.

DAVIES, SIR (HENRY) WALFORD (1869–1941). Composer, organist,

teacher, writer, and radio broadcaster. As a composer, his most popular work
during his own life was the oratorio Everyman (premiered 1904 at the Leeds
Musical Festival and performed for the next two decades throughout Great
Britain); his best-known work today is the “RAF March Past,” as orchestrated
by Sir George Dyson. Davies received early training as a chorister and Sir
Walter Parratt’s pupil assistant at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. He at-
tended the Royal College of Music (1890) and was named teacher of coun-
terpoint there in 1895, where one of his students was Rutland Boughton.
During his time in London, he was organist for a number of churches, before
taking an appointment at the Temple Church as organist and choirmaster
(1898–1919). He also conducted the Bach Choir (1903–7). After the war, he
was Professor of Music at Aberystwyth University in Wales (1919–26), the
Gresham Professor of Music at the University of London (1924–39), organ-
ist at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor (1927–32), and the voice of a popular
British Broadcasting Corporation educational radio series titled Music and
the Ordinary Listener (1926–39). He was knighted in 1922 and was Master
of the King’s Music from 1934 until his death.

DAVIS, MARY (MOLL) (ALSO DAVIES; ca. 1650–1708). Singer, ac-

tress, dancer, royal mistress. Davis’s performances brought her to royal at-
tention and favor; she became a mistress of Charles II around 1667. She was
the mother of the king’s youngest child, Lady Mary Tudor, who appeared
with her in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, the mother singing the role of
Venus and the daughter the role of Cupid. She married the recorder player
and composer James Paisible in 1686.

DAVY, RICHARD (ca. 1465–1538). Composer. Davy is associated with

Magdalen College, Oxford, as organist and informator choristarum in the
early 1490s. Attempts to locate him after 1494 are speculative, although a
time as a vicar-choral at Exeter or as a singing-man at Fotheringhay are
possible. Davy is best known for his contributions to the Eton Choirbook,
which include an incomplete four-voice responsorial setting of the Matthew
Passion, the first Passion setting by a named composer.

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 106 • DAY, JOHN

DAY, JOHN (1522–84). Printer. Day’s musical printing made a rich contri-
bution to the dissemination of the metrical psalm and the development of
reformed devotional and liturgical music. His The Whole Book of Psalmes
was first issued in 1562, giving unharmonized melodies for the metrical texts
of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter. In 1563 Day published harmonized
tunes (the melody generally in the tenor) in The Whole Book of Psalmes in
Foure Partes. His Certaine Notes set forthe in Foure and Three Parts, first
fully printed in 1565 as Mornyng and Evenyng Prayer and Communion, set
forthe in foure partes, comprises anthems and liturgical material.

THE DEATH OF MINNEHAHA. See THE SCENES FROM THE SONG

OF HIAWATHA.

DELIUS, SIR FREDERICK (1862–1934). Composer, born and buried

in England, who spent most of his intellectual and musical life outside that
country, though he became immensely popular there in the last years of his
life. Delius grew up in a musical family of German descent, but his father
meant him to enter the family’s wool business. When, in 1884, it became
apparent Delius would not take to this, he left England only to return for the
occasional concert and for a brief period at the beginning of World War I. He
spent a few years in America, where he was educated in Florida by Thomas F.
Ward, a local organist, before moving briefly to Virginia and New York. He
had 18 months of study in Leipzig, where he met Edvard Grieg, who became
a champion of his works. He settled permanently in France in 1888.
Recognition of Delius’s talents in England was slow to develop. He orga-
nized and funded a successful concert of his works in London in 1899 and
was championed by Sir Henry Wood (in a concert of his Piano Concerto in
1907) and then by Sir Thomas Beecham, who premiered Delius’s Mass of
Life (composed 1904–5; London public premiere in 1909); this, along with
the cantata Sea-Drift (premiered on the Continent in 1906; presented in
England at the Sheffield Musical Festival in 1908), became his most popular
choral piece. Beecham conducted a festival of six concerts dedicated to De-
lius in 1929 at the Queen’s Hall. His popularity in England (mostly due to
Beecham’s festival) is seen in the large crowd that witnessed his interment in
a small church graveyard at the Surrey village of Limpsfield. He was named
a CH in 1929.

DENT, EDWARD J. (1876–1957). Musicologist, teacher, translator, com-

poser, and critic. Dent holds the curious position of being one of the most
respected as well as the most reviled critics of his time. His negative interwar
statements about Ludwig van Beethoven and Sir Edward Elgar (includ-

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 DIALOGUE • 107

ing his references to The Dream of Gerontius as “Gerry’s Nightmare” and

his harsh condemnation of the composer and his music in Guido Adler’s
Handbuch der Musikgesichte [1924]), which led to public outcries, are bal-
anced against his great professional success in encouraging English musi-
cians to embrace pre-19th-century repertoire for performance.
Dent was educated at Eton and Cambridge and was a member of what Brett
refers to as “the queer set in that haven for homosexuals at the turn of the
century” (2002). From 1902 to 1918, and again from 1926 to 1941, he was a
fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and the Professor of Music there in the
later period. In his time there, he reorganized the requirements and expecta-
tions of the MusB degree, creating a program that catered to the intellectual
professional musician. He was active as a music writer and critic in London
between 1918 and 1926, and spent his last two decades in London after
he left Cambridge. He was particularly active in the field of opera—both
as a libretto translator and as a scholar—and was active in the intellectual
infrastructure of English music, being the president of the International So-
ciety for Contemporary Music (1923–38), the International Musical Society
(1931–49), and the Royal Musical Association (1928–35).

DERING, LADY MARY (1629–1704). Composer. A pupil of Henry Lawes

from 1648, Dering was an accomplished composer, earning the praise of her
teacher: “[You] are yourself so good a Composer, that few of any sex have
arriv’d to such perfection.” Lawes dedicated his 1655 anthology, Select Ayres
and Dialogues, to her and included several of her songs in the collection.

DERING, RICHARD (ca. 1580–1630). Composer and organist. Dering

took the BMus at Oxford in 1610. His conversion to Roman Catholicism is
resonant with both his time spent in Italy and also the necessity to work as
an expatriate abroad, as he did as organist of an English convent in Brus-
sels from 1617. In 1625 he returned to England as a royal musician to both
Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria, whose Roman Catholic Chapel
would presumably prove spiritually congenial.
Dering’s Italianate music with basso continuo unsurprisingly includes
Latin motets that ironically were favored by Oliver Cromwell. His English
music includes two examples of “cries”—City Cries and Country Cries—that
popularly combine contrapuntal viols with vocal evocations of vendors’ calls
and the like.

DIALOGUE. Seventeenth-century declamatory settings that feature ex-

changes between singers in character. Significantly, the dialogue sees the
notion of recitative develop in England and also nurtures the development

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 108 • DIBDIN, CHARLES

of dramatic musical scenes. Early examples of the dialogue appear in the

music of Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger, but with more declamatory
maturity mid-century with composers like Nicholas Lanier and Henry
Lawes. The subjects of the dialogues are often conventionalized, with the
pastoral nymph-and-shepherd trope common, as was the Charon dialogue, an
exchange between the boatman of the River Styx and a variety of passengers
to the underworld. More dramatically hefty were biblical and mythological
dialogues by John Hilton (the younger) and Robert Ramsey, works that
Spink (1974) likens to “small-scale opera and oratorio.” Ramsey’s setting of
the Biblical story of Saul and the Witch of Endor (“In Guilty Night”) found
a later echo in Henry Purcell’s setting of the same text.

DIBDIN, CHARLES (1745–1814). Composer, dramatist, poet, novelist, ac-

tor, and entertainer. Dibdin was largely self-taught as a composer, though he
did have organ lessons from James Kent and Peter Fussell, the successive
organists at Winchester Cathedral. Between 1760 and 1781 he composed
operas, pastorals, and afterpieces for most of the major venues in London,
including Covent Garden, Sadler’s Wells, and Drury Lane. None of these
compositions remain in the repertory. During this time, he also composed
music for (and occasionally managed the music at) the Ranelagh pleasure
gardens. From 1781 to 1784 Dibdin entered into a partnership with Charles
Hughes to create the Royal Circus, an entertainment complex that featured
horseback riding tricks and music sung by children.
After a stint in debtors’ prison, Dibdin began a provincial tour to raise
money for a planned emigration to India. He did not make the voyage but
used the idea of “table entertainments” developed from this tour (a com-
bination of singing topical songs and monologues) and presented them in
London from 1789 to 1805. These entertainments became so successful that
Dibdin built two small theaters to house them: one off the Strand, and one in
Leicester Square. Both were named the Sans Souci Theatre. His songs were
successful with both the public and the government; William Pitt the Younger
offered a pension of £200 per year for Dibdin to compose patriotic songs dur-
ing the Napoleonic Wars. (The pension was later revoked.) Dibdin left the
stage in 1805 and continued to write songs for a London publisher until he
suffered a debilitating stroke. He composed more than 300 songs, of which
“Tom Bowling” and “Tight Little Island” may be the best known today.

DIDO AND AENEAS. A fully sung dramatic work composed by Henry

Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate, later to become poet laureate. The fully
sung nature of the work is rare both for Purcell and for the Restoration stage,
and though it is tempting to see it as an opera, its short duration relative to

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 DOLMETSCH, ARNOLD • 109

continental models suggests that it is closer perhaps to a masque. The libretto

freely adapts Virgil, with the story as follows: Aeneas, a warrior prince, sets
out to found a new Troy on the banks of the river Tiber. A storm blows him
to Carthage and to Queen Dido, with whom he falls in love. Witches—a sor-
ceress and her coven—conjure up a false Mercury to call Aeneas back to his
original goal; this is a trick calculated to devastate Dido who, abandoned, dies.
The original performance history of the work is cloudy. A printed epilogue
by Thomas Durfey is dated 1689 and cites that the “Opera of Dido and
Aeneas” was “perform’d at Mr. Preist’s [Josias Priest’s] Boarding School at
Chelsey.” However, whether this performance at a school for young gentle-
women was the first is open to question, especially as a sister work, John
Blow’s Venus and Adonis, was performed both at court and in Chelsea, a
double-venue model that is tempting to posit for Dido as well. Scholars have
proposed various earlier dates, including 1684 (Wood and Pinnock, 1992)
and 1687 (Walkling, 1994).
The libretto is richly prone to allegorical interpretation and, dependent
on chronology, may be seen to offer comment on the reign of William and
Mary (Buttrey, 1967/68) or James II and the Declaration of Indulgence
(Walkling, 1994).
The music has a propensity both for dances—a French theatrical influ-
ence—and for ground basses. Dido’s lament at the end of the opera, sung
over a lachrymal descending chromatic tetrachord, is justly revered as one of
Purcell’s most moving compositions.

DOLMETSCH, (EUGÈNE) ARNOLD (1858–1940). Instrument builder,

music editor, and violinist. Dolmetsch was one of the major figures in the
early 20th-century revival of historical instruments and period-music prac-
tices. His studio for building copies and refurbishing original instruments,
founded in Haslemere, Surrey, in 1920 became a leading center for the study
of early music and its performance, and the Dolmetsch Foundation (estab-
lished 1928) continues this work today. The Haslemere Festival, begun in
1925 by Dolmetsch, also became a well-known location for the performance
of early music.
Dolmetsch came from a family of instrument makers. After private study
with Henri Vieuxtemps at the Brussels Conservatory, Dolmetsch studied at
the Royal College of Music (1883–85). From 1885 to 1889 he taught violin
at Dulwich College. From 1889 forward he began building his first copies
of early instruments, including lutes, clavichords, and harpsichords; he also
worked with viol consorts and later, recorders. From 1904 to 1914 he spent
time working for instrument firms in the United States of America and Paris,
but returned to London in 1914 before moving permanently to Haslemere in

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 110 • DORSET GARDEN THEATRE

1917. Aside from editing manuscripts of early music, some of which were in
long use at the early music festival in Haslemere, Dolmetsch was also the au-
thor of The Interpretation of Music in the XVII and XVIII Centuries Revealed
by Evidence (London, 1915), one of the first major texts in the burgeoning
historical performance movement.

DORSET GARDEN THEATRE. Designed by Christopher Wren, the Duke’s

Theatre at Dorset Garden was built in 1671 for the company of players under the
direction of Sir William Davenant, one of two theater companies under royal
patent in the early years of the Restoration. The other, the King’s Company, was
under the direction of Thomas Killigrew at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. In
addition to regular plays, the Duke’s Theatre produced operatic entertainments
(i.e. semi-operas) and was the venue for Davenant’s operatic William Shake-
speare adaptations in the 1670s, John Dryden and Louis Grabu’s unsuccessful
Albion and Albanius (1685), Henry Purcell’s King Arthur (1691) and Fairy
Queen (1692), and the 1701 settings of Congreve’s Judgment of Paris by God-
frey Finger, John Eccles, Daniel Purcell, and John Weldon.
The music room for the instrumentalists was located above the proscenium
arch. However, in Shadwell’s publication of The Tempest (1676) he notes
“The Front of the Stage is open’d, and the Band of 24 Violins, with the Harp-
sicals and Theorbo’s which accompany the Voices, are placed between the
Pit and the Stage.”

DOWLAND, JOHN (1563–1626). Lutanist and composer. Widely regarded

as the leading lute figure of his day, it is ironic that he was not appointed to
an English court position until 1612, long after his career was well established
and 18 years after the first likely opening appeared. Unsurprisingly, he thus
spent a significant time abroad in the service of the ducal court at Wolfenbüt-
tel and the Danish court of Christian IV (1598–1606). Early in his career he
also enjoyed the patronage of Sir Henry Cobham in Paris, and it was there
that he took up Roman Catholicism, a politically problematic move that he
subsequently rejected in 1595.
As a composer, Dowland’s contribution to the lute-song repertory (see
AYRE) not only gives a large number of its most familiar examples, but also
nurtures the genre’s growth from the strophic dance-air to the more modern,
through-composed song, with new degrees of declamation and harmonic
expressivity, as seen in works like “In Darkness Let Me Dwell.” His solo
lute works, dances in the main, are likely a mirror of his own performance
abilities and show in their florid diminutions an impressive level of virtuosity.
Much has been made of the association of Dowland and melancholy. One
of his most famous and widely disseminated works is his Lachrimae pavan,

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 DRAGONETTI, DOMENICO • 111

a work that also coexists as the song “Flow My Tears” and is the basis for
his stunning cycle of pavans, Lachrimae or Seaven Teares (1604). The lach-
rymal title, echoed in the falling-tear motive of the pavan’s opening tetra-
chord, seems iconic of the composer whose song texts could be notably dark
and who famously titled a pavan “Semper Dowland Semper Dolens” (Ever
Dowland, Ever Sad). It is tempting to read these works as autobiographical,
and perhaps they are, but given the ubiquity of the cult of melancholy among
the Elizabethans, it is also possible that artistic persona and personal reality
significantly diverge.
Dowland modeled the notion of a “learned” musician, especially in render-
ing his translation of Andreas Ornithoparcus’s Latin 16th-century treatise,
Micrologus, which he published in 1609. Learnedness, admittedly of a basic
sort, also figures in his preface to A Pilgrimes Solace (1612), where he is criti-
cal of those who are “merely ignorant, even in the first elements of Musicke,
and also in the true order of the mutation of the Hexachord in the Systeme,”
the type of musicians he feared gained favor while his own advancement was
enmired in frustration.

DRAGHI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (ca. 1640–1708). Composer and key-

board player. Draghi came to London in the 1660s to join a nascent Italian
opera company under the direction of the Albrici brothers. The diarists
Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn both praise his abilities, and he became well
established as both a teacher and a keyboard player, including appointment as
organist in the Roman Catholic chapel of Catherine of Braganza. A measure
of his regard emerges in his participation in an organ-builders’ competition
between Renatus Harris and Bernard Smith, both vying for the contract
to build an instrument for the Temple Church; Harris selected Draghi as his
demonstrator.
A manuscript discovery in the 1990s brought to light a collection of Henry
Purcell’s keyboard works in autograph that also includes 17 works by Draghi.

DRAGONETTI, DOMENICO (1763–1846). Double bass virtuoso and

composer of Italian origin. Dragonetti’s contemporaries considered him the
finest bass player of his time, and he could command enormous fees for per-
formance, even within an orchestra. As an example, his salary of £47 6s. at
the Chester Musical Fetival of 1821 was the third highest in the orchestra,
and far higher than the string players’ average fee of £6 6s. Dragonetti re-
ceived his early training and held his first substantial employment in Venice.
He moved to England in 1794 on a purported two-year leave from the instru-
mental ensemble of San Marco but made London his home for the remainder
of his life, aside from trips to the Continent in 1799 and 1808–14. He was

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 112 • DRAMATICK OPERA

frequently heard at most of the contemporary musical festivals as well as all

of the London venues, including the King’s Theatre, Haymarket; the Con-
certs of Ancient Music; and the Royal Philharmonic Society. He was great
friends with the cellist Robert Lindley and was often seen at festivals and
concerts in the company of his dog, Carlo. His compositions and arrange-
ments were mostly for his instrument and remain a staple of the double bass
repertoire today.

DRAMATICK OPERA. “Dramatick opera” is John Dryden’s term for

semi-opera, used in reference to his 1691 King Arthur.

THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS. Oratorio by Sir Edward Elgar to a text

by John Henry Cardinal Newman, first performed at the Birmingham Musi-
cal Festival on 3 October 1900. The work, along with the op. 36 Variations
on an Original Theme (“Enigma”), made Elgar famous. Gerontius describes
the journey of a man from his last hours on earth to his entrance in Heaven
as a Soul and features evocative writing in a Wagnerian vein; August Jaeger
wrote a Hans von Wolzogen–style guide to the Leitmotivs within it. The Bir-
mingham premiere was not a great success, mostly due to lack of rehearsal
time for the chorus. Yet, in spite of its Catholic nature (the main subject of
Gerontius is the forgiveness of sins, and Gerontius/the Soul is sent to Purga-
tory at the end of the work), the work succeeded greatly in its first decade,
with performances throughout Germany and North America. The work was
banned in Gloucester Cathedral until 1910 and admitted only after the more
“Catholic” elements of the text were removed from the libretto. Gerontius
was particularly championed by musical festivals and choral societies, be-
coming a close rival to both George Frederick Handel’s Messiah and Felix
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and remains Elgar’s most popular choral work in
Great Britain today, though it is rarely heard outside that country.

DRURY LANE THEATRE. The Theatre Royal at Drury Lane opened

under Thomas Killigrew in 1663 and was rebuilt in 1674, at which time it
competed with the Duke’s Company at Dorset Garden. Although Henry
Purcell’s semi-operas were performed at Dorset Garden, his association
with the Theatre Royal was long—from 1680 until the year of his death in
1695—being the venue for much of his stage music.
In the early 18th century, the Theatre Royal was particularly influential
in nurturing the taste for Italianate opera productions with performances
of Thomas Clayton’s Arsinoe (1705) and Giovanni Bononcini’s Camilla
(1706). The early 18th century also saw the Theatre Royal in a complicated
competitive relationship with the Queen’s Theatre at the Haymarket. In the

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 DRURY LANE THEATRE • 113

1706–7 season Drury Lane held the monopoly on operas, while the Haymar-
ket had no musical productions at all; the year 1708 would then reverse this
situation with Drury Lane presenting plays only and the Haymarket exclu-
sively operas; the 1709–10 season saw plays with music at Drury Lane and
Italian operas and plays with music at the Haymarket.
From the mid-18th century forward, Drury Lane continued to present
mixed entertainment, with spoken theater and opera performances presented
within the same seasons. David Garrick managed Drury Lane from 1747 to
1776. Under his auspices, Drury Lane introduced oratorio evenings during
Lent in 1762; though these were somewhat sporadic, Thomas Linley (the el-
der) managed them between 1774 and 1786. Garrick also employed Charles
Dibdin to manage the music at the theater from 1768 to 1775. The theater
was demolished in 1791 and rebuilt by 1794 by Richard Brinsley Sherridan,
who managed it from 1776 to 1809. Sherridan’s rebuilt theater included 3,600
seats. Throughout the tenure of both Garrick and Sherridan, and long into the
19th century, Drury Lane presented arrangements of continental opera and
the occasionally commissioned English opera. For instance, 1794 saw the
production of Steven Storace’s The Cherokee. Drury Lane had a disastrous
fire in 1809 and was rebuilt again by 1812 with 3,060 seats. This is the build-
ing that survives today.
Throughout the 19th century, Drury Lane hosted the famous and the
not-so-famous; Sir Henry Bishop was music director for a time starting
in 1824. Louis Antoine Jullien presented some of his promenade concerts
there; he also engaged Hector Berlioz to conduct a season of opera (1847).
The Carl Rosa Opera Company had seasons there from 1883 to 1885, and
Sir Thomas Beecham conducted Russian operas at Drury Lane in 1913–14.
The theater also presented the first staged performance of an opera by Rich-
ard Wagner in England: Die fliegende Hollander, translated into Italian as
L’Olandese Dannato (1870).
A refurbishment in 1922 decreased the number of seats in the theater to
2283, and from the 1930s forward Drury Lane became a theater for musicals
and lighter entertainment—first presenting works by Noël Coward and Ivor
Novello, and then, after the end of World War II, long-running American
and British musicals. See also ABRAMS, HARRIET; ARNE, THOMAS
AUGUSTINE; BABELL, WILLIAM; BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM;
BATTISHILL, JONATHAN; BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS; BONONCINI,
GIOVANNI; BURNEY, CHARLES; CLARKE, JEREMIAH; CLAYTON,
THOMAS; COOKE, TOM; ECCLES, JOHN; FINGER, GODFREY; HOOK,
JAMES; LINLEY, THOMAS (THE YOUNGER); LOCK HOSPITAL; LY-
CEUM THEATRE; NORRIS, THOMAS; ORATORIO; PEPUSCH, JO-
HANN CHRISTOPH; PUBLIC CONCERTS; RANDEGGER, ALBERTO;

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 114 • DRYDEN, JOHN

RUSH, GEORGE; SMART, SIR GEORGE THOMAS; SMART, HENRY;

STORACE, STEPHEN; WEBBE, SAMUEL.

DRYDEN, JOHN (1631–1700). Poet and dramatist. Dryden, poet laureate

from 1668 to 1689, figures significantly in the development of English op-
eratic works, especially in his association with Henry Purcell. His first sub-
stantial operatic work is Albion and Albanius, an allegorical work originally
intended as a prologue to King Arthur. Set as a fully sung work in the French
style by Louis Grabu, the work was unsuccessful in its 1685 performance,
owing to an unfortunate coincidence with Monmouth’s Rebellion and the
turbulence of the political circumstance underlying the work’s allegory.
The choice of Grabu as composer reflected the poet’s lack of confidence in
the English musical establishment: “When any of our countrymen excel him
[Grabu], I shall be glad, for the sake of old England, to be shewn my errour.”
Dryden was indeed shown his error with Purcell’s successful semi-opera
Dioclesian, which he acknowledged both implicitly in collaborating with him
in music for the play Amphytrion and explicitly in that work’s dedication.
Subsequently, their grandest collaboration was the semi-opera King Arthur
(a revised version for 1691), which Dryden described as a play “Written in
blank Verse, adorn’d with Scenes, Machines, Songs, and Dances,” an admi-
rable description of the semi-opera form itself.

DUNSTAPLE (DUNSTABLE), JOHN (ca. 1390–1453). Composer. Dun-

staple emerges not only as the most eminent of the English composers of the
early 15th century but also as a defining figure of the early Renaissance style.
Johannes Tinctoris, for instance, observes around 1476 (Proportionale Mu-
sices) that “the possibilities of our music have been so marvelously increased
that there appears to be a new art [the Renaissance style] . . . whose fount
and origin is held to be among the English, of whom Dunstable stood forth as
chief.” And his influence in the transmission of this style to Burgundian com-
posers is confirmed in Martin le Franc’s famous reference (Le Champion des
dames) to Guillaume Dufay and Giles Binchois “wearing the English guise.”
Dunstaple’s style is one favoring full triadic vertical sonorities, triadic me-
lodic mottos, a dissonance control that approaches pan-consonance, frequent
hemiolas, both vertical and horizontal, and the sweet sound of successive 6-3
sonorities. Some of his works, like the early “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” embrace
medieval structures like isorhythm; others, like the motet “O quam pulchra
es,” are progressive in their declamatory elements, preserving both the audi-
bility of the text as well as its natural accentuation.
Bent (1981) judged Dunstaple “probably the most influential English
composer of all time and one of the few who can be ranked internationally

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 DYSON, SIR GEORGE • 115

as a great figure.” Significantly, both his epitaph and several written sources
also document his interest in astronomy, a manifestation of the unity of the
quadrivial arts.

DURFEY, THOMAS (ca. 1653–1723). Poet and dramatist. Durfey is best

known for his large collection of poems with tunes entitled Wit and Mirth,
or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719–20). He is also the author of the printed
epilogue to Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Attempts to associate him
with the stuttering poet in Purcell’s Fairy Queen have been compellingly
challenged by Price (1984).

DUSSEK (DUSÍK), JAN LADISLAV (1760–1812). Pianist, teacher, com-

poser, and music publisher. Dussek was born in Cáslav, outside Prague (in
what was then part of the Austrian Empire and now part of the Czech Repub-
lic), and spent the first three decades of his life gaining a reputation through-
out the Continent as a gifted pianist and teacher. In 1789, after several years
in France in the service of the Berlin ambassador, but playing frequently for
the French aristocracy, he fled to London ahead of the French Revolution.
For the next decade, he became a fixture of London musical life: his lessons
were extremely popular, he performed at the Hanover Square Rooms, he
made frequent guest appearances at Johann Peter Salomon’s concerts, and
he entered into a partnership with his stepfather to form the Corri, Dussek &
Co. music publishing company, which also acted as selling agents for Broad-
wood pianos in Scotland. When bankruptcy threatened, Dussek fled to the
Continent in 1799, where he spent the rest of his life, likely never seeing his
wife or daughter again.

DYKES, JOHN BACCHUS (1823–76). Clergyman and amateur composer.

While studying classics at Cambridge, Dykes had organ lessons from T. A.
Walmisley, sang in a madrigal society, and was president of the Cambridge
Musical Society. From 1849 to 1862, he was the precentor and a minor canon
at Durham Cathedral, where he wrote many of the hymns for the 1861 edi-
tion of Hymns Ancient and Modern, including “Nearer My God to Thee.” He
was a frequent lecturer on church music and was given the honorary MusD
by Durham University in 1861.

DYSON, SIR GEORGE (1883–1964). Composer, teacher, writer on music,

and organist. Dyson was best known for large choral and musical festival
compositions during his lifetime, including The Canterbury Pilgrims (1931),
though these are mostly unknown today. He attended the Royal College of
Music (RCM) from 1900 to 1904 and won the Mendelssohn Scholarship,

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 116 • DYSON, SIR GEORGE

which allowed him to travel to Florence, Rome, Vienna, and Berlin between
1904 and 1907. He served in a variety of posts upon his return to England,
including being the director of music for the Royal Naval College at Osborne
(1907), music master at Marlborough College (1911), and professor at the
RCM (1921). He enlisted twice during World War I, first in the Royal Fusil-
iers in 1914 and then in the Royal Air Force in 1916. He completed the MusD
from Oxford in 1918. Dyson served as the director of the RCM from 1938 to
1952 and was knighted in 1941.

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 E
EAST, MICHAEL (ca. 1580–1648). Composer. East, the nephew of the
music publisher Thomas East, was for a time a lay clerk at Ely, but by 1618
he had become master of the choristers at Lichfield. Much of his music was
printed, including madrigals, large-scale anthems, and consort music. He
contributed “Hence Stars, too Dim of Light” to Thomas Morley’s The Tri-
umphs of Oriana.

EAST, THOMAS (ca. 1540–1608). Music publisher. East, the uncle of the
composer Michael East, was one of the leading music printers of his day, pub-
lishing works by William Byrd as well as important collections like Musica
Transalpina and The Triumphs of Oriana. He is especially well known for his
harmonized metrical psalter, The Whole Booke of Psalmes . . . (1592 et seq.).

ECCLES, JOHN (ca. 1668–1735). Composer. In the years following the death
of Henry Purcell in 1695, Eccles emerged as the leading theater composer in
London. Writing for the United Companies at Drury Lane as early as 1693,
Eccles began a long relationship with Anne Bracegirdle, who after that time
sang his music exclusively, including the notable mad song from Don Quixote,
“I Burn, I Burn.” The demise of the United Company led to the formation of a
new company at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1695 under the direction of Thomas
Betterton, and Eccles was much in evidence there as company composer. His
large-scale dramatick opera, Rinaldo and Armida, was performed there in
1698 and featured one of his best-known airs, “The Jolly Breeze.” The libret-
tist of Rinaldo and Armida, John Dennis, innovatively insisted on the dramatic
integrality of the music with the drama, extending the principle of integrality
even to the instrumental act tunes, which sadly do not survive.
In 1701 Eccles was one of the participants in the Judgment of Paris com-
petition, winning second prize for his setting of William Congreve’s text. A
few years later Eccles took on Congreve’s Semele, intended most likely for
the opening of the Haymarket Theatre in 1705. However, Eccles was slow
in the completion of the score, not finishing it until 1707, and it never gained
a public performance. A fully sung opera, Semele pointed a way for English

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 118 • EDWARDS, RICHARD

music drama to develop in the 18th century, but in the face of the popularity
of Italian opera, it remained unpursued.

EDWARDS, RICHARD (1525–66). Composer, poet, and dramatist. Ed-

wards was appointed gentleman of the Chapel Royal at the end of Mary
Tudor’s reign; in 1561 he became master of the children of the chapel, an
appointment that well positioned him to further the choirboy plays, including
his own Damon and Pithias (1564). Some of his poetry was posthumously
published in The Paradyse of Daynty Devises (1576).

ELGAR, SIR EDWARD (1857–1934). English composer, conductor, vio-

linist, and lecturer on music. Many consider Elgar to be the most important
English composer of his time, if not of all time. Elgar successfully composed
in every English genre available save for opera (he left an incomplete score
for one, The Spanish Lady, at his death). His oratorios and cantatas, espe-
cially The Dream of Gerontius (1900), were frequently performed in his
own lifetime at all of the major musical festivals and by most English choirs;
performances of his symphonies and concertos far outstripped those of his
contemporaries.
The traditional narrative presents Elgar achieving stratospheric success with
the premiere of his op. 36 Variations on an Original Theme (“Enigma”) in
1899; in truth, Elgar had spent most of the 1890s gradually gaining experi-
ence and acceptance as a composer and conductor in Birmingham, Worcester,
Hereford, and Gloucester. He was largely self-taught, though did take some
violin lessons with Adolf Pollitzer, and relied on the books and scores at his
father’s music shop in Worcester to fill in the gaps of his education. Ad-
ditional early experience included being the organist at St. George’s Roman
Catholic Church in Worcester, playing violin in various festival orchestras,
conducting a band at a local asylum, and teaching privately as well as at a
girl’s school in Malvern. Aside from a short period in London in 1889 after
his marriage to Alice Roberts, Elgar spent most of the time in his early career
in Western England, living in Malvern, Worcester, and Hereford.
After the success of the “Enigma” Variations and Gerontius, Elgar’s
fame became international, and the premieres of his compositions—such as
The Apostles and The Kingdom (Birmingham Musical Festival, 1903 and
1906, respectively)—were major public events, and he and his music were
in great demand. The trio section of his first “Pomp and Circumstance”
march was turned first into a segment of the Coronation Ode for 1902 and
then into a stand-alone vocal piece, as “Land of Hope and Glory” became
in effect a second national anthem—particularly during World War I. Dur-
ing this time, Elgar was named Peyton Professor of Music at the University

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 ELLA, JOHN • 119

of Birmingham (1905–8) and conductor of the London Symphony Or-

chestra from 1911 to 1912.
Elgar moved to London in 1912; in the next few years, his compositions
took on a more dramatic bent, including the tone poem Falstaff (1913), bal-
let scores, music for various charities and commemorations during World
War I, the late chamber music, and the Cello Concerto (1919). He spent
the years from 1923 until his death in Worcester but traveled frequently to
conduct concerts of his own works. As a late Romantic composer, his music
was accessible to a wide audience; his British Broadcasting Corporation
broadcasts and early recordings for H.M.V. ensured this. In the years since
his death, much of Elgar’s music has remained popular and used by many to
forward a nostalgic agenda of a conservative England. Elgar was knighted
in 1905, named MVO in 1911 and KCVO in 1928, created First Baronet
of Broadheath in 1931, named GCVO in 1933, and named Master of the
King’s Music in 1924. He received numerous honorary doctorates from
institutions in Great Britain, on the Continent, and in North America. See
also CORONATION MUSIC; ENGLISH FOLK DANCE AND SONG SO-
CIETY; ENGLISH MUSICAL RENAISSANCE; FANTASIA ON A THEME
BY THOMAS TALLIS; HALLÉ ORCHESTRA; LONDON CHORAL SO-
CIETY; ODE; RICHTER, HANS; SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAW,
GEORGE BERNARD.

ELIJAH. Oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn, premiered at the Birmingham

Musical Festival on 26 August 1846. The two-part oratorio is based on the
biblical stories of the prophet Elijah found in 1 and 2 Kings. These include
various trials and miracles Elijah brings upon the people of Israel in the name
of God and culminate in Elijah’s removal to heaven in a fiery chariot. Partly
because of Mendelssohn’s great popularity in England, and partly because
of the immense power of the composition, Elijah quickly became the second
most important oratorio in England, and few could imagine a musical festival
without it. In the words of the Yorkshire Post (3 October 1895), it was the
“mutton” to the “beef” of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Cheap scores
were quickly made available, both in staff notation and in Tonic Sol-fa, and
it was featured frequently by choral societies throughout the land.

ELLA, JOHN (1802–88). Impresario, music critic, and violinist. Ella came
from a trade family in Leicester, and was apprenticed to be a baker, but early
violin lessons sparked a lifelong interest in music. In London by the early
1820s, he studied harmony and was a subprofessor of violin at the Royal
Academy of Music (2) and worked for the Royal Philharmonic Society,
the Concerts of Ancient Music, and the Royal Italian Opera at Covent

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 120 • ELLIS, WILLIAM ASHTON

Garden. He also wrote music criticism for the Morning Post (1826–42)
and the Athenaeum (1830-34), as well as occasional pieces for the Musical
World and Court Journal. Some material from these critical pieces, as well as
descriptions of his musical travels abroad, may be seen in Musical Sketches,
Abroad and at Home (1869). He organized a number of concert societies,
including the Musical Winter Evenings (1852–55) and the Musical Union
Soirées (1857–59), but is best known for his direction of the Musical Union,
an organization dedicated to presenting exemplary chamber music concerts;
he directed it from 1845 until 1880. He was a lecturer (from 1855) and a pro-
fessor of music (from 1871) at the London Institution and the director of the
Musical Union Institute from 1860 to 1868. The latter organization presented
concerts and had a music library.

ELLIS, WILLIAM ASHTON (1852–1919). Wagnerian, writer, and trans-

lator. Ellis was one of the best-known English Wagnerians at the end of the
19th century; his translation into English of Richard Wagner’s Prose Works
(1892–99), though seen as flawed today, was highly influential on figures
such as Sir Edward Elgar and George Bernard Shaw. Ellis was originally
trained as a doctor and worked for some years as one, but following expo-
sure to Wagner in the 1870s, he became a lifelong devotee and partisan. He
edited the Meister, a journal of all things Wagnerian, between 1888 and 1895
and, besides the Prose Works, published a six-volume biography of Wagner
(1900–1906). He returned to medicine in 1915 but continued throughout the
first years of World War I to defend the performance of Wagner’s music.

ENGLISH CADENCE. A cadential idiom arising in Elizabethan polyphony

and persisting through the 17th century that features harmonic cross-relation.
Specifically, a tone resolving upward by a half-step will appear simultane-
ously or in close proximity with a flattened version of that tone, descending in
another voice. Thomas Tallis’s “O nata lux” offers one of many memorable
examples. Although we tend to hear it as harmonically eventful, it was likely
not intended to be an expressive device but rather simply the fruits of good
linear voice leading. In the 17th century, with the establishment of tonal har-
mony, its presence asserts a tension between older horizontal principles and
new vertical priorities.

ENGLISH CONSORT. Mixed ensemble of six instruments, specifically

lute, bandora, cittern, bass viol, treble viol or violin, and flute. Arising per-
haps out of the tradition of treble-ground lute duets (Nordstrom, 1976), the
ensemble featured florid divisions on the lute with harmonic reinforcement
from the cittern playing strummed patterns with a plectrum and the bandora;

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 ENGLISH GUITAR • 121

the bass viol rendered a structurally inclined bass line, while the flute played
an inner harmony line or the melody; the treble viol or violin was used both
melodically and for divisions. This ensemble is particularly enshrined in
Thomas Morley’s 1599 collection, The First Booke of Consort Lessons. It is
also shown in the famous anonymous painting of “Henry Unton—feast and
masque” in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The ensemble is unusual in claiming a specific instrumentation at a time in
which instrumentation was more generally casual and is unusual in being a
“broken,” i.e. mixed, consort at a time in which full, homogeneous consorts
enjoyed great popularity.

ENGLISH FOLK DANCE AND SONG SOCIETY (ALSO ENGLISH

FOLK DANCE SOCIETY; ENGLISH FOLK SONG SOCIETY; FOLK
DANCE SOCIETY; FOLK-SONG SOCIETY). Organization dedicated
to the preservation, publishing, and performance of English folk music and
dance. It was amalgamated in 1932 from the Folk-Song Society (founded in
1898) and the English Folk Dance Society (founded in 1911). Each society
brought its own journal that published songs, dances, and contextual informa-
tion; these were also combined to create the English Folk Dance and Song
Society Journal, renamed in 1965 as the Folk Music Journal. The collecting
of folk music in England began as an antiquarian interest in the mid-19th
century, under the auspices of William Chappell in works such as Collection
of National English Airs (1838–40).
At the end of the century, works on folk music began to appear with some
regularity: Lucy Broadwood republished a collection of Sussex folk tunes,
William Alexander Barrett published a book of folk songs in 1891, and
others followed. Many of the eminent composers of the day were involved
in the founding of the Folk-Song Society, including Sir Edward Elgar, Sir
Charles Villiers Stanford, and Sir Hubert Parry, but their involvement
was far surpassed by that of Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Maud
Karpeles, Percy Grainger, and others who preserved folk song and dance,
created an infrastructure for its continued performance, and even used such
material as a basis for new composition. The organization and its library
(named for Vaughan Williams) reside in Cecil Sharp House, in Camden
Town (London). See also BUTTERWORTH, GEORGE; CHAPPELL &
CO.; MORRIS DANCE; NEAL, MARY.

ENGLISH GUITAR. Cittern-like instrument popular in the second half of

the 18th century. The so-called English guitar was strung in metal with six
courses, tuned c-e-g-c'-e'-g', with metal frets on the neck. It was popular with
dilettantes—Baines (1966) notes it was “intended chiefly for the feminine

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 122 • ENGLISH MUSICAL RENAISSANCE

amateur”—and as a way of simplifying its technique, it sometimes was made

with finger levers on the table of the instrument which, when depressed, ac-
tivated hammers to strike the strings.

ENGLISH MUSICAL RENAISSANCE (ALSO EMR; SECOND ENG-

LISH MUSICAL RENAISSANCE; BRITISH MUSICAL RENAIS-
SANCE). Descriptive name given to the period between roughly 1840 and
1940 when British critics were self-consciously aware of a new excellence
in indigenous composition and musical training. The name Renaissance was
first applied to the period by Joseph Bennett in 1882; the first use of the
phrase “English Musical Renaissance” seems to have occurred in a set of
lectures by Morton Latham, delivered at Cambridge University in 1888; these
were collected and published in a volume titled The Renaissance of Music in
1890. For most of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the “origin” of the
movement was thought to be the premiere of Sir Hubert Parry’s cantata
Prometheus Unbound on 1 September 1880; however, in the second half of
the 20th century, the dates of the movement were moved further back into the
19th century to encompass the founding of the National Training School for
Music (1876; shortly to become the Royal College of Music) and the rise of
sight-singing methods like Tonic Sol-fa and choral societies; no two critics
agree on a precise date range for the “Renaissance.” Use of the term Renais-
sance by contemporary critics often implied that British music was coming
out of a “dark age” where no good indigenous music was to be had. While
it is tempting to imagine that the stratospheric national and international
careers of Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, Parry, Sir Charles Vil-
liers Stanford, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and
Ralph Vaughan Williams, among others, were unique, this is not the case;
indigenous music and composition by the likes of Samuel Sebastian Wesley,
among many others, was excellent and well regarded.

ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA. See SADLER’S WELLS.

ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE. See LYCEUM THEATRE.

ENGLISH SLIDE TRUMPET. In the late 17th-century manuscript devoted to

musical instruments (GB Och 1187), James Talbot describes the “flat trumpet”
as one having a “2d crook [bow] placed near [the] left Ear & by it you draw out
the Inward yards.” Thus the flat trumpet expanded its length of tubing by sliding
the back bow of the instrument (the bow closest to the player) in and out, and in
so doing, allowed the player to play chromatically, as Talbot’s note chart con-
firms. Henry Purcell made use of flat trumpets in his music for The Libertine,
music that he more familiarly reused in the “Funeral Music for Queen Mary.”

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 EVELYN, JOHN • 123

No examples of flat trumpets survive. However, in its 19th-century mecha-

nized form, the English slide trumpet was ubiquitous. Invented by John Hyde
ca. 1790, it featured the same expansion via the back bow of the instrument;
however, it also had a clock-spring mechanism for returning the slide. The
persistence of this instrument into the valve era may be attributed to the
strength of its chief exponents, Thomas Harper (1786–1853) and his son,
Thomas Harper Jr. (1816–98).

“ENIGMA” VARIATIONS. See VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL

THEME (“ENIGMA”), OP. 36.

ETON CHOIRBOOK. Copied between 1490 and 1502, the Eton Choirbook
(GB WRec 178) is an important collection of liturgical polyphony—votive
antiphons, Magnificats, and a Passion (Davy)—by composers such as John
Browne, Richard Davy, Walter Lambe, Robert Wylkynson, William Cor-
nysh, and Robert Fayrfax. It survives incomplete, though with an original
index that shows 93 pieces. The prominence of the votive antiphon reflects
both the strength of the cult of Mary and also the College Statutes that re-
quired an antiphon to be sung daily before an image of the Virgin.
Many of the works are unusually sonorous with a notably expanded treble
range. And large, full sonorities, as in Wylkynson’s nine-voice “Salve re-
gina,” are frequently placed in contrast with reduced textures where floridity
and a decorative rhythmic complexity are characteristic.

EVELYN, JOHN (1620–1706). Diarist. Like his contemporary Samuel

Pepys, Evelyn was fond of music, and his diary (discontinuous from 1641 un-
til his death) contains significant observations of musical life in Restoration
England. He was present at important public occasions—Charles II’s corona-
tion, for instance—and records details of the event, but he also encountered
music in more intimate, private settings and offers occasionally rich descrip-
tion. For instance,

After supper, came in the famous Trebble Mr [John] Abel [Abell] newly
return’d from Italy, and indeede I never heard a more excellent voice, one would
have sworne it had ben a womans it was so high, and so well and skillfully
manag’d. (27 January 1682)

Or in another home:

I visited Sir Rob. Reading, where after supper we had musique, but none com-
parable to that which Mrs. Bridgeman made upon the Gittar, which she master’d
with such extraordinary skill, and dexterity, as I hardly ever heard any lute
exceede for sweetnesse. (10 January 1684)

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 124 • EVENSONG

By his own account he had studied the “rudiments of music” and “afterwards
ariv’d to some formal knowledge,” but with regard to performance skills he
confessed that he had “small perfection of hand because I was so frequently
diverted, with inclinations to newer trifles.”

EVENSONG. The Anglican service of sung evening prayer according to the

order of the Book of Common Prayer. Evensong is generally a daily offer-
ing in English cathedrals and university chapels with choral foundations. The
major musical elements of the liturgy comprise psalmody, the Magnificat and
Nunc dimittis, and an anthem.

EXETER HALL. London lecture and concert hall, built in 1831 and de-
molished in 1907. For a time, the hall was associated especially with Non-
conformist causes and organizations. The hall had two auditoriums: one that
could seat about 1,000, and another about 4,000. From 1836 to 1880, Exeter
Hall was the home of the Sacred Harmonic Society, which performed a se-
ries of regular choral concerts, usually featuring oratorios. Beginning in the
1870s, the Hall hosted numerous choral competitions, including the Ragged
School Union, the Church of England Temperance Society, and the Tonic
Sol-fa Association, among others; the larger of these moved to the Crystal
Palace in the 1880s, but smaller ones remained. In 1880 the Young Men’s
Christian Association bought the hall and prohibited oratorios there, call-
ing their performance “improper.” Recitals resumed in the 1890s. Various
individuals and organizations gave lectures and demonstrations in the Hall,
including John Hullah and John Curwen, who each presented their methods
of sight-singing there. See also CONCERT ROOMS; PUBLIC CONCERTS.

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 F
FABURDEN. Fifteenthth-century method of improvising polyphony on a
plainsong. In faburden, as described in the anonymous “The Sight of Fabur-
don” (GB Lbl Lansdowne 763), associated with Waltham Abbey, three-voice
polyphony is derived from the plainsong by having one voice replicate the
chant at the interval of an upper perfect fourth, while another voice sings
lower thirds and fifths to the chant. In this lower voice, the “faburden voice,”
the lower thirds and fifths can alternate at will, though not with two fifths
in succession. The result is thus a harmony that often produces parallel 6-3
chords, the same sweet sonority that characterizes the continental practice of
fauxbourdon. In deriving the faburden voice, a system of “sights” was em-
ployed, through which the singer envisioned a note either in unison or a third
above the chant, yet pitched the voice so that it sounded a fifth lower (creating
the lower fifth and third). In this way the mental image of the faburden voice
was kept within the bounds of the plainchant staff. Tudor organists also used
faburden voices as the basis for contrapuntal organ pieces.

FANTASIA-SUITE (ALSO FANTASY SUITES). Seventeenth-century,

multimovement instrumental form. The fantasia-suite, following the model of
John Coprario’s early examples, is a three-movement form, consisting of a
contrapuntal movement (the “fantasia”) followed by two dance movements,
almaine and galliard, which were sometimes nominally “ayres.” Though typ-
ically for violin(s) with bass viol and organ, some examples, notably two by
John Hingeston, replace the violin and viol with cornett(s) and trombone.
Other composers of fantasia-suites include William Lawes, John Jenkins,
and Christopher Gibbons.

FANTASIA ON A THEME BY THOMAS TALLIS (ALSO “Tallis” Fan-

tasia). Variations by Ralph Vaughan Williams for double orchestra and
string quartet on the hymn “Why Fumeth in Fight” (an anti-Catholic hymn)
by Thomas Tallis. The theme is presented in both full and fragmentary
forms, capitalizing on antiphonal effects of the three ensembles. The Fantasia
premiered at the Gloucester meeting of the Three Choirs Festival on 6 Sep-
tember 1910, heard just before a performance of a bowdlerized version of Sir

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 126 • FARINELLI

Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, perhaps to “Anglicize” the Cathedral

before the performance of an overtly Catholic oratorio. The composition
remains one of Vaughan Williams’s most popular.

FARINELLI (ALSO CARLO BROSCHI; 1705–82). Castrato. Farinelli,

richly lauded by Charles Burney for his unrivaled “power, sweetness, ex-
tent, and agility” of voice, came to London in 1734 to join the so-called “Op-
era of the Nobility,” the company at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket in
fierce rivalry with George Frideric Handel’s company at Covent Garden.
Celebrated and lavishly rewarded, Farinelli, according to a 1737 newspaper
account, earned at least £5,000 per annum. He left London in 1737, taking
up a position at the Spanish court and living in Spain until 1759. His musical
abilities were well-described by Quantz:

Farinelli had a penetrating, full, rich, bright and well-modulated soprano voice,
whose range extended at that time from a to d’’’. . . . His intonation was pure, his
trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so that he
performed even the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and cer-
tainty. Passage-work and all varieties of melismas were of no difficulty whatever
for him. In the invention of free ornamentation in adagio he was very fertile.

FARNABY, GILES (ca. 1563–1640). Composer. Farnaby was profession-

ally a joiner, as was his father and his cousin, Nicholas, described also as a
virginal maker. However, despite his profession, he took the BMus at Oxford
in 1592. He contributed a number of settings to Michael East’s Whole Booke
of Psalmes; he is best known for his substantial body of keyboard works, the
vast majority of which appear in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Caldwell
(1973) colorfully notes, “The predominant impression created by this music
is of considerable technical difficulty of a somewhat unrewarding nature,
combined with a rather eccentric musical personality, which is not, however,
without its own quaint charm.”

FARRANT, RICHARD (ca. 1525/30–80). Composer. Farrant was a long-

time member of the Chapel Royal who, for a period in the 1570s, assumed
some of the duties of the master of the children. He left the Chapel Royal
for a time in order to become master of the choristers at Windsor but re-
turned to maintain both posts in the last decade of his life. His historical sig-
nificance is as one of the earliest progenitors of the verse anthem, as seen
in his “When as We Sat in Babylon.” He is also notable for his strong ties
to the choirboy plays; from the mid-1560s the Windsor boys were active
in annual dramatic performances at court, sometimes in collaboration with

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 FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO AND FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO • 127

the boys of the Chapel Royal. His full anthem, “Call to Remembrance,”
has a long popularity.

FAYRFAX, ROBERT (1464–1521). Composer. Fayrfax was a gentleman

of the Chapel Royal from 1497 until his death in 1521, a member whose
esteem found him named Knight of the King’s Alms of Windsor in 1514. He
held the MusB from Cambridge (1501) as well as DMus from both universi-
ties (Cambridge, 1504; Oxford, 1511). On the basis of several patronal works
like the Missa Albanus, as well as his being buried there, it is likely he held
an appointment at St. Alban’s Abbey.
As a composer his work in developing the large-scale cyclic mass is espe-
cially significant. Cohesion in these large-scale works is furthered by the use
of head-motives and, in most cases, common cantus firmus, both techniques
that had emerged earlier in English mass composition. Especially notable is
that the Missa O bone Iesu and an associated Magnificat are both developed
from a common polyphonic antiphon, adopting the so-called parody tech-
nique. The Missa O quam glorifica is atypically complex, perhaps owing to
its use as his doctoral exercise at Cambridge.

FAYRFAX MANUSCRIPT. One of the three major songbooks of the early

Tudor Court. The Fayrfax Manuscript (GB Lbl Add. Ms. 5465), along with the
Henry VIII Manuscript (GB Lbl Add. 31922) and the Ritson Manuscript, is
among the chief sources of vernacular song from early Tudor composers. The
Fayrfax Manuscript—so called because it includes music by Robert Fayrfax
as well as his heraldic arms—contains both love lyrics and devotional carols by
composers such as Richard Davy, John Browne, and William Cornysh. The
devotional carols are a rich manifestation of contemporary Passion culture, and
Cornysh’s “Woffuly araid” is an affective masterpiece. It and its sister Passion
carols are emotive, personal expressions of striking intensity.

FELIX NAMQUE. Marian offertory chant popularly used as the cantus fir-
mus for keyboard settings in the 16th century. Examples include settings by
John Redford, Thomas Preston, and Thomas Tallis.

FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO (THE ELDER; 1543–88), AND FERRA-

BOSCO, ALFONSO (THE YOUNGER; ca. 1575–1628). Father (com-
poser) and illegitimate son (composer and violist) are the two most prominent
members of a family of musicians active in Italy and England. Ferrabosco the
elder was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber from 1562. He wrote in a variety
of genres, including Latin sacred works, instrumental fantasias, and Italian
madrigals, the latter of which were well regarded in England, performed

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 128 • FESTING, MICHAEL CHRISTIAN

both in “Englished” and instrumental versions. The late 1570s were problem-
atic for him with accusations of murder, robbery, and secretive attendance at
mass; abroad he was suspected of espionage and also imprisoned for a while
by the pope.
Ferrabosco the younger also held royal appointment as viol player, com-
poser, and instructor to the royal children. From 1617 he was also musician
to Charles, Prince of Wales. His viol consort music is significant, charac-
terized by “skilful deployment of vigorously conceived melodic lines” and
“bold sweep of his harmonic and tonal conceptions” (Caldwell, OHEM, vol.
1). He also made strong contributions to the masque, including works like
the “Masque of Blackness,” “Hymenaei,” and the “Masque of Augurs.” His
vocal music significantly moved English song in an Italianate, declamatory
direction; manuscript sources themselves underscore this connection, such as
GB T Mss. 1018–9, which contains a number of works by Giulio Caccini as
well as monodic-styled works by Ferrabosco.

FESTING, MICHAEL CHRISTIAN (1705–52). Violinist and composer.

Festing was a prominent figure in London musical circles. A member of the
King’s Musick from 1726, he performed in various London concert rooms,
was a member of the Academy of Ancient Music and the Apollo Academy,
was the orchestra leader at the King’s Theatre and Ranelagh pleasure gardens,
and was one of the founders of the “Fund for the Support of Decay’d Musicians
and their Families,” a forerunner of the Royal Society of Musicians.
As a violinist Festing was trained by Richard Jones and Francesco Gemi-
niani, the latter’s influence being strong in the Italianate concertos that Fest-
ing composed. But despite this Geminiani pedigree, Festing’s abilities as a
performer were disparaged by both Charles Burney and Sir John Hawkins.
Hawkins called him “a very elegant composer,” but “as a performer” he was
“inferior to many of his time.” Burney is more exacting:

This performer, with a feeble hand, little genius for composition, and but a shal-
low knowledge in counterpoint, by good sense, probity, prudent conduct, and a
gentleman-like behaviour, acquired a weight and influence in his profession, at
which hardly any musician of his class ever arrived. . . . [A]nd yet there is not
a ripieno player on the violin at the opera now, whose hand and abilities are not
superior to those of Festing upon that instrument.

FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN. National culture festival, including a musical

festival, held for five months beginning in May of 1951. Festival events
focused on London, but celebrations occurred in many other British cities
as well. Meant initially to celebrate the centenary of the Great Exhibition of

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 FINZI, GERALD • 129

1851, the Festival of Britain was nationalistic in nature, celebrating British

contributions to culture, science, and technology. The “cultural” aspect of
the celebration included innumerable choral, orchestral, chamber, and solo
concerts, especially under the rubric “London Season of the Arts,” featur-
ing music by British composers, including specially commissioned works,
such as Sir George Dyson’s “Song for a Festival” (with words by Cecil Day
Lewis) for unison children’s choir, and works composed for Festival compe-
titions, including Alan Bush’s opera Wat Tyler. The festival also featured the
opening of the Royal Festival Hall in London. Festivals at other cities also
included music within their celebrations. See also BRITTEN, BENJAMIN.

FESTIVALS. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

FINGER, GODFREY (ALSO GOTTFRIED; ca. 1660–1730). Violist and

composer. A Moravian musician, Finger was in London by 1687 to occupy a
post in the chapel of James II and remained in England following the Glori-
ous Revolution. His 1690 collection of sonatas was fundamental in establish-
ing the solo sonata in England. In its dedication he notes the “humour of
them [the sonatas] is principally Italian: A sort of Music which thô the best
in the world, yet is but lately naturaliz’d in England.” If the sonatas spoke in
an Italian accent, Moravian echoes were also discernible, as for instance in
his music for trumpet.
Following the 1695 reorganization of the London theaters, Finger contrib-
uted to dramatic works for both Betterton’s company at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
and Christopher Rich’s company at Drury Lane. It was likely theater music
that led to his leaving England for the Continent in the first years of the 18th
century: a competitor in the famous contest involving William Congreve’s
Judgment of Paris, his fourth-place finish behind John Weldon, John
Eccles, and Daniel Purcell proved the ultimate dispiritment.

FINZI, GERALD (1901–56). Composer, writer on music, adjudicator, and

conductor. Finzi is known as one of the most sensitive text setters of the first
half of the 20th century; his harmonically approachable style makes his mu-
sic—particularly for amateur choirs—still accessible today. Finzi studied pri-
vately, first under Edward Farrar, then under Sir Edward Bairstow in York
(1917–22), and finally he studied counterpoint under R. O. Morris. After a
short time in London, culminating with working at the Royal Academy of
Music (2) from 1930 to 1933, he moved to the country, first to Aldborne in
Wiltshire and finally to Ashmansworth in Hampshire, where he lived simply
on a small farm, composing and writing. He founded the Newbury String
Players in 1940, an amateur group that performed a great deal of new music.

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Finzi’s works were performed on the musical festival circuit, particularly

in the 1940s and 1950s, including Intimations of Immortality (1939, meant to
be premiered at the Three Choirs festival but canceled because of the war).
Finzi published numerous editions of 18th-century music and presented three
Crees lectures in 1954 on the subject of text setting.

FISHER, JOHN ABRAHAM (1744–1806). Violinist, composer, and theater

manager. Fisher’s compositions were mostly for the theater (pastiches, panto-
mimes, incidental music for plays, etc.), especially at Covent Garden, where
he led the orchestra from 1768 to 1778, and songs for the Vauxhall pleasure
garden, where he led the orchestra from 1769. By marriage he had a share in
Covent Garden and took some administrative duties there from 1772. In 1777
he earned a BMus and a DMus from Magdalen College, Oxford, and spent
much of the 1780s touring the Continent. He settled in Dublin from 1787, giv-
ing lessons and presenting the occasional concert until his death. Compositions
noted during his own time were the oratorio Providence, composed for his
Oxford doctoral exercise and performed in Oxford and London, and his music
for the opening of the New Freemasons’ Hall in London in 1776.

FITZWILLIAM VIRGINAL BOOK. The largest collection of English

virginal music. The manuscript Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (GB Cfm32.g.29)
contains close to 300 works by John Bull, William Byrd, Giles Farnaby, Or-
lando Gibbons, Thomas Morley, Peter Philips, and others. The pieces include
dances, voluntaries, fantasias, cantus-firmus pieces, and variations on popular
melodies. J. A. Fuller Maitland and William Barclay Squire, in their 1899 edi-
tion, advanced the view—now regarded as tenuous—that Francis Tregian the
younger copied the manuscript while incarcerated in Fleet Prison. The presence
of a number of works by Peter Philips, an English Catholic abroad in the Neth-
erlands, and by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the most prominent of the Dutch
keyboardists of the day, is resonant with the recusancy of the Tregian family.

FLAT TRUMPET. See ENGLISH SLIDE TRUMPET.

FOLK DANCE SOCIETY. See ENGLISH FOLK DANCE AND SONG

SOCIETY.

FOLK-SONG SOCIETY. See ENGLISH FOLK DANCE AND SONG

SOCIETY.

FORCER, FRANCIS (1649–1705). Organist and composer. Forcer was

trained as a chorister at Durham and held organ positions at Dulwich Col-

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 FOUNDLING HOSPITAL • 131

lege; St. Giles, Cripplegate; and St. Sepulchre’s, Holborn. He also contrib-
uted theater music to productions at Dorset Garden and Lincoln’s Inn
Fields. Additionally, he was one of the managers of Sadler’s Wells. That his
five-part consort ground was included in the same manuscript with Henry
Purcell’s Fantasias (US NYpl Drexel 5061) speaks well of its regard; mod-
ern comment on Forcer’s many songs, however, is disparaging: “There is . .
. little to say in favour of Francis Forcer, whose numerous songs are among
the feeblest written by any composer of the period” (Spink, 1974).

FORD, THOMAS (?–1648). Composer and violist. Ford was in royal ser-
vice from 1611, first in the retinue of Prince Henry and then in service to
Charles as prince and monarch, holding appointments both as composer and
violist. Although a composer of consort music (fantasias and lyra viol du-
ets), Ford was most prolific and significant as a composer of lute ayres and
partsongs. His 1607 Musicke of Sundrie Kindes reveals a fine capacity for
melodic craft, as in the richly contoured and memorable ayre “Since First I
Saw Your Face.”

FORESTER SONG. A text type featuring hunters, often rich in erotic

double entendre. There are several examples in the Henry VIII Manuscript
(GB Lbl Add. 31922), such as “I have been a foster” and “I am a joly foster”;
William Shakespeare offers an example, “What shall he have that kild the
Deare?” in As You Like It.

FOULDS, JOHN (1880–1939). Composer, conductor, writer, and cellist.

Foulds was for a time one of the most celebrated composers of theater music
in London, and his A World Requiem (completed 1921) was a prominent part
of London Armistice Day celebrations from 1923 to 1926. Foulds was from
a musical family but largely self-taught. From 1900 to 1906 he played cello
in the Hallé Orchestra under Hans Richter but left to pursue composition
in London. In London he began a long collaboration with the stage actor
and director Lewis Casson; he also became the music director of the Central
YMCA in 1918 and the London University Musical Society. Foulds spent
the last part of the 1920s on the Continent, returning to London from 1930 to
1935, where he wrote his examination of contemporary music, Music To-day
(1934). In 1935 he moved to India to study music there; he worked in radio
to support himself up to his death in 1939.

FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. London charity hospital, founded in 1739 for

the benefit of orphans. George Frideric Handel was associated with the
Foundling Hospital from 1749 until his death; he presented charity concerts

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 132 • FRANKFURT GROUP

of his music there annually and eventually gave the hospital his score to
Messiah (performed there every year under his direction save 1749). A
tradition of performing this work at the hospital chapel to raise funds con-
tinued until 1777.

FRANKFURT GROUP. English composers who studied with Iwan Knorr

and at the Hoch Konservatorium in Frankfurt at various times in the late 19th
century. The group included Henry Balfour Gardiner, Percy Grainger,
Norman O’Neill, Roger Quilter, and Cyril Scott.

FREEMEN’S SONGS. A vague term in use to describe certain vernacular

songs in the 16th and 17th centuries. Thomas Ravenscroft, for instance,
in his Deuteromelia (1609) includes amid “Pleasant Roundelais” and “such
delightfull Catches” a group of pieces that were “K.H. mirth, or Freemens
Songs,” with “We Be Three Poor Mariners” a familiar example. Various
references suggest it was used interchangeably with “three men’s” songs, one
term as a corruption of the other; many examples are, in fact, three-voiced
pieces, though problematically this is not invariably the case. Duffin (2002)
compellingly makes the case that “free” could refer to “free of a company,”
and thus the freemen’s songs were those of tradesmen.

FRICKER, PETER RACINE (1920–90). Composer, educator, and admin-

istrator. Fricker was one of the best-known dissonant composers in the years
after World War II. While not wholeheartedly embracing twelve-tone meth-
ods, his music turned away from the folk-derived pastoral school of Ralph
Vaughan Williams and the neoclassical tendencies of Benjamin Britten. He
attended the Royal College of Music from 1937 to 1941 and took classes as
well at Morley College, where Sir Michael Tippett was the music director.
After wartime service in the Royal Air Force, he returned to Morley College
to study with Mátyás Seiber (1946–48). Fricker’s music began to receive
critical acclaim in this period; in the space of a few short years, he won the
A. J. Clements Prize (1947), the Koussevitsky Prize (1950), and the Arts
Council of Britain Prize (1951). He succeeded Tippett as music director of
Morley College in 1952. In 1964 he was visiting professor of composition at
the University of California, Santa Barbara; he remained at that institution for
the rest of his life. He worked in most major genres save opera.

FRYE, WALTER (?–BEFORE 1475). Composer. Frye was a member of

the London Guild of St. Nicholas (admitted in 1456/57) and in the employ of
Anne of Exeter in the 1460s and 1470s. Anne’s sister, Margaret of York, was
the wife of the Burgundian Charles the Bold, a connection that may help to

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 FUND FOR DECAYED MUSICIANS • 133

explain the composer’s works surviving almost totally in continental sources.

His several mass settings, using tenor cantus firmus and motto, further the
English development of the unified mass cycle. One mass, Summe Trinitati,
is also isorhythmic. His motet “Ave regina celorum” enjoyed particularly
wide circulation. His vernacular songs include both English ballades and
French-texted rondeaux.

FUND FOR DECAYED MUSICIANS. See ROYAL SOCIETY OF MUSI-

CIANS.

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 G
GALLIARD, JOHN (JOHANN) ERNST (?–1747). Oboist and composer.
A German musician from the court orchestra at Celle, Galliard came to
London in 1706 in the service of Prince George of Denmark. As oboist at
the Queen’s Theatre, he played the prominent solo parts in George Frideric
Handel’s Teseo, and likely in works like Silla and Amadigi di Gaula as
well. His theater works include several English operas, such as Calypso and
Telemachus, Circe, and The Happy Captive, the latter of which significantly
incorporates an intermezzo. With Lewis Theobald he wrote a number of
successful pantomimes for Lincoln’s Inn Fields as well. His translation of
Tosi’s Opinioni de’ cantori antichi e moderni (Observations on the Florid
Song [London, 1742]) is a valuable guide to vocal performance practice.
Sir John Hawkins pointed to the naturalness and elegance of his style, while
Charles Burney was dismissive: “I never saw more correctness or less origi-
nality in any author, that I have examined, of the present century, Dr. [Johann
Christoph] Pepusch always excepted.” Modern comment echoes Burney.
Of the music of Calypso, Dean and Knapp (1987) underscore that it “is solid,
worthy, and quite dull enough to account for its failure to capture the town.”

GALLINI, GIOVANNI ANDREA BATTISTA (1728–1805). Choreogra-

pher, dancer, and impresario of Italian origin. After training and work in Italy
and Paris, Gallini came to London in 1757. Until 1766 he and his choreo-
graphic work appeared frequently on London stages. In the years following,
he was a popular dancing-master, was the proprietor of the Hanover Square
Rooms (where concerts run by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich
Abel were held, along with the Academy of Ancient Music), and managed
opera at King’s Theatre, Covent Garden, and Little Theatre, Haymarket.
With Johann Peter Salomon, he enticed Franz Joseph Haydn to London
in the 1790s.

GARDINER, HENRY BALFOUR (1877–1950). Composer and impresario.

Gardiner is best known today for his composition “Evening Hymn” (1908), used
frequently in Anglican services as an anthem, and for his championing of Eng-
lish composers in a series of concerts at the Queen’s Hall in 1912 and 1913. He

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 136 • GATES, BERNARD

was one of the composers of the so-called Frankfurt Group; Gardiner studied
with Iwan Knorr at the Hochschule für Musik from 1894 to 1896 and frequently
in summers and on school vacations in the years thereafter. He attended Charter-
house and New College, Oxford (from 1896), and studied conducting in Sonders-
hausen (1901). Since he was privately wealthy, he did not amass the typical col-
lection of academic and professional posts of his contemporaries, though he did
collect folk songs in Hampshire between 1905 and 1907 and taught briefly at
Worcester College. Highly self-critical, Gardiner withdrew and destroyed many
of his own compositions (especially instrumental ones), and more remained
unpublished during his lifetime. He stopped composing in 1925.

GATES, BERNARD (1686–1773). Bass and composer. Gates was trained

as a chorister in the Chapel Royal from 1697 to 1705 and was closely tied to
the chapel in subsequent years as gentleman, master of the children, and tuner
of the regals and organs. He also held appointments at Westminster Abbey,
including master of the choristers. Gates’s accomplishments as a singer are
confirmed in solo assignments for George Frideric Handel, including the
Utrecht and Dettingen Te Deums. And he surfaces as a pivotal figure in sev-
eral important contexts. For instance, in the Giovanni Bononcini–Academy
of Ancient Music scandal, it was he who discovered that Bononcini’s “In
una siepe ombosa” had earlier appeared in print by Lotti. In the history of the
oratorio in England he is also significant in giving the genre its first London
airings with three performances of Handel’s Esther at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern in 1732. Significantly, these performances were staged, a welcome
confirmation of their essentially theatrical nature and intent.

GAUL, ALFRED R. (1837–1913). Composer, organist, conductor, and

teacher. During his lifetime, Gaul was best known for a series of cantatas
that were frequently performed on the musical festival circuit. The Holy City
(premiered at the Birmingham Festival of 1882) was perhaps the most popular
cantata of its day (the publisher Novello & Co. sold 162,000 copies of it by
1914). Gaul was trained as a chorister and articled pupil at Norwich Cathedral
(1846) and worked as an organist first at Fakenham (1854) before taking posi-
tions at St. John’s, Ladywood (1859), and finally St. Augustine’s, Edgbaston
(1868). He earned a MusB from Cambridge in 1863. Aside from composing
and being an organist, Gaul taught harmony and counterpoint at the Birming-
ham and Midland Institution and at the King Edward High School for Girls, and
was conductor for a time of the Wallsall Philharmonic Society, starting in 1887.

GAY, JOHN (1685–1732). Playwright and poet. Gay is the inventor of the
ballad opera, a popular and tuneful foil to the reigning aristocratic Italian op-

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 GERHARD, ROBERTO • 137

era seria of the 1720s. The Beggar’s Opera (1728), first of Gay’s offerings,
was hugely successful; its sequel, Polly (1728), was banned from the stage
by a touchy Sir Robert Walpole and his administration, although it was suc-
cessful in its print subscription. Traditional interpretations of The Beggar’s
Opera as satirical criticism of both Walpole and the Italian opera may be
exaggerated (Hume, NG, 2001), although the fact that Polly was pulled from
the stage suggests that the administration found Gay problematic.

GEMINIANI, FRANCESCO (1687–1762). Violinist and composer. Gemi-

niani came to London in 1714 amid the popularity of musical Italianism, as
seen most vividly in the advance of the opera seria. A pupil of Arcangelo
Corelli, his playing was described by Sir John Hawkins as exquisite—
“where in a short time he so recommended himself by his exquisite perfor-
mance, that all who professed to understand or love music, were captivated at
the hearing him”—though his concert appearances were reputedly infrequent.
He relied on the largesse of patrons like Baron Kilmansegge, chamberlain
to George I, and on teaching and composing. His works include sonatas and
concerti grossi as well as concerto grosso arrangements of Corelli’s Op. 5
solo sonatas. Geminiani is the author of several treatises, including A Trea-
tise of Good Taste in the Art of Musick (1749) and The Art of Playing on the
Violin (1751), the latter of which Charles Burney praises as “a very useful
work in its day.”

GENTLEMEN’S CATCH CLUB. See NOBLEMEN AND GENTLE-

MEN’S CATCH CLUB.

GERHARD, ROBERTO (1896–1970). Composer, writer, and lecturer on

music of Catalan birth. Gerhard, though occasionally ignored within his own
time, was one of the major compositional figures of the 20th century. His
fusion of folk music and serial styles, his use of electronics for incidental
music, and his adaptation of post-serial techniques put him at the vanguard
of musical styles throughout his life. His early studies with Felipe Pedrell
(until 1922) were followed by several years as an assistant to and pupil of
Arnold Schoenberg (1923–28). He began writing about music in the late
1920s, balancing this with composition and teaching at the Escola Normal de
la Generalitat until 1938.
In exile after the Spanish Revolution, Gerhard obtained a one-year fellow-
ship at King’s College, Cambridge (1939–40), and settled in that city for the
rest of his life. For the next few decades, Gerhard cultivated relationships
with the British Broadcasting Corporation (for which he wrote incidental
music as well as being a musical journalist and commentator) and dramatic

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 138 • GERMAN, SIR EDWARD

groups, including the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-

Avon (from 1949). From the late 1950s until his death, he was increasingly
recognized for his nondramatic music, leading to appointments as a visiting
professor of composition at the University of Michigan (1960) and teaching
at Tanglewood (1961). He was made a CBE in 1967 and presented with an
honorary doctorate from King’s College, Cambridge, and a fellowship at
University College, London, in 1968.

GERMAN, SIR EDWARD (ALSO EDWARD JONES GERMAN;

1862–1936). Composer and conductor particularly known for his incidental
music and his operettas. German attended the Royal Academy of Music
(2) from 1880 and was subprofessor of violin there between 1884 and 1887.
He played for a number of theater orchestras in London and was appointed
music director at the Globe Theatre in 1888. For the next 15 years, he wrote
a great deal of incidental music for the plays of William Shakespeare and
others, which he turned into popular suites, including music for Henry VIII,
Much Ado about Nothing, and Romeo and Juliet. He also received com-
missions from numerous musical festivals during this period. Work for the
Savoy Theatre completing Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Emerald Isle (1901) led
him to operetta, and he composed the well-known Merrie England (1902)
using elements of an antique style. He stopped composing in the early 1920s
but continued to conduct at festivals until the end of the decade. German was
knighted in 1928.

GIARDINI, FELICE (1716–96). Violinist, composer, conductor, and

impresario of Italian origin. Giardini was hailed by Charles Burney and
others as the finest violinist of his day. He was also somewhat successful
as an opera composer. After typical training and work in Italy in an opera
orchestra, playing solo, and teaching, Giardini settled in London in 1751 via
a continental tour. He stayed in London until 1784, taking on various roles
in the public and private musical life there. He organized a concert series in
the Great Room, Dean Street, in 1751–52, repeating it in 1753 and 1755; was
long associated with Lock Hospital as a performer, concert organizer, and
governor (1752–80); led the orchestra of the Italian Opera at King’s Theatre,
Haymarket, in the mid-1750s, 1776–77, and 1782–83; acted as impresario
there for the 1756–57 and 1782–83 seasons; and often led the orchestra at the
Pantheon Concerts in Oxford Street between 1774 and 1779. He was music
master to the Duke of Gloucester (1767), the Duke of Cumberland (1767),
and the Prince of Wales (1782). Giardini also organized the annual concert
of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah at the Foundling Hospital from 1769
to 1774. He left England for Italy in 1784 but returned, briefly, from 1790 to

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 GIBBONS, ORLANDO • 139

1792, when he led the orchestra at Haymarket. After leaving England a final
time, his precise whereabouts are unknown, though he died in Russia. Aside
from numerous pastiches and instrumental works, he was best known in his
own time for an oratorio he composed with Charles Avison, Ruth (1763).

GIBBONS, CHRISTOPHER (1615–76). Organist and composer. Gib-

bons was the son of Orlando Gibbons, under whose direction he was likely
trained in the Chapel Royal, though the death of the father in 1625 probably
saw the son come under the care of his uncle, Edward, at Exeter. In 1638
he was appointed organist at Winchester; in the 1640s, however, the effects
of the Puritan ascendancy prompted him to relocate in London, where he
taught, was organist to Sir John Danvers, and performed in works like The
Siege of Rhodes. In 1660 he was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal, a
post once held by his father; for a time he was also organist and later master
of the choristers at Westminster Abbey. At the king’s behest, he received the
DMus from Oxford in 1664. Zimmerman (1983) considers circumstantial
evidence that suggests an intimate acquaintance between Gibbons and Daniel
and Henry Purcell’s family, including the fact that both families at different
times had lived in the same house.

GIBBONS, ORLANDO (1583–1625). Composer and keyboardist. Gib-

bons emerges as one of the most eminent of the Jacobean musicians, highly
esteemed for his keyboard abilities, and the composer of works that seem to
define the Jacobean style. He was trained as a chorister at King’s College,
Cambridge, under the direction of his brother, Edward (Master there from
1592 to 1598). He was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal in 1604/5,
took the BMus at Cambridge in 1606, was named virginalist to the Privy
Chamber in 1619, and in 1623, organist at Westminster Abbey. Tradition
puts forth a DMus from Oxford in 1622, although the recent work of Harley
(1999) calls this into question, noting among other things the way Gibbons
is styled on his monument and the absence of doctoral reference to him in
contexts where others were clearly so designated. Gibbons died dramatically
while traveling with the new Caroline court to Canterbury to receive Queen
Henrietta Maria.
Gibbons’s inclusion as one of the three composers in Parthenia along with
William Byrd and John Bull confirms his rank as a keyboard composer.
In his writings for the church, the verse anthems, such as the enduringly
fine “This Is the Record of John” or “See, See, the Word Is Incarnate,” are
especially significant in their masterful combining of declamatory elements
in polyphonic contexts; Wulstan (1985) describes the former as an example
of Gibbons’s “uncanny ability . . . to unfold a declamatory voice part within

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 140 • GIBBS, CECIL ARMSTRONG

a fully worked-out contrapuntal texture, uniting the prima with the seconda
prattica.” His madrigal “The Silver Swanne” is justly praised for its memo-
rable melody.

GIBBS, CECIL ARMSTRONG (1889–1960). Composer, adjudicator, and

conductor. Gibbs was a well-known competition adjudicator for musical fes-
tivals, and much of his composition reflects the needs of the amateur choir.
His entrée into the competition festival movement was as the conductor of
the Danbury Choral Society (a post he held from 1919); he was also vice
president of the British Federation of Music Festivals for a time (1937–52).
Gibbs’s early education at Winchester College was followed by a BA at Trin-
ity College, Cambridge, in history (1911) and a MusB (1913). After several
years as a music master at public schools, he studied at the Royal College
of Music for a year (1920) and then taught composition there (1921–39).
He took the MusD degree from Cambridge in 1931. Aside from songs and
cantatas for competition festivals, Gibbs was known in his own time for inci-
dental music such as Midsummer Madness (1924), for a play by Clifford Bax,
or light music such as The Blue Peter (1923), to a libretto by A. P. Herbert.

GILBERT, SIR WILLIAM SCHWENCK (W. S.; 1836–1911). Librettist

and dramatist. Gilbert was in his own time and remains today a household
name, particularly for his satirical operetta collaborations with Sir Arthur
Sullivan. With their incredible coincidences, biting social satire, and memo-
rable turns of phrase, these operettas became famous throughout the English
speaking world, and as promoted by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company,
they were heard throughout Great Britain, North America, Australia, and
elsewhere. Gilbert was educated at King’s College, London, and after early
work in the civil service worked as a barrister. He began to write satirical
verse in the 1860, working as a journalist as well. By the end of the 1860s,
Gilbert wrote librettos for dramatic entertainments with music, as well as
operatic parodies and burlesques.
The 15-work collaboration with Sullivan started in 1871 and lasted, with
some ruptures, until 1896. Some of the most memorable works of the 19th
century came from this union, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pi-
rates of Penzance (1879), and The Mikado (1885). Aside from Sullivan,
Gilbert wrote libretti for the composers Frank Osmund Carr, Alfred Cellier,
Frederic Clay, Sir Edward German, and George Grossmith. Gilbert was
knighted in 1907.

GILES, NATHANIEL (ca. 1558–1634). Composer and organist. Giles was

likely trained at Worcester under John Colden, whom he succeeded at the

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 GLEE • 141

Cathedral in 1569. In 1585 he became master of the children and organist at

St. George’s, Windsor, the same year in which he received the BMus from
Oxford. He was appointed master of the children of the Chapel Royal in
1597, a post that he maintained along with his duties at Windsor. His time in
the Chapel Royal coincides with tensions arising out of the so-called choir-
boy plays, in which some feared that choristers were brought into the chapel
more for their theatrical than their musical talents. Giles received the DMus
from Oxford in 1622.

GLEE. Secular vocal genre similar to the partsong. While the term occurs
as early as the 1650s (John Playford uses it in his third set of Ayres and
Dialogues [1659]), the glee flourished primarily between 1750 and 1914,
when tens of thousands were composed. The glee was a short vocal piece
in no specified form, usually meant to be sung a cappella, but occasionally
with instrumental accompaniment. The social history of the glee matches
that of choral singing: in the 18th century, it was an activity for upper-class
males supplemented by paid professional singers from theaters, churches,
cathedrals, and even the Chapel Royal, as were glees sung by the Noblemen
and Gentlemen’s Catch Club. Such glees were usually in ATB, TTB, or
ATTB vocal arrangements. In the 19th century, the glee became a mixed-sex
amateur genre sung by hundreds at a time in the great choral societies and
musical festivals (especially those featuring competitions), often for SATB
or SSATB arrangements.
Subjects of glees were classed either “cheerful” or “serious” (both were
annual prize categories at the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club); they
featured drinking, love, and pastoral themes, though they were generally
less bawdy than the catch, making them appropriate for female participa-
tion, especially in the 19th century. This did not, however, stop Evangelical
philanthropists such as John Curwen from condemning many 18th-century
works as unfit for singing in the 19th century, calling their words “suited to
the immoral age in which [they were] composed.”
Like madrigals, glees frequently set different sections of text to alternat-
ing textures, and might include quick changes of tonality or meter depend-
ing on the texts set. Sir Henry Bishop’s “Sleep, while the Soft Evening”
is a typical example; homophonic sections alternate with brief solo lines in
simple counterpoint, with the occasional poignant harmony before a struc-
tural cadence. The text describes an extended farewell before bedtime. Most
of the major composers of the 18th and 19th centuries set glees, including
John Alcock, Thomas Augustine Arne, Jonathan Battishill, Benjamin
Cooke, Tom Cooke, Charles Dibdin, John Goss, Pieter Hellendaal,
Henry Hiles, James Hook, William Horsley, Thomas Linley (the elder),

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 142 • GLORIA TIBI TRINITAS

Sir George Alexander Macfarren, Thomas Norris, Stephen Paxton,

William Shield, John Stafford Smith, Stephen Storace, Samuel Webbe,
Charles Wesley (2), Samuel Wesley, and Samuel Sebastian Wesley,
inter alia. See also ANACREONTIC SOCIETY; BARRETT, WILLIAM
ALEXANDER.

GLORIA TIBI TRINITAS. Sarum antiphon for the First Vespers of Trinity
Sunday, used as the cantus firmus for In nomine settings. The foundational
setting for this repertory of pieces is John Taverner’s “Benedictus” from the
Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas at the words “in nomine.”

GLOVER, SARAH (1786–1867). Children’s educator, inventor, and sing-

ing teacher. Using a notational system she devised, Glover taught children
to sing hymns at the Norwich church of St. Lawrence, where her father was
rector. Glover created the system by turning standard solfège syllables into
notation, reducing them to capital letters for printing, substituting the syllable
Ti or Te for the usual Si (to avoid confusion with Sol), and separating them
with punctuation signs to show a rudimentary rhythmic system. In 1835 she
published Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational, followed in 1839
by the Tonic Sol-fa Tune Book to disseminate the system.
John Curwen read the Scheme in 1841 and, after modifying the nota-
tion by using lower-case letters for syllables instead of capital ones, began
to propagate it without her permission, using the name Tonic Sol-fa to do
so. With his modifications, Tonic Sol-fa became one of the major notations
used in Great Britain in the second half of the 19th century. While Curwen
acknowledged Glover as the notation’s inventor in the journal the Tonic Sol-
fa Reporter and his numerous public lectures on the method, the two had an
ambivalent relationship until her death. Glover renamed her system “Norwich
Sol-fa” to separate it from Curwen’s better-known Tonic Sol-fa. She devised
numerous aids to teaching music, including the Sol-fa Ladder, a chart to aid
visualizing transposition (which Curwen modified and used), and the Sol-fa
Harmonicon, a small glockenspiel with 25 keys and dials above each one that
would display solfège syllables for all major scales.

“GOD SAVE THE KING (QUEEN).” Song traditionally sung in salute

to the English monarch and as the national anthem. The identification of its
composer is uncertain; a posthumous attribution to Henry Carey remains
unverified. The song came into popular usage, however, in the wake of the
Battle of Prestonpans (21 September 1745), sung regularly in an arrangement
by Thomas Arne at Drury Lane on behalf of George II, under threat by the
Jacobite uprising in the north.

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 GRABU, LOUIS • 143

GOOSSENS, SIR EUGENE (1893–1962). Conductor and composer active

in England, the United States, and Australia. Goossens was one of the most
important conductors of the middle of the 20th century and was a champion
of contemporary music. His 1942 commission of patriotic fanfares for the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra included Aaron Copland’s now famous Fan-
fare for the Common Man.
Goossens came from a musical family (his father and grandfather, both
named Eugène, conducted the Carl Rosa Opera Company; his siblings were
also famous musicians). After initial training at Bruges Conservatory and in
Liverpool, he attended the Royal College of Music. He was a violinist in Sir
Thomas Beecham’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra from 1912 to 1915 and served
as Beecham’s assistant conductor for a time. In 1921 Goossens founded his
own orchestra (the Goossens Orchestra) and began a long conducting career
with such organizations as the Carl Rosa Opera Company. From 1923 to 1956
Goossens held positions in the United States, including the Eastman-Roches-
ter Philharmonic Orchestra (1923–31) and the Cincinnati Symphony Orches-
tra (1931–46), and in Australia at the Sydney Symphony Orcestra (1946–57);
he was also for a time the director of the New South Wales Conservatorium
of Music. He left Australia when he was caught smuggling pornographic im-
ages into that country; he returned to England in 1956 and continued record-
ing with British and continental orchestras. Goossens was knighted in 1955.

GOSTLING, JOHN (1650–1733). Singer and cleric. Gostling became a gen-

tleman of the Chapel Royal in 1679 and a minor canon at St. Paul’s, London,
in 1683. He additionally served as a chaplain to William III. As a singer he was
particularly noted for the profundity of his bass range, used to striking effect in
verse anthems like Henry Purcell’s “They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships.”
Sir John Hawkins records that this particular anthem resulted from Gostling’s
presence on Charles II’s royal yacht, The Fubbs, during a violent storm, an ex-
perience dramatic enough to send Gostling to the psalms for appropriate verses,
which he took to Purcell to set. Purcell did so in a particularly text-depictive
way, “adapting [the music] . . . so peculiarly to the compass of Mr. Gostling’s
voice, which was a deep bass, that hardly any person but himself was then, or
has since been able to sing it.” Gostling’s presence on the yacht suggests royal
favor, confirmed by the king’s fabled gift to Gostling of a silver egg filled with
guineas, adding that “he had heard that eggs were good for the voice.”
Gostling was also active in the copying of church music, as in the Gostling
Partbooks at York (GBYm15).

GRABU, LOUIS (fl. 1665–94). Violinist and composer. Grabu’s appoint-

ment to royal service in 1665 coincides with the popularity of French taste

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 144 • GRADUALIA

at court, although resentment from English musicians like John Banister,

whose leadership of the court violins was a casualty of Grabu’s rise, was
strong. Grabu was a Spaniard, Francophied in musical matters, and his Ro-
man Catholicism saw his court position fall in the wake of the Test Act in
the mid-1670s, at which time he focused his attention on theater music. The
most well known of his theatrical works is the opera Albion and Albanius, to
an allegorical text by John Dryden. Intended originally to be the prologue to
King Arthur, its independent performance in 1685 was a failure, in part, one
suspects, due to its being performed during the Duke of Monmouth’s unsuc-
cessful but dramatic attempt to gain the throne.
John Dryden’s esteem of the composer is enshrined in the prefatory mate-
rial to Albion. Conscious of having chosen a foreigner, Dryden explained:
“When any of our countrymen excel him, I shall be glad, for the sake of old
England, to be shewn my errour.”

GRADUALIA. Two volumes of mass propers published by William Byrd.

The later years of Byrd’s life saw a number of manifestations of his Roman
Catholic faith, including participation in the recusant community of John Pe-
tre and boldly publishing music for the Roman rite, including three settings of
the ordinary and a large collection of mass propers for major feasts and Mar-
ian occasions. The two volumes of Gradualia (1605 and 1607; both reissued
in 1610) are devoted to the mass propers. The dedicatory material is interest-
ingly personal and intimate, as in this statement where the composer writes
of a mystical contemplation of the words leading him to their proper setting:

[I]n these words, as I have learned by trial, there is such a profound and hid-
den power that to one thinking upon things divine and diligently and earnestly
pondering them, all the fittest numbers occur as if of themselves and freely offer
themselves to the mind which is not indolent or inert.

GRAINGER, PERCY ALDRIGE (ALSO GEORGE PERCY; 1882–

1961). Composer, pianist, and writer on music of Australian origin. Though
Grainger spent a little over a decade in England (1901–14), he collected
English folk songs, and they remained a staple influence of his compositional
technique throughout his career. Grainger received early education and train-
ing in Australia and in Frankfurt, being one of the composers of the so-called
Frankfurt Group who studied with Iwan Knorr at the Hochschule für Musik
there. While in England, he was active mostly as a concert pianist, though
Schott began publishing his compositions in 1911, and he had a concert of
his own works in 1912 in London. In 1914 he moved to the United States and
spent the rest of his career between the United States and Australia, return-

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 GREENE, MAURICE • 145

ing to Europe occasionally to tour and collect folk songs. His works have
remained popular, especially in wind-band arrangements.

GRAY, CECIL (1895–1951). Music critic, writer on music, and composer.

Gray was one of the most powerful and provocative critical voices of the
1920s and 1930s, along with Constant Lambert, Philip Heseltine, and
Bernard Van Dieren. With Heseltine, he founded the Sackbut, to which they
both contributed material for nine controversial issues before losing control
of the magazine when it was purchased by the Curwen Press (1920–21).
Gray’s books, including A Survey of Contemporary Music (1924) and The
History of Music (1928), as well as volumes on Jean Sibelius, Heseltine, Don
Carlo Gesualdo, and Johann Sebastian Bach, were popular though critically
problematic in their own time. Little is known about his early artistic educa-
tion, though he did take a degree in arts from Edinburgh University (1913)
and studied privately with Healey Willan before Willan emigrated to Canada
in 1913. Gray composed little but completed three operas (mostly unper-
formed) and a Symphonic Prelude (1945).

GREATOREX, THOMAS (1758–1831). Conductor, organist, teacher,

composer, astronomer, and mathematician. Greatorex was one of the most
highly regarded musicians of his day, both for his activities in London and
for his conducting of provincial musical festivals. He was an organ pupil of
Benjamin Cooke in London and—on the recommendation of Joah Bates—
worked early on as an organist for the Earl of Sandwich. From 1771 to 1784
he was the organist of Carlisle Cathedral, but he made frequent trips to Lon-
don, such as in 1776, when he sang in the first of the Concerts of Ancient
Music. He studied singing with Giuseppi Santarelli in Italy and keyboard
with Ignace Joseph Pleyel in Strasbourg between 1786 and 1788, whereupon
he returned to various positions in London for the rest of his career: conductor
of the Concerts of Ancient Music (1793 until his death), organist of Westmin-
ster Abbey (1819 until his death), and professor of organ and harmony at the
Royal Academy of Music (2; 1822 until his death). He was a member of the
Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club and conducted musical festivals at
Birmingham, Chester, Derby, and York. For his works on mathematics and
astronomy, he was elected a member of the Royal Society.

GREENE, MAURICE (1696–1755). Composer and organist. Greene’s ap-

pointments as organist of St. Paul’s, London (1718), organist and composer
of the Chapel Royal (1727), and Master of the King’s Music (1735) made
him a particularly prominent figure in 18th-century London musical circles,
an English voice amid Handelian importations. His compositions include a

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 146 • “GREENSLEEVES”

large body of anthems in full, verse, and solo formats—many of which were
published in Forty Select Anthems (1743)—services, voluntaries, and ora-
torios. Late in his life he began work collecting church music for a planned
anthology, historical and contemporary. Aided by the collateral work of John
Alcock, this material resurfaces in William Boyce’s Cathedral Music.
Greene was a pivotal player in the Academy of Ancient Music plagia-
rism scandal of 1731 involving his performance of a madrigal ostensibly by
Giovanni Bononcini but in reality the work of Antonio Lotti. In the wake
of this turbulence, Greene withdrew from the Academy of Ancient Music in
favor of the Apollo Academy.

“GREENSLEEVES.” Popular 16th-century ballad tune. The popularity

and familiarity of “Greensleeves” is suggested in William Shakespeare’s
two references to the melody in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Its modern
familiarity has been sustained both by its use with the carol text “What
Child Is This?” and in its setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams in his
enduringly popular Fantasia on “Greensleeves” (1934). One reasonably
expects a degree of variability in ballad tunes, particularly given the fre-
quency of their oral transmission. Different versions of “Greensleeves”
survive that, in addition to melodic variation, also proceed in different
meters. The bass line generating the harmonies for “Greensleeves” con-
forms to familiar patterns of standard ground basses—in this case the Pas-
samezzo antico and the Romanesca—a situation that is strongly suggestive
of roots in improvisation.

GROVE, SIR GEORGE (1820–1900). Engineer, writer on music, music

administrator, educator, and impresario. Grove is best remembered today for
his editing of and many contributions to A Dictionary of Music and Musi-
cians (1879–89), which became through various editions Grove’s Dictionary
of Music and Musicians and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musi-
cians, often simply shortened to Grove. Grove worked as an engineer from
1836 to 1849 before turning to literary and cultural pursuits. He was named
secretary of the Society of Arts in 1849 and secretary of the Crystal Palace
Corporation in 1852; he began writing a series of analytical program notes
for the Crystal Palace Concerts in 1854. He continued to work for the Crystal
Palace until 1873, when he resigned to devote more time to the Dictionary,
though he continued to write program notes for the Saturday concerts. He was
involved from 1881 in the foundation of the Royal College of Music and was
named its director in 1882—a post he held until 1894. Grove was a longtime
contributor to the Times and many other newspapers and journals; wrote a
monograph, Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies (1894), that is still in use

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 GURNEY, IVOR • 147

today; and was a sought-after expert on numerous subjects, including biblical

history and geography. He was knighted in 1883 and named a Companion of
the Bath in 1894.

GUEST, JANE (ALSO JENNY GUEST; JANE MILES; 1762–1846).

Pianist and composer, primarily of vocal and keyboard works. Guest was
trained and performed early concerts in her hometown of Bath before tak-
ing lessons with Johann Christian Bach in 1776. She organized her own
subscription series at the Tottenham Street Rooms (1783–84) and played at
the Hanover Square Rooms and Willis’s Rooms as well. Guest was also ap-
pointed by George III to be the musical instructor of Princess Amalie (1804)
and Princess Charlotte (1806). Aside from salon music, she is known to have
composed piano concertos.

GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC (GSM). Musical education center

that awards BMus (performance) and MMus (composition) degrees, founded
by the Corporation of the City of London in 1880 from the success of the
Guildhall Orchestral and Choral Society, conducted by T. H. Weist Hill (he
became the school’s first principal, followed, at his death, by Sir Joseph
Barnby). The school has had three locations: Aldermanbury (1880), Black-
friars (1887), and finally the Barbican (1977). Initially, Guildhall offered
students part-time courses, but began offering full-time ones in 1920. In
1935 the institution became the Guildhall School of Music and Drama when
theater courses were added to its purview. See also COLERIDGE-TAYLOR,
SAMUEL; LEHMANN, LIZA; MACCUNN, HAMISH; PROUT, EBENE-
ZER; RUBBRA, EDMUND; SILAS, EDOUARD.

GURNEY, IVOR (1890–1937). Poet and composer, predominantly of

songs. Gurney was a chorister and pupil of Sir Herbert Brewer at Glouces-
ter Cathedral before studying at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in
1911 with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. War service interrupted his
education (1915–18); he was hospitalized, and contemporaries claimed he
suffered thereafter from “shell shock.” During this time, he began to publish
volumes of poetry, including Severn & Somme (1917) and War’s Embers
(1919), both to some acclaim. He returned to the RCM, studying there from
late 1918 to 1921 with Ralph Vaughan Williams. In the early 1920s, he
had an extremely prolific period of songwriting, but after a short period in
Gloucester around 1921, he spent the remainder of his life in various men-
tal hospitals. Most of his publications come from the end of the 1910s and
early 1920s; more of his work was published after his death, but much of it
remains in manuscript.

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 148 • GYFFARD PARTBOOKS

GYFFARD PARTBOOKS. Manuscript source (GB Lbl Add 17802–5) cop-

ied in the main during the reign of Mary Tudor (1553–58), containing liturgi-
cal music by John Taverner, John Sheppard, Christopher Tye, Thomas
Tallis, and Robert Whyte, among others.

GYMEL. The division of one vocal part into two parts of equal range. Though
found earlier in continental sources, the first English source for gymel is the
Eton Choirbook, with several examples. A late 15th-century Italian treatise
by Guilielmus Monachus, De Preceptis Artis Musicae, describes gymel as a
“modus Anglicorum” (one of two) that consists of parallel thirds and sixths.
While some scholars have seen this tertian element as key, modern commen-
tators view it as too constraining and a misapplication of the term.

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 H
HALLÉ, SIR CHARLES (ALSO CARL HALLE; 1819–95). Conductor
and pianist of German birth, known best for his conducting of the highly
disciplined Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and his recitals of Beethoven’s
piano sonatas in London. Hallé studied with Ludwig Spohr as well as in
Darmstadt and Paris; he gave his first recital at the age of nine and conducted
two operas—Die Zauberflöte and Der Freischütz—at the age of 11. Hallé
settled in England in 1848, first in London, but centering his activities in
Manchester late in that year. He began conducting the Gentleman’s Concerts
there in 1849, with an orchestra of 40; when an exhibition in 1857 required
a larger orchestra, he organized this and used it as the nucleus of the Hallé
Orchestra (founded 1858). Hallé was a great believer in the idea that good
music led to self-improvement, and he made cheaper seats available at early
concerts in the Manchester Free Trade Hall and took his orchestra on frequent
tours to poorer districts without large instrumental forces. Aside from the
Manchester ensemble, he was also the director of the Royal Liverpool Phil-
harmonic Orchestra from 1883 to 1895 and the principal and piano instructor
at the Royal Music College, Manchester, from 1893 until his death. Hallé was
knighted in 1888.

HALLÉ ORCHESTRA. Manchester-based orchestra, founded in 1858 by

Sir Charles Hallé and consistently considered the best (and most disciplined)
instrumental ensemble in England during the second half of the 19th century.
The orchestra performed regularly at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester
before moving to the newly constructed Bridgewater Hall in 1996. The or-
chestra performed many notable premieres of English works (including Sir
Edward Elgar’s Symphony no. 1 in A-flat major in 1908) and had as regular
conductors and directors some of the most famous individuals working in
England in the 19th and 20th centuries, including Hallé (1858–95), Frederic
Cowen (1895–99), Hans Richter (1899–1911), as well as Sir Thomas Bee-
cham, Hamilton Harty, Sir Malcolm Sargent, and Sir John Barbirolli. The
Hallé Orchestra frequently toured and often made up part or all of provincial
musical festival orchestras, including those of Bristol and Huddersfield.

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 150 • HANDEL, GEORGE FRIDERIC

HANDEL, GEORGE FRIDERIC (1685–1759). The most accomplished

composer of the first part of the 18th century in England. Handel’s irrefutable
iconicity as an English composer is rooted in his prominence in the London
musical scene, especially that of the operatic theater, but more enduringly in his
contribution to the ceremonial royal style—his coronation anthem “Zadok the
Priest,” written for the coronation of George II in 1727, has not only become a
fixture at succeeding coronations, but also in its grand gestures creates a long-
lasting typos of musical regality, echoed in celebrative works like Musick for
the Royal Fireworks (1749)—and in his creation of the English oratorio, a
form distinct from its Italian counterpart and one that would receive long life
in the English choral festival. Handel’s English iconicity is not without irony.
A native Saxon whose early influences were German (Friederich Zachow
in Halle and Reinhold Keiser in Hamburg) and Italian (Corelli, inter alia, in
Rome), Handel did not become naturalized until 1727, long after his promi-
nence has been established in London. As a composer whose activities in his
first two decades in England are most notably devoted to Italian opera, he
seems well to personify the invading foreigner whose cultural “victory”—the
unanswerable popularity of Italian opera—led to the demise of the English
musical theater. Suggestive of the extent to which native English musical
theater had become moribund, the poet and opera director Aaron Hill in
1732 referred to “our Italian bondage” in a letter to Handel. But if with one
hand Handel thwarted the native form, in his cultivation of English oratorio,
a cultivation largely begun in the wake of the financial collapse of London
opera in the late 1730s, he gave back with the other. Certainly the English
form was distinctive and enduring; however, the strong imprint of Handel’s
own idiom in the oratorio form perhaps, also ironically, impeded the growth
of later English composers in that genre.
Handel’s compositional range was broad; he wrote odes, anthems, Latin
psalms (including the notably challenging setting of Dixit Dominus from 1707),
a large quantity of Italian cantatas, orchestral works (including concerti grossi
whose form echoes Corelli and suites like the famous “Water Music”), and solo
instrumental works. But his greatest attention was focused on music drama,
be it opera or oratorio, and his fidelity to the theater spanned nearly all stages
of his career. Opera was to be his “calling card” to London audiences when,
as the new Hanoverian Kappelmeister, he traveled to England and premiered
his opera Rinaldo (1711), a work rich in compelling arias, such as the haunt-
ing sarabande “Lascia ch’io pianga” and the bravura “Or la tromba,” and a
work rich in stagecraft, as satirically noted by Addison in the Spectator. And
although Handel dutifully returned to Hanover in the summer of 1711, the suc-
cess of Rinaldo and the professional possibilities of London prompted both his
quick return and his famous extending of his leave of absence.

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 HANDEL, GEORGE FRIDERIC • 151

London opera began a new era with the establishment of the Royal Acad-
emy of Music (1) in 1719, an opera company financed by subscription and
located at the Haymarket Theatre. Handel, functioning as music director,
traveled to the Continent in May 1719 to hire “proper voices to sing in the
opera” and to “engage Senezino [sic] as soon as possible to serve the said
company and for as many years as may be.” The interest in star singers, re-
inforced by the aria-driven style of the operas, would eventually bring to the
Royal Academy the great castrato Senesino and the divas Francesca Cuzzoni
and Faustina Bordoni (Hasse). A company of such luminaries fed the audi-
ence tastes for foreign singers of celebrity but also exacted a toll emotionally,
as seen in the public feuding between Cuzzoni and Bordoni. The coming
to blows of the two singers and their supporters during a performance of
Giovanni Bononcini’s Astianatte unsurprisingly prompted contemporary
comment. John Arbuthnot, for instance, opined that “it is certainly an appar-
ent shame that two such well bred ladies should call ‘Bitch’ and ‘Whore,’
[and] should scold and fight like any Billingates.” The tension between sing-
ers, the high salaries they commanded, and a shift in audience taste, seen for
instance in the popularity of The Beggar’s Opera (1728), a ballad opera that
lampooned both the aristocracy and Italian opera, undermined the viability of
the company, and it closed in 1728.
A second academy was formed in 1729, again under the leadership of
Handel and John Jacob Heidegger. Among the challenges facing this sec-
ond academy was the competition of an unprecedented second company, the
“Opera of the Nobility,” which opened in 1733, led by Johann Christoph
Pepusch and featuring Senesino, who had become estranged from Handel,
and Farinelli. A note from the Minister of the King of Prussia describes the
unrest out of which the “Opera of the Nobility” arose: “Last Saturday the
opening of the new Opera-house took place, which the Noblesse has under-
taken since they were not satisfied with the Conduite of the Directeur of the
old Opera, Händel, and to abase him, planned a new one.” Both the second
academy and the “Opera of the Nobility” closed in bankruptcy in 1737.
In the wake of the demise of the opera companies, Handel turned to ora-
torio, and in so doing remained a man of the theater—oratorios, though on
sacred subjects, were conceived as works to be performed in the theater. His
turn to oratorio reshaped the well-established Italian genre—a genre he knew
well from his early days in Rome and from his own composition of works like
La Resurrezione (1708)—by using vernacular texts and English singers, and
by giving to the chorus a newly significant role. Most of the English oratorios
were based on Old Testament narratives, as in Samson (1741), Israel in Egypt
(1739), and Saul (1739), and emerge potentially as national allegories and
responses to the advance of Deism (Smith, 1995).

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 152 • HANDEL COMMEMORATION

The most famous exception to the model is, of course, Handel’s most famous
work, Messiah, first performed in Dublin in 1742. Handel’s oratorio offers a
nonnarrative, contemplative consideration of the arc of Jesus’s life and work,
with Biblical texts compiled into a libretto by Charles Jennens. Its unflagging
modern popularity may derive in no little part from its seasonal association
with Christmas, although it was clearly successful at its Dublin premiere; the
Dublin Journal noted that “words are wanting to express the exquisite Delight
it afforded to the admiring crouded Audience,” a sentiment that seems to be
nearly timeless. But additionally, part of its popularity may rest in its strong and
highly varied choruses, ranging from the intimate textures of the so-called duet
choruses, based on earlier Italian duets, to the powerful anthem choruses, such
as the expansive and impressively contrapuntal “Amen.” See also ANTHEM;
ARNE, MICHAEL; ARNOLD, SAMUEL; AVISON, CHARLES; BABELL,
WILLIAM; BATES, JOAH; BONONCINI, GIOVANNI; BRIDGE, SIR
FREDERICK; BURNEY, CHARLES; CEREMONIAL MUSIC; CORONA-
TION MUSIC; COVENT GARDEN THEATRE; CRYSTAL PALACE;
CURWEN PRESS; FOUNDLING HOPSITAL; GALLIARD, JOHN ERNST;
GATES, BERNARD; GIARDINI, FELICE; HANDEL COMMEMORATION;
HANDEL SOCIETY; HAWKINS, SIR JOHN; HAYES, WILLIAM; HEL-
LENDAAL, PIETER; HICKFORD’S ROOM; MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE
ALEXANDER; MUSICAL FESTIVALS; ODE; PLEASURE GARDENS;
PROUT, EBENEZER; ROSEINGRAVE, THOMAS; ROYAL SOCIETY OF
MUSICIANS; “RULE BRITANNIA”; SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER (THE
ELDER); SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER (THE YOUNGER); VAUXHALL
GARDENS; WALSH, JOHN.

HANDEL COMMEMORATION. Organized by John Montagu, the Fourth

Earl of Sandwich, Sir Watkins Williams Wynn, and Joah Bates, with the
Concerts of Ancient Music and the Society of Musicians, the Handel Com-
memoration took place between 26 May and 5 June 1784, marking the 25th
anniversary of George Frideric Handel’s death. The five concerts (three
planned, two repeated because of popularity) of the commemoration were
held in Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon and featured more than 500
performers, conducted by Bates. The concerts featured a full performance
of Messiah and selections from Handel’s other works, especially his ora-
torios—a practice that became popular at musical festivals for the next 50
years. Charles Burney wrote a description of the commemoration in 1785,
and the performances were repeated in 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790, and 1791.
The large forces at these concerts were repeated in Handel festivals through-
out the 19th century (especially those at the Crystal Palace, beginning in
1856) and became a regular feature of some musical festivals as well. See

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 HAWKINS, SIR JOHN • 153

also COOKE, BENJAMIN; CROTCH, WILLIAM; NORRIS, THOMAS;

PARKE, MARIA FRANCIS; PAXTON, STEPHEN; PUBLIC CONCERTS.

HANDEL FESTIVAL. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

HANDEL SOCIETY. London choir active between 1882 and 1939 dedi-
cated to the performance of George Frideric Handel’s lesser-known ora-
torios. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Ralph Vaughan Williams both con-
ducted it for a time. See also RIMBAULT, EDWARD FRANCIS.

HANOVER SQUARE ROOMS (ALSO HANOVER SQUARE CON-

CERT ROOMS; QUEEN’S CONCERT ROOMS). London concert rooms
built in partnership between Giovanni Andrea Battista Gallini, Johann
Christian Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel in 1775 for the Bach-Abel concerts
and a rival series on alternate evenings by Gallini, and used eventually by
Johann Peter Salomon for Franz Joseph Haydn’s concerts in London be-
tween 1791 and 1795. Like many venues, the Hanover Square Concert Rooms
became an extension of the subscribers’ own drawing rooms (it had sofas sur-
rounding the rooms), and the managers sought social exclusivity through both
high ticket prices and screening potential ticket subscribers. The venue was
used well into the 19th century for concerts (Sir William Sterndale Bennett,
for instance, held occasional orchestral concerts there between 1848 and 1856),
and it was also the location of the library of the Bach Society.

HARRIS, RENATUS (ca. 1652–1724). Organ builder. The son of Thomas

Harris, an organ builder who had relocated in France during the interregnum,
Renatus returned with his father at the Restoration of the monarchy, eventu-
ally succeeding the elder Harris in the family business. Renatus, described by
Charles Burney as “an ingenious and active young man,” was famously the
rival of the organ builder Bernard (“Father”) Smith. The most noted instance
of the rivalry was their mutual competition for the new organ at London’s Tem-
ple Church, a competition that saw each builder provide an instrument within
the church and engage players to demonstrate. Smith’s instrument, the ultimate
victor, was played by John Blow and Henry Purcell; Harris’s instrument
was played by Giovanni Battista Draghi, an association that reflects Harris’s
Roman Catholicism. Among Harris’s many instruments was a large organ for
Salisbury Cathedral, the first in England to be configured with four manuals.

HAWKINS, SIR JOHN (1719–89). Music historian. The publication of

Hawkins’s General History of the Science and Practice of Music (1776)
brought to the public one of the first two general music histories in English,

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 154 • HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH

the other being Charles Burney’s A General History of Music. Though both
works drew on extensive research—Hawkins spent 16 years working on his
history—the two works are significantly different in their views. Hawkins’s
orientation is more historical, with an aesthetic appreciation of music of the
past, repertories that he additionally anthologized within his study. “Mod-
ern” music, however, fares less well. With Burney, the reverse obtains. The
historical orientation of Hawkins may have contributed to the viability of his
study in later generations (Harrison, Hood, Palisca, 1963); the General His-
tory was reprinted twice in the 19th century (1853 and 1875).
Hawkins’s friends included prominent London musicians like George
Frideric Handel and John Stanley; he was also a friend of Samuel Johnson,
whose biography he published prior to the more enduring version offered by
James Boswell in 1791.
Hawkins received training first as an architect and then as a lawyer; the
latter was his career. He began writing in 1739 on numerous topics and
gradually became more involved with the music and musicians of his time.
He became a member of the Academy of Ancient Music sometime in the
mid-1740s, joined the Madrigal Society in 1748, and played chamber music
as an amateur. A family bequest in 1759 allowed him to pursue scholastic
matters, including purchasing musical manuscripts and old prints (through
these funds, he acquired Johann Christoph Pepusch’s library). Between
1761 and 1775, he researched A General History both at the British Museum
and within his own library. Aside from A General History, he also published
studies of William Croft (1775), Arcangelo Corelli (1777), and William
Boyce (1788). Hawkins was knighted in 1772 for his work as a magistrate.

HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH (1732–1809). Austro-Hungarian composer,

active in England between 1791–92 and 1794–95. For the first few decades
of the 19th century, he was the most important composer in England after
George Frideric Handel; his oratorios The Creation and The Seasons were
staple works at musical festivals. While Bremer published some of Haydn’s
quartets in the early 1770s, his music did not become popular in England until
the 1780s. When he visited in the 1790s, after his invitation from Johann
Peter Salomon, he performed to popular acclaim at the Hanover Square
Rooms; the King’s Theatre, Haymarket; and other venues, including over
50 concerts. The compositions he completed for his English trips include
Symphonies nos. 93–104 (the London Symphonies), piano sonatas, and
solo songs; inspiration for The Creation may have come from witnessing
performances of Handel’s music in Westminster Abbey. See also ADAMS,
THOMAS; ANTHEM; BARTHÉLEMON, FRANÇOIS-HIPPOLYTE; CLE-
MENTI, MUZIO; CLEMENTI & CO.; COWEN, SIR FREDERIC HYMEN;

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 HAYMARKET • 155

GALLINI, GIOVANNI ANDREA BATTISTA; PARKE, MARIA FRAN-

CIS; PROFESSIONAL CONCERT; SCHROETER, JOHANN SAMUEL;
VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA.

HAYES, WILLIAM (1708–77). Composer, conductor, organist, singer, and

writer on music. Hayes was an ardent Handelian, well respected as a conduc-
tor and singer at the provincial musical festivals, and a longtime professor
of music at Oxford. He received early education and training as a chorister at
Gloucester Cathedral. Hayes’s positions included being organist at St. Mary’s
Shrewsbury (1729) and Worcester Cathedral (1731) and as the informator
choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford (1735), before being appointed
professor of music and organist of the University Church at Oxford (1741).
He took a BMus from Oxford in 1735 and a DMus in 1749. Hayes’s compo-
sitions, mostly unpublished, include an oratorio (The Fall of Jericho), odes
(including one dedicated to George Frideric Handel, “O That Some Pensive
Muse”), sacred music, and some instrumental selections.

HAYMARKET (ALSO HAYMARKET THEATRE; HER MAJESTY’S

THEATRE; HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE). In 1705 John Vanbrugh built
the first of several theaters on the west side of London’s Haymarket, where
with Congreve he began the productions of operas; the venue, or its latter-
day descendants, became the chief London theater for Italian opera well into
the 19th century. Initially the Queen’s Theatre, becoming the King’s Theatre
in 1714 with the accession of George I, the Haymarket saw the first perfor-
mances of a number of George Frideric Handel’s operas, beginning with
Rinaldo in 1711. The King’s Theatre was home to the Royal Academy of
Music (1) from 1719 to 1728, an operatic venture that featured the operas of
Handel, Giovanni Bononcini, and Attilio Ariosti; in 1734 the rival “Opera
of the Nobility” was in residence, featuring the operas of Nicola Porpora
and the celebrated singing of the castrato Farinelli. The first theater was
destroyed by fire in 1789 and the second built in 1791. Within this iteration,
the King’s Theatre saw the productions of operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mo-
zart, Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Giuseppe
Verdi; the new theater seated 3,300. The theater was renamed Her Majesty’s
on Queen Victoria’s accession in 1837.
In the 1840s the focus of the theater changed, and French and German
operas were heard alongside Italian ones. Also, for a time, the theater’s ballet
company was as prestigious as the opera company. A third theater was built
in 1868 with a capacity of 1,900 seats; though, because of a rent dispute, it
went unused until 1874. This version of Her Majesty’s Theatre presented the
London premiere of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle, among other works. It also

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 156 • HEAP, CHARLES SWINERTON

saw the production of the last opera there, in 1889; thereafter, this theater, and
the 1,319-seat fourth theater that replaced it in 1897, concentrated on drama,
operetta, and, eventually, musical theater. See also ARNOLD, SAMUEL;
AYRNTON, WILLIAM; BACH, JOHANN CHRISTIAN; BENEDICT,
SIR JULIUS; BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE; CLEMENTI, MUZIO; CORBETT,
WILLIAM; COSTA, SIR MICHAEL; DRAGONETTI, DOMENICO; EC-
CLES, JOHN; FARINELLI; GALLINI, GIOVANNI ANDREA BATTISTA;
GIARDINI, FELICE; HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH; HEIDEGGER, JOHN JA-
COB; MAZZINGHI, JOSEPH; PEPUSCH, JOHANN CHRISTOPH; PUB-
LIC CONCERTS; SACCHINI, ANTONIO; SHIELD, WILLIAM; SMART,
HENRY THOMAS; STORACE, STEPHEN; VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BAT-
TISTA; WEBBE, SAMUEL; YOUNG, POLLY.

HEAP, CHARLES SWINERTON (1847–1900). Conductor, organist, singer,

and composer. For almost three decades, Heap was a substantial presence in
the music scene of Birmingham and surrounding areas as a teacher, performer,
and choral conductor. He had early training at York Minster and spent 1865–67
in Leipzig under the auspices of the Mendelssohn Scholarship. He earned a
BMus (1871) and a DMus (1872) from Cambridge University before settling in
the Birmingham region. He conducted many area choral societies and musical
festivals, including the Birmingham Musical Union (1870–86), the Wolver-
hampton Festival (1883 and 1886; the latter festival included the premiere of
his cantata The Maid of Astolat), the North Staffordshire Festival (1888–99),
and the Birmingham Festival Choral Society (1895).

HEATHER, WILLIAM (ca. 1563–1627). Musician and Oxford donor. Al-

though Heather was both a lay clerk at Westminster Abbey (1586–1615) and a
gentleman of the Chapel Royal (appointed 1615), his compositional abilities
are called into question by his MusD submission at Oxford being in reality the
music to Orlando Gibbons’s “O Clap Your Hands.” His legacy at Oxford has
been an enduring one in the form of an endowment to support both practical
and theoretical music instruction in the university; the professor in the Faculty
of Music is styled the “Heather Professor.” The model for his generosity was
his close friend, William Camden, headmaster of Westminster School, who
both endowed a chair in history at the university as well as profitably made
Heather the executor and a beneficiary of his estate. Several musical works
were dedicated to him, including Thomas Tomkins’s “Music Divine” and
John Hilton’s (the younger) 1627 collection of three-voice ayres.

HEIDEGGER, JOHN JACOB (1666–1749). Impressario and opera

manager. Known as the “Swiss Count,” Heidegger came to London in the

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 HENRY LESLIE’S CHOIR • 157

first decade of the 18th century where he began a long managerial career
at the Haymarket Theatre, first as an assistant to Owen Swiney; following
Swiney’s absconding with the theater’s funds, Heidegger became manager in
1713 and remained so until well into his old age. In this capacity he worked
frequently with George Frideric Handel and was an important catalyst for
the promotion of Italian opera in London. His promotion extended to other
entertainments, as well, including profitable masquerades, as noted by both
Sir John Hawkins and Charles Burney. Burney’s note observes that “Dur-
ing his regency, Ridottas and masquerades were first introduced in that [the
Haymarket] theatre. Dr. Arbuthnot inscribed to him a poem called The Mas-
querade, in which he seems more severe upon the count’s ugliness, which he
could not help, than on his voluntary vices.” With regard to his appearance,
Hawkins notes only that “he was a man of a projecting head.” Winton Dean
(NG, 1980) underscored the issue, observing that “He was notoriously ugly,
and won a bet that Lord Chesterfield could not produce a more hideous face
in London.” One may judge for oneself from the familiar etching of Hei-
degger with the opera singers Francesca Cuzzoni and Farinelli by Joseph
Goupy and Dorothy Boyle.

HELLENDAAL, PIETER (1721–99). Composer, violinist, and organist

of Dutch origin. Hellendaal had early education and employment at Utrecht
and Amsterdam before attending the University at Leiden from 1749 to
1751. At the end of 1751, he moved to London, where he became part of the
general musical scene as a violinist (playing concerts at Hickford’s Room,
the Foundling Hospital under George Frideric Handel, and other loca-
tions). In 1760 he was appointed organist at St. Margaret’s, King’s Lynn, and
moved permanently to Cambridge in 1762, first as organist of Pembroke Hall
(1762), then at Peterhouse Chapel (1777). In and around Cambridge, he was
frequently heard in concert and had many pupils. Hellendaal published works
for violin or flute and keyboard, a number of canons and glees (including one
given an award by the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club in 1769),
and a widely used metrical psalm hymnal.

HENRY LESLIE’S CHOIR. A cappella choir famous for its generous

rehearsals, musical skill, and sensitive performance of English music.
The choir was first conducted by Frank Mori before being handed over to
Henry Leslie in 1855. Leslie—who would become one of the best-known
choral conductors of his era—conducted it until 1880, dissolving it, but
Alberto Randegger reconstituted it in 1882; he conducted it until 1885,
when Leslie took it over once again. The choir ceased to exist in 1887.
Originally consisting of 35 handpicked members, it grew to 60, and then

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 158 • HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE

to 240. The repertoire it performed included Elizabethan madrigals and

Victorian partsongs (William McNaught thought that the cultivation of
this genre by contemporary composers was entirely due to the existence and
excellence of the choir). For most of its existence, the choir performed its
regular season at St. James’s Hall. See also MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE
ALEXANDER.

HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE. See HAYMARKET.

HERBERT, GEORGE (1593–1683). Cleric and poet. A younger son of a

titled family, Herbert briefly entered politics as a member of Parliament but
abandoned this for the church, receiving diaconal ordination by 1726 and
priestly ordination in 1730, the year in which he became rector of Bemerton,
close to Salisbury. His attachment to music was deep, as evidenced in his
poetry, his regular trek to Salisbury Cathedral where he found the music a
“Heaven upon Earth,” and his participation in private music meetings. His
poem “Church-musick,” from the collection The Temple (1633), is a poignant
hymn to church music’s transcendant power in which he observes of this
“sweetest of sweets” that “if I travel in your companie, You know the way
to heavens doore.” His poetry was set to music by a number of 17th-century
composers, including Henry Purcell; Ralph Vaughan Williams’s 1911 set-
ting of the Five Mystical Songs is widely known.

HESELTINE, PHILIP (ALSO PETER WARLOCK; 1894–1930). Com-

poser, music editor, and writer on music. Heseltine was infamous in the
1920s as both musician and libertine; he was caricatured by authors such as
D. H. Lawrence (Women in Love, 1920), Aldous Huxley (Antic Hay, 1923),
and Osbert Sitwell (Those Were the Days, 1938). As a composer, he excelled
in smaller forms like songs and carols. His best-known work is The Curlew
(1922), a song cycle set to the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Heseltine was
perhaps more famous in his day as a transcriber of early English music (with
some 570 works edited) and a music writer and critic, along with his intimates
Cecil Gray and Bernard Van Dieren.
Heseltine’s musical education was sporadic. He attended Eton, where he
was introduced to the music of Sir Frederick Delius, and briefly both Ox-
ford (1913–14) and the University of London (1914), before taking a job for
a few months as music critic at the Daily Mail (1915). Between 1915 and his
death, Heseltine lived variously in Wales, Dublin, Eynsford, and London. He
supported himself through transcription of Elizabethan music, publication
of both songs as well as books on music (nine in all), reviews, and articles.
From 1920 to 1921, he edited, with Cecil Gray, the Sackbut, imbuing it with

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 HILES, HENRY • 159

controversial pieces on the contemporary state of music, until it was bought

out by the Curwen Press.

HIAWATHA’S DEPARTURE. See THE SCENES FROM THE SONG OF

HIAWATHA.

HIAWATHA’S WEDDING FEAST. See THE SCENES FROM THE SONG

OF HIAWATHA.

HICKFORD’S ROOM (ALSO HICKFORD’S GREAT ROOM). London

concert room active between 1697 and 1789. Hickford’s was one of the most
important concert rooms of the 18th century. Originally organized as a danc-
ing academy by John Hickford (sometime dancing master to Queen Anne),
Hickford’s was an early site for subscription and benefit concerts. Many of
the most influential musicians performed or organized concerts there, includ-
ing Carl Friedrich Abel, Johann Christian Bach, Michael Christian Fest-
ing, Francesco Geminani, George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, and John Christopher Smith, among others. Hickford’s first existed
on James Street but moved to an enlarged room (50 feet by 30 feet) in 1739.
The concert room gradually lost prestige throughout the 18th century and
was almost entirely supplanted when the Hanover Square Rooms opened
in 1775. Hickford’s was renamed Rice’s Great Rooms in 1789. See also
HELLENDAAL, PIETER; PUBLIC CONCERTS; SMITH, THEODORE;
WESLEY, CHARLES; WESLEY, SAMUEL.

HICKSON, WILLIAM EDWARD (1803–70). Music education philan-

thropist and writer on music. For much of his life, Hickson championed the
teaching of singing to poor students in the same way as John Curwen, Sarah
Glover, John Hullah, and Joseph Mainzer. His family’s business was shoe
and boot manufacturing, which provided him the wealth to retire in 1840 to
devote his time to philanthropic causes. He published numerous books both
promoting singing and pedagogy, including The Singing Master (1836), The
Use of Singing as Part of the Moral Discipline of Schools (1838), and In-
structions for Teaching in Schools and Families (1840). From 1840 to 1852
he owned and edited the Westminster Review, which he used as an organ to
promote Reform causes.

HILES, HENRY (1826–1904). Educator, conductor, composer, and organ-

ist. Hiles was most famous for his work in and around Manchester, both
with local choral societies at Knutsford, Blackburn, Preston, and Warrington,
among other places, and with various educational institutions—lecturer in

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 160 • HILTON, JOHN

music at Owens College (1876) and Victoria University (1879) and professor
of harmony at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now known as the
Royal Northern College of Music; 1893–1904). He studied organ initially
with his brother, John Hiles (1810–82; an organist with a reputation for good
pedagogy), before filling organist positions at Bury Parish Church (1845) and
Bishop Wentworth (1847). From 1851 to 1857 he lived in Australia, failing
as a gold prospector. He returned to London and won a post at St. Michael’s,
Wood Street, in 1859, keeping it for only three months before accepting work
in Manchester at Henshaw’s Blind Asylum. Later, he was organist at the Par-
ish Church of Bowdon (1861) and St. Paul’s Church in Hulme (1863–67).
Hiles wrote several textbooks on harmony and the somewhat famous Gram-
mar of Music (1879), edited the Quarterly Music Review between 1885 and
1888, and composed glees, cantatas, and oratorios for local choirs and
musical festivals. The most famous of these, The Patriarch (1866), sold well
in an expensive edition in the 1870s; his cantata The Crusaders (1873) was
briefly popular in America.

HILTON, JOHN (1599–1657). Organist and composer. Hilton was the son
of John Hilton, the organist of Trinity College, Cambridge (d. before 1609).
The son’s appointment as organist of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, in 1628
thus echoed his father’s path, though his composition of a variety of vocal
music proves distinctive. The Ayres or Fa-las (1627) and his contributions
to Catch That Catch Can (1652) represent a lighter repertory, while the dia-
logues of GB Bl Add. Ms. 11608 are devoted to biblical and mythological
subjects (the Judgment of Solomon, the Temptation of Job, and the Judgment
of Paris). The dialogues on biblical themes are especially notable for further-
ing the development of the English oratorio. Among Hilton’s sacred songs
is his moving setting of John Donne’s witty “Hymne to God the Father,” a
setting perhaps composed at the poet’s behest.

HINGESTON (HINGSTON), JOHN (ca. 1606–83). Organist, composer,

and violist. Hingeston was a chorister at York Minster and later a pupil
of Orlando Gibbons. In the north he enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of
Cumberland until 1645. Hingeston was in the south of England during the
interregnum, active as Oliver Cromwell’s organist and leader of his musical
retinue. At the Restoration he was retained by the royal court, both as a mem-
ber of the Private Musick and as curator of the royal musical instruments. In
this latter capacity he was assisted by Henry Purcell, who was appointed as-
sistant in 1673 following his voice change and subsequent dismissal from the
Chapel Royal choir. Purcell would take over the position upon Hingeston’s
death. The majority of Hingeston’s music is consort pieces, many of which

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 HOLST, GUSTAV • 161

further the genre of fantasia-suite. In this category are two examples for
cornett(s) and sackbut, unusual examples of contrapuntal music explicitly
scored for these instruments.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE. See HAYMARKET.

H.M.S. PINAFORE, OR THE LASS THAT LOVED A SAILOR. Operetta

in two acts by Sir William Schwenk Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, pre-
miered in London in 1878; its initial run was 571 performances and was the
duo’s first major international hit. The plot turns on a case of mistaken iden-
tity: Capitan Cochrane (baritone) wishes his daughter Josephine (soprano) to
marry Sir Joseph Porter (baritone). When it is revealed that Cochrane was
switched at birth with Ralph Rackstraw (tenor), Josephine can marry her true
love, Rackstraw.

HOLBORNE, ANT(H)ONY (ca. 1545–1602). Composer. Holborne is

chiefly known for two published collections, The Cittharn Schoole (1597)
and Pavans, Galliards, Almains . . . (1599), the latter collection marketed as
being playable on viols, violins, or wind instruments. The flexible scoring is
typical of contemporary attitudes; many of the works also survive in versions
for plucked strings. Holborne’s brother, William, contributed several vocal
works to the 1597 collection.

HOLBROOKE, JOSEPH (ALSO Josef; 1878–1958). Composer, conduc-

tor, and pianist. Holbrooke was a prolific composer during his life with an
easily accessible style; his music fell into neglect after World War I, around
the time he started to become deaf. He studied with Frederick Corder at
the Royal Academy of Music (2; 1893–96) and entered into the life of an
itinerant musician shortly after. Holbrooke’s large-scale compositions were
frequently heard in concerts conducted by Sir Henry Wood and Sir Thomas
Beecham until the beginning of World War I, both in London and at provin-
cial musical festivals. From 1908 he secured the patronage of Lord Howard
de Walden (T. E. Ellis), which allowed him to complete a trilogy of operas,
Cauldron of Annwn (1910–20), earning him the nickname “The Cockney
Wagner.” De Walden also funded early recording of Holbrooke’s music. A
revival of his music through new recordings began at the 50th anniversary of
his death in 2008.

HOLST, GUSTAV (ALSO VON HOLST; 1874–1934). Composer, teacher,

conductor, and trombonist; father of Imogen Holst. Because of the fame he
gained after the 1918 premiere of The Planets (1914–16)—still his most

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recognizable work today—Holst became during his time one of the most
famous living British composers. In his lifetime, the only serious rival to the
popularity of The Planets was his choral work Hymn of Jesus (1917), heard fre-
quently at interwar musical festivals. Holst came from a musical family, and he
learned piano from his father and studied counterpoint privately before study-
ing with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Sir Hubert Parry at the Royal
College of Music (RCM; 1893–98), where besides composition, he studied
trombone. He met his lifelong friend Ralph Vaughan Williams there in 1895.
While at the RCM, Holst began what would become the second half of his life’s
work outside of composition: teaching music to youth and amateurs. He was
named the conductor of the Hammersmith Socialist Choir in 1896. Following
his graduation, he worked as an orchestral trombonist in both the Carl Rosa
Opera Company (1898–1900) and the Scottish Orchestra (1900–1903) before
taking a teaching position at James Allen’s Girls School in Dulwich (1903–5).
Holst’s longest-running position was as head of music at the St. Paul’s
Girls’ School in Hammersmith (1905–34), an appointment he held jointly at
times with being Director of Music at Morley College (1907–24), teaching
at the RCM and University College, Reading, and even being a visiting lec-
turer in composition at Harvard University (1932). Holst also organized the
Whitsun Festival for amateur and professional musicians in Thaxstead, Essex
(1916–34), and, during World War I, worked as a bandleader for the Young
Men’s Christian Association, entertaining troops in Salonica (now Thessa-
loniki) and Constantinople. Holst’s early compositional influences—Richard
Wagner, Walt Whitman, and William Morris—were gradually replaced by
his mutual work with Vaughan Williams, his studies of the Hindu religion
and Sanskrit, and English folk music. His style was always accessible, even if
it did not always correspond to the strong melodic and rhythmic features the
audience expected of him following the great success of The Planets.

HOLST, IMOGEN (1907–84). Writer on music, conductor, and composer;

daughter of Gustav Holst. Imogen Holst had early training under her father
at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith before attending the Royal Col-
lege of Music (1926–31), where she studied piano and composition with Sir
George Dyson, Gordon Jacob, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. She won the
Cobbett Prize while there for a string quartet in 1928. Holst worked mostly as
a freelance pianist in the 1930s but also wrote the first edition of a biography
of her father (published 1938). During the 1940s she worked as an organizer
of rural amateur music under the Council for the Encouragement of Music
and the Arts and was named musical director of Dartington Hall in 1942, a
school for the advancement of the arts.
In 1952 Holst met Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten and began a long as-
sociation with the Aldeburgh Festival; she was its artistic director from 1954

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 HORNPIPE • 163

to 1977. From the 1950s forward, she published and edited a steady stream of
volumes on British music, including works on her father, Vaughan Williams,
Britten, Henry Purcell, and others, as well as a book on conducting and an
introductory primer for music theory. For the last few years of her life, Holst
concentrated on recording the music of her father, though she continued to
produce compositions regularly. She was named a CBE in 1975.

HOOK, JAMES (1746–1827). Composer, keyboardist, and teacher. Hook

was a major force during his time and a prolific composer. Through his idi-
omatic compositions, he advanced keyboard playing in England from harp-
sichord to the fortepiano. Hook was a prodigy, performing public concerts
by the age of six and studying with Thomas Garland, organist of Norwich
Cathedral. He was frequently heard in and around Norwich in concert during
his teenage years before moving to London by 1764. In London he quickly
established himself as one of the leading keyboardists of the day at benefit
concerts and began a long career within the pleasure gardens there: he was
organist at White Conduit House in Pentonville (1764), the organist and
composer at the pleasure gardens at Marylebone (1768–73), and keyboardist
and composer at those at Vauxhall (1774–1820). In all of these locations,
he composed songs (over 2,000 of them), light dramatic works, concertos,
and other music. His operas and stage works were frequently performed at
Drury Lane and Covent Garden in his lifetime, and he composed oratorios,
keyboard works, and chamber music that were all popular during his own life.
Little of his music survived his death.

HOOPER, EDMUND (ca. 1553–1621). Organist and composer. Trained as

a chorister at Exeter, Hooper was active in London by 1582 when he joined
the choir at Westminster Abbey. A few years later (1588) he was appointed
organist and master of the choristers there, to be followed by an appointment
as gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1604; by 1615 he had also been ap-
pointed organist of the Chapel Royal, along with Orlando Gibbons. Modern
commentators have underscored the tonal propensities in his church music.
Little instrumental music by him survives, though of his Alman in the Fitz-
william Virginal Book, Le Huray (NG, 2001) observes that it “shows him to
have been an adventurous and very individual composer for the keyboard.”

HORNPIPE. English dance. Curt Sachs (1965) included the hornpipe among
the dances of the “squat-fling” type, in the company of the Spanish charrada,
the French rigaudon, and the Irish jig. The dancing of the hornpipe took
varied forms, including a solo version, a round-dance version, and a country-
dance version (as seen in John Playford). Much as the forms varied, so too
did the meter, though 3/2 time with syncopations was characteristic in the late

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17th century. References from the late 18th century forward have nurtured a
maritime association with the dance.

HORSLEY, WILLIAM (1774–1858). Composer, organist, teacher, and

writer on music. Horsley was best known during his own life for his composi-
tion of glees and his conservative tastes regarding text setting and composi-
tional rules. Early study in London was followed by positions as organist of
Ely Chapel, Holborn (1794–98), organist at the Asylum for Female Orphans
(1798–1802), and musical director there (from 1802). He later served as
the organist at Belgrave Chapel (1812–37) and Charterhouse (from 1838).
He was in the position to judge others’ works as one of the committee that
awarded the Gresham Prize; he was also well connected within the musical
infrastructure of his day, being a member of the Royal Society of Musicians
and one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society in 1813 (now known as
the Royal Philharmonic Society). From 1818 to 1828 he wrote anonymous
musical criticism for the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review and wrote
two music theory texts as well.

HOWELLS, HERBERT (1892–1983). Composer, teacher, adjudicator,

writer on music, and organist. Howells, most famous today for his church
music, particularly Hymnus Paradisi (1938; revised 1950) and the anthem
“Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing” (1964), was until the end of the 1920s
considered to be one of the great composers of his day and was well known
for his instrumental music and songs. He was extensively championed as
a composer in the 1910s by both Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Sir
Hubert Parry, but he later turned much of his attention to teaching and
adjudicating. His early studies were with Sir Herbert Brewer at Gloucester
Cathedral, where he was an articled pupil with Ivor Gurney and Ivor No-
vello; he entered the Royal College of Music (RCM) on an open scholarship
in 1912. Work as Sanford Terry’s assistant from 1917 to 1920—sponsored by
the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust—awakened his interest in Tudor music,
which became a lifelong influence for his compositions. He taught composi-
tion for over 60 years at the RCM starting in 1920, succeeded Gustav Holst
as the director of music at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith (1936–
62), and was the King Edward VII Professor of Music at London University
(1954–64). He was named a CBE in 1953 and a CH in 1972.

HULLAH, JOHN (1812–84). Educator, composer, and organist. Hullah’s

seminal work was the promotion of sight-singing and music in English
schools throughout the middle of the 19th century; his importance was only
dimmed by his methods’ eventual eclipse by its rival, Tonic Sol-fa; his work

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 HUMFREY, PELHAM • 165

The Village Coquette (1836; with a libretto by Charles Dickens) was ex-
tremely successful. While he started investigating sight-singing methods by
1837, it was the patronage of James Kay that placed him firmly on the path
of vocal pedagogy. In 1840 Kay (later Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth) commis-
sioned Hullah to create a sight-singing method for teaching music in English
schools; Hullah adapted a continental one by Guillaume Louis Bocquillon
Wilhelm, published as The Grammar of Vocal Music in 1843. Kay also hired
Hullah to teach vocal music at the experimental school of St. John’s Col-
lege, Battersea. His success here led him to start a class for teaching singing
pedagogy—based on a fixed-doh sight-singing system—to school teachers.
He began this at Exeter Hall in 1841 and continued it at St. Martin’s Hall,
Long Acre, in 1849. His growing fame as a teacher brought additional ap-
pointments, including professor of vocal music at King’s College, London
(1844–74), government inspector of Music in Schools (1872–84), organist at
Charterhouse (1858–84), and numerous lectureships. Hullah was the author
of numerous books on music and pedagogy. He was given an honorary doc-
torate by Edinburgh University in 1876.

HUME, TOBIAS (ca. 1579–1645). Violist, composer, and man of arms. In

the preface to his 1605 First Part of Ayres, Hume clarifies that music is but
his avocation, soldiering his vocation, and also makes strong claim for the
viol’s musical potential:

I doe not studie Eloquence, or professe Musicke, although I doe love Sence,
and affect Harmony. My Profession being, as my Education hath beene, Armes,
the onely effeminate part of me, hath beene Musicke; which in mee hath beene
always Generous, because never Mercenarie. . . . From henceforth, the statefull
instrument Gambo Violl, shall with ease yeelde full various and as devicefull
Musicke as the Lute. For here I protest the Trinities of Musicke, parts, Passion,
and Division, to be as gracefully united in the Gambo Violl, as in the most re-
ceived Instrument that is.

Hume’s music is richly associated with the lyra viol, a designation that may
refer to a smaller form of the bass viol, but assuredly to a style of playing
favoring chordal polyphony and often intabulated. Modern comment has
sometimes painted Hume as eccentric (Boyd, 1962) and fanatic (Matthew
Spring in Blwl, 1992).

HUMFREY, PELHAM (1647/48–74). Composer and lutanist. Humfrey

joined the choir of the Chapel Royal as a chorister at the Restoration of
Charles II, one of several choristers of note that included John Blow, Mi-
chael Wise, and William Turner. The new monarch’s French tastes led to

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 166 • HYMN

compositional opportunities for talented boys in the chapel, and as a measure

of Humfrey’s youthful success, five of his anthem texts appear in Clifford’s
The Divine Services and Anthems (1664). Upon leaving the chapel in 1664,
Humfrey was sent to study in France and Italy, bankrolled by Secret Service
funds. His study abroad gave him a strong command of continental style,
and he would become a major conduit for nurturing the Lullian style at the
English court.
Hunphrey is frequently mentioned in Samuel Pepys’s diary, with the 15
November 1667 entry a pointed comment on the continental airs he had
assumed since his return to England: Humfrey “is an absolute Monsieur,
as full of form and confidence and vanity, and disparages everything and
everybody’s skill but his own.” During his time abroad, he received several
royal appointments, including gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1667. In
1672, following his marriage to Captain Henry Cooke’s daughter, Katherine,
Humfrey succeeded his father-in-law as master of the children of the Chapel
Royal, in which position he would have taught the young Henry Purcell.
Although he died at the tragically young age of 27, his contributions to Resto-
ration music were significant, especially in the development of the symphony
anthem and the transmission of French and Italian idioms. His compositions
are chiefly church music, but he also contributed to Shadwell’s 1674 operatic
adaptation of The Tempest (The Masque of the Devils and The Masque of
Neptune). See also LUTE.

HYMN. A strophic religious song, generally sung congregationally in the

context of liturgy. There is also a tradition of the hymn in use as part of pri-
vate devotions. In the 17th century, for instance, Thomas Ken instructed the
students at Winchester College to “be sure to sing the Morning and Evening
Hymn in your chamber devoutly” (1674). Collaterally, the metrical psalm
had an extensive domestic use among Puritans.
The history of the English hymn might be seen to have a rich beginning in
the metrical psalters of the Reform era, including the collections of Thomas
Sternhold (1558, 1560), John Hopkins (1562), Sternhold and Hopkins (1562),
Thomas East (1592, 1594), and Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady (1696).
The tunes “Winchester Old,” “Dundee,” and “Southwell’ are representative
and enduring examples of this tradition. Eighteenth-century English hymns
are particularly associated with the development of Methodism and its es-
pousal of robust congregational singing. Charles Wesley (1707–88), brother
of John, the founder of Methodism, contributed a number of important hymn
texts, such as “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” and “Lo! He Comes”;
Charles’s grandson, Samuel Sebastian (1810–76), was an important cathe-
dral musician whose hymn tune “Aurelia” has been especially popular.

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 HYMN • 167

Nineteenth-century English hymnody is represented by the compositions

of composers like John Bacchus Dykes (“Nicaea,” “Melita”) and, in the
wake of the Oxford Movement, a large body of medieval hymn translations
by John Mason Neale and Percy Dearmer, the latter a general editor of the
1933 edition of The English Hymnal. The 19th century also saw the first edi-
tion of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), an enduring work in numerous
editions that has sought to provide a common repertory for the Church of
England. Twentieth-century composers from the “mainstream” have been
prominent voices in modern English hymnody, none more so than Ralph
Vaughan Williams. As a folk song collector, he was able to adapt a number
of traditional tunes for uses as hymns, such as “Forest Green” and “King’s
Lynn.” His many original hymn tunes, such as “King’s Weston,” “Salve
Festa Dies,” “Down Ampney,” and “Sine Nomine,” are among the finest
and most beloved in the modern repertory. Additionally, Vaughan Williams,
along with Martin Shaw and Percy Dearmer, was the editor of Songs of
Praise, a successful attempt to provide a “national” hymnal.
English hymnody has at various times been an adaptive repertory, taking
melodies from composed choral works and redrafting them as congregational
songs. Henry Purcell’s anthem “O God Thou Art My God” provides the
melody “Westminster Abbey,” for instance, and George Frideric Handel’s
Judas Maccabeus is the source of “Maccabeus.” See also SALVATION
ARMY.

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 I
IMMYNS, JOHN (1724–64). Amateur musician and lawyer. Immyns was
largely self-taught as a musician, learning to play the lute from a 17th-century
method book. His skill became great enough that he was named lutanist of
the Chapel Royal in 1752. He also founded the Madrigal Society, was a
member of the Academy of Ancient Music, and was a copyist for both it and
Johann Christoph Pepusch.

IN NOMINE. A cantus-firmus based genre of fantasia, arising ca. 1530,

with examples through the end of the 17th century. In nomines were written
for keyboards, lute, and consort, with the latter scoring the most prominent.
The cantus firmus on which these fantasias is based is the antiphon Gloria
tibi trinitas, from the second Vespers of Trinity Sunday. The nominal refer-
ence “In nomine” derives from the polyphonic Benedictus (including the
text phrase “in nomine”) from John Taverner’s Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas,
which was transcribed for instruments, likely the first example of what
would become an important instrumental genre. See also ALWOOD, RICH-
ARD; BLITHEMAN, JOHN; BROWNING; PARSLEY, OSBERT; TAL-
LIS, THOMAS; TYE, CHRISTOPHER; VIOL; WARD, JOHN; WHYTE,
ROBERT.

IRELAND, JOHN (1879–1962). Composer, pianist, teacher, organist, and

choirmaster. During his life, Ireland was known mostly for his piano works;
he also wrote excellent songs such as the popular “Sea Fever” and a few
choral and orchestral works. Ireland had early training at the Royal College
of Music (RCM), where he studied piano (1893–97) and composition with
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1897–1901). He earned an FRCO in 1895
and a BMus from Durham University in 1905. He supported himself through
school with various jobs, including as organist at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street,
and St. Jude’s, Turk’s Row; Ireland was later organist and choirmaster at St.
Luke’s, Chelsea (1904–26), and taught composition at the RCM (1920–39),
where his students included Benjamin Britten, Alan Bush, and others. Early
success in composition came with winning a Cobbett Prize in 1912; in the late
1910s and early 1920s, his reputation grew, especially in London. Following

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 170 • ISAACK, BARTHOLOMEW

his retirement from the RCM, he gradually stopped composing, living the
remainder of his years quietly in West Sussex.

ISAACK, BARTHOLOMEW (1661–1709). Singer, organist, composer.

Isaack was trained as a chorister in the Chapel Royal in the mid-1670s, at
which time he may also have sung in John Crowne’s court masque Cal-
isto (1674/75). He was in Ireland for a time, holding appointments at both
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (1684), and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin
(1685–87). He reemerged in the English musical scene in 1705 as organist
at Southwark. The career of his brother, Peter (d. 1694), was interestingly
parallel, including training in the Chapel Royal and Irish appointments at
both Dublin cathedrals. Peter returned to England to take up appointment at
Salisbury Cathedral (1687), but he returned to Dublin in 1692.

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 J
JACKSON, WILLIAM (1; 1730–1803). Composer, organist, and writer.
Known mostly today for his Service in F and a version of the Te Deum still
in use within the Church of England, Jackson was a well-known regional
composer during his life in Exeter and its vicinity, famous for his songs and
his operas performed in London, such as Lord of the Manor (1781). His
early training likely came from musicians in Exeter Cathedral and in the
city; he also studied for two years in London (1746–48). Jackson worked as
an independent musician in Exeter from 1748 until being hired as an organ-
ist and choirmaster at Exeter Cathedral (1777)—a position he held until his
death. His works, aside from being heard in Exeter and London, were also
championed by Thomas Linley (the elder) in Bath, and his writings were
important enough to be poorly reviewed by Charles Burney, including the
Present State of Music in London (1791), which Burney took to be an attack
on Franz Joseph Haydn.

JACKSON, WILLIAM (2; 1815–66). Composer, organist, and choirmas-

ter. Jackson was known throughout his life as a self-taught composer; his
work, especially in Bradford and its vicinity, involved conducting the choir
and composing oratorios for the Bradford Musical Festival, among other
jobs. Jackson was born in Masham, and he taught himself the rudiments of
music and instrument repair. While working as first organist at the church in
Masham (1832–52), he also worked in various trades. He dedicated himself
entirely to music in 1852, moving to Bradford, presenting his oratorio The
Deliverance of Israel from Babylon at the Leeds Musical Festival, and taking
a job as organist at St. John’s, Bradford (1852–56). Later, he was appointed
organist at the Horton Lane Independent Chapel (1856–66). He was the con-
ductor of the Bradford Choral Union, as well as the Bradford Festival Choral
Society, and composed several oratorios for Bradford and London. His long
experience with teaching singing led him to be suspicious of sol-fa systems,
and to the publication of A Singing Class Manual (1849), which was eclipsed
by the sight-singing systems of John Hullah and John Curwen.

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 172 • JENKINS, JOHN

JENKINS, JOHN (1592–1678). Violist, theorbist, and composer. In the his-

tory of the English viol, Jenkins emerges with unusual prominence as its most
prolific composer in the 17th century. Echoing Jenkins’s famous student,
Roger North, Charles Burney described him as “a voluminous composer of
Fancies for viols”; the number of his works ran to around 800.
Jenkins’s early patrons included the families Derham and L’Estrange, both
of Norfolk, though by the 1650s on into the next decade, he is associated with
the North family, whose son, Roger, was his pupil and later would write of
him at length. Jenkins was also named to the King’s Private Musick at the
Restoration as a theorbist.
Jenkins’s large number of works are often fantasias in which he revealed
an “unsurpassed lyrical inventiveness and outstanding gifts for tonal orga-
nization” (Ashbee, NG, 2001). North described the fantasias as “full of airy
points, grave and triple movements, and other variety,” and also noted the
influence of Jenkins’s performance skills on his composing: “[I]t must be
owned that being an accomplished master on the viol, all his movements laid
fair for the hand, and were not so hard as they seemed.” Jenkins’s penchant
for the viol and the fantasia represented a conservative element in tension
with the modern advances of the violin and the Italianate sonata. This is also
suggestive of a degree of insularity, manifest for instance, in Jenkins’s having
spent the years of the interregnum in the country homes of the aristocracy,
while others in the royal circle fled to the Continent where modern musical
influence was strong. See also THEORBO.

“JERUSALEM.” Hymn by Sir Hubert Parry to lyrics from the poem

“And Did Those Feet In Ancient Times” by William Blake, first performed
as part of a Fight for Right concert on 28 October 1916. Parry later gave the
hymn to the Women’s Suffrage Movement, conducting it at a public rally at
the Royal Albert Hall on 17 March 1917. The hymn has become an unof-
ficial second national anthem and is usually the last piece sung (with audience
participation) at closing night of the Proms.

JIG (ALSO JEG). Dance and dramatic genre. (1) Jigs, diverse in choreog-
raphy and musical structure, appear in varied contexts in England, including
dance suites (the last dance typically), theater music (act tunes), and country
dancing. The variety of structure and style is easily seen in a work like John
Playford’s English Dancing Master in which “Kemps Jeg” proceeds in a lilt-
ing, dotted, compound duple meter, while “Lord of Carnarvans Jeg” moves in
a sturdy, simple duple meter.
(2) The jig was a low dramatic entertainment, comedic and farcical, sung
to popular melodies, with dancing an important element. The Elizabethan and

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 JULLIEN, LOUIS ANTOINE • 173

Jacobean theater would use the jig as a foil to serious drama, presenting it as
an entr’acte entertainment or a comical conclusion to serious plays. Margaret
Laurie (Blwl, 1992) aptly describes their simple form as “hardly more than
dramatized and choreographed versions of broadside ballads,” but also notes
a more developed form that was like “a miniature low-life opera.” In this way
it may be seen to anticipate the popular 18th-century ballad opera.

JOHNSON, ROBERT (?–1633). Composer and lutanist. The son of one of

Queen Elizabeth’s lutanists, John Johnson, Robert Johnson entered the service
of Sir George Carey in 1596, advantageously coincident with Carey’s taking
up the office of Lord Chamberlain. Undoubtedly nurtured by Carey’s posi-
tion, Johnson provided music for a number of productions by the King’s Men
company, including works of William Shakespeare, Francis Beaumont, John
Fletcher, and John Webster. His theater songs reveal a declamatory bent as well
as a gift for programmatic touches, as in the chromatic howls of his “O let us
howl some heavy note” for Webster’s Duchess of Malfi or the representational
gestures of his battle song, “Arm, arm!” for Fletcher’s The Mad Lover.
Johnson was also employed at court from 1604, contributing music for a
number of masques, sometimes performed by large lute ensembles, as is the
case with the 20 lutes that added a sumptuous sound to the 1611 masque of
Oberon (Jonson). His lute music is, in the main, dance pieces that themselves
may be adaptations of ensemble works.

THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. A masque by William Congreve. Greek

mythology presents the story of Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, and
his task of judging the most beautiful among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite;
famously, his choice of Aphrodite led to the Trojan War. This antique beauty
contest, the subject of Congreve’s masque, found a modern echo in a com-
petition among English composers to see who in the generation after Henry
Purcell would best set Congreve’s libretto. Four submissions were performed
in 1701, with John Weldon, the winner, followed by John Eccles, Daniel
Purcell, and Godfrey Finger.

JULLIEN, LOUIS ANTOINE (1812–60). French conductor and composer

active in England 1838–59. Though remembered today primarily for his
band music and lighter dance music, Jullien conducted an important series of
popular concerts at London theaters, which were accessible to the working
and lower-middle classes. At these concerts, Jullien would program popular
music together with more serious works, partly to amuse and partly to im-
prove the musical tastes of the audience. He also conducted opera at Drury
Lane and Covent Garden.

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 K
KARPELES, MAUD (1885–1976). Writer, collector of folk songs and
dances, and folklorist. Karpeles had early musical training at the Berlin Hoch-
schule für Musik (1905–6) in piano before turning to social work. She saw a
demonstration of folk dance by Cecil Sharp in 1909 and devoted the rest of
her life to the collecting, preservation, and teaching of folk music and dance,
maintaining Sharp’s educational legacy. She was also a frequent and well-
regarded demonstrator of folk dancing. Karpeles’s 1910 Folk Dance Club
became the center of the English Folk Dance Society in 1911 (what would
become the English Folk Dance and Song Society). She journeyed with
Sharp to America during World War I to collect and lecture on folk music and
dance. Following Sharp’s death in 1924, she continued to revise his previous
work and release unpublished collections; she also collected folk music in
Newfoundland and coauthored with A. H. Fox Strangways a biography of
Sharp (1933). After breaking with the English Folk Dance and Song Society
in 1938, she founded the International Folk Music Council (1947), serving as
its secretary from 1947 to 1963. She was named CBE in 1961.

KENT, JAMES (1700–1776). Composer and organist. Kent was known

during his lifetime as a composer of church music and as the occasional as-
sistant to William Croft. He trained as a chorister with Croft at Winchester
Cathedral and then the Chapel Royal. Kent held a succession of organ posts,
including the church at Finedon, Northamptonshire (1717); Trinity College,
Cambridge (1731); and Winchester Cathedral (1738–74). While his music is
mostly forgotten today, volumes of it were occasionally unearthed and dis-
cussed in 19th-century periodicals, such as MT. One of his famous students
was Charles Dibdin.

KETÈLBEY, ALBERT (1875–1959). Composer, conductor, and pianist.

Ketèlbey was well known during his life as a composer of light music as
well as dramatic music used for silent films. In the late 1920s he was the
most frequently performed composer in Great Britain, and he is known to-
day for many compositions, including “Bells across the Meadows.” Ketèl-
bey trained as a chorister at St. Silas’s Church, Lozells, Birmingham, and

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 176 • KING, ROBERT

at the Midland Institute School of Music before going to London to study

at Fitzroy College and Trinity College (1888). He received an appointment
to be organist at St. John’s, Wimbledon (1891), and was at times the mu-
sic director of a light opera company, the Vaudeville Theatre in London
(1897), and the Columbia Graphophone Company. He published music
under numerous pseudonyms, including Anton Vodorinski, Raoul Clifford,
A. William Aston, Geoffrey Kaye, André de Basque, and Dennis Charlton.
Aside from composition and recording, he also arranged the music of many
composers for small orchestras.

KING, ROBERT (ca. 1660–1726?). Violinist and composer. King was a

member of the royal Private Musick from 1680, serving under Charles II,
James II, William and Mary, and Anne. He was active in contributing theater
music to the United Company and subsequently, in the last decade of the
century, was involved in the production of public concerts. Spink (1974) is
strong in his assessment of King’s songs, calling him an “agreeable melodist”
and one “who must rank next below [Henry] Purcell as a songwriter in this
period.” King brought out two volumes of songs (1692, 1695?), citing that
they were presently being circulated in imperfect form. He also claims Italian
influence, suggesting that Italian works offer the best models for vocal music.

KING’S THEATRE. See HAYMARKET.

KNYVETT, CHARLES (1752–1822). Singer (alto), impresario, and organ-

ist; father of the keyboardist and composer Charles Knyvett (1773–1852) and
the singer and composer William Knyvett. The elder Charles Knyvett was
trained at Westminster School and was one of Benjamin Cooke’s boy choris-
ters at Westminster Abbey. He took a position as an organist at All Hallows,
Barking (1770), and was named a gentleman (1786–1822), organist (1796–
1822), and composer (1806–8) of the Chapel Royal, but he was much better
known for his singing. Knyvett specialized in the music of George Frideric
Handel and of glees and catches, for such organizations as the Noblemen
and Gentlemen’s Catch Club and the Anacreontic Society. As an impre-
sario, Knyvett organized with Samuel Harrison a series of Lenten oratorio
concerts at Covent Garden, where he also served as organist (1789–92).
Knyvett was a member of the Royal Society of Musicians (from 1778) and
also edited A Favorite Collection of Glees (1800).

KNYVETT, WILLIAM (1779–1856). Singer and composer; son of

Charles Knyvett. Knyvett received training from his father, as well as
Samuel Webbe and Gianbattista Cimador in keyboards and singing. Like his

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 KNYVETT, WILLIAM • 177

father, William Knyvett was well known as a singer of the music of George
Frideric Handel and of glees, performing in London for such organizations
as the Concerts of Ancient Music and in provincial musical festivals. He
was a gentleman (1797) and composer (1808) of the Chapel Royal and a
sought-after conductor of the Concerts of Ancient Music (1832–40) and
festivals in Birmingham (1834–43) and Yorkshire (1835). He composed a
number of glees, as well as coronation music for both George IV and Queen
Victoria. Knyvett also tried his hand at being an impresario, running a series
called the Vocal Subscription Concerts until 1822.

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9780810857506_Print.indb 178 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 L
LACHRIMAE. An emblematic melody of John Dowland. “Lachrimae” is
Dowland’s most famous melody, widely circulated, adapted to diverse set-
tings, and emblematic of the melancholic aura of the composer, encapsulated
in the title of his pavan “Semper Dowland Semper Dolens.” The melody
begins with a stepwise descent—pictorially the falling of teardrops—and
received settings by English and continental composers, including William
Byrd, Thomas Morley, Giles Farnaby, Heinrich Scheidemann, and Jan
Pieterzoon Sweelinck. Additionally, confirming both the melancholic aura
and the popularity of the melody, Dowland would sign his name “Jo: dolandi
de Lachrimae.”
The work appears in a number of guises in Dowland’s own work, the
original being a solo lute pavan. This was followed by a setting as vocal air
to the text “Flow my tears” (The Second Book of Songs, 1600). This in turn
was followed by an extended set of consort pieces, Lachrimae or Seaven
Teares (1604), composed of seven “passionate” pavans, the first of which set
the original melody; the subsequent pavans retain the signature head motive.

LAMBERT, CONSTANT (1905–51). Composer, conductor, critic, and

writer on music. While known today mostly for his conducting of various
British ballet company orchestras, Lambert was a musical force in the late
1920s and early 1930s, with a combination of well-regarded compositions,
a sharp critical mind, and association with some of the other major younger
critics of the 1920s and 1930s, including Cecil Gray, Philip Heseltine,
and Bernard Van Dieren. Lambert’s musical education included study of
composition, piano, and conducting at the Royal College of Music starting
in 1922. His early musical interests were wide, including Franz Liszt, Igor
Stravinsky, and jazz; later, he would also include broad neoclassicism as one
of his inspirations, especially in Summer’s Last Will and Testament (1935),
perhaps his most famous piece. Lambert’s Romeo and Juliet (1925) was the
first work by an English composer to be given by Sergi Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes. In the 1930s he wrote criticism for many periodicals, including the
Nation, the Athenaeum, and the Saturday Review, culminating in the publi-
cation of Music Ho! (1934), a discussion of contemporary music (Lambert

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 180 • LAMBETH CHOIRBOOK

favored Jean Sibelius, Van Dieren, and Ferruccio Busoni above most other
composers). Lambert also began a conducting career in the 1930s, including
directing the Carmargo Society Ballet (1930) and the Royal Ballet (called at
the time the Vic-Wells Company; 1931–47), acting as musical adviser for the
Sadler’s Wells Ballet (1948–51), and being the orchestral conductor of the
British Broadcasting Corporation’s Third Programme (1946–51).

LAMBETH CHOIRBOOK. The manuscript GB Llp 1 was copied in the

1520s under the aegis of Edward Higgons. In the same hand as the Caius
Choirbook, also a work explicitly sponsored by Higgons, the Lambeth
source contains motets, magnificats, and masses by composers including
Robert Fayrfax, Nicholas Ludford, and Walter Lambe.

“LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY.” Composition for soloist, chorus, and

orchestra by Sir Edward Elgar with lyrics by A. C. Benson, to the trio tune of
Elgar’s first “Pomp and Circumstance” march. Initially meant for the 1902
Coronation Ode, to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII, the song quickly
took on a life of its own, becoming an unofficial second national anthem during
World War I. It is featured prominently at the last night of the Proms.

LANIER, NICHOLAS (1588–1666). Lutanist, singer, and composer.

Lanier, the most prominent member of a musical family active at court, was
named a royal lutanist in 1616; he became Master of the King’s Music un-
der Charles I in 1625, a post he filled as an old man under Charles II as well.
Although his official posts at court were musical, his apparently keen artistic
eye made him valuable in art procurals, including parts of the Gonzaga col-
lection from Mantua.
Lanier’s collaboration with Ben Jonson in Lovers Made Men (1617) is
a landmark in introducing and furthering the Italian dramatic style. Jonson
writes that “the whole Maske was sung (after the Italian manner) stylo recita-
tivo by Master Nicholas Lanier, who ordered and made both the scene and the
Musicke.” As the music to the masque does not survive, one is left to guess
at its content, but the notion of a declamatory score in theatrical context is
suggestive of early “operatic” activity.

LAWES, HENRY (1596–1662). Composer and singer. Lawes, the elder

brother of the noted viol composer William Lawes, was possibly trained as
a chorister at Salisbury. He entered the Chapel Royal in 1626 and the king’s
Private Musick in 1631; following the Restoration he also was appointed a
composer in the Private Musick. He was a prolific composer of songs and
as such was involved in theater productions of various sorts, including Sir

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 LEHMANN, LIZA • 181

William Davenant’s landmark First Dayes Entertainment at Rutland House

and The Siege of Rhodes (1656). He was instrumental in the commission of
John Milton’s masque, Comus, to which he contributed several songs and in
which he performed. In 1648 Milton penned a salutatory tribute to Lawes in
the form of a descriptive sonnet.
Although his song style is varied, it is his embrace and nurture of declama-
tory principles that is most significant. Spink (1974) is strong in his assess-
ment: “His [Lawes’s] sensitivity to nuances of diction and feeling in a poem
result in a richness compared with which the style of the others [his contem-
poraries] seems arid. It is he, really, who defines the declamatory ayre, and
against whom the rest are measured.”

LAWES, WILLIAM (1602–45). Composer, violist, theorbist, and man of

arms. Like his older brother Henry Lawes, William may have been a choris-
ter at Salisbury, where their father was a vicar-choral. A 17th-century bio-
graphical account (Thomas Fuller) states he was a pupil of Coprario. He was
appointed to the King’s Private Musick in 1635. Amid the growing conflict
of the English Civil War, he enlisted in the Royalist Forces and, despite being
given a relatively safe assignment—a measure of the esteem in which he was
held—he was killed at the Siege of Chester in 1645.
Lawes’s compositions are diverse, but his voice emerges with the most
distinction in his consort fantasias. Therein he engages a modernly expressive
idiom, rich in gesture and license. David Pinto (NG, 2001) has underscored
the “wilful angularity” and free use of dissonance as especially distinctive.

L.C.C. CHORAL UNIONS (ALSO LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL

CHORAL UNIONS). Competitive choirs in and around the London Met-
ropolitan area, drawn from amateur singers who trained in evening music
classes. The L.C.C. Choral Unions began by 1907 and continued for several
decades.

“THE LEAVES BE GREEN.” A popular 16th-century song that was fre-

quently the basis for consort variations in which the melody might function in
melodic quotation or as a ground bass. Sometimes these settings were known
as Brownings, a term derived from the songs’ associated text: “The leaves
be green, the nuts be brown / They hang so high, they will not come down.”

LEHMANN, LIZA (1862–1918). Composer, singer, and teacher. For a

time, Lehmann was the most famous living British composer throughout the
English-speaking world because of the great popularity of her song cycle In
a Persian Garden (1896). Her songs—like those of her friend and fellow

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 182 • LEMARE, IRIS

composer Maude Valérie White—were always popular within her own life-
time. She studied voice with Jenny Lind and Alberto Randegger in London
and composition with Niels Raunkilde in Rome, Wilhelm Freudenberg in
Wiesbaden, and Hamish MacCunn in London. She had a nine-year career
as a professional recitalist (1885–94), in which she introduced the public to
many of the songs of Henry Purcell, Thomas Arne, and James Hook, as
well as her own music. She retired, after marriage, to pursue composition;
she also became a well-known music teacher, eventually taking a post at the
Guildhall School of Music. Aside from her songs, she also wrote choral
works for the musical festival circuit (such as Young Lochinvar, first heard
at the Kendall Festival in 1899), musical theater and light opera, an opera
(Everyman, 1915), and a handful of chamber and orchestral works. She was
the author as well of Practical Hints for Students of Singing (1913) and The
Life of Liza Lehmann (1918), an autobiography.

LEMARE, IRIS (1902–97). Conductor, concert organizer, and adjudica-

tor. Lemare was one of the first women to conduct major ensembles in
Great Britain (including the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Orchestra
[1936] and the Oxford Chamber Orchestra). She was also a founder, with
Elisabeth Lutyens and Anne Macnaghten, of the Macnaghten-Lemare
Concerts (1932–40). She studied at both the Dalcroze Eurythmics School in
Geneva and the Royal College of Music, taking organ and conducting with
Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir Adrian Boult. As the director of the Pollards
Opera (1935–39), she was responsible for the first revival of George Frideric
Handel’s Serse in almost two centuries (1935), and as the founder and direc-
tor of the Lemare Orchestra (1945), she performed at many of the postwar
musical festivals.

LESLIE, HENRY DAVID (1822–96). Choral conductor, composer, and

impresario. Leslie was one of the most important choral conductors of the
second half of the 19th century. Aside from a reputation as an exacting and
highly musical conductor, Leslie promoted the performance of British music.
He was originally trained as a cellist and performed in concerts of the Sacred
Harmonic Society on that instrument. He was named the honorary secretary
of the Amateur Musical Society in 1847 and conducted it from 1853 to 1861.
He is best known for his work with Henry Leslie’s Choir (1855–80 and
1885–87), a London vocal ensemble known for its general excellence. In ad-
dition to conducting this choir, Leslie was also the principal of the short-lived
National College of Music (1864–66), which included on its faculty Sir Ar-
thur Sullivan, Sir Julius Benedict, and Sir George Alexander Macfarren.
He was the conductor of the Herefordshire Philharmonic Society (1863–69),

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 LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS • 183

founder of the Guild of Amateur Musicians (1874), and founder of the Os-
westry School and Oswestry Festival (1880), which was one of the major
early competition festivals.
Leslie wrote hundreds of partsongs for his choirs, larger choral works
for the musical festivals (such as Judith, which premiered at Birmingham
in 1858), and worked avidly as a pedagogue, publishing books such as The
Elementary Manual of Music (1872) and editing Cassell’s Choral Music
(1854). He was an avid promoter of the Tonic Sol-fa sight-singing system
and a friend and inspiration to Mary Wakefield, among many others.

LEVERIDGE, RICHARD (1670–1758). Singer and composer. Leveridge

was “possessed of a deep and firm bass voice” (Sir John Hawkins) and
came to prominence in the role of Ismeron in Indian Queen, singing Henry
Purcell’s impressive conjuration song, “Ye twice ten hundred deities.” In
addition to his work as a singer, Leveridge was also active as a composer,
contributing to the 1698 Island Princess and 1702 Macbeth. The advent of
Italian opera in London redirected his performances to the playhouse, where
he had a long association with the theater at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
Hawkins wrote of his singing that it had “no notion of grace or elegance .
. . ; it was all strength and compass,” and described him as “being a man of
rather coarse manners, and able to drink a great deal, he was by some thought
a good companion.”

LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. London theater, 1661–1744. Originally a

tennis court, the theater at Lincoln’s Inn Fields opened in 1661 under the
direction of Sir William Davenant, whose company was active there until
1671, followed by Thomas Killigrew’s company from 1671 to 1674. The
company formed by Thomas Betterton in 1695, a “breakaway” company
from the United Company (for whom Henry Purcell wrote), was in resi-
dence there from its formation until 1705, with John Eccles as its music
director. Although hampered by the size of the theater, Betterton and Eccles
were able to mount dramatick opera successfully there, as in the perfor-
mances of Eccles’s Rinaldo and Armida (1698). In 1714 Christopher Rich
and later his son, John, oversaw a grand renovation of the theater. In its
new form it was the venue for the very successful ballad opera The Beg-
gar’s Opera by John Gay (1728). Lincoln’s Inn ceased to function as a
theater in 1744. See also BABELL, WILLIAM; BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE;
CONCERT ROOMS; FINGER, GODFREY; FORCER, FRANCIS; GAL-
LIARD, JOHN ERNST; LEVERIDGE, RICHARD; “OPERA OF THE
NOBILITY”; A PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS; PEPUSCH, JOHANN
CHRISTOPH; PUBLIC CONCERTS.

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 184 • LIND, JENNY

LIND, JENNY (1820–87). Soprano of Swedish birth. Lind made her

London debut in 1847 and settled permanently there in 1858. By this time,
she had retired from the theatrical stage but continued to sing recitals
and oratorios, particularly for musical festivals and charity. When she
retired from singing in 1883, she also became a professor of voice at the
Royal College of Music. In an era when musicians could easily become
famous figures and household names, Lind towered above them all, famous
throughout both Europe and America. See also BALFE, MICHAEL WIL-
LIAM; BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS; LEHMANN, LIZA; MENDELSSOHN
SCHOLARSHIP.

LINDLEY, ROBERT (1776–1855). Virtuosic cellist. Lindley, like his

friend the bassist Domenico Dragonetti, was well connected into the English
musical infrastructure of his time. He played frequently at the Italian Opera,
the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Concerts of Ancient Music, and
provincial musical festivals; he was named professor of cello at the Royal
Academy of Music (2) in 1823. He is perhaps best known today for a series
of concerts with Dragonetti in the 1820s, where the two played arrangements
of Arcangelo Corelli’s trio sonatas.

LINLEY, THOMAS (THE ELDER; 1733–95). Composer, singing-master,

and impresario. Linley studied with Thomas Chilcot, organist at Bath Abbey,
and in London with William Boyce. He managed concerts at Bath from the
mid-1750s until around 1774. From 1774 to 1786 he was director of the ora-
torios at Drury Lane with John Stanley and proprietor from 1776. Linley
composed music for about 30 plays, as well as pastiche operas, glees, songs,
and other works. With Mary Johnson, sometime wardrobe mistress at Drury
Lane, Linley had 12 children, of whom many—such as the violinist, Thomas
Linley the younger and the singers Elizabeth Ann Linley, Maria Linley, and
Mary Linley—were musically talented.

LINLEY, THOMAS (THE YOUNGER; 1756–78). Violinist (child

prodigy) and composer; son of Thomas Linley the elder. Linley studied
with William Boyce in London (1763–68) and studied violin with Pietro
Nardini in Florence (1768–71), where he met both Charles Burney and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He played his first concert at the age of seven
in Bristol and led the Bath orchestra starting at age 12. From 1773 until his
death, he led the orchestra at Drury Lane. One of his most famous stage
works, The Duenna, was written with his father in 1775; he also composed
an anthem for the Three Choirs Musical Festival and numerous songs
and madrigals.

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 LOCKE, MATTHEW • 185

LLOYD, CHARLES HARFORD (1849–1919). Organist, composer, edu-

cator. Lloyd studied music (BMus, 1871) and theology (BA, 1872) at Mag-
dalen Hall, Oxford, before taking the MA (1875) and DMus (1892) degrees
there. While at Oxford, he was one of the founders and the first president
of the Oxford Music Club (1872). Lloyd held organist posts at Gloucester
Cathedral (1876–82); Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (1882–92); and the
Chapel Royal, St. James (1914–19), as well as teaching positions at Christ
Church College, Oxford (1876–92), the Royal College of Music (organ
and composition; 1887–92), and Eton College (1892–1914). Lloyd’s time at
Gloucester began a long association with the Three Choirs Musical Festival,
for which he wrote numerous secular cantatas.

LOCK HOSPITAL. Charity hospital to aid those who suffered from ve-
nereal diseases, founded in London in 1746 and opened to patients in 1747.
Members of London’s theater companies patronized the hospital, and benefit
performances and concerts occurred in the 1750s for the hospital at Drury
Lane and Covent Garden. For music, the Hospital is important in two as-
pects: First, for a series of charity concerts, begun in the Lock Hospital Cha-
pel in 1762, which featured the performance of oratorios by Thomas Arne,
John Worgan, and especially Felice Giardani, whose composition Ruth was
performed every year there from 1768 to 1780. Second, the Lock Hospital
Chapel became a prominent London Methodist establishment and was one of
the first that actively encouraged its congregation both to undergo musical
training and to submit to direction in rehearsals to aid the singing in the ser-
vice. Martin Madan, the chapel’s original chaplain, was a Methodist preacher,
and he published a Collection of Hymn and Psalm Tunes to raise money for
the hospital in 1769. Charles Wesley was organist there from 1797 to 1801.

LOCKE, MATTHEW (1622–77). Composer and organist. Locke was

trained as a chorister at Exeter. He was a royalist, and there is manuscript
evidence that points to his being on the Continent in 1648, a time that may
have seen him in royal service and his conversion to Roman Catholicism,
with which he was charged in 1654. At the Restoration he received appoint-
ments as composer to the Private Musick and also to the royal violin band; in
1663, perhaps with a nod to his Catholicism, he was also appointed organist
to the queen, Catherine of Braganza.
Much of Locke’s music is for consort, showing his trademark use of “an-
gular and unpredictable melodic and harmonic idiom” (Holman, NG, 2001).
He also made significant contributions to theater music, including music for
the 1674 Tempest and the 1675 Psyche. In the keyboard collection under his
editorship, Melothesia (1673), he offers instruction in keyboard continuo

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 186 • LODER, KATE

practice, instruction that both Charles Burney and Sir John Hawkins claim
was the first published in England.
There is reason to believe that Locke was given to contention. Exeter
records his fighting as a young man, and though not physical, his published
dialogue of refutation with Thomas Salmon, who had offered ideas about
notational reform, was volatile.

LODER, KATE (1825–1904). Composer, pianist, and teacher. Loder studied

piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music (2; RAM) from 1838
to 1844, winning the King’s Scholarship in 1839 and 1840. She declined an
offer to study with Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig, instead becoming a pro-
fessor of harmony at the RAM (1844) and pursuing a career in performance
and composition in and around London. She performed professionally until
1854; after this, she continued to publish (primarily piano works) and teach.

LONDON CHORAL SOCIETY. Choir founded in 1903 under the direc-

tion of Arthur Fagge. The London Choral Society presented the second
performance of Sir Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in London (15
February 1904; the first occurred in Westminster Cathedral on 6 June 1903)
and gave an early performance of Wagner’s Parsifal in English. The group
waned for a time around World War II but still exists as the London Chorus
(renamed in 2000).

LONDON INSTITUTION. The London Institution was an educational

foundation active between 1806 and 1912 dedicated to the improvement of
the public. Its facilities were available on a subscription basis. It included
reading rooms, a library, and—once its premises in Finsbury Circus were
complete in 1815—a lecture hall that could seat 750 people. Lectures on
music and music history were a regular feature of the Institution’s program-
ming, given by individuals such as Sir Joseph Barnby, John Barrett, Ar-
nold Dolmetsch, John Ella (who was a lecturer there from 1855 and called
a professor there from 1871), and Lionel Monckton.

LONDON MUSICAL SOCIETY. Chorus founded by Sir Joseph Barnby

to promote works little performed or known in London. The choir was ac-
tive between 1878 and 1887, and it presented concerts (accompanied by a
professional orchestra) of several first English performances, including that
of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater (1883).

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (LPO). London orchestra

founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. The orchestra was resident at

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 LUMLEY PARTBOOKS • 187

the Queen’s Hall from 1932 to 1941 and currently holds seasons at the
Royal Festival Hall. An auxiliary chorus, the London Philharmonic Chorus,
was formed in 1947. Conductors of the ensemble have included Sir Adrian
Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Malcolm Sargent, and Sir Georg Solti.

LONDON PROMENADE CONCERTS. See PROMS.

LONDON SEASON OF THE ARTS. See FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN.

LONDON SYMPHONIES. Group of 12 symphonies (nos. 93–104) com-

posed by Franz Joseph Haydn for his two trips to England and performed
at Johann Peter Salomon’s concerts. Nos. 93–98 were all written for the
1791–92 trip, and Haydn composed nos. 99–104 for his 1794–95 visit.

LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (LSO). London ensemble,

founded in 1904, partly in response to Sir Henry Wood’s abolishment of
the deputy system in the Queen’s Hall orchestra. Principal conductors have
included Hans Richter, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Thomas Beecham, Eric
Coates, and Arthur Nikisch, among others, and the ensemble is particularly
well regarded for its many recordings.

LUDFORD, NICHOLAS (ca. 1490–1557). Composer. Ludford can be

documented in London from the early 1520s from his membership in the
Fraternity of St. Nicholas (1521) and his appointments at the Chapel of St.
Stephen at Westminster Palace, including an appointment as verger there in
1527. His works are exclusively liturgical, ranging from large-scale festal
masses for five and six voices to seven smaller-scale alternatim masses for
three voices (“Lady Masses,” one for each day of the week), structurally
based on squares. The large-scale works are in the main found in the Caius
Choirbook and, to a lesser degree, the Lambeth Choirbook. His “Magni-
ficat Benedicta” is distinctive in its use of a chant cantus firmus, the same
melody that is the structural basis of his Missa Benedicta.

LUMLEY PARTBOOKS. The main portion of the Lumley Partbooks (GB

Lbl Roy. App. 74–6) was compiled in the late 1540s, consisting of Anglican
devotional and service music from before the first Book of Common Prayer,
including some use of secular to sacred contrafactum technique. A later layer
records instrumental dance music that may derive from the royal court. The
partbooks were at one time owned by the Fitzalan family, perhaps compiled
for them; only three of the original four partbooks survive, with the bass book
missing.

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 188 • LUPO, THOMAS

LUPO, THOMAS (1571–1627). Composer and violinist. Lupo, the most

prominent member of a Sephardic family of musicians that came to England
from Venice between 1539 and 1540, joined the court violin band in 1588
and was named composer of that ensemble in 1619. Additionally, he was a
musician to Prince Henry and, subsequent to the prince’s untimely death, to
Prince Charles. Charles’s musical retinue would also include Orlando Gib-
bons, John Coprario, and Robert Johnson, enjoying with Lupo an environ-
ment of “innovative music-making” (Peter Holman in Ashbee and Lasocki,
1998). As a composer Lupo contributed to several court masques, including
Jonson’s Oberon and Thomas Campion’s The Lords’ Masque, though he
is best known for his viol fantasias where a novel range of scoring and the
influence of the Italian madrigal are both evident.

LUTE. Fretted, plucked string instrument with ribbed and vaulted resonator,
made in a variety of sizes. The chronological range of the lute is well docu-
mented from the Middle Ages into the 18th century. However, in England
it had a particularly rich blossoming from the middle of the 16th century
through the first decades of the 17th; indeed, the lute is virtually iconic for
the lyrical propensity of the Elizabethan Age.
The prominence of the lute under the Tudors can be seen in the large
number in royal possession. The inventory of Henry VIII’s musical instru-
ments (GB lbl Harl. 1419) itemizes over 20 lutes with cases at Westminster
in the charge of Philipp Van Wilder. For much of Elizabeth’s reign until the
last quarter of the 17th century, the Private Musick of the monarch had be-
tween five and eight positions for lutanists, which included Robert Johnson
(1604–33), John Dowland (1612–26), his son Robert Dowland (1626–41),
and Jacque Gaultier (1625–42).
The queen herself was known to have been instructed on the lute and is
depicted holding the instrument in a famous miniature by Nicholas Hilliard
at Berkeley Castle. The meaning of such images as well as textual references
to the lute were polyvalent, denoting harmony and order of various sorts—
cosmic, political, and social. The lute also had the connotation of Orpheus’s
lyre, evoking in its sound and imagery antique resonances for a humanisti-
cally inclined society.
The lute repertory was broad, including solo works that were often dances
with a reiterative style of ornamentation that not only graced the melody but
also counteracted the rapid decay of the instrument’s sound, and a sizeable
body of lute ayres for solo voice and lute accompaniment. The lute also
figured in ensemble practice. It was the featured solo instrument in the so-
called English Consort, as in the consort lessons of Thomas Morley, and
it also was played in ensembles combining multiple lutes, such as Robert

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 LYCEUM THEATRE • 189

Johnson’s music for the masque Oberon, performed by 20 lutes together.

See also ALLISON, RICHARD; ATTEY, JOHN; BACHELER, DANIEL;
BANDORA; BARTLET, JOHN; BASSANO; COPRARIO, JOHN; DOL-
METSCH, (EUGÈNE) ARNOLD; FORD, THOMAS; HUMFREY, PEL-
HAM; IMMYNS, JOHN; IN NOMINE; LACHRIMAE; LANIER, NICHO-
LAS; MACE, THOMAS; A PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS; PILKINGTON,
FRANCIS; PRIVATE MUSICK; WHYTHORNE, THOMAS.

LUTYENS, ELISABETH (1906–83). Composer and violist. Lutyens was

one of the first major British composers to embrace the twelve-tone method
of composing convincingly and successfully, though to many, she was likely
better known for her film scores, written in a more approachable style. Her
early training included studying in Paris for a few months in 1923 (includ-
ing classes in harmony and counterpoint at the Ecole Normale), composition
and viola study at the Royal College of Music (1926–30), and some time
studying counterpoint with Georges Caussde in Paris (1931). In the early
1930s, she formed a trio with Anne Macnaghten and Iris Lemare; this trio
became the nucleus of the Macnaghten-Lemare Concerts in the 1930s.
Performances of her compositions became increasingly frequent throughout
the 1930s, coinciding with her studies of the string music of Henry Purcell
and later Arnold Schoenberg.
Lutyens began to compose music for radio and film in the 1940s. In the
1950s her style solidified, but she found it increasingly difficult to get her
works heard, as they were considered too difficult for contemporary ears.
She began teaching composition students during this time. Her works began
to reach a wider audience again in the 1960s, when she began a series of vo-
cal works. She was named a CBE in 1969. She completed an autobiography,
entitled A Goldfish Bowl, in 1972.

LYCEUM THEATRE (ALSO THEATRE ROYALE; ENGLISH OP-

ERA HOUSE; ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE; PALAIS DU DANCE;
MECCA BALLROOM). In the 19th century this West End London the-
ater saw the premieres of operas by many English composers, including
John Francis Barnett and Michael Balfe. Theaters existed on this site
from 1765; it housed the Drury Lane Company between 1809 and 1812
during the rebuilding of Drury Lane, and it was rebuilt and renamed the
English Opera House in 1816 by Samuel James Arnold. After a fire, the
theater was rebuilt in 1834 and continued to champion English opera for
a decade. From 1840 to the end of the century, the Lyceum presented a
mix of concerts, such as the Promenade Concerts presented by Phillippe
Musard in 1841, spoken drama, and opera, including English premieres of

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 190 • LYCEUM THEATRE

works by Giovanni Bottesini and Giuseppe Verdi. The Lyceum was rebuilt
in 1904 to house music-hall and variety shows, converted into a ballroom
for popular music presentations in 1951, and reconstructed as a theater in
1996. Since then, it has been the venue for a number of West End musical
presentations, including Jesus Christ, Superstar, Oklahoma! and The Lion
King. The theater seats 2,000.

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 M
MACCUNN, HAMISH (1868–1916). Scottish-born composer and con-
ductor, active in London. MacCunn studied composition (with Sir Hubert
Parry) and piano at the Royal College of Music from 1883 to 1886 (he did
not take a diploma). After leaving, he began composing and conducting in
and around London; MacCunn’s first major success, the concert overture
Land of the Mountain Flood, was premiered by Sir August Manns at the
Crystal Palace in 1887; it remains his most popular work today. While a
successful composer in his day, he—like most contemporary figures—had
to balance composition with other pursuits, including teaching at the Royal
Academy of Music (2; 1888–94), privately, and at the Guildhall School
of Music (1912–16) and conducting with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
(1898–1900) and at the Savoy Theatre, Covent Garden, and elsewhere. His
choral compositions, such as Lord Ullin’s Daughter (1887), were extremely
popular with contemporary choral societies, and his opera Jeanie Deans
(1894), written for the Carl Rosa Opera Company, was heard dozens of times
in MacCunn’s own lifetime. Many of MacCunn’s early works have Scottish
subjects, and he was seen by his contemporaries as a “Scottish composer”;
MacCunn’s popularity began to wane when the press called for him to break
away from this construction, though his early “Scottish” works remained
popular with audiences until his untimely death.

MACE, THOMAS (1612/13–1706?). Writer, singer, and lutanist. Mace is

documented as a member of the choir at Trinity College, Cambridge, from
1635 and spent the vast majority of his life in that city. He is best known for
his wide-ranging musical tome, Musick’s Monument (1676), a work colorful
in its expression and conservative in its musical views, especially in its de-
cided preference for viols, consorts, and lutes in place of violins, guitars, and
continental styles. The section devoted to the lute offers thorough instruction
and “as a systematic guide for a complete beginner achieves more than any
other lute tutor book ever written, and bears constant re-reading” (Spring,
2001). The colorful expression of Mace’s prose drew comment early on. Sir
John Hawkins somewhat endearingly notes that “As to the book itself, a

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 192 • MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE ALEXANDER

singular vein of humour runs through it, which is far from being disgusting,
as it exhibits a lively portraiture of a good-natured, gossiping old man.”

MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE ALEXANDER (1813–87). Composer,

teacher, conductor, and writer on music. Macfarren was one of the most pro-
lific and well-regarded musicians of his time. As a composer, he worked in
virtually every genre available to him, including opera, symphony, glees, and
chamber music. He was best known for a series of dramatic works composed
for the major musical festivals, including the oratorios St. John the Baptist
(Bristol, 1873), The Resurrection (Birmingham, 1876), Joseph (Leeds, 1877),
and King David (Leeds, 1883). In addition, he composed cantatas for the
Bradford Festival, the Glasgow Festival, the Musical Society of London, and
Henry Leslie’s Choir.
Macfarren’s early training came from his father, Charles Lucas (a noted
cellist, conductor and composer), and then from 1829 to 1836 as a student
of trombone, piano, and composition (under Cipriani Potter) at the Royal
Academy of Music (2; RAM). Macfarren was a professor at the RAM from
1837 to 1847 and then again from 1851 until his death; he was appointed
principal of that institution in 1875, the same year in which he succeeded Sir
William Sterndale Bennett as Professor of Music at Cambridge University.
His writings include monographs on George Frideric Handel, harmony, and
counterpoint. He conducted frequently until 1860, when blindness prevented
further activities. Macfarren was knighted in 1883, together with Sir Arthur
Sullivan and Sir George Grove.

MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (1847–1935). Composer,

conductor, violinist, administrator, teacher, and writer on music active in Lon-
don. Together with Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford,
Mackenzie was one of the most important British composers in the genera-
tion before Sir Edward Elgar. In his own time, he was famous for oratorio
and cantata commissions at the major musical festivals (such as The Rose of
Sharon, premiered at Norwich in 1884) and for being a zealous reformer of the
Royal Academy of Music (2; RAM) as its principal (1888–1924). His early
training, after playing at a young age in his father’s orchestra, was in Germany,
at the Realschule in Sondershausen (1857–62), and at the RAM (1862–65),
where he studied piano and harmony. He performed, taught, and conducted in
Edinburgh between 1865 and 1879, when he departed for Florence to salvage
his health from overwork and devoted himself to composition.
Apart from conducting the Novello Choir in London from 1885 to 1886,
Mackenzie spent most of his time in Florence until 1888, when he returned
to London for the rest of his professional life. Until his retirement in 1924,

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 MAD SONGS • 193

Mackenzie was a fixture in the national music scene, conducting the Royal
Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Society orchestra between
1892 and 1899, as well as the student orchestra at the RAM. Aside from
oratorios and cantatas, his output includes programmatic orchestral works,
operas, partsongs, songs, chamber music, and folk song collections. Mack-
enzie wrote a book of reminiscences, numerous articles on music, as well as
monographs on Giuseppe Verdi and Franz Liszt. Mackenzie was knighted in
1895 and created KCVO in 1922.

MACNAGHTEN, ANNE (1908–2000). Violinist. Macnaghten was founder

and leader of the Macnaghten String Quartet, which in its first incarnation
(1932–40) was entirely staffed by women, including Elisabeth Lutyens and
Iris Lemare; when reconstituted after World War II (1947–78), it played
primarily in schools. Macnaghten was also cofounder of the Macnaghten-
Lemare Concerts. She was named MBE in 1987.

MACNAGHTEN-LEMARE CONCERTS. Series of concerts given between

1932 and 1937 and again from 1950 to at least 1991, originally founded by Iris
Lemare, Elisabeth Luytens, and Anne Macnaghten. These concerts concen-
trated primarily on contemporary British music and featured performances of
works by Benjamin Britten, Gerald Finzi, Elisabeth Luytens, Dame Eliza-
beth Maconchy, Alan Rawsthorne, and Sir Michael Tippett. From 1950
forward the series was variously called the Macnaghten Concerts, the Macnagh-
ten Music Group, the Macnaghten New Music Group, and New Macnaghten
Concerts; it organized concerts of new music and commissioned new music.

MACONCHY, DAME ELIZABETH (1907–94). English composer of Irish

origin. Maconchy burst onto the English scene in 1930, when her suite The
Land premiered at the Proms. Maconchy was a student of Ralph Vaughan
Williams and Charles Wood at the Royal College of Music (and a lifelong
friend of the former). She studied in Prague from 1929 to 1930 on an Octavia
Traveling Scholarship. Her music was featured in the Macnaghten-Lemare
Concerts of the 1930s, and after World War II, she composed prolifically for
both amateur and professional musicians, particularly in opera and choral
music. An able administrator, she was chair of both the Composers Guild and
the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Maconchy was named CBE
in 1977 and DBE in 1987.

MAD SONGS. A popular subgenre in Restoration theater. Reinforced per-

haps by the contemporary interest in the inmates of London’s Bethlehem
hospital (“Bedlam”), Restoration dramatists provided significant opportunity

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 194 • MADRIGAL

to explore madness, feigned or real, in a number of plays. The songs in which

madness is explored tend toward variety of affect and musical gesture, the
lack of continuity and contrast underpinning the irrationality of the character.
And with the degree of variety, the mad song could take on the dimensions
and form of a cantata, comprised of several recitatives and arias.
Three of the most striking mad songs occur in Thomas Durfey’s trilogy
of Don Quixote (1694), set by Henry Purcell and John Eccles. Eccles’s “I
Burn, I Burn” is sung by the character Marcella in the voice of Anne Brace-
girdle. Durfey was explicit in his praise of what the famous actress brought
to the success of the song: “[It was] so incomparably well sung and acted
by Mrs. Bracegirdle, that the most envious do allow, as well as the most
ingenious affirm, that ’tis the best of that kind ever done before.’” Purcell’s
“From Rosy Bowers,” the last song he wrote, is for the character Altisidora,
sung by the young Letitia Cross, who attempts to seduce Don Quixote with
“a whimsical variety, as if I were posses’d with several degrees of Passion,”
and in this case, the passions range from love and gaiety to melancholy
and frenzy. Purcell’s “Let the Dreadful Engines Roar” is for the character
Cardeno, sung by John Bowman. Here, in contrast to Altisidora’s assumed
madness, the madness is a genuine insanity brought about by the loss of his
beloved Lucinda.

MADRIGAL. A form of polyphonic vernacular song, through-composed

and generally on the model of light Italianate forms like the canzonetta.
Thomas Morley, in his A Plain & Easy Introduction to Practical Music
(1597), described the madrigal’s adherence to an aesthetic of variety, combin-
ing a succession of affective gestures and contrapuntal writing:

The best kind of it [light music] is termed Madrigal, a word for the etymology
of which I can give no reason; yet use showeth that it is a kind of music made
upon songs and sonnets such as Petrarch and many poets of our time have ex-
celled in. . . . As for the music it is, next unto the Motet, the most artificial and,
to men of understanding, most delightful. If therefore you will compose in this
kind you must possess yourself with an amorous humour . . . , so that you must
in your music be wavering like the wind, sometime wanton, sometime drooping,
sometime grave and staid, otherwhile effeminate; you may maintain points and
revert them, use Triplas, and show the very uttermost of your variety, and the
more variety you show the better shall you please.

The variety of which Morley writes is generally a product of text depiction,

as the composer focuses on rendering individual words with musically iconic
corollaries. Thomas Weelkes’s well-known “As Vesta Was from Latmos
Hill Descending” furnishes a number of examples of these madrigalisms,

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 MADRIGAL SOCIETY • 195

where words like “descending” and “ascending” inspire the obvious musi-
cal contours, phrases like “two by two” inspire the obvious musical pairing
of voices, and the longevity of the refrain, “Long live fair Oriana,” receives
augmentation.
Though generally lighter and less literary than the contemporary Italian
madrigal, the Elizabethan madrigal’s debt to Italy is made particularly clear
in several collections from the end of the 16th century, in particular Musica
Transalpina (1588 and 1597) and Italian Madrigals Englished (1590). The
1588 collection features four- to six-voice Italian madrigals, most by Alfonso
Ferrabosco, underlaid with English translations of the original texts. The
1590 collection presents mostly madrigals by Luca Marenzio, some with
translated texts, but others underlaid with new English poems altogether.
Collections such as these prepared the way for more fully original English
collections, such as Morley’s The Triumphs of Oriana (1601), often held
to be an allegorical salute to the monarch in madrigals by diverse English
composers, such as Morley, John Wilbye, and Thomas Tomkins. However,
even here the Italianate echo is discernible as the general structural idea of the
collection is indebted to the Italian Il Trionfo di Dori. Recent scholarship (Jer-
emy Smith, 2005) associates Oriana with Anne of Denmark, rather than the
queen. Several composers of the 19th and 20th centuries revisited the genre,
and numerous choirs, such as the Madrigal Society and Henry Leslie’s
Choir, specialized in their performance as a sort of early musical national-
ism. See also ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC; BARRETT, WILLIAM
ALEXANDER; BATESON, THOMAS; CASE, JOHN; CAVENDISH, MI-
CHAEL; EAST, MICHAEL; GIBBONS, ORLANDO; LINLEY, THOMAS
(THE YOUNGER); MOERAN, E. J.; MUSICA BRITANNICA; MUSICA
TRANSALPINA; PHILIPS, PETER; PILKINGTON, FRANCIS; PORTER,
WALTER; RAVENSCROFT, THOMAS; WARD, JOHN; WEELKES,
THOMAS; YOUNG, NICHOLAS.

MADRIGAL SOCIETY. London amateur choir founded in 1741 by John

Immyns for the singing of music by pre-18th-century composers, including
important performances of the music of William Byrd as well as 16th- and
17th-century English and Italian madrigals. Unlike many contemporary an-
tiquarian societies, which were run by and for members of the nobility and
the elite and prominently featured professional musicians, the membership
of the Madrigal Society consisted of members of the working and mercantile
classes, and largely featured amateur musicians. Like many singing societ-
ies of the 18th century, the Madrigal Society started as both a musical and
social club, featuring suppers after singing (until the early 19th century), held
meetings in public houses and taverns (usually on Wednesday evenings), and

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 196 • MAINZER, JOSEPH

sang from manuscript partbooks (the earliest of which were copied by Im-
myns himself). While it languished for a time after Immyns’s death in 1764,
the society was refounded in 1792 and still exists. See also BATTISHILL,
JONATHAN; COOKE, BENJAMIN; HAWKINS, SIR JOHN.

MAINZER, JOSEPH (1801–51). German composer, teacher, and author.

Together with John Curwen, Sarah Glover, and John Hullah, Mainzer
was responsible for the promotion of mid-century sight-singing and music
for the working classes in Great Britain. Mainzer’s system, like that of Hul-
lah, was based on fixed doh and was disseminated through large classes, but
it did not survive him. Mainzer was trained as a chorister at Trier Cathedral
and in Darmstadt, Munich, Vienna, and Rome on a Wanderjahr supported by
the bishop of Trier. He took orders as a priest and became singing-master at
the seminary in Trier. His sympathy for local miners and political awakening
caused him to give up the priesthood and flee to Paris in 1834. He established
a singing class there between 1835 and 1839, free of charge to local laborers,
where he developed his sight-singing system.
Mainzer made his home in Great Britain from 1841 until his death, first
establishing similar singing classes in London and Edinburgh before settling
in Manchester. Aside from singing classes, he was the author of Singing for
the Million (1841), A Treatise on Musical Grammar (1843), and Music and
Education (1848). In 1841, he established the National Singing Circular,
which became Mainzer’s Musical Times and Singing Class Circular in 1843
and, in 1844, was purchased by Novello & Co. to eventually become the MT.

MANNS, SIR AUGUST (1825–1907). Conductor of German birth. Manns

had early training in Germany on strings and woodwinds. He arrived in Eng-
land in 1854, working first as the assistant conductor of the orchestra at the
Crystal Palace; Sir George Grove appointed him to the position of conduc-
tor in 1855, and he conducted the orchestra there until 1901. A feature of his
Saturday Afternoon Concerts, in addition to the wide-ranging and adventur-
ous programming, was cheap prices that members of the lower and middle
classes could afford. Aside from conducting at the Crystal Palace, Manns
also conducted the London Handel Festival (1883–1900), the Glasgow Cho-
ral Union Orchestra (1879–87), and numerous provincial festivals. He was
knighted in 1903.

MARBECK, JOHN (ca. 1505–85?). Singer, organist, and composer. Mar-

beck was likely trained at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where he spent his
career as a lay clerk and organist. His Reform leanings were problematic
before the accession of Edward VI, so much so that he was tried for heresy

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 MASQUE • 197

and condemned to death in 1543, although through royal intervention he was

spared capital punishment—the fate of his codefendants—and he returned to
the musical estabishment at Windsor.
The publication of the first Book of Common Prayer (1549), Thomas
Cranmer’s liturgical work, brought with it the need for musical settings of
the new liturgy, a need met by Marbeck’s publication in 1550 of The Booke
of Common Praier Noted. Marbeck’s settings, still in use in modern Anglican
practice, were both monophonic and syllabic, aiming at the text intelligibility
espoused by the reformers and explicitly advocated by Cranmer in his publi-
cation of the English Litany.

“THE MARCH OF THE WOMEN.” Suffrage song by Dame Ethel

Smyth with lyrics by Cicely Hamilton (1872–1952), composed in 1911 and
used especially by the Women’s Social and Political Union.

MARSH, JOHN (1752–1828). Composer, violinist, impresario, and writer

on music. Marsh’s importance is not as a composer (though he was one of
the most prolific of his time) but (for his contemporaries) as an organizer of
subscription concert series in the various towns in which he lived and (for
scholars today) as an avid diarist of musical life from 1796 until his death.
Marsh had two years of violin lessons in Rosport, but learned music mostly
by himself, becoming proficient on the spinet, viola, cello, and organ. At
Romney (1773), Salisbury (1776), and Canterbury (1783), he became a vis-
ible local musician, often both leading and successfully reorganizing local
subscription concerts. He did the same at Chichester, where he settled in 1787
and remained for the rest of his life, retiring from public concerts in 1813.
His skill was such that he was a sought-after orchestral leader, an able organ
deputy for local parishes and on occasion provincial cathedrals, and a pub-
lished composer of symphonies, Anglican chant, and numerous anthems.

MARYLEBONE GARDENS. See PLEASURE GARDENS.

MASQUE. A lavish, celebratory entertainment that features scenic spectacle,

verse, music, and both social and choreographed dancing by masked perform-
ers, as well as the courtly audience, all thematically unified by royal allegory
and myth. The “golden age” of the masque was under the early Stuarts, James
I (1603–25) and Charles I (1625–49), and productions drew on the collabora-
tions of poets like Ben Jonson and Thomas Campion, stage craftsmen like
Inigo Jones, and composers such as John Coprario and Nicholas Lanier.
Lanier’s contributions document the English awareness of declamatory style;
for instance, he notes that the entire 1617 masque Lovers Made Men (Jonson)

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 198 • MASS PAIRS

was “sung after the Italian manner, stilo recitativo.” Lovers Made Men would
seem to have essayed a continental operatic style, but as the music does
not survive, this remains speculative. The basic template for the Jonsonian
masque alternated song or speech with dance in the following form:

Antimasque (danced by professionals, often featuring grotesquerie)

Discovery
First song or speech
First entry
Second song or speech
Main entry
Third song or speech
Revels (social dancing that combined the fantasy world of the masque with
the real world of the audience.)
Fourth song or speech or second antimasque
Terminal dance or third entry

See also ARNE, THOMAS; BLOW, JOHN; FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO

(THE YOUNGER); HUMFREY, PELHAM; ISAACK, BARTHOLOMEW;
JOHNSON, ROBERT; THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS; LANIER, NICHOLAS;
LAWES, HENRY; LUPO, THOMAS; PAISIBLE, JAMES; PURCELL,
HENRY; “RULE, BRITANNIA”; STAGGINS, NICHOLAS; VAUGHAN
WILLIAMS, RALPH; VENUS AND ADONIS.

MASS PAIRS. In early 15th-century English sources, notably the so-called Old
Hall Manuscript, movements of the mass ordinary were linked in pairs—the
Gloria with the Credo, the Sanctus with the Agnus—through various devices,
including common cantus firmus, a common liturgical source for different melo-
dies used as a structural voice, motivic similarity, and recurrent textural patterns.
The pairing of mass movements in this way represents a preliminary step toward
the advent of the fully cyclic mass, which the English first advanced, as well, in
works like Leonel Power’s Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater.

MASTER OF THE KING’S (QUEEN’S) MUSIC (ALSO MUSICK).

Created in 1625, the position is one historically charged with the oversight
of the court’s musical establishment. In the modern day, however, the post is
largely an honorific one, awarded to a composer of national distinction and
particular prominence. Until the present incumbent, who holds the appoint-
ment for a 10-year term, appointments have been for life. The last word of
the title was changed from “Musick” to “Music” during Sir Edward Elgar’s
tenure. Holders of the title:

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 MATTHAY SCHOOL OF MUSIC • 199

Nicholas Lanier (1625–49; 1660–66—Lanier’s time is split because the

post was abolished during the Commonwealth)
Louis Grabu (1666–1674)
Nicholas Staggins (1674–1700)
John Eccles (1700–1735)
Maurice Greene (1735–55)
William Boyce (1755–60)
John Stanley (1779–86)
William Parsons (1786–1817)
William Shield (1817–20)
Christian Cramer (1829–30)
Franz Cramer (1834–37)
George Frederick Anderson (1848–70)
Sir William Cousins (1870–93)
Sir Walter Parratt (1893–1924)
Sir Edward Elgar (1924–34)
Sir (Henry) Walford Davies (1934–41)
Sir Arnold Bax (1941–52)
Sir Arthur Bliss (1952–75)
Malcolm Williamson (1975–2003)
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (2004–present)

MATTEIS, NICOLA (?–AFTER 1713). Virtuoso violinist, guitarist, and

composer. The Italian Matteis came to England around 1670 and as a vir-
tuoso violinist had great impact on advancing both the cause of the violin and
the Italian repertory over against the viol and consort music. His distinctive
manner of playing was impassioned and florid, as attested in the writings of
Roger North. North writes, “His manner was singular, but in one respect
excelled all that had bin knowne before in England, which was the arcata. His
staccatos, tremolos, devisions, and indeed his whole manner was surprising,
and every stroke of his was a mouthful.” Telling evidence of his prominence
is that his manner of performance and composition was echoed across the
boundaries of genre; John Weldon’s “When Perfect Beauty” is styled “A
Song on a Lady in Imitation of Mr. Nicola’s Manner,” and this takes the form
of extended coloratura passagework.
Matteis was also an accomplished guitarist who published an important
continuo treatise for that instrument, Le false consonanse della musica
(1680), with an English translation in 1682.

MATTHAY SCHOOL OF MUSIC. See ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE

OF MUSIC.

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 200 • MAZZINGHI, JOSEPH

MAZZINGHI, JOSEPH (1765–1844). Composer and arranger. Mazzinghi,

born in England, came from a Corsican musical family. His father was a
sometime violinist at the Marylebone pleasure gardens, and one aunt (on
his mother’s side) was a regular contralto soloist for oratorio performances.
His early training came from lessons from Johann Christian Bach and an
apprenticeship as copyist and musical assistant to Leopoldo De Michele of
the King’s Theatre, Haymarket (1779), until he was named harpsichordist
there (1784). For the remainder of the 18th century, he was either a house
composer at the King’s Theatre (1786–89) or the Pantheon (1790–92) or a
composer-for-hire at Covent Garden; at all three theaters, he both composed
his own music and arranged that of others into opera pasticcios. During this
time he was also in demand as a ballet composer. Mazzinghi withdrew from
theater composition by 1810 and continued until his death as a sought-after
teacher; he was music master for a time to the Princess of Wales (later Queen
Caroline). He organized the Concerts of the Nobility, was a member of the
Royal Society of Musicians from 1787 until his death, and superintended the
concerts at both Carlton House and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

MCNAUGHT, WILLIAM (1883–1953). Music critic, editor, and adjudi-

cator; son of William Gray McNaught. McNaught, who was educated at
the Westminster College School and Worcester College, Oxford, never took
a music degree but was initiated into a great love of music and musicians
(including Tonic Sol-fa, adjudicating at competition musical festivals, and
criticism) by his father. Based in London for his entire adult life, he wrote
for many publications as a London music critic, including the Morning Post,
the Manchester Guardian, the Glasgow Evening News, the London Evening
News, and Radio Times. For a short time, he edited School Music Review and
edited the MT from 1944 until his death.

MCNAUGHT, WILLIAM GRAY (1849–1918). Educator, journalist, edi-

tor, and adjudicator; father of William McNaught. His early musical expe-
riences included learning Tonic Sol-fa in a school classroom and singing
in concerts for the Tonic Sol-fa Association at the Crystal Palace. While
working for a coffee importer, he taught himself violin and conducting and
began to teach music classes in his spare time. Leaving business, he studied
harmony, singing, violin, and piano at the Royal Academy of Music (2;
1872–76) and devoted himself professionally to music education, both as an
ardent supporter of Tonic Sol-fa (leading several choirs) and as the Assistant
Inspector of Music in Schools and Training Colleges under Sir John Stainer
(1883–1901). In 1892 he founded the School Music Review (which he edited
until his death), and he edited MT from 1910 until his death. Among his

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 MESSIAH • 201

books are the influential School Music Teacher (1889) and Hints on Choir
Training for Competition (1896).

MEAN. Voice range designation. Analogous to “medius,” the mean is

historically understood to have been the middle voice in three-part tex-
tures, although by the 17th century, some writers equate it with the alto or
countertenor (Jander, NG, 2001). Bowers (1995) asserts that means were
as frequently boys as adult singers and that in the post-Reformation years
“mean” might also generically refer to the boy’s voice in the way that later
generations have adopted the word “treble.” Bowers’s assertion about both
boys and men singing the mean, however, is shaped by his strong skepticism
regarding the so-called high-pitch theory that would transpose much 16th-
century polyphony upward.

MENDELSSOHN, FELIX (1809–1847). German composer, conductor,

pianist, and educator. Between 1829 and 1847, Mendelssohn made ten trips
to Great Britain, during which he conducted at or performed with most of
the major London ensembles (including the Concerts of Ancient Music, the
Royal Philharmonic Society, and the Sacred Harmonic Society). He was a
frequent guest of the Birmingham Musical Festival, at which he conducted
the premiere of his oratorio Elijah in 1846. Mendelssohn’s importance to
English music in the 19th century cannot be overestimated. Interest in Elijah
rivaled that of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, and musical festivals for
the remainder of the 19th century programmed both works. Mendelssohn’s
death at a young age allowed him to enter English musical discourse as a
tragic hero, and the middle classes celebrated him as such throughout the
remainder of the 19th century. He also helped raise the status of English mu-
sicians from servant to professional status, since he refused to be treated like
a servant while in England.

MENDELSSOHN SCHOLARSHIP. Fund, set up by Jenny Lind in 1849

in memory of Felix Mendelssohn. The purpose of the scholarship was ini-
tially to send an English composer to the Leipzig Conservatory or elsewhere
for training. Winners of the scholarship include Sir Joseph Barnby, Fred-
erick Corder, Sir George Dyson, Charles Swinnerton Heap, Sir Arthur
Sullivan, and Maude Valérie White, among others.

MESSIAH. George Frideric Handel’s most famous composition, an orato-

rio that received its first performance on 13 April 1742 in Dublin at the New
Music Hall in Fishamble Street. A setting of a biblical libretto compiled by
Charles Jennens, the oratorio is unusual in its lack of narrative and dramatic

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 202 • METRICAL PSALMS

construction, presenting instead a contemplative treatment of Christian salva-

tion in the life and work of Jesus. Though its first performance was in Dublin,
it was possibly composed with a London performance in mind (Burrows,
1991). Its first London performances at Covent Garden in 1743 took place
amid discussion of the propriety of sacred subject matter in the theater. Its
popularity as a charity performance for the Foundling Hospital echoes its
use for charity benefit in Dublin; this and its frequency of performance sug-
gest that ultimately conservative pieties were not decisive.
Messiah quickly became known throughout the English-speaking world as
a compositon with a philanthropic bent, frequently presented as the aesthetic
climax of many charity musical festivals. It was first heard at the Three Choirs
Musical Festival in 1757, and scarcely a festival in the remainder of the 18th or
19th centuries could exist without its presence, usually as an opening or clos-
ing piece. Throughout the 19th century, performances of Messiah by festivals
and professional and amateur choral societies happened weekly within Great
Britain, including “monster concerts” at the Crystal Palace (featuring as many
as 500 instrumentalists, 3,000 chorus members, and an audience in the tens
of thousands), exhibition concerts of the Tonic Sol-fa Association, and even
unaccompanied concerts by miners and other working-class groups on sum-
mer picnics. Cheap staff notation and Tonic Sol-fa editions of the score were
ubiquitous; most journals published regular articles about the importance of
Messiah within British culture, and arrangements of the score by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart and Sir Michael Costa were frequently employed as ways to
“update” the composition for 19th-century listeners.
The oratorio was somewhat overexposed by the end of the 19th century
but remained a staple well into the 20th. Investigations of the score Handel
left to the Foundling Hospital led to some of the first systematic investiga-
tions into performance practice of the early 18th century. The Three Choirs
Musical Festival performed the work every year until 1963. See also ARNE,
MICHAEL; ARNE, THOMAS AUGUSTINE; BATES, JOAH; BRIDGE,
SIR FREDERICK; A CHILD OF OUR TIME; CORONATION MUSIC;
CURWEN PRESS; ELIJAH; GIARDINI, FELICE; HANDEL COMMEMO-
RATION; NOVELLO’S ORATORIO CONCERTS; SNOW, VALENTINE;
STANLEY, JOHN.

METRICAL PSALMS. Vernacular, versified translations of the Psalter

sung to strophically repeating tunes, either in harmony (often with the tune
in the tenor) or monophonically, associated with 16th-century Reformed
movements and in England nurtured by Puritans. The first complete metri-
cal psalter arose out of Strasbourg and the circle of Martin Bucer in 1538,
echoed in the next year by Calvin’s Aulcuns Psaulmes et Cantiques and in

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 MILFORD, ROBIN • 203

1562 by a complete Genevan psalter. The politics of religious exile positioned

continental practice to be influential on Reform-minded Englishmen, yet sig-
nificantly, several metrical psalm collections were published as early as 1549,
including Robert Crowley’s The Psalter of David (with four-part harmoniza-
tions of psalm tone melodies) and Thomas Sternhold’s Certayne Psalmes.
Sternhold’s psalms from this collection and elsewhere were joined with those
of John Hopkins to create a complete English metrical psalter in 1562, The
Whole Booke of Psalmes. The preface to the collection is illuminating in that
it makes reference to Elizabeth’s liturgically oriented Injunctions of 1559, but
explicitly refers to the fact that these psalms were “very mete to be used of
all sortes of people privately for their solace & comfort. . . .” Thus, a private
devotional usage is confirmed, as is the affective agency of the psalms to
provide such things as spiritual comfort.
The 1562 Psalter provided tunes, although fewer of them than texts, im-
plying a flexibility as regards what tune went with what text. The Psalters of
Thomas East (1592) and Thomas Ravenscroft (1621) provided harmonized
melodies, again with the tune in the tenor, and the fact that the melodies were
harmonized is suggestive of their use with choirs, and thus in cathedrals and
major chapels. Sternhold and John Hopkins’s Psalter was notably long-lived;
its “Old Version” was not replaced until A New Version of the Psalms of Da-
vid by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady was published in 1696. Significantly,
the New Version did not offer new melodies, only new texts.

THE MIKADO, OR TOWN OF TITPU. Operetta in two acts by Sir William

Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan premiered in London in 1885.
The most popular of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, its initial run at the
Savoy Theatre was 672 performances; it has had innumerable revivals since.
The story, though set in Japan, concerns social politics and manners of love
and relationships that are purely English at their heart: whether or not Nanki-
Poo, son of the Emperor, will be allowed to marry his true love, the soprano
Yum-Yum (a woman outside his class), or be forced to marry the contralto
Kaitsha. Little of the score contains the musical exoticism common during
the era. In recent years, Gilbert’s libretto has come under scrutiny as possibly
racist for its fictionalized and stereotyped portrayal of Imperial Japan.

MILFORD, ROBIN (1903–59). Composer and educator. Milford attended

Rugby and then the Royal College of Music (1921–26), where he studied
composition with Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. At times
within his career he worked for the Aeolian Company and taught music at
both the Ludgrove School and the Badminton School. His compositions—
known for their diatonic melodies and use of folk song style—achieved some

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 204 • MOERAN, E. J.

fame in his lifetime, including a Double Fugue for Orchestra (which received
the Carnegie Award in 1927) and his oratorio, A Prophet in the Land, which
was performed at the Three Choirs Music Festival in 1931.

MOERAN, E. J. (ERNEST JOHN; 1894–1950). Composer of Anglo-Irish

descent. Moeran was educated at the Uppingham School and then the Royal
College of Music, where his compositional studies with Sir Charles Villiers
Stanford (1913–14) and John Ireland (1920–23) were interrupted by service
in World War I. Moeran was a prolific member of the “English School,” in-
spired by both folk music (in his lifetime, he collected English folk music from
East Anglia, Norfolk, and Suffolk, as well as Ireland) and madrigals. For a
time (1925–28) he lived with Philip Heseltine. One of Moeran’s best-known
compositions during his own life was his Symphony in G minor (1924–37).

MORLEY, THOMAS (ca. 1557–1602). Composer, organist, and theorist.

The dedication of Morley’s treatise, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Prac-
ticall Musicke (1597), to William Byrd identifies him as Morley’s “master”
and someone to whom Morley was anxious to convey a “thankful mind,”
both of which strongly suggest that at one time Morley was Byrd’s student.
He held appointments at Norwich Cathedral (1583) and St. Paul’s, London,
after which he was named gentleman of the Chapel Royal (1592). His com-
positional output, like Byrd’s, ranges from Latin church music and Anglican
services to instrumental works for both keyboard and consort—his Consort
Lessons (1599) present arrangements of popular pieces that are definitive in
solidifying the so-called English (or “broken”) Consort.
However, his most significant activity is focused on the English madrigal
and its derivation from Italian models, generally from lighter forms like the
balletto or canzonetta, rather than from the serious Italian madrigal, per se.
Some of this activity takes the form of editing, arranging, and supplying
English texts to Italian works—compositions by Giovanni Francesco Anerio
and Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, for instance, are the basis for a number of
“Morley’s” canzonets and ballets. Morley defined both the canzonet and bal-
lett as “light”; the canzonet, he writes, is a song in which “little art can be
showed,” “a counterfeit of the Madrigal”; the balletts, lighter still, are songs
“which being sung to a ditty may likewise be danced” (1597). And it is light-
ness and musical development over literary textual values that set the English
madrigal apart from its Italian counterpart.
Morley’s compilation anthology, The Triumphs of Oriana (1601), is likely
the best-known collection of Elizabethan madrigals. The collection brings to-
gether madrigals by over 20 different composers in what has traditionally been
seen as an allegorical salute to the monarch (Elizabeth becomes Oriana), based

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 MOSCHELES, IGNAZ • 205

on the model of Croce’s Il Trionfi di Dori. Recent scholarship (Jeremy Smith,

2005) associates Oriana with Anne of Denmark rather than the queen.
The religious complexities of Elizabethan England find an echo in Morley’s
own circumstance. Correspondence between Charles Paget and Sir Francis
Walsingham’s secretary, Thomas Phellippes (1592), suggests that Morley was
a Roman Catholic, who, facing enough evidence to be hanged, repented and
turned into a government spy in the ongoing rooting out of Romanism. His own
Roman Catholicism, though apparently far from steadfast, suggests yet another
echo of his master, Byrd. The connection to Byrd has an additional manifesta-
tion in Morley’s obtaining the monopoly on the printing of music after Byrd’s
ownership of the monopoly expired. Unlike Byrd, Morley experienced legal
difficulties with the monopoly in the form of contentious litigation with John
Day over the publication of metrical psalters. In the end, the outcome was the
eradication of the monopoly after Morley’s term expired.

MORRIS DANCE. A folk dance, often performed by male-only troupes,

who wear bells on their knees and ankles and often manually employ hand-
kerchiefs or sticks as part of the choreography. Morris dancing has a historic
association with May celebrations. Popular in the 16th and 17th centuries,
its roots are earlier; tradition holds that in the 14th century John of Gaunt
was influential in bringing the dance back from Moorish Spain, a connection
that is echoed in the nomenclature itself, with “morris” being a cognate term
for “moresca” (a Moorish dance), and also in the fact that morris dancing is
sometimes done in blackface.
Cecil Sharp’s legendary career as a collector of folk music was inspired in
part by his 1899 experience of seeing an Oxford morris side. His own studies
and publications have been influential on preserving the dance in the modern
day, as have those of Mary Neal.

MOSCHELES, IGNAZ (1794–1870). Bohemian composer, pianist, educa-

tor, and conductor. His training occurred at the Prague Conservatory and then
in Vienna, under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri. After
a period touring Europe as a virtuoso pianist, Moscheles settled in London
(1825–46) teaching piano both privately and at the Royal Academy of Mu-
sic (2). During his time in London, he promoted the music of Ludwig van
Beethoven as a conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1832–41) and
as the translator of Anton Schindler’s Life of Beethoven (1841). He continued
to compose and tour both England and the Continent during this period. In
1846 he joined Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig at the conservatory there; he
became head of it upon Mendelssohn’s death and taught there and conducted
the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra until his own death.

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 206 • MOTETT SOCIETY

MOTETT SOCIETY (ALSO MOTET SOCIETY). Group founded by the

Scottish painter William Dyce and Edward Francis Rimbault to sing and
publish early church music in English editions. The group was founded in
1841 and disbanded in 1857.

MUDGE, RICHARD (1718–63). Cleric and sometime amateur composer,

particularly of concertos. Mudge took a BA and an MA at Pembroke Col-
lege, Oxford, between 1735 and 1741. For a time, he was curate at Great
Packington and Little Packington, and then rector at Little Packington, near
Birmingham, under the patronage of Lord Guernsey. Some of his music
may have been composed for evenings at Gurnsey’s house, or perhaps for
Charles Jennens (George Frideric Handel’s librettist), with whom Mudge
was associated at this time. Mudge also spent time in Birmingham as curate
at St. Bartholomew’s and had a living at Bedworth. He published a set of Six
Concertos in 1749.

MULLINER BOOK. A manuscript anthology (GB Lbl Add. Ms. 30513) of

16th-century keyboard works by John Redford, Thomas Tallis, and others.
The anthology is in the hand of Thomas Mulliner, a musician associated with
Magdalen and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, and St. Paul’s Cathedral,
London, and contains liturgical organ music, dances, and vocal arrangements.

MUNDY, WILLIAM (ca. 1528–ca. 1591). Composer. Mundy was trained

as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, documented there in the 1540s; his later
appointments, all of them in London, include St. Martin’s, Ludgate Hill; St.
Mary-at-Hill; and St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was appointed gentleman of the
Chapel Royal in 1564, serving in that capacity until his death. As a composer
he was both prolific and stylistically diverse, with compositions ranging
from the old florid style (revived under Mary Tudor) to essays in the modern
vernacular verse anthem. His nine-voice setting of the Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis “in medio chori” is notably elaborate, perhaps written for the Chapel
Royal. The designation “in medio chori” is not unique to Mundy, although
his is the only music so designated to survive complete. The designation may
refer to the placing of a group of singers—soloists, perhaps—in the space
between the two sides of the choir, cantoris and decani, for an enriched
spatial effect.
Mundy’s eldest son, John (ca. 1555–1630), was also a composer and or-
ganist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, the successor to Richard Farrant.

MUSGRAVE, THEA (1928–). Composer and educator. Musgrave is known

for her gradual move from a modal language into a serial one as well as her

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 MUSICAL ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY • 207

questioning of the basic relationship between an authoritarian or totalitar-

ian conductor and a subservient orchestra, through compositions including
the Concerto for Orchestra (1967). Musgrave studied at the University of
Edinburgh, with Nadia Boulanger privately and at the Paris Conservatoire
(1949–54), and at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland. She has taught at the
Dartington Summer School; the University of London; the University of
California, Santa Barbara; and as a distinguished professor at the City Univer-
sity of New York (1987–2002). Musgrave was made a CBE in 2002.

MUSIC ROOMS. See CONCERT ROOMS.

MUSICA BRITANNICA. Ongoing scholarly edition of British music

published by Stainer & Bell under the auspices of the Royal Musical As-
sociation. Stainer & Bell published the first volume of the series in 1954,
and as of this writing, 89 volumes exist. The scope of the series is broad,
including music from the 15th through 19th centuries, featuring complete
transcriptions of important manuscripts (such as the Eton Choirbook and the
Mulliner Book), volumes devoted to genres cultivated in Great Britain (an-
thems, ayres, carols, consort music, fantasia-suites, madrigals, services,
and songs), as well of collections of music by significant British composers
(Michael Arne, John Blow, John Bull, William Byrd, John Dunstaple,
Orlando Gibbons, Maurice Greene, Sir Hubert Parry, Sir Charles Vil-
liers Stanford, and Samuel Sebastian Wesley, inter alia). In spite of its
name, the series currently contains only one volume (The Music of Scotland:
1500–1700) that does not pertain directly to the music of England. The series
concentrates on publishing British music that is not readily available in other
scholarly editions, thus the music of Henry Purcell and Sir Edward Elgar
have not been published in Musica Britannica.

MUSICA TRANSALPINA. Elizabethan anthologies of Italian madrigals

with English texts. Nicholas Young edited two anthologies (1588 and 1597)
of madrigals eponymously from “across the alps,” i.e. from Italy, set with
English texts. The first volume features pieces by Alfonso Ferrabosco the
elder and Luca Marenzio in four to six parts. Kerman (1951) draws attention
to the way Musica Transalpina resembles the anthologies of Pierre Phalèse
in scope and structure, as well as in a significant number of concordances.

MUSICAL ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. Group founded in 1840 by Wil-

liam Chappell and Edward Francis Rimbault to publish early English
music. The 19 volumes published by Chappell & Co. for the Society’s
subscribers included works by William Byrd, John Dowland, Orlando

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 208 • MUSICAL ASSOCIATION

Gibbons, Thomas Morley, Henry Purcell, and Thomas Weelkes, among

others. The group’s last formal meeting occurred in 1847, and it published its
final volume in 1848.

MUSICAL ASSOCIATION. See ROYAL MUSICAL ASSOCIATION.

MUSICAL FESTIVALS (ALSO CHARITY FESTIVALS; CHORAL

FESTIVALS; COMPETITION FESTIVALS; FESTIVALS; MUSIC
FESTIVALS). Musical Festivals have existed with regularity in England
since the mid-17th century, and while the focus and purpose of such festi-
vals has changed over the last three centuries, one constant is the continual
celebration of vocal and choral music. Most festivals (save ones specifically
to honor St. Cecilia) from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th were
organized with charitable aims in mind, such as the Festival of the Sons of the
Clergy (ca. 1655) and the Three Choirs Festival (ca. 1715); both raised funds
for members of the clergy or their families in financial distress. The Birming-
ham Musical Festival (1768) raised funds for a local hospital. Repertoire
included anthems and services but increasingly through the 18th century
glees, selections from favorite operas, and George Frideric Handel’s orato-
rios as well—particularly Messiah, but also selections from other works and
imitations of Handel by other composers. Handel received his own series of
commemorative festivals at Westminster Abbey between 1784 and 1791 and
in 1834; a frequent Handel Festival was held in the middle of the 19th century
at the Crystal Palace featuring thousands of performers.
Festivals for charity continued in the 19th century and were mostly ac-
ceptable to middle-class tastes, concentrating on the performance of ora-
torios (Messiah was joined by Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah in 1846), dra-
matic cantatas, and other works fashionable at the moment. Instrumental
concerts increased in frequency at festivals throughout this century, as did
the importance of the festival as a commissioner of new music. Indeed, the
19th century was the heyday of the festivals, as many more were founded
in cathedral cities (Chester, Norwich, York, Chichester, etc.), as an expres-
sion of municipal pride (Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, etc.),
and as a paternalistic impulse to “improve” rural populations (Bridlington,
Hovingham, etc.). In some instances, festivals were the only times that in-
dividuals in the provinces could hear the combination of an orchestra and a
chorus perform locally.
From 1880 forward these charity-based festivals were joined by compe-
tition festivals, patterned after the Welsh Eisteddfod, organized by Henry
Leslie, John Spencer Curwen, and Mary Wakefield but quickly emulated
throughout England. Competition festivals were aimed at the working and

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 MUSICAL UNION • 209

middle classes and attempted to create a love of music and to promote mu-
sic as a distraction from vice. Both charity and competition festivals were
active forces throughout the first half of the 20th century and gave the com-
posers of the English Musical Renaissance many commissions and pro-
moted their fame: Sir Edward Elgar premiered works at the Three Choirs
Festival, and his oratorios for the Birmingham Musical Festival, such as
The Dream of Gerontius, rivaled those by Handel and Mendelssohn in pop-
ularity in the first decades of the century. Ralph Vaughan Williams and
Gustav Holst also received generous exposure through festivals; all three
composers also provided short test pieces and even occasional conducting
and adjudication at competition festivals. In the period after World War
II, the number of traditional charity and competition festivals decreased,
but they continued to have a significant impact on musical dissemination
beyond London and new music commissions. However, such festivals have
often been eclipsed in importance because of the rise of training festivals
(e.g., Dartington International Summer School), festivals that included
other arts together with contemporary music (such as Aldeburgh, organized
in part by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears), or festivals devoted specifi-
cally to popular music (e.g., Glastonbury).

MUSICAL INSTITUTE OF LONDON. Organization, extant from 1851

to 1853, to promote the study of the art and science of music. The Institute
included a reading room and a library and hosted paper presentations and
general conversations about music. Members included Sir William Stern-
dale Bennett, John Hullah, Sir Frederic Arthur Gore Ouseley, and
Ludwig Spohr.

MUSICAL UNION. A London concert society active from 1845 to 1881

that presented a series of eight afternoon concerts of instrumental chamber
music each season. Like many chamber music organizations of the time, it
combined high regard for the music with an attempt to educate the audience.
Thus, concerts included analytical programs (complete with transcriptions of
principal musical themes) circulated in advance to describe the works heard to
the audience. From its foundation to 1880, John Ella managed the Union; the
cellist Jules Lasserre managed it in its last season. Its concerts were centers of
elitism; classes were stratified via differently colored chairs. The performers
at concerts were a mixture of English players and foreign ones; some of the
most important musicians of the day were seen at the concerts, including Sir
Charles Hallé, Anton Rubenstein, Clara Schumann, and Henri Wieniawski.
The concerts were first given in Blagrove’s Small Concert Rooms but moved
to Willis’s Rooms in 1846 and finally to St. James’s Hall in 1858.

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9780810857506_Print.indb 210 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 N
NARES, JAMES (1715–83). Organist, composer, and teacher. Nares was a
chorister at the Chapel Royal and studied as well with Johann Christoph
Pepusch. He was an assistant organist for a time at St. George’s Chapel,
Windsor, before becoming organist at York Minster (1735–56). He spent
the remainder of his life in various positions at the Chapel Royal, including
master of the children, and as organist and composer to George III. His music
is primarily sacred or keyboard oriented, and he published pedagogical works
on keyboard playing (ca. 1760) and singing (ca. 1780 and 1786).

NATIONAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR MUSIC (NTSM). See ROYAL

COLLEGE OF MUSIC.

NEAL, MARY (1860–1944). Folk dance collector and social worker. For a
period between 1905 and 1914, Neal rivaled Cecil Sharp for importance as
a collector and disseminator of folk dance, including the morris dance. She
began collecting and teaching folk dancing at her Espérance Club (founded
in 1895 for the welfare and leisure of working women). To disseminate these
folk dances throughout the country, she founded the Association for the Re-
vival and Practice of Folk Music (later called the Espérance Guild of Morris
Dancers). Whereas Sharp believed folk music and dance should be collected,
catalogued, and taught only in “original” form, Neal maintained that folk
music and dances had evolved and should be allowed to continue to evolve.
From World War I forward, Neal withdrew from folk music and dance to
concentrate on direct social charity. She was awarded the CBE in 1937.

NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA. See PHILHARMONIA OR-

CHESTRA.

NEW QUEEN’S HALL ORCHESTRA. See QUEEN’S HALL OR-

CHESTRA.

NEWMAN, ERNEST (BORN WILLIAM ROBERTS; 1868–1959). Mu-

sic critic, writer, adjudicator, and teacher. Newman was the most influential

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 212 • NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN’S CATCH CLUB

writer on music in England in the first half of the 20th century. Largely self-
taught musically, he developed a penetrating analytical mind and a persua-
sive, fact-based critical writing style. He began writing in 1889 while work-
ing as a bank clerk in Liverpool. He published occasional articles and books
over the next few years, adopting his pen name “Ernest Newman.” In 1904 he
taught theory and singing at the Midland Institute School of Music. In 1905
he was named music critic for the Manchester Guardian, and thus began his
long work of introducing music and musicians to British readers. He worked
at various times for the Birmingham Daily Post (1906–18), the London Ob-
server (1919), the Sunday Times (1920–58), and the Glasgow Herald, among
other papers. He published many monographs, including early biographies of
Sir Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss, and Hugo Wolf, a four-volume biogra-
phy of Richard Wagner, and many books on opera.

NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN’S CATCH CLUB (ALSO CATCH

CLUB; GENTELMEN’S CATCH CLUB). London singing institution
founded in 1761. The Catch Club, as originally constituted, had a membership
of 21 members of the nobility, with between 10 and 25 composers and sing-
ers as “Privileged Members” (as of 1996, this number was reduced to six). By
1762 the membership voted to give prizes of 10 and five guineas for excellent
new catches, glees, or canons. Regular prizes were awarded until 1849. Prizes
were occasionally awarded until 1934 at the will of the club. The club presented
composers with about 200 prizes in all. To celebrate its bicentennial, the club
commissioned a new work from Sir Malcolm Arnold, but he did not complete
the composition. Privileged Members have included Michael Arne, Jonathan
Battishill, Joseph Bennett, Benjamin Cooke, Tom Cooke, Alfred Deller,
Thomas Greatorex, Charles Knyvett, Stephen Paxton, and Samuel Webbe.

NORRIS, THOMAS (1741–90). Singer, organist, and composer. Norris was

trained as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral and sang solos as a boy soprano
at the Three Choirs Musical Festivals and at Drury Lane between 1761 and
1762. He settled in Oxford in 1765, taking a BMus at Magdalene College in
that year. He was named organist of St. John’s College in 1766, lay clerk at
Christ Church in 1767, lay clerk at Magdalene College in 1771, and organist of
Christ Church in 1776. As a tenor soloist, he frequently sang at musical festi-
vals until his death, including the Handel Commemorations of the 1780s; as
a composer, he published solo songs, glees, and a set of six symphonies.

NORTH, ROGER (1651–1734). Lawyer, writer, man of learning. North was

born into an aristocratic family and especially benefited from the influence
and patronage of his older brother, Francis, a distinguished jurist. His early

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 NOVELLO, VINCENT • 213

years included musical study within the household, most notably with the
violist John Jenkins. Although he matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge,
illness cut short his university career, and he subsequently took up law at the
Middle Temple. His rise there would include an involvement in the famous
organ contest between Renatus Harris and Bernard “Father” Smith,
waged to see which builder would get the contract to build an organ for the
Temple Church. The Whig ascendancy under William and Mary proved
politically problematic for North, and in 1690 he moved to a country estate
at Rougham (Norfolk) where he could more fully indulge his passions for
music, mathematics, art, and architecture, inter alia.
North was a prolific writer, and his passion for music inspired much learned
investigation and discourse from his pen. His writings discuss the physics of
music, theoretical formulations (for instance, he anticipates Rameau’s concept
of chordal root), practical matters, questions of epistemology, the history of
music, and also observations of the modern scene. In this latter regard, for
example, he offers rich description of the violin virtuoso Nicola Matteis. The
autobiographical Notes of Me is rich in musical content, joined by a number of
other monographic essays that include “Cursory Notes of Musicke,” Theory of
Sounds, “An Essay on Musicall Ayre,” and The Musicall Grammarian.

NORTHERN SCHOOL OF MUSIC. See ROYAL NORTHERN COL-

LEGE OF MUSIC.

NOVELLO, CLARA (1818–1908). Singer; daughter of Vincent Novello.

Clara Novello was one of the most celebrated oratorio soloists in the middle
of the 19th century. She was known for her pure soprano voice, great reli-
gious devotion, and excellent musicianship. Novello received initial training
in Paris at the Institut Royal de Musique Classique et Religieuse (1829–30),
and she frequently sang in London and at the provincial musical festivals.
After meeting Felix Mendelssohn in 1837 at the Birmingham Musical Fes-
tival, she toured in Europe, starting in Leipzig. In 1839 she went to Milan
to study opera and began performing regularly in 1841. She married Count
Giovanni Baptista Gigliucci in 1843 and temporarily retired from the stage.
She returned to the Italian operatic stage in 1849 and triumphantly to the Eng-
lish musical festivals and oratorio concerts in 1851. Her last public concert
was on 21 November 1860; after which she retired to Italy with her husband.

NOVELLO, VINCENT (1781–1861). Organist, choirmaster, conductor, edi-

tor, publisher, and composer; father of Clara Novello and J. Alfred Novello. As
an editor and publisher, Novello was largely responsible for the introduction of
Catholic sacred music to the English, including works of Giovanni Pierluigi da

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 214 • NOVELLO & CO.

Palestrina, and the masses of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joseph
Haydn. He also edited and published a great deal of Anglican music, such as
that by Henry Purcell, often at his own expense. He began publishing in 1811
and in 1830, with his son, J. Alfred, started the firm Novello & Co.
Novello was trained and worked within the Catholic embassy chapels,
studying organ with Samuel Webbe at the Portuguese Chapel (where he
would later serve as organist between 1798 and 1823). He was also organist
at the Roman Catholic Chapel in Moorfields (the London procathedral) from
1840 to 1843. Novello was one of the founders of the Royal Philharmonic
Society in 1813 and frequently conducted concerts there from the keyboard,
conducted the Choral Harmonists Society for a time, and was a frequent
guest organist at musical festivals. Novello retired from musical life in 1848,
when he moved to Nice, France.

NOVELLO & CO. (ALSO NOVELLO, EWER, & CO.). Preeminent 19th-
century music publishing firm in England, founded in 1830 by Vincent No-
vello and his son, J. Alfred Novello. Novello & Co. began publishing its vocal
score “octavo editions” series in 1847 (scores not published by subscription),
which supplied musical festivals and amateur and professional choirs with
much of their music for the rest of the century. They also published dramatic
choral music in Tonic Sol-fa notation, particularly oratorios and cantatas.
Like many publishers of the 19th century, Novello & Co. sponsored ensembles
(such as the Novello Choir) and concert series, including Novello’s Oratorio
Concerts. Novello & Co. has also been the publisher of a number of extremely
important periodicals on music, including the Musical World (1836–91) and the
MT (1844–present, after it was purchased from Joseph Mainzer).

NOVELLO CHOIR. Choir of 100 Novello & Co. employees begun in 1905
by William Gray McNaught. Harold Brooke directed it from 1912 to 1924
and re-formed the group in 1925 as the 36-singer Harold Brooke Choir. In
this incarnation, it lasted until 1930. The choir began as a singing class but
quickly became known for its polished and interesting programs combining
early and then-contemporary English music.

NOVELLO’S ORATORIO CONCERTS. Series of concerts conducted by

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie and funded by Novello & Co. between
1885 and 1889. The concerts were notable for the high quality of their per-
formances and the ambitious English and continental repertoire presented in
the four seasons, including George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, Felix Men-
delssohn’s Elijah, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in D minor (op.
125), as well as larger works by Mackenzie, Sir Hubert Parry, Sir Charles
Villiers Stanford, and Sir Arthur Sullivan.

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 O
ODE. Celebratory, occasional works, generally written for the court. Court
life was periodically graced with salutatory odes on special occasions, such
as the monarch’s birthday, the turning of the New Year, and the return of the
monarch to London after travels. Odes to St. Cecilia were also a central part
of the 22 November celebrations, characteristically treating themes of the
affective powers of individual instruments and the harmony of the spheres.
The ode came into blossom in the 17th century, with particularly notable ex-
amples by Henry Purcell, such as “Come Ye Sons of Art” for the 1694 birth-
day of Queen Mary or “Hail! Bright Cecilia” for the Cecilia Festival of 1692.
George Frideric Handel continued the tradition in the 18th century with
“Eternal Source of Light Divine” for the birthday of Queen Anne in 1713 and
his setting of John Dryden’s Cecilian ode, “From Harmony” (1739).
In its components of chorus, orchestra, and various solo ensembles, as well
as in their being performed by members of the Chapel Royal, it is easy to
sense a kinship with the symphony anthem. However, distinctions are also
readily apparent, such as the greater preponderance of dance music in the ode,
perhaps born of its secularity.
The texts are often poor; Holman (1994) describes a pervading view that
they are “inept and embarrassingly sycophantic”; Wood (1994) memorably
speaks of them as “flatulent encomia.” Dryden’s “From Harmony,” first set
by Giovanni Battista Draghi in 1687, is a notable exception.
Between 1715 and 1820, the Master of the King’s Music and the Poet
Laureate were jointly responsible for producing birthday and New Year’s
odes; after this point, the tradition died out. For the remainder of the 19th
century, and into the 20th, odes served two purposes: the above-mentioned
celebrations of St. Cecilia (e.g., Gerald Finzi’s For St. Cecilia) and as func-
tional music. Examples of the latter include Sir Edward Elgar’s Coronation
Anthem (1902), written to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII, but not
performed because of the king’s illness. Other compositions called “ode,”
such as Sir Hubert Parry’s “Ode to Music” (1901) or “Ode on the Nativ-
ity” (1902), while called “ode” are better understood in the context of the
contemporary cantata.

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 216 • OLD HALL MANUSCRIPT

OLD HALL MANUSCRIPT. The major manuscript of early 15th-century

English music. Now owned by the British Library (Add ms. 57950), the
so-called Old Hall Manuscript takes its name from the previous modern
owner, St. Edmund’s College at Old Hall Green. The chief composer in the
collection is Leonel Power; in the main, excepting a single contribution by
John Dunstaple, the other composers are relatively obscure. Significantly,
however, there are royal pieces by “Roy Henry”—King Henry V.
The repertory is diverse in style and chronology, including pieces from
around 1370 to 1420 in the sonorous, homophonic English discant style,
as well as works in various continentally influenced styles (isorhythm and
canon). It is significant that the English discant pieces are notated in score,
providing a compelling visual metaphor of their unified sound, while the
other works, characterized by more independence of individual lines, are in
choirbook format.
The majority of the collection is devoted to mass music, including mass
pairs of movements of the Ordinary (Gloria-Credo; Sanctus-Agnus) linked
by musical means, an important stage in the development of the cyclic mass.
However, the arrangement of the collection by movements of a common text
veils this advance.

OPERA. In the early 17th century, as Italy was developing its fully sung
style of opera, the English were exploring the musico-dramatic potential of
the masque, a hybrid aristocratic entertainment that combined poetry (sung
or recited), music, lavish stagecraft, and both choreographed and social danc-
ing. One of the chief forces in the creation of the masque was the architect
Inigo Jones, who had studied and traveled in Italy. Thus, an Italianate operatic
echo on the English stage, i.e., fully sung music dramas, was imaginable,
but generally unrealized. However, there were significant exceptions. Ben
Jonson’s Lovers Made Men (1617)—a collaboration with Jones—was reput-
edly sung in “stylo recitativo” throughout, and this was identified as being
after the “Italian manner.” The music by Nicholas Lanier does not survive.
Sir William Davenant’s The Siege of Rhodes (1656, though perhaps only
performed later) was also fully sung to music by Henry Lawes, Henry
Cooke, and Matthew Locke. This music also does not survive, and its text
seems to have been intended as a spoken play, a form in which it was later
performed. More prominently in view are the late 17th-century masques,
Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell and Venus and Adonis by John Blow.
The modern reception of these works has tended to view them as “operas” on
a small scale; certainly their fully sung form and the emotional depth of Dido
and Aeneas would invite the operatic label; and nationalistic composers in
the late 19th and 20th centuries would attempt to emulate both within smaller

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 OPERA • 217

chamber operas. However, in the late 17th century these were both unusual
works and formally distinct from what the contemporary Englishman would
know as “opera.”
The late 17th-century hybrid form of dramatick opera or semi-opera, a
style of music drama that featured a spoken play with elaborate, generally
nonintegral musical entertainments, were the Englishman’s “opera,” a taste
that was self-consciously made and in contrast with continental norms. The
preface to Matthew Locke’s semi-opera Psyche (1675) clarifies how the
distinction was one of national taste: “[I]t may justly wear the title [of opera],
though all the tragedy be not in music: for the author prudently considered,
that though Italy was, and is, the great academy of the world for that science
and way of entertainment, England is not, and therefore mixed it with inter-
locutions as more proper to our [English] genius.”
The English adoption of fully sung opera as the musical dramatic norm was
first realized in extent with the rise of George Frideric Handel. Handel’s
operatic invasion of London began in 1711 with his Rinaldo, and this paved
the way for an English musical mainstream that was to be largely a foreign
importation: the famous singers in the London opera were Italian castrati,
like Senesino or Farinelli; the composers were foreign, like Handel and
Giovanni Bononcini; the libretti were in Italian, often reworkings of older
17th-century texts. The exotic allure of things foreign surely helped boost op-
era’s popularity, though not without some resentment and eventual backlash.
The style of Handelian opera is grounded in the conventions of Italian
opera seria, wherein there is a rigorous musical and functional separation of
recitative and aria: the recitative is active, the aria reflective and affective—
and the da capo aria formally dominates the musical landscape, stressing the
centrality of virtuosic solo singers.
Handel’s London opera company, the Royal Academy of Music, had
two incarnations: 1719–28 and 1729–37. The closing of the first can be seen
against a background of shifting public taste, a shift made especially vivid
in the popularity of the “democratic” and vernacular The Beggar’s Opera;
the closing of the second academy reflects the strain of competition with a
second opera company, the “Opera of the Nobility,” and the inability or
disinclination of London audiences to support them both. With the closing of
the second academy in bankruptcy, Handel turned his attention to oratorio,
a genre that continued his theatrical interests, though in a decidedly different
musical form.
The nobility’s continued regard for Italianate opera seria and the great
popular success of The Beggar’s Opera effectively framed opera in England
for much of the next century and a half. Occasionally, an English composer
would attempt to replicate the style and import of such Italian works, like

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 218 • OPERA

Thomas Augustine Arne’s Artaxerxes (1762), an opera seria with typical

distinction between recitative and aria, based on a libretto by Pietro Metas-
tasio, which included castrato roles, a plot drawn from Classical mythology,
and an enforced lieto fine. Artaxerxes’ premiere at Covent Garden was
a success, and it was staged numerous times in the succeeding decades in
London, Dublin (1765), Edinburgh (1769), and even New York City (1828).
Arne was also immediately successful with the pastiche Love in a Village
(1762), a composition much closer in form and spirit to The Beggar’s Opera,
which contained some original music, some music recycled from Arne’s
older works, as well as pieces by other composers. Its first season at Cov-
ent Garden featured 40 performances, and the work was regularly heard in
England until the 1840s.
For English composers, such successes were not the norm. Much more
frequent—especially at the major London theaters of Covent Garden, Drury
Lane, and Haymarket—was the avoidance of English compositions for
production of Italian opera by foreign conductors, composers, and singers,
including Sir Michael Costa, Felice Giardini, Giuloa Grisi, Jenny Lind,
Giudetta Pasta, Adelina Patti, Alberto Randegger, and Antonio Sacchini,
among many others. This remained constant through the 20th century, with
the addition of regular performances of French operas in the 1860s and
German ones shortly thereafter. Opera in England throughout these times
frequently meant musical-dramatic works in another language. Until the late
1820s, however, such productions were frequently not premieres of new
works: London audiences were happy to hear rearrangements of operas al-
ready proved successful on the Continent as well as pastiches from operas (or
parts of them) already successful in London. All of the major theaters partook
of such rearrangements, employing numerous English composers, such as
Samuel Arnold, Sir Henry Bishop, Charles Dibdin, Thomas Linley (the
elder), and Joseph Mazzinghi to create such hybrid works. As Hall-Witt
indicates (2007), these hybrid works were tolerated because the spectacle on
stage was often not as interesting to society as the fashionable spectacle to be
seen within the audience itself.
By 1828, following the lead of the middle class’s presenting of Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart’s operas in the City of London (sometimes in concert per-
formances), Italian and Italian-language operas could be presented whole on
the London stage instead of in pastiche form, as a new concern with the vital-
ity of the work and the composer’s intentions was seen. This was not the case
in the presentation of opera at the provincial musical festivals, where piece-
meal selections from current and older operas remained a constant within
“miscellaneous” concert programs into the early 1860s. Until the second half
of the 19th century, viable opera in the provinces either occurred at such mu-

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 OPERA • 219

sical festivals or through touring companies: regular companies would not be

established outside of London for some time.
English composers made many attempts at opera in English through this
period, some more successful (like Arne’s Love in a Village) than others.
Each generation seemed to produce a few operas that made an impression, but
there was never enough momentum to create a school to rival the influence
of Italian models. Some successful examples include Henry Carey and John
Frederick Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley (1737), Dibdin’s The Recruiting
Sergeant (1770), The Lord of the Manor by William Jackson (1; 1780), and
Stephen Storace’s The Cherokee (1794). The first half of the 19th century
saw dramatically viable and successful works from the pen of Bishop, includ-
ing adaptations of works by Mozart and Gioachino Rossini, as well as his
own The Maniac (1810), numerous adaptations of William Shakespeare’s
works, and the fully sung Aladdin (1826), as well as many dramas from Mi-
chael William Balfe, such as The Siege of Rochelle (1835; 73 performances
in its first season) and The Maid of Artois (1836). Indeed, by 1834 the impre-
sario Samuel James Arnold made one of numerous attempts to support opera
by indigenous composers with the founding of the English Opera House and
opera commissions for such composers as Balfe and Sir George Alexander
Macfarren, but the organization folded in 1841. The English Opera House
was resident for a time in the Lyceum Theatre, which continued to promote
successful English works, such as Balfe’s The Rose of Castile (1857).
Like their forebears, the composers of the English Musical Renaissance
(EMR) had mixed success with opera. The works best known from this era
are the masterful compositions of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir
Arthur Sullivan: these compositions were an immense success throughout
Great Britain and beyond to most English-speaking countries. Touring en-
sembles crossed the globe with productions of H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The
Pirates of Penzance (1879), and The Mikado (1885)—Pirates was even
premiered in New York City before its London premiere. The combination
of Sullivan’s melodic emotionalism and Gilbert’s exceedingly sharp wit and
well-deployed irony was so successful that an entire industry was built to
sustain it: the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, besides supporting Gilbert
and Sullivan, kept in its stable such conductors and composers as Alfred
Cellier, Sir Edward German, and even Sir Alexander Campbell Mack-
enzie to emulate the compositions and libretti, and begat both the Savoy
Theatre (1881) and the Royal English Opera House (1891). The former
was built particularly for the production of Gilbert and Sullivan operas (the
so-called “Savoy Operas”); the latter was constructed for Sullivan’s hopes to
move from the half-scored, half-spoken works he shared with Gilbert to fully
sung grand opera on the most sublime and chivalrous of English subjects,

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 220 • OPERA

Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. The 1891 opera was a popular (though not criti-
cal) success, but the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company sold the Royal English
Opera House at the completion of the 180-performance run. The venue was
renamed the Palace Theatre and featured music-hall shows and other popular
entertainments.
No contemporary composer could match the success of Gilbert and Sul-
livan in lighter fare, nor could they create and sustain the sort of grand opera
attempted by Sullivan with Ivanhoe. Numerous attempts were made from
the 1860s forward, including by the Carl Rosa Opera Company (founded
1867), which performed operas translated into English and written in Eng-
lish, such as commissioned works by Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (Pauline,
1879), Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (The Canterbury Pilgrims, 1884), and
Frederick Corder (Nordissa, 1887). Poor libretti frequently marred the
composition and performance of these works, as did an unrefined sense of
dramatic pacing.
With composers in the second generation of the EMR, though, English-
language opera began to hit its stride, perhaps because composers were able
to take the best elements from the Continent unabashedly and mix them with
a fine-tuned sense of English drama. Composers like Dame Ethel Smyth, in
works like The Wreckers (Leipzig, 1906; London, 1909), and Hamish Mac-
Cunn, in Jeanie Deans (1894; written for the Carl Rosa Opera Company),
balanced out the needs of drama and text setting, using a Wagnerian-inspired
idiom but with British plots. Such an idiom could be wildly successful, as was
the case with Rutland Boughton’s The Immortal Hour (1914), which, when
revived in London in the 1920s, had a run of over 500 performances.
Other important composers of the first decades of the 20th century moved
between dramatic vocal music and instrumental music with increased flu-
ency, if not always the same amount of success: essays in opera by both
Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughn Williams met with modest success but
were—for the most part—polished, solid works. Both composed operas
based on their particular spiritual interests, though Holst’s chamber work,
Savitri (1909) is perhaps more accessible than Vaughan Williams’s The
Pilgrim’s Progress (1949). The former was an early attempt by Holst, while
the latter was a decades-long Lebenswerk on the part of Vaughan Williams.
Both also tried their hand at setting deliberately national operas based on
Shakespeare’s Falstaff: Holst’s At the Boar’s Head (1924) uses folk tunes
collected by Cecil Sharp as its basis, while Vaughan Williams’s Sir John
in Love (1928) predominantly features the folkish melody “Greensleeves.”
While perhaps not always the successes for which their composers hoped,
these works of the first few decades of the 20th century showed that mod-
ern, convincing English-language opera was possible. With the advent of

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 “OPERA OF THE NOBILITY” • 221

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes (1945), what had been a growing national
presence for opera in Great Britain became an international one. Britten’s
works combined an exquisite sense of drama with an approachable score.
While many of the stories in his libretti were British—Peter Grimes takes
place in an English fishing village; Billy Budd (1951) is about the sea; Turn
of the Screw (1954) takes place in a manor house—the sense of alienation
they portrayed remained both topical and even universal throughout the 20th
century. While other English opera composers after World War II—Sir Wil-
liam Walton and Sir Michael Tipett, among them—might not have been
as successful internationally as Britten, by the 1950s English-language opera
from Great Britain in general was second to no other national opera tradition
in the 20th century. See also ABRAMS, HARRIET; ARNE, MICHAEL;
ATTWOOD, THOMAS; BACH, JOHANN CHRISTIAN; BALFE, MI-
CHAEL WILLIAM; BANTOCK, SIR GRANVILLE; BARTHÉLEMON,
FRANÇOIS-HIPPOLYTE; BATTISHILL, JONATHAN; BENEDICT, SIR
JULIUS; BONONCINI, GIOVANNI; BUSH, ALAN; CELLIER, ALFRED;
CHORLEY, HENRY FROTHERGILL; CLAYTON, THOMAS; CORDER,
FREDERICK; DORSET GARDEN THEATRE; DRAGHI, GIOVANNI
BATTISTA; DRYDEN, JOHN; ECCLES, JOHN; FARINELLI; FES-
TIVAL OF BRITAIN; GALLIARD, JOHN ERNST; GRABU, LOUIS;
HEIDEGGER, JOHN JACOB; HOLBROOKE, JOSEPH; HOOK, JAMES;
JACKSON, WILLIAM (1); LEHMANN, LIZA; LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS;
NOVELLO, CLARA; PACCHIEROTTI, GASPARO; PANTHEON; POR-
PORA, NICOLA; ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC; RUSH, GEORGE;
SADLER’S WELLS; SHIELD, WILLIAM; SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER
(THE YOUNGER); THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING; YOUNG, POLLY.

“OPERA OF THE NOBILITY.” Opera company formed in rivalry to

George Frideric Handel’s operatic enterprise, the Royal Academy of Mu-
sic (1). Born in part of the strained relations between George II and his son,
Frederick, the Prince of Wales, the so-called “Opera of the Nobility” may be
seen as a filial attack on the king, his composer, and his patronage. In 1733
the “Opera of the Nobility” opened at Lincoln’s Inn Fields—they would
later locate at the Haymarket Theatre—a new company that had drained
important singers from Handel’s troupe, including Sensino and Montagnana.
Later Farinelli would join the “Opera of the Nobility” as well; the composer
Nicola Porpora was the music director. The “Opera of the Nobility” enjoyed
some notable successes, as for instance the 1734 production of Hasse’s Ar-
taserse, but London audiences were unable to support two opera companies
in competition one with the other, and in 1737 both Handel’s company and
the “Opera of the Nobility” would close in bankruptcy.

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 222 • ORATORIO

ORATORIO. A large-scale, dramatic setting of a sacred narrative, typically

performed unstaged, though often in theatrical context. Although the genre of
oratorio blossomed in Italy in the 17th century under the nurture of the Ro-
man clerical and aristocratic establishment, Protestant England showed little
contemporary interest. Apart from a few sacred dialogues—John Hilton’s
dialogue of Solomon and the Harlots and his dialogue of Job, God, and Satan
are early examples, while Henry Purcell’s “In Guilty Night,” a dialogue of
Saul and the Witch of Endor, is the most accomplished—little survives to
suggest an interest in the genre.
In the 18th century, however, the English oratorio came into blossom with
George Frideric Handel, a situation that is somewhat ironic. Handel’s turn
to the oratorio in the 1730s is in part necessitated by the financial collapse
of the opera, an Italianate establishment that effectively squelched the de-
velopment of the native English music drama. However, if on the one hand
Handel is seen as an “invading destroyer” of that tradition, on the other, his
establishment of the English form of oratorio gives to England one of its most
long-lived and resiliently national forms.
Handel’s time in Italy (1706–10) schooled him in the Italian oratorio
tradition, a tradition to which he contributed with works like La Resurrezi-
one. However, when it came to developing the English model, Handel did
not choose a simple transplant, but rather synthesized a number of stylistic
elements from Italian opera, oratorio, the English choral repertory, and the
masque tradition, among others (Smither, 1977), to create a substantially
new genre, characterized by the significant part allotted to the chorus, the
range of aria types, the use of English singers, and the textual focus on Old
Testament narratives. Despite the often compelling nature of the narratives,
the texts also had a rich allegorical potential, associating modern England
with ancient Israel, and also may be considered an orthodox reply to Deism
(Ruth Smith, 1995).
The sacred nature of the narratives has perhaps impeded the modern un-
derstanding of the Handelian oratorio as a theatrical and not a church work.
Indeed, the early history of the Handelian oratorio suggests a staged intent,
echoed by stage directions in both printed libretti and autograph manuscripts.
However, in response to issues of propriety, the oratorios were generally
performed in concert settings, albeit in theaters.
Messiah reigned supreme in Great Britain as the best-regarded orato-
rio—if not best-regarded composition—for most of the next century and a
half following Handel’s death. The use of the composition at the Foundling
Hospital in annual concerts (1750–77) created a performance tradition for
the oratorio, as an aid to charity, that ensured its preservation as the most
important genre within English music. Quickly, musical festivals took it

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 ORATORIO • 223

up, and performances of it in churches and cathedrals soon outstripped

performances at theaters like Drury Lane and Covent Garden. English
composers throughout the remainder of the 18th century created works that
were Handel-like in design and purpose (such as John Worgan’s Manasseh
[1766], performed at the Lock Hospital to raise funds for the institution) or
simply pastiches of Handel’s music with new texts or the music of others
interpolated, including the compositions of John Stanley and John Brown
and Samuel Arnold’s Cure of Saul (1767) and Arnold’s Omnipotence
(1774). The introduction of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Creation (1798) and
Four Seasons (1801) might have provided a late-century counterpoise;
while these oratorios were successful, they never held the critical or popular
regard of Messiah. Into the first half of the 19th century, musical festivals
and other charity concerts frequently consisted of Messiah; excerpts of
Handel’s other oratorios; oratorio premieres by other composers, such as
William Crotch’s Palestine (1812), Sir Henry Bishop’s The Seventh Day
(1834), and Henry Hugo Pierson’s Jerusalem (1852); and other genres
popular contemporaneously.
The next major event in the history of the English oratorio was the premiere
of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Birmingham Musical Festival in 1846.
Quickly, this work became the second most popular oratorio in England and
provided a new model for emulation by indigenous composers, including
Sir Frederic Arthur Gore Ouseley (The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, 1854).
From 1850 to the beginning of World War I, most native English composers
produced one or more oratorios, and most foreign composers who worked
even occasionally within England, including Antonin Dvorak, Charles Gou-
nod, Franz Liszt, and many others, produced oratorios for English musical
festivals and choral societies. Many of these works were only local successes
and infrequently performed, but the list of works that were heard frequently
for a decade or more is lengthy, including Sir Arthur Sullivan’s The Mar-
tyr of Antioch (1880), Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie’s The Rose of
Sharon (1884), Sir John Stainer’s The Crucifixion (1887), and Sir Hubert
Parry’s Job (1892), among others. The apogee of the English oratorio came
with the masterpieces of Sir Edward Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
(1900), The Apostles (1903), and The Kingdom (1906). Each combines the
didactic needs of the genre with a Wagnerian musical language (leitmotivs
and chromaticism), evocatively portraying not only emotion but also physical
space. During this time, the oratorio found itself at a theological crossroad:
oratorios were being performed in secular spaces like town halls and concert
halls throughout Great Britain, while in churches they were frequently made
parts of large-scale prayer services, including litanies to be said by the con-
gregation before and after the composition.

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 224 • ORGAN

Elgar’s works came at the height of oratorio production in Great Britain;

in the years after World War I, composers turned increasingly to other choral
forms and instrumental music; the surviving musical festivals and choral
societies frequently commissioned compositions from other genres. The ora-
torio, when performed in churches, also began to lose its function as a prayer
service, as churches increasingly presented concerts. As is the case with the
cantata, numerous works can be found that approximate the oratorio, like
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem (1962): a work for soloists, a large choir,
and orchestra with a sacred focus. Compositions that have kept (nominally)
the genre’s name have tended in the 20th century to reflect compositional—
and not necessarily devotional—interests of the era, such as the satiric parody
within Sir William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, the cool modernism of
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Sancta Civitas (1936), or the borrowing of
popular styles in Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (1944).
With the exception of Britten’s War Requiem, many of these composi-
tions have not traveled well. While there was a brief fad for Elgar’s Ge-
rontius in Germany and North America in the decade before World War I,
mostly these oratorios are kept alive by the many choral societies still extant
in Great Britain. See also ABRAMS, HARRIET; ADAMS, THOMAS;
ARNE, THOMAS AUGUSTINE; BARNBY, SIR JOSEPH; BARTHÉ-
LEMON, FRANÇOIS-HIPPOLYTE; BATES, JOAH; BENEDICT, SIR
JULIUS; BENNETT, JOSEPH; BREWER, SIR HERBERT; COSTA, SIR
MICHAEL; COWEN, SIR FREDERIC HYMEN; CURWEN PRESS;
DAVIES, SIR (HENRY) WALFORD; EXETER HALL; FISHER, JOHN
ABRAHAM; GATES, BERNARD; GIARDINI, FELICE; GREENE, MAU-
RICE; HANDEL COMMEMORATION; HANDEL SOCIETY; HAYES,
WILLIAM; HILES, HENRY; HOOK, JAMES; JACKSON, WILLIAM
(2); LIND, JENNY; LINLEY, THOMAS (THE ELDER); MACFARREN,
SIR GEORGE ALEXANDER; MILFORD, ROBIN; NOVELLO, CLARA;
NOVELLO & CO.; NOVELLO’S ORATORIO CONCERTS; PIERSON,
HENRY HUGO; PUBLIC CONCERTS; SACRED HARMONIC SOCI-
ETY; ST. JAMES’S HALL; SILAS, EDOUARD; SMART, SIR GEORGE
THOMAS; SMART, HENRY; SMART, HENRY THOMAS; SMITH,
JOHN CHRISTOPHER (THE YOUNGER); SOMERVELL, SIR ARTHUR;
STANFORD, SIR CHARLES VILLIERS; STANLEY, JOHN; WESLEY,
SAMUEL; WESLEY, SAMUEL SEBASTIAN.

ORGAN. The organ is strongly intertwined in the history of English music,

in part owing to the fact that historically so many musicians were trained
in royal, cathedral, or collegiate chapel choirs where the instrument played
a fundamental role, and in part to the fact that so many prominent English

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 ORGAN • 225

musicians, ranging from William Byrd and John Blow to Sir Edward
Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, have been in one degree or another
active as organists. Additionally, although English organ music has perhaps
tended to be more at home within the parochial bounds of the Anglican ser-
vice than in concert and recital, some works, such as Elgar’s Sonata (1895),
have entered the broader repertory of concert organists. Unsurprisingly, the
history of the organ in England also is closely tied to extramusical forces,
none more so than questions of religious reform, be it the dissolution of
the monasteries in the 16th century, the ascent of Puritanism in the 17th, or
battles over musical propriety in Evangelical churches and the restoration
of ritualism with the Oxford Movement in the 19th. Additionally, the organ
also figured importantly in the rise of secular music endeavors and venues,
with the performance of George Frideric Handel’s organ concertos as
theater interludes an important early example, but also in the inauguration
of municipal concert halls in the 19th century, where large organs were in-
stalled to accommodate festival-scaled performances, as at the Birmingham
Town Hall in 1834. The recent literature relating to the history of the organ
in England reflects the fruitfulness of a marriage between practical experi-
ence and scholarship, as in Stephen Bicknell’s monograph (1996), now the
standard reference on the subject.
The most famous of the medieval organs in England is the 10th-century
instrument at Winchester, built under the patronage of Bishop Alphege and
described at length by the cathedral cleric, Wulfstan. In Wulfstan’s descrip-
tion, the size and the power of the instrument are impressive, noting that its
sound could be heard throughout the city. It had 400 pipes and 26 bellows, to
be pumped by 70 men. There were echoes of large-scale instruments in the
centuries that followed, such as the organ at Exeter, built in the early 16th
century, but typically the early English organ was small, used to accompany
liturgical singing.
The religious turbulence of the 16th century led to the removal or destruc-
tion of a number of instruments, with the rise of Protestant piety and politics
casting a harsh shadow on both the usefulness and the propriety of the organ
(and other instruments) in church. However, the resurgence of high church-
manship in the early 17th century would provide a climate that both church
music and organ building would find beneficial. And the activity of builder
Thomas Dallam (and later his son, Robert) well documents the reversal of the
16th-century trend. Between 1605 and 1614 Dallam built important instru-
ments at King’s College, Cambridge; Norwich Cathedral; Worcester Cathe-
dral; and Eton College. The Worcester organ has been especially significant
in the modern discussion of historical English pitch, as it is a transposing
instrument (organ C=choir F).

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 226 • ORGAN

Unsurprisingly, organ culture was constrained during the Commonwealth,

though it would perhaps be a mistake to exaggerate the Puritan attitude;
Oliver Cromwell himself had an organ by Robert Dallam at Hampton Court.
With the Restoration, however, the new and necessary outfitting of churches
saw a flurry of new instruments by builders such as Robert Dallam, John
Loosemore, Thomas Thamar, Lancelot Pease, Edward Darby, and Thomas
Harris at places like St. George’s, Windsor, and the cathedrals at Durham,
Exeter, Winchester, Peterborough Norwich, Canterbury, Chester, Lincoln,
and Worcester.
The later 17th century saw the rise of two prominent builders, Bernard
“Father” Smith and Renatus Harris, both of whom brought continental
influence into English organ building, Smith drawing on Netherlandish ideas,
and Harris, French ones. Together they famously entered into a competition
for the building of the new instrument at London’s Temple Church, with
John Blow, Henry Purcell, and Giovanni Battista Draghi drawn into the
fray as players. Smith emerged victorious with an instrument that interest-
ingly employed quarter-tone keys to further the range of its meantone tuning.
The 18th-century organ favored varied colors, an “imitative variety” (Bick-
nell, 1996), that was heard in voluntaries, such as those by John Stanley,
featuring diverse solo figuration on trumpet or cornet stop, with echoes. The
18th century as well saw the organ take on increasingly secular use, as in the
theater and the pleasure gardens.
Nineteenth-century developments saw the essaying of very large instru-
ments, such as the Henry Willis organ at the Crystal Palace (1851) and
the Royal Albert Hall (1871); the desire for more volume of sound, well
manifest in the use of high-pressure reeds, among other things; and a blend-
ing of sounds that allowed for impressive and smooth crescendos. This tonal
ideal served English service music well, but the contemporary rediscovery
of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music and other earlier solo repertory prompted
an interest in more continental tonal profiles where independence and clarity
of sound were characteristic; this profile was in strong contrast to the Wil-
lis ideals and would lay the groundwork for instruments in the 20th century
that sought to revive classical principles of the German instruments of Arp
Schnitger and the Silbermann family.
This classical style of organ was resonant with the emerging historical
performance movement, predicated on the notion that music is best served
by means contemporary with its origins. And while players interested in
the distinguished solo organ repertory of Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinrich
Scheideman, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and others would find much of in-
terest here, traditional Anglican service playing was, and to a degree still is,
wed to the ideals of the well-blended, powerful, and colorful orchestral-styled

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 OUSELEY, SIR FREDERIC ARTHUR GORE • 227

instrument. Thus, classical advances have been slower in England than on the
Continent. Early examples emerged, however, especially under the advocacy
of the organist and consultant Ralph Downes, notably in a Harrison & Har-
rison instrument at the South Bank Concert Hall (London) and a J. W. Walker
& Sons instrument for the Brompton Oratory, where Downes was organist.
The work of Noel Mander has been particularly significant in furthering
this style of instrument, both in restoration and in new instruments built in a
historical style. The division between Anglican service playing and histori-
cal solo repertory has been challenged by historically styled instruments in
various English chapels, such as the 1969 Grant, Degens, and Bradbeer or-
gan at New College, Oxford. See also ADAMS, THOMAS; ALEXANDRA
PALACE; ANTHEM; APOLLONICON; ATTWOOD, THOMAS; BAIR-
STOW, SIR EDWARD CUTHBERT; BLITHEMAN, JOHN; BREWER,
SIR HERBERT; BRIDGE, SIR FREDERICK; COOKE, BENJAMIN;
COSYN, BENJAMIN; FABURDEN; FORCER, FRANCIS; GREATOREX,
THOMAS; GREENE, MAURICE; HILTON, JOHN; HINGESTON, JOHN;
HOOPER, EDMUND; KENT, JAMES; LLOYD, CHARLES HARFORD;
MULLINER BOOK; NARES, JAMES; NORTH, ROGER; NOVELLO,
VINCENT; PARRATT, SIR WALTER; PURCELL, DANIEL; PURKIS,
JOHN; RANDALL, JOHN; REDFORD, JOHN; ROGERS, BENJAMIN;
ROOTHAM, CYRIL; ROSEINGRAVE, THOMAS; ROYAL COLLEGE
OF ORGANISTS; ST. MARTIN’S HALL; SILAS, EDOUARD; SMART,
HENRY THOMAS; SMETHERGELL, WILLIAM; SQUARE; STAINER,
SIR JOHN; STANLEY, JOHN; TUDWAY, THOMAS; VAUXHALL GAR-
DENS; WESLEY, SAMUEL; WESLEY, SAMUEL SEBASTIAN; WISE,
MICHAEL; WORGAN, JOHN.

OSWALD, JAMES (1710–69). Scottish composer, publisher, arranger, and

cellist active for a time in London. Osborne taught in Dunfermline and Ed-
inburgh before moving to London in 1741. While there, he composed stage
works, chamber music (frequently under the name Dottel Figlio), as well as
Scottish tunes in the style of folk tunes, as well as arrangements of such tunes.
Oswald began his own publishing company in 1747 and was named Chamber
Composer to George III in 1761. He retired from public life in 1764.

OUSELEY, SIR FREDERIC ARTHUR GORE (1825–89). Church musi-

cian, educator, and composer. Ouseley was famous in his own time for cham-
pioning Anglican sacred music and his attempts through such organizations
as the Musical Association (later the Royal Musical Association) to promote
the study and performance of music as a serious and respectable profession.
Ouseley’s father, created a baronet in 1808, encouraged his musical talent.

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 228 • OUSELEY, SIR FREDERIC ARTHUR GORE

Ouseley matriculated at Oxford in 1843, taking a BA in 1846 and a MusD

in 1854. Before his ordination in 1849, he was a lay member of the choir at
St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge; afterward he was a curate at St. Barnabas in Pim-
lico, where he supported the musical foundation at his own expense. In that
year he also began organizing St. Michael’s College, Tenbury Wells, as an
institution to foster Anglican church music; when the foundation stone was
laid in 1846, he became the vicar of the new parish there and the warden of
the school. He was appointed precentor of Hereford Cathedral in 1855 and a
canon residentiary there in 1886.
In 1855 Ouseley was also named professor of music at Oxford University;
he treated this as a working post, not an honorary one, and regularly offered
a course of lectures on music, as well as reforming the degree requirements
and exercises. His mature music, mostly sacred in character, included church
services, anthems, and two oratorios—The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, his
MusD 1854 degree exercise, which was both frequently performed in the
middle of the century and one of the few non-Handelian oratorios before
1880 to be published in full score; and Hagar (Hereford, 1873, and Crystal
Palace, 1874). He edited collections of church music from contemporaries
and earlier composers, such as Orlando Gibbons.

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 P
PACCHIEROTTI, GASPARO (1740–1821). Italian singer (castrato so-
prano) occasionally active in London. Pacchierotti was trained in Venice
and sang in Naples and most of the great Italian opera centers in his early
career. He visited London on several occasions, including 1778–80, 1781–84,
and 1791, singing at the King’s Theatre and at the Professional Concerts
where Franz Joseph Haydn heard him. Charles Burney and Susan Burney
reported on his singing extensively; the latter noted that she was moved to
tears by his performance at a benefit concert on 9 March 1780. He retired to
Padua in 1793.

PAISIBLE, JAMES (ca. 1656–1721). Recorder player, oboist, and com-

poser. A Frenchman, Paisible is first documented in England in performances
of the masque Calisto in 1674/75, although it is likely he came to London
with Robert Cambert in 1673. He held several court appointments, but his
Roman Catholicism took him to the Continent with James II, returning to
England in 1693. As a wind player at court, he was likely a channel for
introducing the French modernized forms of recorder and oboe to London
musicians. He was also active in theater music as a composer and performer,
including documented performances on the bass and the cello, a measure of
his professional diversity. He also gained prominence in theatrical “interval
entertainments”—concerts between the acts of a drama—and in public con-
certs in the London music rooms. In 1686 he married the former mistress of
Charles II, Mary (Moll) Davis.

PANTHEON. London auditorium designed by James Wyatt built in 1772.

The building was initially designed for lavish public entertainments, includ-
ing assemblies, balls, and subscription concerts. Aside from a large central
rotunda, it included two card rooms and galleries. Some of the concerts from
the Handel Commemoration in 1784 were held there, and Felice Giardini
led the orchestra there from 1774 to 1779. Wyatt redesigned the Pantheon as
an opera house to take the place of the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, in 1791.
Destroyed by fire in 1792, it reopened in 1795 as an entertainment hall once

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 230 • PANUFNIK, SIR ANDRZEJ

again. Redesigned as a theater again in 1811, it closed as a venue for public

entertainments in 1814. The building was demolished in 1837.

PANUFNIK, SIR ANDRZEJ (1914–91). Polish conductor and composer ac-

tive in England. Panufnik was trained in Poland and worked extensively there
and in Paris before World War II, and in Poland thereafter as a conductor and
composer. He fled Poland in 1954, settling in England. From 1957 to 1959 he
was the conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Turning
solely to composition in 1959, he rebuilt his reputation, with successful pre-
mieres in Houston, London, New York, and Chicago. He was knighted (KB) in
1991. His daughter, Roxanna Panufnik, is also a noted composer.

PARKE, MARIA FRANCIS (1772–1822). Singer, pianist, and composer.

Parke was initially trained by her father, the oboist John Parke (1745–1829).
She began playing keyboard in public by the age of eight and singing by
the age of 14. As a soprano soloist, she was heard throughout London at
the Handel Commemorations, Hanover Concert Rooms, Johann Peter
Salomon’s concerts featuring Franz Joseph Haydn, and numerous benefits,
as well as at most of the provincial musical festivals. Haydn directed a
symphony at one of her benefit concerts. She composed keyboard and vocal
works that were performed at the pleasure gardens of London. She retired
from professional music-making upon her marriage in 1815. Parke is often
confused with Maria Hester Park, née Reynolds (1760–1813), a noted key-
boardist and teacher, especially to the Duchess of Devonshire.

A PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS. A musical entertainment by John Ban-

ister in the form of three odes whose texts were on musical themes. The
entertainment, at least the first part, was performed in 1676 at the academy
in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The instrumental ensemble was large and varied,
including theorboes, citterns, lutes, harps, guitars, harpsichords, flutes of
various sorts, cornetts and sackbuts, oboes, violins, and viols.

PARRATT, SIR WALTER (1841–1924). Organist, teacher, and composer.

Parratt was Master of the Queen’s Music from 1883 until his death and used
this position to influence English organ pedagogy and the continued revival
of excellent English sacred music from Thomas Tallis to contemporary com-
position. As a prodigy, he studied with his father, Thomas Parratt (an organist
at Huddersfield Parish Church), and at the choir school of St. Peter’s Chapel,
Cooper Street, London, and while there with George Cooper, organist of St.
Sepulchre, Holborn. He held numerous organist and choirmaster positions
from the age of 11 onward, including Great Witley Church, Worcestershire

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 PARSLEY, OSBERT • 231

(1861–68), and Wigan Parish Church (1868–72). He was organist of Magdalen

College, Oxford, from 1872 to 1882 (taking a BMus in 1873) and was greatly
involved in the musical activities in Oxford as a whole. Parratt was named
organist at St. George’s Chapel in 1882. He was the first professor of organ at
the Royal College of Music in 1883, dean of the Faculty of Music at London
University (1905), president of the Royal College of Organists (1905–9), and
Heather Professor of Music at Oxford (1908–18). Parratt was knighted in 1892
and subsequently named MVO (1901), CVO (1917), and KCVO (1921).

PARRY, SIR HUBERT (ALSO CHARLES HUBERT HASTINGS;

1848–1918). Composer, scholar, and teacher. Parry, best known today for the
hymn tune “Jerusalem,” was one of the most famous composers and English
musicians of his day. The premiere of his cantata Scenes from Prometheus
Unbound at the 1880 Gloucester meeting of the Three Choirs Festival is
traditionally considered the beginning of the English Musical Renaissance.
Parry was educated at Twyford and Eaton (BMus, 1866) before reading law
and modern history at Exeter College, Oxford (BA, 1870). For one summer
(1867), he studied with Henry Hugo Pierson in Stuttgart. After graduation,
Parry worked at Lloyd’s of London (1870–77) while studying privately with
Sir William Sterndale Bennett and Edward Dannreuther.
Resigning from Lloyd’s to devote himself entirely to music, Parry took
up numerous academic posts, including subeditor of Sir George Grove’s
Dictionary of Music and Musicians (to which he contributed 123 articles),
professor of musical history at the Royal College of Music (RCM; 1883),
chorgas at Oxford University (1883), director of the RCM (1895–1918), and
Heather Professor of Music at Oxford (1902–8). While working on many or-
chestral and chamber pieces in the 1870s and 1880s, Parry was most famous
in his lifetime for his dramatic choral works for major choirs and musical fes-
tivals, such as Blest Pair of Sirens (Bach Choir, 1887), Judith (Birmingham,
1888), Job (Gloucester, 1892), and King Saul (Birmingham, 1894). He was
the author of several monographs, including one on Johann Sebastian Bach
(1909) and published several collections of his lectures. Parry was knighted
in 1898 and created a baronet in 1902.

PARSLEY, OSBERT (1511–85). Composer and singer. Parsley was a

member of the choir at Norwich Cathedral for an impressive 50-year span, as
confirmed in the memorial tablet to him there:

Who here a Singing-man did spend his Days.

Full Fifty Years in our Church Melody
His Memory shines bright whom thus we praise.

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 232 • PARSONS, ROBERT

His professional longevity necessitated his working in both the Latin and
English rites, as his compositional output reveals. In addition, he also com-
posed instrumental consort music, including a number of In nomines.

PARSONS, ROBERT (ca. 1535–71/72). Composer. Parsons was appointed

a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1563, although he may be documented
there from as early as 1560. His compositional output includes both Latin and
English church music, as well as instrumental consorts and consort songs.
His five-voice “Ave Maria” is likely his best-known work, notable for the
elegant contours of its intertwined lines and its richness of sound. Parsons
died in a drowning accident at Newark-upon-Trent and was succeeded in the
Chapel Royal by William Byrd.

PARTHENIA. Anthology of virginal music. Parthenia or the Maydenhead

of the First Musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls appeared in 1613,
commemorating the wedding of Princess Elizabeth, James I’s eldest daugh-
ter, and Prince Frederick, the Elector Palatine and later King of Bohemia. The
title’s virginal tropes draw on the instrument, the novelty of the publishing
of this repertory, and the prenuptial state of the pair, the latter made explicit
in the dedication itself: “The virgin PARTHENIA (whilst yet I may) I offer
up to your virgin Highnesses.” The title page is also replete with the image
of a young woman playing the virginals in what has become a familiar icon.
The collection contains music by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, and
John Bull. In the main the pieces are dances, although there is also a contra-
puntal, four-part fantasia, a reminder of the easy crossover between music for
organ and stringed keyboards.
A companion volume, Parthenia In-Violata, appeared in 1624, featuring
arrangements with bass viol. Reprints of the original collection in 1664, 1651,
and 1655 attest to its popularity.

PARTSONG. Secular vocal genre, usually unaccompanied, similar to the

glee. The partsong flourished especially in the 19th century, though it has
antecedents in the 17th and 18th: it remained a small-scale, usually unaccom-
panied, mostly homophonic texture. The upper part frequently stood out as
the most prominent. Partsongs were usually evocative of a particular mood,
as is the case with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s “The Bluebird” and Sir
Arthur Sullivan’s “The Long Day Closes”; each of which is reserved yet
evocative. Such songs could be in many forms, but they were usually simple
and aurally perceived, matching the expectations of the amateurs who sang
them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries at home, in choral societies,
and at competition musical festivals. See also FORD, THOMAS; HENRY

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 PEOPLE’S CONCERT SOCIETY • 233

LESLIE’S CHOIR; LESLIE, HENRY DAVID; MACKENZIE, SIR ALEX-

ANDER CAMPBELL; ROOTHAM, CYRIL; SMART, HENRY THOMAS.

PASSION. Liturgical setting of the narrative of Jesus’s crucifixion. The

earliest Passion settings in England are two anonymous works in the Egerton
Manuscript (GB Lbl Egerton 3307), originating sometime between 1430
and 1444. These two settings, one of the text from St. Luke and the other an
incomplete version of St. Matthew’s account, are responsorial. That is, the
evangelist’s text and the words of Jesus are intoned to monophonic chant,
while the “turba,” the crowds and minor characters, are sung to polyphony.
The Eton Choirbook preserves a more musically substantial responsorial
setting of the Matthew Passion by Richard Davy.
Passion devotion comprised a rich part of premodern English spirituality,
as evidenced by the number of intensely affective Passion carols in the Fayr-
fax Manuscript (GB Lbl Add. Ms. 5465).

PATE, JOHN (?–1704). Singer. The countertenor Pate was lauded by

his contemporaries, the diarist John Evelyn going so far as to note that he
was “reputed the most excellent singer, ever England had.” Peter Motteux
similarly praised his contribution to the Island Princess as giving “life to the
whole entertainment.” He performed solos in a number of Henry Purcell’s
works, including The Fairy Queen, The Indian Emperor, and Hail, Bright
Cecilia. In the manuscript of the latter, his name is given for the famous alto
solo “’Tis Nature’s Voice,” a movement elsewhere described (Motteux) as
having been sung by the composer himself.

PAXTON, STEPHEN (1734–87). Cellist and composer. Paxton came from

a musical family; his brother William (1725–78) was a virtuosic cellist active
around Newcastle, and his nephew George (1749–79) frequently played in
London ensembles. Stephen Paxton was trained first as a chorister at Durham
Cathedral and then studied with William Savage in London. He was active
as a performer in London, playing at the Handel Commemorations in 1784.
He was elected to the Royal Society of Musicians in 1757 and was a profes-
sional member of the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club (1780). His
compositions included glees, two masses (he was a Roman Catholic), and
assorted cello works.

PEOPLE’S CONCERT SOCIETY. Philanthropic concert organization

dedicated to presenting concerts of classical music in London’s East End,
extant from 1878 to 1935. The paternal nature of the society—based on the
typical Victorian belief that music could improve the morals and manners

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 234 • PEPUSCH, JOHANN CHRISTOPH

of the working and middle classes—was incorporated into the expansion of

the society to give concerts to London schools and prisons. The repertoire
changed over the society’s existence but included a great deal of chamber
music, performed primarily by middle-class amateurs. The society also or-
ganized the South Place Sunday Concerts in Finsbury (1887) and presented
concerts in poorer districts throughout London.

PEPUSCH, JOHANN CHRISTOPH (1667–1752). Composer and theorist.

The German Pepusch came to England close to the turn of the 18th century,
supposedly disenchanted with an egregious example of Prussian injustice that
he had witnessed (Sir John Hawkins). In London he became active in the the-
aters, working at various times at Drury Lane, the Haymarket, and Lincoln’s
Inn Fields. His wife, the soprano Margherita de l’Epine, was at one time also
prominent on the stage. Today Pepusch’s most visible contribution to theater
music is his overture and bass lines to the airs in The Beggar’s Opera, bass lines
that earned Charles Burney’s effulgent praise: “[he] furnished the wild, rude,
and often vulgar melodies with bases so excellent, tha[t] no sound contrapuntist
will ever attempt to alter them.” In addition to his work in the theaters, Pepusch
also enjoyed the patronage of James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon, later Duke of
Chandos, and was active overseeing the duke’s musical establishment.
The early historical assessment of Pepusch, perhaps overwhelmed by the
glow of George Frideric Handel’s prominence, was not particularly enthu-
siastic about his compositions. Hawkins, for instance, speaks of his music
as “correct, but it wanted variety of expression.” However, the esteem for
his theoretical investigations, especially of ancient sources, was unalloyed.
Hawkins describes him as “one of the greatest theoretic musicians of the
modern times.” He was also a significant collector of antiquarian sources—
“His admirable library, the most curious and complete in scarce musical
authors, theoretical and practical” (Burney)—which reinforced his position
as a founding member of the Academy of Ancient Music.

PEPYS, SAMUEL (1632/33–1703). Diarist. Pepys emerges as one of the

most colorful observers of Restoration London. His six-volume diary, re-
corded from 1 January 1659/60 to 31 May 1669, provides valuable detail of
English musical life, reflecting his personal enthusiasm for music. He sang,
played a number of instruments, and composed. However, he was limited in
his skills at harmony, calling upon various musicians to help him with basses
or realizations. This limitation, however, was not the fruit of disinterest; at
one time, in fact, he expressed the hope to invent “a better theory of Musique
than hath yet been abroad” (20 March 1668). The diary’s musical references
offer significant glimpses of music-making at home, in the theater, at court,

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 PHILIPS, PETER • 235

and in the church, and Pepys’s broad circle of acquaintances included a num-
ber of important musicians of the day.

PERCY SOCIETY. Group founded to publish ballads and their accompany-

ing music, beginning with the collections of the 18th-century collector Thomas
Percy, bishop of Dromore. The society existed between 1840 and 1852. Promi-
nent members included Edward Francis Rimbault (who was the society’s
secretary) and William Chappell, of the publishing firm Chappell & Co.

PETER GRIMES. Opera by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by Montagu

Slater based on the short story “The Borough” by George Crabb. Peter
Grimes premiered at Sadler’s Wells on 7 June 1945, with Britten’s longtime
partner Peter Pears in the title role. Peter Grimes is one of the most successful
20th-century operas in the repertoire, and its premiere presaged many other
excellent dramatic compositions from the pen of Britten. The story focuses
on the alienation of an individual by the community and its horrific effects.
At the beginning of the opera, Grimes has lost a boy apprentice, apparently
to misadventure. While cleared of guilt by an inquest, he feels the weight of
the community’s suspicion on him, so much so that when his next apprentice
dies in a tragic accident, he is convinced to commit suicide. The score is as
accessible as the story is chilling.

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA. London orchestra founded in 1945 by

Walter Legge, also known as the New Philharmonia Orchestra between 1964
and 1977. Legge controlled the orchestra until 1964, when he attempted to dis-
band it. Up to that date, the Philharmonia was primarily a recording orchestra;
live performances by the ensemble increased greatly after this time. Prominent
conductors associated with the orchestra have included Arturo Toscanini and
Herbert von Karajan; music directors have included Otto Klemperer, Ricardo
Mutti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christoph von Dohnáni, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Since 1995 it has been in residence at the Royal Festival Hall.

PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY. See ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.

PHILIPS, PETER (1560/61–1628). Composer and organist. Philips trained

as a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, but his Roman Catholicism
caused him to leave England for the Continent in 1582. A period under the
patronage of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in Rome was followed by an itiner-
ant period in the service of the English recusant Thomas Paget. Philips took
up residence in Brussels in 1591 and remained based there for the rest of his
life, including a long tenure as organist to the Archduke Albert.

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 236 • PIERSON, HENRY HUGO

Philips’s compositional output is diverse, including keyboard pieces (the ma-

jority of them are in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book), instrumental ensemble
pieces, and a number of collections of madrigals and motets, the latter rang-
ing from richly sonorous eight-voice works to intimately scored pieces for
just a few singers.

PIERSON, HENRY HUGO (ALSO HENRY HUGH PEARSON; 1815–

73). Composer, born in England but active predominantly in Germany. Pier-
son was educated at Harrow and in London, where he studied privately with
Thomas Attwood and Arthur Thomas Corfe. He enrolled at Trinity College,
Oxford, in 1836 but did not take a degree, choosing instead to leave in 1839
to study with Joseph Rinck in Darmstadt and Karl Reissiger in Dresden be-
fore moving on to Prague to work with Václav Tomásek. He was appointed
the Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh in 1844 but
resigned after eight months; he spent the rest of his professional life in Ger-
many, mostly in Stuttgart. His attempts to establish himself as a composer in
England ended in critical condemnation, including the oratorios Jerusalem
(1852) and the unfinished Hezekiah (1869), both performed at the Norwich
musical festival; the former, though panned, had several successful perfor-
mances in the 1850s and 1860s. Sir Hubert Parry studied with Pierson in the
summer of 1867, and his work was well regarded in Germany.

PILKINGTON, FRANCIS (ca. 1570–1638). Composer. Pilkington re-

ceived the BMus at Oxford in 1595 and surfaces in records at Chester Ca-
thedral in 1602, where he held appointments, including that of precentor, for
the rest of his life. He took ordination in 1614 and held a number of clerical
posts in and around Chester in addition to his work at the cathedral. His
compositions include two collections of madrigals (1613/14 and 1624) and
a collection of lute ayres (1605). Modern critical reception of the ayres has
seen them as uneven and “rather turgid” (Spink, 1974). David Brown (NG,
2001) contextualizes the ayre collection as transitional between the style of
Thomas Campion and the heightened expression of John Dowland.

PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY. A six-volume collection of ballad

texts by Thomas Durfey with tunes, published in 1719 and 1720 under the
full title Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy.

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, OR, THE SLAVE OF DUTY. Operetta

in two acts by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan,
premiered in New York on 31 December 1879 (to help the D’Oyly Carte
Company avoid rampant piracy in the United States) and in London on 3 April

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 THE PLANETS • 237

1880; in the later city its initial run was 363 performances. The plot hinges on
Frederic’s coming of age. Mistakenly apprenticed to pirates—not pilots—by
his ward, he wishes to bring the group to justice so that he may marry his be-
loved, soprano Mabel, with a clear conscience. The operetta contains many par-
odies of opera, including Giuseppe Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus” from Il Trovatore.

PITCH. The question of historical pitch standards in premodern England

is complex, touching on the evidence of surviving organ pipes, theoretical
description, transposition practices, clef codes, and the constitution of the
liturgical choir itself. Much of the modern discussion has centered on the re-
lationship of the five-foot transposing organ and a so-called high-pitch choir,
singing roughly a minor third higher than modern pitch. (Strong among its ad-
vocates is David Wulstan.) The transposing organ, such as that at Worcester
Cathedral described in 1665 by Nathaniel Tomkins, is based (at least nomi-
nally) on a five-foot pipe activated by depressing the C key and producing
an F in choir pitch, which corresponded to C a fifth lower in keyboard pitch.
The five-foot pipe would sound somewhere between modern G and A-flat;
thus arises the notion that the choir sang a minor third high (five-foot F➞A-
flat). The organist accompanying the choir would of necessity then transpose,
perhaps via clefs. The transposing organ begins to disappear in the 1660s.
The extension of this 17th-century context backward into Tudor polyphony
has been the subject of strong debate—counterclaims have been advanced by
scholars such as Roger Bowers—and the issue strongly affects the constituent
parts of the choir itself, for at high pitch, the part immediately below the top
treble is generally well served by a boy treble, while at a lower pitch the adult
alto functions well. Additionally, the interpretation of the material evidence
itself has been the subject of recent revision. Johnstone (2003) notes that the
evidence of surviving organ pipes from ca. 1630 (now at Stanford-on-Avon),
nominally a five-foot organ, show longer pipes than their name would sug-
gest and thus sound lower. In this case, instead of a minor third high, the new
standard is somewhere between a half and a whole step high (A=ca. 475 Hz).

THE PLANETS. Tone poem by Gustav Holst composed 1914–16, pre-

miered 15 November 1920. While evocative, the piece is a series of seven
character sketches based on astrological symbols Holst read about in Alan
Leo’s What Is a Horoscope and How Is It Cast? and not a programmatic
work based on Roman mythology. It was a composition without a commis-
sion, one that Holst began after hearing Arnold Schoenberg’s Fünf Orches-
terstücke. The composition became immediately popular after its premiere,
and parts of it (especially the 5/4 section of “Mars, The Bringer of War” and
“Uranus, The Magician”) are featured frequently in motion picture trailers.

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 238 • PLAYFORD, JOHN

PLAYFORD, JOHN (1623–86/87). Publisher and bookseller. Following

an apprenticeship with the London publisher John Benson, Playford set up
his own shop “in the Inner Temple neere the Church doore.” His publishing
of political material during the interregnum proved problematic, though it is
also at this time that he began to publish music. The English Dancing Master
(1651), a collection of ballad airs, is likely the first of his musical publica-
tions, to be followed by song collections, didactic treatises—his A Breefe
Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654) was prominent for many years
through subsequent editions—and collections of psalmody and hymnody.
The company’s work positioned Playford to be the major music publisher
in England for several decades. Sir John Hawkins observed that “with such
talents as Playford possessed of, and with a temper that disposed him to com-
municate to others that knowledge which could not have been attained without
much labour; and being besides an honest and friendly man, it is not to be won-
dered at that he lived upon terms of friendship with the most eminent professors
of music his contemporaries, or that he should have acquired, as he appears to
have done, almost a monopoly in the publication of music-books.” His business
passed to his son Henry (1657–1709), who also expanded its endeavors with
the publication of the music periodical Mercurius Musicus (1699–1702).

PLEASURE GARDENS. Private parks dedicated to leisure activities, includ-

ing eating, drinking, and listening to music. The first pleasure gardens were
opened in the mid-17th century; the most famous were in and around London,
including Marylebone (ca. 1659–1778), Vauxhall (1661–1859), Sadler’s
Wells (1684–1879), and Ranelagh (1742–1803). The gardens would feature
daily music in the form of songs, cantatas, afterpieces, and chamber music;
frequently they included concert halls. The pleasure gardens provided employ-
ment for many contemporary musicians, including Thomas Arne, Samuel
Arnold, Johann Christian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and James Hook,
among others. The gardens were in vogue until the 1780s; after this point, they
existed, but no longer catered to the fashionable. See also ARNE, MICHAEL;
ARNOLD, SAMUEL; BARTHÉLEMON, FRANÇOIS-HIPPOLYTE; BAT-
TISHILL, JONATHAN; BISHOP, SIR HENRY RAWLEY; BURNEY,
CHARLES; COOKE, TOM; DIBDIN, CHARLES; FESTING, MICHAEL
CHRISTIAN; FISHER, JOHN ABRAHAM; HOOK, JAMES; ORGAN;
PARKE, MARIA FRANCIS; PUBLIC CONCERTS; SMETHERGELL, WIL-
LIAM; SMITH, THEODORE; WEBBE, SAMUEL; WORGAN, JOHN.

“POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE” MARCHES. Formally titled Military

Marches, Nos. 1–5 (“Pomp and Circumstance”), Sir Edward Elgar com-
posed the five marches over the course of three decades: nos. 1 and 2 in 1901,

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 PRECES AND RESPONSES • 239

no. 3 in 1904, no. 4 in 1907, and no. 5 in 1929–30. While all remain popular
today, no. 1 has been the particular favorite since its premiere. The famous
trio section is used for commencement exercises throughout North America
and is the basis of the English patriotic song “Land of Hope and Glory.”

PORPORA, NICOLA (1686–1768). Italian composer. Porpora was resident

in London from 1733 to 1736, where he was the composer to the so-called
“Opera of the Nobility,” the rival company to George Frideric Handel’s
Royal Academy of Music (1). Porpora’s London operas include Arianna in
Naxo, Enea nel Lazio, Polifemo, Ifigenia in Aulide, and Mitridate.

PORTER, WALTER (ca. 1587/95–1659). Composer and singer. Porter was

trained as a chorister at Westminster Abbey and later in his career became
master of the choristers there in 1639; he was appointed gentleman of the
Chapel Royal in 1617. Much has been made of his being a pupil of Claudio
Monteverdi, the documentary evidence of which resides in the preface to his
1657 Motetts . . . . In several copies of the collection at Oxford, Porter, in
his own hand, explicitly identifies Monteverdi as his “good friend and Mae-
stro.” The musical influence of Monteverdi is apparent in works like Porter’s
two-voiced madrigals and also in the declamatory and florid aspects of the
anthem “O Praise the Lord.” One may speculate that Porter’s Italianism was
influential on other singers, such as Henry Cooke, his young contemporary
in the Chapel Royal. Samuel Pepys records in his diary (4 September 1664)
having sung Porter’s two-voiced motets.

POWER, LEONEL (?–1445). Composer. Power is the most prolific of the

composers in the Old Hall Manuscript and one of the major voices shaping
the new sonorities that give rise to the Renaissance musical aesthetic. He ap-
pears in service to Thomas, Duke of Clarence, in 1418 and is with the duke in
France from 1419 to 1421, a significant connection given the Franco-Flemish
penchant for the contenance angloise in the early 15th century.
Power’s works show a wide range of styles from isorhythm to chanson-
like textures to the sonorous homophony of English discant. Additionally,
his work in developing the musically unified mass ordinary is especially
significant, with his composition of what is likely the first tenor cyclic mass,
his Missa alma redemptoris mater. Power’s later years are documented at
Canterbury, where he joined the fraternity of the monastery in 1423 and was
master of the choir singing in the Lady Chapel.

PRECES AND RESPONSES. In the morning and evening offices of the

Book of Common Prayer, the various prayers offered between the Creed and

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 240 • PRIVATE MUSICK

the Collects, consisting of a Kyrie, the Lord’s Prayer, and a set of versicles
and responses. These latter prayers are variously on behalf of the queen,
ministers, and the people of God, and for peace and cleanliness of heart. In
cathedral practice, the dialogue of versicles and responses typically takes
the form of alternating the officiant’s formulaic, monophonic chant with the
composed polyphony of the choir.

PRIVATE MUSICK. Body of musicians at court associated with the Privy

Chamber, the private quarters of the monarch. Formalized under Charles I,
the Private Musick, or the “lutes, viols, and voices,” featured lutanists like
Robert Johnson and John Wilson, and violists like John Jenkins and Al-
fonso Ferrabosco. In 1685 James II reformed the court musical structure,
transforming the multiple court ensembles into a unified, single body, of
which members of the former private musick were a part; this transformed
ensemble—the new “private musick”—contained most prominently vio-
lins, but included winds, lute, voices, harpsichord, and composer, as well.
See also ABELL, JOHN; AKEROYDE, SAMUEL; BABELL, WILLIAM;
BALTZAR, THOMAS; BOWMAN, JOHN; HINGESTON, JOHN; KING,
ROBERT; LAWES, HENRY; LAWES, WILLIAM; LOCKE, MATTHEW;
PURCELL, HENRY; TURNER, WILLIAM.

PROFESSIONAL CONCERT. Subscription concert series started by Wil-

helm Cramer and held in the Hanover Square Rooms, London, between
1785 and 1793. The series presented high-quality performances of sym-
phonies and other works including those by Franz Joseph Haydn, usually
presented 12 concerts in a season (from February to May), was for the profit
of the orchestra, and limited the number of subscribers to 500. During the
1791 season, the Professional Concert invited Ignaz Pleyel, Haydn’s pupil, to
perform and conduct his compositions, as a rival to Johann Peter Salomon’s
series featuring Haydn.

PROMS (ALSO HENRY WOOD PROMENADE CONCERTS; BBC

PROMS). Concert series begun in 1895 by the impresario Robert Newman
and conductor Sir Henry Wood. The Proms have always featured a mixture
of old standards and new compositions, given in an informal setting, includ-
ing standing-room listening. The Proms were given at the Queen’s Hall until
its destruction in 1941. Afterward, the series moved permanently to the Royal
Albert Hall, except for a wartime hiatus at the Bedford Corn Exchange.
Impresarios supporting the Proms include Edgar Speyer (1902–14), Chap-
pell & Co. (1914–27), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC;
1927–39 and 1942–present). Wood formed and conducted the Queen’s Hall

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 PUBLIC CONCERTS • 241

Orchestra as its major ensemble. The BBC Symphony took over in 1930.
Aside from Henry Wood, conductors of the Proms have included Sir Adrian
Boult, Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen, Sir Colin Davis, Constant Lambert,
Roger Norrington, Sir Malcolm Sargent, and others. A continued tradition
at the last Proms concert of the season is to sing both Sir Hubert Parry’s
“Jerusalem” and Sir Edward Elgar’s “Land of Hope and Glory.” See also
BRIAN, HAVERGAL; BRIDGE, FRANK; MACONCHY, DAME ELIZA-
BETH; “RULE, BRITANNIA.”

PROUT, EBENEZER (1835–1909). Music theorist, writer, teacher, and edi-

tor. Prout was one of the most important English music theorists of the second
half of the 19th century. His many monographs, including Instrumentation
(1876), Harmony (1889), and Musical Form (1893), went through numerous
editions and were translated widely. Prout was largely self-taught (save for lim-
ited piano lessons) and began his career as a schoolmaster. Turning to music as
a profession in 1859, he worked variously as a choral conductor, as organist at
nonconformist chapels, and as a piano teacher, particularly at the Crystal Pal-
ace School of Art (1861–85). He also held positions at the National Training
School for Music (the predecessor to the Royal College of Music), the Royal
Academy of Music (2; from 1879), the Guildhall School of Music (from
1884) and was Professor of Music at Trinity College, Dublin, from 1894. Prout
worked as a music critic for both the Academy and the Atheaneum, and edited
the Monthly Musical Record between 1871 and 1875. Prout also edited editions
of the music of George Frideric Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

PUBLIC CONCERTS. The development of the modern public concert can

in significant part be traced to late 17th-century London, where factors such
as the decentralizing of the musical establishment, the need of court musi-
cians to seek supplemental income, the allure of foreign performers, and the
broadening of musical venues gave rise to various concert series in a number
of concert rooms. The first essays in London public concerts were informal
in nature and setting, as witnessed by John Bannister’s concerts (begun
1672) at a Whitefriars tavern, eventually moving to Lincoln’s Inn Fields
and the Essex Buildings in the Strand. Other early ventures would include
the fashionable concerts at the York Buildings in Villiers Street and Thomas
Britton’s long-running concert series (ca. 1678–1714) above his small-coal
shop in Clerkenwell.
The 18th century saw the increasing formality of the public concert and
its programs, with oratorios and benefit concerts performed in the theater
and concerts in venues such as Hickford’s Room in James St. The subscrip-
tion concert series led by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel

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 242 • PURCELL, DANIEL

chiefly at the Hanover Square Rooms document the strong inroads of for-
eign musicians in London at the time and the home that public concerts gave
to their endeavors. In the 18th century, public concerts were also offered at
various pleasure gardens, including Sadler’s Wells and Vauxhall Gardens.
The first purpose-built concert halls came by mid-century, including the
Holywell Music Room, Oxford (1748); the Hanover Square Rooms (1775)
and hall beside King’s Theatre, Haymarket (1796), in London; and the Mu-
sic Hall (Bold Street) in Liverpool (1786). More frequent, however, was the
borrowing of another space—theaters like Drury Lane, assembly halls like
the Pantheon, taverns, and even churches and chapels—for a concert. At
this point, concerts were still a fashionable, privileged affair: annual concert
organizations like the Concerts of Ancient Music (1776) and even onetime
celebrations like the Handel Commemorations (1784) counted on elite lists
of subscribers. Foreign musicians were still courted for concerts, but progres-
sively more indigenous English musicians were highlighted as soloists.
As subscription concerts increased in frequency throughout the 19th cen-
tury, impresarios built more specialized halls, and strictures on attendance
loosened, except in cases such as John Ella’s Musical Union, where, though
all classes might buy tickets, the seating was segregated. Other institutions
became more democratic: Exeter Hall (1831) welcomed members of all
classes to attend and perform through regular concerts by such organiza-
tions as the Sacred Harmonic Society and the Tonic Sol-fa Association.
As choirs and orchestras were founded in greater numbers, and touring of
musicians, foreign and domestic, increased, the type and number of concerts
available in England came to closely resemble the public concerts of today.

PURCELL, DANIEL (ca. 1664–1717). Organist and composer. Like his

older brother Henry Purcell, Daniel was trained as a chorister in the Chapel
Royal. In his early twenties he was appointed organist at Magdalen College,
Oxford, and remained there until 1695, when he relocated to London. Much
of his work is for the theater and includes contributions to Peter Motteux’s
The Island Princess; in 1701 he participated in The Judgment of Paris com-
petition and won third prize, following John Weldon and John Eccles.

PURCELL, HENRY (1659–95). The predominant composer of the Restora-

tion era. Purcell’s training as a chorister in the Chapel Royal presaged his
nearly lifelong association with the royal musical establishment: a gentleman
of the Chapel Royal from 1682, keeper of the wind and keyboard instruments
from 1683 (and for the decade preceding, he was John Hingeston’s assistant
in this capacity), composer for the violins from 1677 with a hiatus during the
reign of James II, resumed as composer in the Private Musick from 1689,

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 PURCELL, HENRY • 243

harpsichord in the Private Musick from 1685, and organ tuner from 1688.
He was also appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1679. And while
his compositions in these royal and ecclesiastical capacities are plentiful and
masterful—court odes, anthems, ceremonial music, etc.—it is his extensive
work for the theater, emerging primarily in the last years of his life—that has
most secured the perception of his greatness.
Purcell easily became, and has remained, an icon of musical Englishness,
quickly seen, for instance, in the title of his two-volume posthumous song
anthology, Orpheus Britannicus (1698, 1702), a title that seems well to en-
capsulate his rank among English composers of his day. And as his career
blossomed at a time in which various continental styles had strong claims
in England, his relationship with those styles and his forging of musical
“Englishness” is particularly significant. Charles II’s ties to the French court
brought a strong French influence into play at the English court. Purcell’s
fluency in that idiom is clear, for instance, in works like his famous court
masque Dido and Aeneas, where much of the music is devoted to French
dances and much of the internal structure proceeds according to a Lullian pat-
tern of solo air, choral repetition, instrumental (dance) repetition.
Italianism found its way into England in part through the activities of trav-
eling virtuosos, and it finds an echo in Purcell’s Sonatas of III Parts (1683)
and the cantata-like construction of multisectional songs. In his preface to
the 1683 Sonatas, he esteems the Italian “seriousness and gravity,” especially
in contrast with the “levity and balladry” of the French, and commends the
elegancy of Italian music to English artists. Elsewhere, however, in his edi-
tion of John Playford’s An Introduction to the Skill of Musick, he writes
of a technical point that “’tis the constant Practise of the Italians in all their
Musick, either Vocal or Instrumental, which I presume ought to be a Guide
to us.” His “I presume” might seem to undermine the view.
With respect to national style and influence, his prefatory note to Diocle-
sian, a note perhaps by John Dryden, is also significant: “Musick is yet but
in its Nonage, a forward Child, which gives hope of what it may be hereafter
in England, when the Masters of it shall find more encouragement. ’Tis now
learning Italian, which is the best Master, and studying a little of the French
Air, to give it somewhat more of Gayety and Fashion. . . . [W]e [the Eng-
lish] must be content to shake off our Barbarity by degrees.” Dryden himself
was aware of national issues certainly and likely aroused the resentment of
English composers when he collaborated with the Frenchman Louis Grabu
in the royal music drama Albion and Albanius (1685), a collaboration which
he defended: “When any of our countrymen excel him, I shall be glad, for
the sake of old England, to be shewn my errour; in the meantime, let virtue
be commended, though in the person of a stranger.” However, Purcell, his

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 244 • PURCELL, HENRY

collaborator in the 1690s, clearly had “shewn” him the errors of his ways, and
English theater music was securely in native hands.
Wherein does the musical Englishness lie? Many have remarked on the
fluency of Purcell’s setting of English words and the naturalness of their
musical declamation. Assuredly there is also an intensity of affective musical
language that emerges especially in heightened moments of anguish, as in
the final lament from Dido and Aeneas or the tortured, fearful moments of
“The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation.” And there is a clear lingering of ear-
lier English styles that surfaces in the contrapuntal richness of his Fantasias
(1680), the last of the English viol consorts, although by this point they may
have been but “compositional exercise” (Holman, NG, 2001), and some of
the anthems, like the dramatic fragment “Hear My Prayer” or the large-scale
“Blow Up the Trumpet in Sion.”
Purcell’s works are wide ranging. The anthems are written in full, verse,
and symphony styles, including one of the most expansive of the Restoration
symphony anthems, “My Heart Is Inditing” for the coronation of James II
(1685), and anthems that cavort in their textual pictorialism, such as “They
That Go Down to the Sea in Ships.” He wrote a large number of bawdy
catches, and yet also elegant court odes like “Sound the Trumpet” (1687) and
“Come ye Sons of Art” (1694). His work in the theater began in 1680 with
music for Nathaniel Lee’s Theodosius, and he continued to supply incidental
music and songs for plays until the final year of his life. Though the conven-
tions of the spoken theater may have constrained the integrality of Purcell’s
music, many of his musical contributions are substantial, dramatic, and richly
memorable, such as “Music for a While” from Oedipus or “Let the Dreadful
Engines Roar” from Don Quixote.
The “opera” Dido and Aeneas remains unique in Purcell’s output and rare
in the Restoration theater, with its sister, John Blow’s Venus and Adonis,
one of few works to essay the fully sung dramatic style. Typically “operatic”
in England was the hybrid semi-opera or dramatick opera, in which a
spoken play is infused with often-extensive musical entertainments. Purcell
composed the music for four semi-operas, Dioclesian (1690); King Arthur
(1691), with its famous shivering frost scene indebted to Lully’s Isis; The
Fairy Queen (1692); and The Indian Queen (1695), completed by his brother
Daniel. The Indian Queen powerfully breaks down the wall between the mu-
sical “entertainment” and the drama with an integral and “operatic” conjura-
tion scene. The music for Ismeron, the conjuror, is a necessary agent for the
action itself and in its musical content—key and chromatic descent—revela-
tory of Queen Zempoalla’s dire fate.
With Purcell’s untimely death in 1695, the growth of the English musical
theater was dealt a tragic blow. And while others, notably John Eccles, were

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 PURITANS • 245

still available to carry the semi-operatic tradition forward, the encroachment

of Italian opera was ascendant and the musical theater in the first part of
the 18th century would belong to George Frideric Handel and foreigners.
See also BALLAD; BOWEN, JEMMY; BOWMAN, JOHN; BRITTEN,
BENJAMIN; CROSS, LETITIA; DORSET GARDEN THEATRE; DRURY
LANE THEATRE; DURFEY, THOMAS; ENGLISH SLIDE TRUMPET;
GIBBONS, CHRISTOPHER; GOSTLING, JOHN; HERBERT, GEORGE;
HOLST, IMOGEN; HUMFREY, PELHAM; LEHMANN, LIZA; LE-
VERIDGE, RICHARD; MAD SONGS; MUSICAL ANTIQUARIAN SOCI-
ETY; NOVELLO, VINCENT; ORGAN; PATE, JOHN; PURCELL CLUB;
PURCELL SOCIETY; REGGIO, PIETRO; ROOTHAM, CYRIL; ST. CECI-
LIA’S DAY OBSERVANCE; SHORE; TALBOT, JAMES.

PURCELL CLUB. Organization founded to promote the music of Henry

Purcell. Members met twice a year to sing a morning service of Purcell’s mu-
sic at Westminster Abbey and an evening concert of secular music. The group
formed in 1836 and disbanded in 1863, and celebrated Purcell’s bicentenary
early in January of 1858.

PURCELL ROOM. See ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL.

PURCELL SOCIETY. Organization founded in 1876 to study, publish, and

promote the music of Henry Purcell. The society completed publishing all
the known music of Purcell in 1965 and has since concentrated on releasing
revised versions of the scores. The society has released both scholarly edi-
tions and performing editions of Purcell’s music.

PURITANS. The Puritans were a religious sect in 16th- and 17th-century

England that sought a purification of the established Anglican Church. Drawn
to a Calvinistic Presbyterianism, the Puritans represented an influential force
not only in the dynamics of the church but in the state as well, as manifest
in the English Civil War. The Puritans were famously known for a zealous
sobriety of life and piety, and this would have a strong affect on music. Dur-
ing the Puritan Commonwealth, the closing of theaters put an end to a major
activity for English musicians, as did the removal of organs from churches
and the disbanding of choirs. Complex church music, especially that which
might use instruments or smack of the secular, was renounced, though the
metrical psalm was nurtured.
Against this background a historical cliché arose that depicts the Puritans
as opposed to music: the Purtian as a music hater. Percy Scholes (1934)
offered a strong corrective, noting such things as the blossoming of John

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 246 • PURKIS, JOHN

Playford’s music publishing during the Commonwealth and the Lord Pro-
tector Cromwell’s embrace of music, which extended to the employ of John
Hingston, the ownership of an organ, and the hiring of a large ensemble for
his daughter’s wedding. In Scholes’s view, it is clear that religious discipline
and propriety always trumped music’s allure, but this did not make the latter
problematic in nature, only in degree.

PURKIS, JOHN (1781–1849). Organist and teacher. Purkis was blind from
birth (though he achieved limited sight after a series of operations in 1811),
was considered to be a child prodigy, and studied with Thomas Grenville,
organist of the Foundling Hospital. His posts included St. Olave Southwark
(1793) and St. Clement Danes (1802). The firm of Flight and Robinson con-
sulted with him on the construction of the Apollonicon, and he performed
Saturday-afternoon recitals on that instrument regularly for nearly 21 years.
The fantasias on opera themes he performed at these recitals were published
for the middle-class piano market by William Hodsoll; these were extremely
popular at the end of the 1820s. Among his students was the music historian
and organist William Smith Rockstro.

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 Q
QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL. See ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL.

QUEEN’S CONCERT ROOMS. See HANNOVER SQUARE ROOMS.

QUEEN’S HALL. London concert hall in Langham Place, completed in

1893 and destroyed by an incendiary bomb in 1941. The hall included two
concert venues: a smaller one, seating about 500, and a larger one, seating up
to 3,000. Queen’s Hall was home to many of London’s most famous concert
series and ensembles, including the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, the Proms
(1895–1940), the Royal Philharmonic Society, and the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation Symphony Orchestra (1930–41).

QUEEN’S HALL ORCHESTRA. London orchestra founded by Sir Henry

Wood in 1895; renamed the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra in 1915. The
Queen’s Hall Orchestra was the main orchestra for the Proms between 1895
and 1924. It was also one of the first major professional ensembles to hire
women as regular members. Since the destruction of the Queen’s Hall in
1941, the Orchestra has performed in a variety of locations in and around
London. Prominent conductors of the orchestra have included Sir Malcolm
Sargent, among others. See also CLARKE, REBECCA; COATES, ERIC;
GOOSSENS, SIR EUGENE; LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

QUILTER, ROGER (1877–1953). English composer. Quilter composed

songs (for which he is best known), arrangements of folk tunes, choral works,
and numerous instrumental works. He was educated at Eton and then at the
Hoch Konservatorium in Frankfurt (1897–1901), where he also studied pri-
vately with Iwan Knorr; he is considered one of the Frankfurt Group. His
songs became extremely popular in the first few decades of the 20th century and
were featured in the performances of Gervase Elwes and other prominent vocal-
ists of the time. He was a founder of the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund (1921).

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9780810857506_Print.indb 248 3/14/11 10:29 AM
 R
RAINIER, PRIAULX (ALSO IVY PRIAULX; 1903–86). Composer,
teacher, and violinist of South African origin. Rainier studied violin at the
South African College of Music, Capetown (1913), won a scholarship to
the Royal Academy of Music (2 [RAM]; 1920–25), and settled in England
permanently. After leaving the RAM, she taught violin privately and at the
Badminton School, Bristol, and played in a string quartet and in cinema
orchestras. She studied privately with Nadia Boulanger in 1937 and began
further essays in composing, mixing approachable elements of contemporary
styles. She was a professor of composition at the RAM from 1943–61. After
her retirement, she was given a Civil List pension. Performances of her works
increased from the 1960s until her death, as did her compositional output.

RAMSEY, ROBERT (?–1644). Composer. Ramsey was both a graduate

of Cambridge and the organist and master of the children at Trinity College
there. His works include Latin and English liturgical works, the style of the
former showing the progressive influence of Italy. Ramsey is also the com-
poser of a number of dialogues on biblical and mythological subject in GB
Obo Don. c. 57. The biblical dialogues, though logically essays that might
prepare the way for English oratorio, do not historically lead in that direc-
tion. However, Ramsey’s “In Guilty Night,” a setting of the story of Saul and
the Witch of Endor, points to Henry Purcell’s well-known setting, and both
find an echo in George Frideric Handel’s Saul.

RANDALL, JOHN (1717–99). Organist and composer. Randall was trained

at the Chapel Royal and at King’s College, Cambridge (MusB, 1744; MusD,
1756). He was organist at various colleges of Cambridge, including King’s,
St. John’s, Pembroke, and Trinity, and was named Professor of Music in
1755. His compositions include anthems, psalm-tune settings, hymn tunes,
and an ode performed at the installation of the Duke of Grafton as chancellor
to Cambridge University (1769; now lost).

RANDEGGER, ALBERTO (1832–1911). Conductor, singer, teacher, and

composer of Italian birth. Randegger was trained in Italy (where he sang with

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 250 • RANELAGH GARDENS

Giuseppe Verdi) and settled in London in 1854. He took numerous positions,

including organist at St. Paul’s, Regent Park (1854–70), and conductor of
Italian operas at St. James’s Theatre, Covent Garden, and Drury Lane
and of various choirs and musical festivals, including Norwich (1881–1905),
but he was known primarily in his own time as a teacher of singing. He taught
at the Royal Academy of Music (2) from 1868 to 1911 and concurrently at
the Royal College of Music from 1896 to 1911. His book Singing (1893)
was in use for decades. Randegger’s compositions are mostly forgotten, but
he was known for his conducting of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his in-
terpretations of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi.

RANELAGH GARDENS. See PLEASURE GARDENS.

RAVENSCROFT, THOMAS (ca. 1592–ca. 1635). Editor, composer,

and theorist. Ravenscroft was a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London,
and a student at Gresham College, Cambridge. For a period (1618–22) he
was the music master at Christ’s Hospital. He oversaw the publication of
a number of collections, including the psalter Whole Booke of Psalmes
(1621) and three anthologies of rounds, catches, and theatrical play songs:
Pammelia (1609), Deuteromelia (1609), and Melismata (1611). The con-
tents of these anthologies are strikingly diverse with drinking songs like
“He That Will an Alehouse Keep” sharing the pages with street cries like
“New Oysters” and devotional texts like “O Lord Turne Not away Thy
Face.” In the end, however, the anthologies point to the conviviality of
informal music-making and are, in that light, rich documents of early 17th-
century musical life.
In 1614 Ravenscroft published A Brief Discourse of the true (but neglected)
use of Charact’ring the Degrees, a musical treatise focused on questions of
mensuration and proportion. Some (Ian Spink in Blwl, 1992) have suggested
the Discourse may have figured in Ravenscroft’s teaching.
The modern assessment of Ravenscroft’s compositions—madrigals, an-
thems, and fantasias—is not enthusiastic. Mateer and Payne (NG, 2001) note
that his “extant compositions show him to have been a man of great versatil-
ity, though of slender talents.”

RAWSTHORNE, ALAN (1905–71). Composer and pianist. Known to the

public primarily for his film scores (including Burma Victory [1946]), Raws-
thorne was a lauded and successful composer of orchestral and chamber mu-
sic. He was trained at the Royal Manchester College of Music (1925–29)
and studied piano with Egon Petri in Zakopane, Poland, and Berlin until
1932. He taught at Dartington Hall (1932–34) before moving to London to

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 RICHTER, HANS • 251

devote his time to composition. Aside from war service between 1939 and
1945, he composed in London (until 1953) and then in Essex for the remain-
der of his life. His compositions first gained public notice at the International
Society for Contemporary Music festivals of 1938 and 1939, and he remained
a well-known, if not popular, figure for the rest of his life. Rawsthorne was
named a CBE in 1961.

REDFORD, JOHN (?–1547). Composer and organist. Redford was a vicar-

choral at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, as early as 1534, later appointed as
master of the choristers and almoner, and surely also functioning as organist.
Redford’s compositional work was tightly focused on liturgical organ pieces,
surviving today in sources like the Mulliner Book, and he is unusual in the
narrowness of his output as well as its high quality. In addition to his numer-
ous organ settings, there are only a few Latin motets; the popular attribution
to him of the famous vernacular anthem “Rejoice in the Lord Always” no
longer stands.

REGGIO, PIETRO (1632–85). Composer and singer. Following service to

Queen Christina of Sweden and travels in Spain, Germany, and France, the
Italian Reggio immigrated to London by 1664, where he became an impor-
tant channel for the transmission of the Italian style. His influence on Henry
Purcell is often noted, a connection reinforced in the younger composer’s
setting of Cowley’s “She Loves and She Confesses Too,” which adopts the
same ground bass as Reggio uses in his setting of the same text.
Reggio is mentioned by the diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.
Evelyn, whose daughter Mary was a pupil of Reggio’s, records that “Came
to my house some German strangers, and Signor Pietro a famous Musitian,
who had ben long in Sweden in Queene Christinas Court: he sung admirably
to a Guitarr and has a perfect good tenor and base etc: and had set to Ital-
ian composure, many of Abraham Cowleys Pieces which shew’d extremely
well” (23 October 1680). Pepys mentions him as “slovenly,” but “one who
sings Italian songs to the theorbo most neatly.” The settings of Cowley’s
verse were published in 1680. Of the collection Spink (1974) observes: “it
has to be confessed that, on the whole, they are rather unexciting settings of
rather unexciting poems,” leading him to conclude, “While he may not be an
incompetent composer, he is, sad to say, a quite unmemorable one.”
Reggio authored a treatise on vocal ornamentation, The Art of Singing,
which was published in 1678, resurfacing only recently in 1997.

RICHTER, HANS (1843–1916). Austro-German conductor active in Eng-

land between 1877 and 1911. Richter was trained in Vienna and played for

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 252 • RIMBAULT, EDWARD FRANCIS

or conducted Richard Wagner’s music in the 1860s and 1870s. His first visit
to London came in 1877, when he conducted in the place of Wagner at the
Wagner Festival mounted there. Until his retirement in 1911, Richter split
his time conducting in Vienna and England. He conducted a series called the
“Richter Concerts” from 1879 to 1900, the Birmingham Musical Festival
from 1885 to 1909 (including the premiere of Sir Edward Elgar’s Dream
of Gerontius), the Hallé Orchestra from 1899 to 1911, and the London
Symphony Orchestra from 1904 to 1911. He was named a CVO in 1907.

RIMBAULT, EDWARD FRANCIS (1816–76). Musicologist, editor, or-

ganist, and composer. Rimbault was one of the most important and influential
musical antiquarians of the 19th century. He edited and helped publish many
editions of early English music for societies such as the Handel Society, the
Motett Society, the Musical Antiquarian Society, and the Percy Society,
and he collected an immense musical library that sold for £2,000 in the year
after his death. His early studies were with Samuel Wesley and William
Crotch, and he was named organist at Swiss Church, Soho, when he was 16.
He was the founder and coeditor of the journal the Choir and Musical Record.
He published monographs on the harmonium (1857), the piano (1860), and
the Chapel Royal (1872).

RITSON MANUSCRIPT. The Ritson Manuscript (GB Lbl Add. 5665) is

one of the principal sources of early Tudor song. The collection, likely a
provincial one from the vicinity of Devon, shows a number of scribal hands,
probably reflecting a long period of compilation from the last decades of the
15th century through the first decades of the 16th. Much of the manuscript
is devoted to carols, the principal composer of which is Richard Smert.
Other works include secular songs in a continental cantilena style, masses,
and motets.

ROBERTSBRIDGE CODEX. The Robertsbridge Codex (GB Lbl Add.

28550) represents the earliest surviving keyboard music. The manuscript, a
fragment of only two leaves, likely dates from around 1325. Notationally dis-
tinctive, combining staff notation with letters, the manuscript presents three
dances (estampies) and arrangements of three motets, two of which are from
the French Roman de Fauvel.

ROGERS, BENJAMIN (1614–98). Organist, singer, and composer. Apart

from a time as organist at Christ Church, Dublin, Rogers’s training and early
career center on Windsor and environs, as he was a chorister at St. George’s
Chapel, later a lay clerk there, and for a time a member of the chapel choir

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 ROSEINGRAVE, THOMAS • 253

and later organist at Eton. His time at Eton brought him into contact with
Nathaniel Ingelo, a fellow of the college who acted as Rogers’s patron in
several instances. In 1665 he began work in Oxford as master of the choristers
at Magdalen, in which post he remained until 1686, when he was dismissed.
The composer of services, anthems, instrumental suites, and keyboard
music, he was held in high esteem by his contemporaries. Anthony Wood
(quoted by Charles Burney) relates: “His compositions for instruments .
. . have been highly valued. . . . and Dr. [John] Wilson, the professor, the
greatest and most curious judge of Music that ever was, usually wept when
he heard them well performed, as being wrapt up in ecstasy; or, if you will,
melted down: while others smiled, or had their hands and eyes lifted up, at
the excellence of them.”

ROOTHAM, CYRIL (1875–1938). Teacher, organist, conductor, and

composer. Rootham was a force in the musical life of Cambridge University
for much of his life as an organist at St. John’s (1901–38) and lecturer and
conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society (1912–36). As a
conductor, he was known mostly for his revivals of Henry Purcell, George
Frideric Handel’s oratorios, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s operas. He
composed a great deal of vocal music, including partsongs, sacred works,
and a few dramatic works. He was trained at St. John’s College, Cambridge
(BA in classics, 1897; BMus, 1900; MA, 1901; and DMus, 1910) and at the
Royal College of Music, studying under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and
Sir Walter Parratt. Before returning to Cambridge, he held organist posts at
Christ Church, Hampstead (1898–1901), and St. Asaph’s Cathedral (1901).

ROSEINGRAVE, THOMAS (1690/91–1766). Organist and composer.

Roseingrave was a member of a musical family; his organist father, Daniel,
held various cathedral posts, including Gloucester, Winchester, Salisbury,
and Christ Church, Dublin; his brother, Ralph, also an organist, succeeded
Daniel in Dublin. As a young man, Roseingrave was sent to Italy (1709) to
study and while there entered the circle of Domenico Scarlatti, whose works
he would strongly champion in England, especially with an edition of 42
Scarlatti sonatas published in 1739 (XLII Suites de Pièces Pour le Clavecin).
Roseingrave’s Italianism was also clear in the publication of Italian-texted
cantatas of his own composing.
He was appointed organist of St. George’s, Hanover Square, in 1725, a
parish prominent through both the size of its organ and also its association
with George Frideric Handel. His career there and in general subsequently
collapsed, however, in the wake of a frustrated love affair and its ensuing
emotional difficulties.

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 254 • ROSSETER, PHILIP

ROSSETER, PHILIP (1567/68–1623). Lutanist and composer. Rosseter

received court appointment as a lutanist in 1603. In 1601 he and Thomas
Campion brought out a Book of Ayres, famous for its preface that scorns
complex counterpoint and undue madrigalism, and thus charts a simpler
course for the ayre. In 1609 he published a collection of English consort
lessons. Also at that time he entered into a period of theater management in
which he was active until 1617.

ROUNDELAY. English cognate for medieval French rondelet (rondeau)

as a dance song in forme fixe whose name points to a circular choreography.
Thomas Ravenscroft’s Pammelia (1609) is described on its title page as a
“mixed varietie of pleasant roundelays and delightful catches.” As none of
the songs are specifically designated as “roundelay,” he appears to be using
it synonymously with “round.”

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC (1). The Royal Academy of Music was

a London opera company that was active in two incarnations; one from
1719 to 1728 and the second from 1729 to 1737. Both were musically led by
George Frideric Handel, with John Jacob Heidegger in a managerial role.
The first academy, performing at the Haymarket Theatre, featured operas by
Giovanni Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti as well as Handel; the principal sing-
ers included Senesino, Francesca Cuzzoni, and Faustina Bordoni (Hasse).
Financial difficulties, bad relationships among the singers, and a shift in
audience taste led to the closing of the Academy in 1728. Its re-formation in
1729 was also financially challenging, and the founding of a rival company,
the “Opera of the Nobility” in 1733, stretched patronal support to the point
of mutual collapse in 1737.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC (2; RAM). Oldest degree-granting mu-

sical school in England, founded in London in 1822. It was given a royal
charter in 1830. It moved from its original premises on Tenterden Street to
Marylebone Street in 1912 and was made a constituent college of the Uni-
versity of London in 1999. The facilities include a 450-seat concert hall,
an opera house, a museum, and a library. Some of the principal professors
there were Thomas Attwood, Sir William Sterndale Bennett, Sir Lennox
Berkeley, Alan Bush, Frederick Corder, William Crotch, John Ella,
Sir Edward German, Thomas Greatorex, Robert Lindley, Kate Loder,
Hamish MacCunn, Sir George Alexander Macfarren, Sir Alexander
Campbell Mackenzie, Ignaz Moscheles, Ebenezer Prout, Alberto Ran-
degger, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, and Sir Henry
Joseph Wood. Prominent students who attended the RAM include Sir

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 ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC • 255

Granville Bantock, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Joseph Barnby, John Francis
Barnett, Sir Arnold Bax, Sterndale Bennett, Bush, Rebecca Clarke, Eric
Coates, Corder, John Spencer Curwen, Ella, German, Joseph Holbrooke,
Loder, Macfarren, Mackenzie, William Gray McNaught, Priaulx Rainier,
Sullivan, Arthur Goring Thomas, Maude Valérie White, and Wood. See
also CRAMER, JOHN BAPTIST.

ROYAL ALBERT HALL. London concert hall opened in 1871. The hall
uses a combination of standing room and seating; it has been the site of the
Proms concerts since 1941. The hall housed the Royal Albert Hall Choral
Society (1871; renamed the Royal Choral Society in 1888) and the Royal
Albert Hall Orchestra (1905). The Hall has been used for numerous popular-
music concerts as well.

ROYAL CHORAL SOCIETY (ALSO ROYAL ALBERT HALL CHO-

RAL SOCIETY). Large London choir (approximately 850 voices) founded
for the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. Its conductors have in-
cluded Charles Gounod (to 1872), Sir Joseph Barnby (to 1896), Sir Fred-
erick Bridge (to 1922), H. L. Balfour (to 1929), and Sir Malcolm Sargent
(to 1967).

ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC (RCM). London conservatory founded

in 1882 as the successor to the National Training School for Music (NTSM).
The NTSM was founded in 1876 to help spur the reform of the Royal Acad-
emy of Music (2) and allow for training in opera, sacred music, and military
music; Sir Arthur Sullivan was its first principal. When he resigned in 1881,
Sir George Grove took the position and helped reorganize the institution into
the RCM. The RCM confers degrees in all aspects of music performance and
the academic study of music as well as the honorary FRCM (Fellow of the
Royal College of Music). Its current facilities, built in 1894 and expanded
in 1965 and 1968, include a 468-seat concert hall, a 400-seat theater, a 150-
seat recital hall, and an extensive library. Besides Grove, its principals and
directors have included Sir Hubert Parry (1894–1918), Sir Hugh Percy
Allen (1918–37), and Sir George Dyson (1938–52). Prominent members of
the RCM’s faculty include Havergal Brain, Sir Frederick Bridge, Edward
Dannreuther, Sir (Henry) Walford Davies, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs,
Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Jenny Lind, Charles Harford Lloyd, Sir
Walter Parratt, Alberto Randegger, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Humphrey
Searle, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Prominent students of the RCM in-
clude Sir Malcolm Arnold, Sir Arthur Bliss, Sir Herbert Brewer, Frank
Bridge, Benjamin Britten, George Butterworth, Rebecca Clarke, Samuel

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 256 • ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS

Coleridge-Taylor, Davies, Arnold Dolmetsch, Dyson, Peter Racine

Fricker, Gibbs, Sir Eugene Goossens, Ivor Gurney, Gustav Holst, Imo-
gen Holst, Howells, Ireland, Constant Lambert, Iris Lemare, Elisabeth
Lutyens, Hamish MacCunn, Dame Elizabeth Maconchy, Robin Milford,
E. J. Moeran, Cyril Rootham, Edmund Rubbra, Searle, Sir Michael Tip-
pett, Vaughan Williams, and Charles Wood. See also ENGLISH MUSICAL
RENAISSANCE; THE SCENES FROM THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS (ALSO RCO; COLLEGE OF

ORGANISTS). Organization founded for the examination and encourage-
ment of organists and sacred music in 1864. The RCO received its royal
charter in 1893. Aside from examinations, the college also sponsors lectures
and organ recitals. It awards diplomas on a hierarchical basis, starting with
the ARCO (Associate), the FRCO (Fellowship), the Choir Training Diploma
(CHM) and the Archbishop of Centerbury’s Diploma in Choral Music
(ACDM; awarded jointly with the Royal School of Church Music).

ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL. A 2,900-seat concert hall on the South Bank

of the Thames in London. The hall was originally built for the Festival of
Britain and opened in 1951. It was expanded in 1967 into the Southbank
Arts Centre with the addition of connections with the Queen Elizabeth Hall
(a 900-seat venue for popular music), the Purcell Room (a 370-seat chamber
music hall), and the Hayward (an art gallery).

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. See COVENT GARDEN.

ROYAL MANCHESTER COLLEGE OF MUSIC. See ROYAL NORTH-

ERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC.

ROYAL MUSICAL ASSOCIATION (RMA). Society founded in 1874 as

the Musical Association for the study of music as an art and science and the
promotion of that study. The association received the authority to be called
“royal” in 1944. Early presidents included Sir Frederic Gore Ouseley, Sir
Hubert Parry, Sir Frederick Bridge, Charles Wood, and Edward J. Dent.
Papers given at meetings on acoustics, theory, history, and criticism, as well
as the membership’s comments on those papers, were published annually in
the journal Proceedings of the Musical Association (1874–1944) and then the
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association (1944–87). This publication
was succeeded by the biannual peer-reviewed Journal of the Royal Musical
Association (1987–present). The RMA has also published the Royal Musical
Association Research Chronicle since 1968.

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 ROYAL SCHOOL OF CHURCH MUSIC • 257

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC (ALSO MATTHAY

SCHOOL OF MUSIC; RNCM; ROYAL MANCHESTER COLLEGE
OF MUSIC; RMCM). Conservatory founded by Sir Charles Hallé in
Manchester in 1893 as the Manchester College of Music. Hallé was the first
principal, followed by Arthur Brodsky (1895–1929). It merged with the
Northern School of Music (founded as the Matthay School of Music in 1920)
and moved into new premises in 1972. Performance spaces at the college
include a 616-seat theater, a 466-seat concert hall, and a 150-seat chamber
music venue, the Lord Rhodes Room. The college has a substantial library
and archives and a historical instrument collection. It received its royal char-
ter in 1923.

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE. See COVENT GARDEN.

ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY (ALSO PHILHARMONIC SO-

CIETY). Organization founded in 1813 to give concerts of instrumental
music in London. The society was founded by musicians, and unlike other
contemporary societies (such as the Professional Concerts), membership
often was awarded on the basis of artistic talent and promise, rather than so-
cial status. The society was granted the authority to use the sobriquet “royal”
in 1911. The society gathered a freelance orchestra for six to eight concerts
per season. In its history, it commissioned works by Beethoven (Symphony
no. 9 in D minor, op. 125), Luigi Cherubini, Felix Mendelssohn (the Italian
Symphony), and Louis Spohr. Conductors of the society have included Jo-
hann Peter Salomon (1813), Muzio Clementi (conducting at the keyboard,
1813–25), Sir George Smart (1813–49), Ignaz Moscheles (1832–41), Sir
Michael Costa (1846–54), Richard Wagner (1855), Sir William Sterndale
Bennett (1856–66), Sir Arthur Sullivan (1885–57), Sir Frederic Hymen
Cowen (1888–92 and 1900–1907), and Sir Alexander Campbell Makenzie
(1893–99), among others. See also ATTWOOD, THOMAS; AYRTON,
WILLIAM; CHAPPELL & CO.; CRAMER, JOHN BAPTIST; CROTCH,
WILLIAM; NOVELLO, VINCENT; QUEEN’S HALL; ST. JAMES’S
HALL.

ROYAL SCHOOL OF CHURCH MUSIC (ALSO SCHOOL OF ENG-

LISH CHURCH MUSIC; RSCM). Organization founded by Sydney Nich-
olson in 1927 for the study and promotion of sacred music, particularly of the
Anglican Church. The school was granted the authority to use the sobriquet
“royal” in 1945. For a time (1929–74), it ran the College of St. Nicholas at
various locations, where courses were offered in liturgy, sacred music, and
choir training leading to the ACDM, which is now awarded by the Royal

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 258 • ROYAL SOCIETY OF FEMALE MUSICIANS

College of Organists. It now serves largely as an examining body and affili-

ation center for sacred music.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF FEMALE MUSICIANS (ALSO SOCIETY OF

FEMALE MUSICIANS; SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL FEMALE
MUSICIANS). Philanthropic organization founded in 1839 to provide aid
to older and indigent professional female musicians. It raised funds primar-
ily through concerts and donations from its members. By 1861 it had £6,000
invested. It merged with the Royal Society of Musicians in 1866.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS (ALSO SOCIETY OF MUSI-

CIANS; FUND FOR DECAYED MUSICIANS). Philanthropic organiza-
tion founded in 1738 for the care of older musicians as well as widows and
orphans of musicians. It was granted its first royal charter in 1790 and its
second in 1987. Fund-raising occurred initially through concerts and donations
by members (George Frideric Handel gave the Society £1,000 on his death);
later, membership fees also helped to raise funds. The society did not admit
women until it merged with the Royal Society of Female Musicians in 1866.

RUBBRA, EDMUND (ALSO CHARLES EDMUND; 1901–86). Com-

poser, critic, pianist, and teacher. Rubbra is best known for his symphonies
(11) and his choral works, which include five masses and numerous other
pieces for the Catholic Church. Rubbra was initially self-taught but took
some private lessons with Cyril Scott at the age of 17. He won open scholar-
ships to Reading University (1920–21) to study with Gustav Holst and then
the Royal College of Music (1921–25), where he studied with Holst and
Ralph Vaughan Williams. From 1925 to 1941 he worked as a private music
teacher, accompanist, and performer. During World War II, he served as part
of the Army Classical Music Group, a piano trio that successfully continued
after the war until the 1950s as the Rubbra-Gruenberg-Pleeth Trio. Rubbra
was a senior lecturer at Worcester College, Oxford (1947–68), and professor
of music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1961–74). He wrote
music criticism in the 1930s for the Monthly Musical Record and the Listener,
as well as a monograph on Holst (1947). Rubbra was named CBE in 1960.

“RULE, BRITANNIA.” Patriotic song with choral refrain from the end of
Thomas Arne’s masque Alfred (1740). Although in context of the masque,
the triumphal exuberance of the song—“Rule, Britannia, Britannia, rule the
waves / Britons never will be slaves”—celebrates Alfred’s victory over the
Danes, its sentiment made it easily and popularly appropriated, and one can

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 RUSH, GEORGE • 259

imagine its first hearings took on timely meaning in the context of the “War
of Jenkins’s Ear” between England and Spain.
Its wide dissemination is a measure of its popularity. Arne published it
out of context as an addition to his Judgment of Paris (1742), and a few
years later it was sung with altered text by the supporters of the “Young
Pretender,” Charles Edward Stuart, in the final Jacobite uprising of 1745, the
refrain becoming “Rule, Britannia, Britannia, rise and fight, / Restore your
injured Monarch’s right.” George Frideric Handel quoted it in 1745 in his
Occasional Oratorio, and Beethoven published his “Five Variations on Rule
Britannia,” WoO 79, in 1804. The song has achieved cult status, however, as
a robust part of performances of Sir Henry Wood’s “Fantasia on British Sea
Songs” (1905) at the “Last Night of the Proms.”

RUSH, GEORGE (fl. 1760–80). Composer, harpsichordist, and guitarist.

Little is known for certain about Rush’s background and education. He pub-
lished four keyboard concerti and assorted other pieces, and completed three
operas for Drury Lane: The Royal Shepherd and Capricious Lovers (both
1764) and The Statesman Foiled (1768; its music is now lost). Some of his
music was published in Holland as well as England.

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 S
SACCHINI, ANTONIO (1730–86). Italian composer active in London from
1772 to 1781. He was one of the leading 18th-century composers of opera
seria. He trained at the Conservatorio S. Maria di Loreto, where he taught for
a time, and composed and produced operas in Naples, Venice, and Rome. In
London he produced operas at King’s Theatre, Haymarket, that became ex-
tremely popular, including Il Cid (1773), Tamerlano (1773), and Montezuma
(1775). Sacchini fled London ahead of his creditors in 1781 and settled in
Paris for the remainder of his life.

SACKBUT. English term (variously “shagbutt,” “shagbolt,” “seykebuds,”

etc.) for the early trombone, derived from the French saquir (to pull, here
in reference to the instrument’s slide). The earliest English reference to the
instrument is in the court records of Henry VII; under his son, Henry VIII, 12
players were employed (1530s); later in the century the numbers grew more
modest, but increased in the early 17th century with as many as 14 players in
1635. Use of the trombone in England wanes in the 18th century—George
Frideric Handel’s famous “Dead March” from Saul is a significant late ex-
ample, however—and “it is virtually certain that there was not a single native-
born trombonist in England during the entire 18th century” (Herbert, 1990).
In ensemble with cornetts, trombones played masking ayres—John Ad-
son’s 1611 set is a good example—and likely arrangements of vocal music (cf.
GB Cfm 24E). John Hingeston also uses the combination in a fantasia-suite.
The use of the trombone and cornett ensemble to double the voices in church
music was also adopted in England, perhaps especially so in the years follow-
ing the Commonwealth when instrumental support would have been expedient.
Herbert (1993) draws attention, however, to the possibility that this may not
have been the practice of the English in the early 16th century, based on ac-
counts of the musical proceedings at the Field of Cloth of Gold (1520).

SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY. The Sacred Harmonic Society, active

from 1832 to 1889, was one of the premier London choral associations of its
day. At times, it was an organization of Dissenting choirs (particularly after
the 1834 Handel Festival in Westminster Abbey excluded nonconformists).

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 262 • SADLER’S WELLS

Its membership included members of all social classes and musical abilities.
Many members were trained only in sight-singing notations such as Tonic
Sol-fa rather than staff notation. It was one of the first major choirs of the
19th century to forward a rational recreation agenda, combining a phil-
anthropic morality with a social and educational organization. Its seasons
included presenting whole works, usually oratorios, especially of George
Frideric Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Felix Mendelssohn, but many
choral compositions received their London premieres from the body.
The society’s most famous conductor was Sir Michael Costa (1848–82),
who used it to create “monster concerts” with orchestras of about 700 and cho-
ruses of over 2,700. The society sang oratorios weekly during the Great Exhibi-
tion in 1851; it was also a great part of the choir for the Handel Festivals at the
Crystal Palace as conducted by Costa. From 1836 until 1880, it held rehearsals
and concerts in Exeter Hall; when the Young Men’s Christian Association
bought that building in 1880 and prohibited the performance of oratorios there,
the choir moved to St. James’s Hall. Besides Costa, other conductors of the
Society included Joseph Sterman (1832–48) and Sir Charles Hallé (1883–85).
See also LESLIE, HENRY DAVID; PUBLIC CONCERTS.

SADLER’S WELLS. Sadler’s Wells started as a pleasure garden in 1684

in the London suburb of Clerkenwell. A music house was one of the major
attractions there, and it was turned into a theater in 1784. A series of theaters
on the site since that time have hosted drama, opera (frequently in English
translation), and ballet. A major renovation to the fifth theater in 1931 culmi-
nated the organization of a company by Lilian Baylis to present drama at the
Old Vic and opera and ballet at Sadler’s Wells. One of the ballet companies
founded for this organization became the Royal Ballet upon moving to Cov-
ent Garden; the opera company moved to the Coliseum in 1968 and was
renamed the English National Opera in 1974. The sixth and current theater
was opened in 1998. A notable premiere at Sadler’s Wells was Benjamin
Britten’s Peter Grimes (1945). The pleasure gardens at the site closed in
1879. See also FORCER, FRANCIS; LAMBERT, CONSTANT; PUBLIC
CONCERTS; SEARLE, HUMPHREY.

ST. CECILIA’S DAY OBSERVANCE. In London, 22 November, the

canonical feast day of St. Cecilia, patroness of music, was the occasion for
celebrative “Musick Feasts,” documented as an annual occurrence between
1683 and 1703 under the auspices of the Musical Society. The observance
included a festival service at St. Bride’s Church, including major service
settings, such as Henry Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate Deo (1694), a new
anthem, and a sermon on music. After the service, a concert presentation of a

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 ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE • 263

Cecilian ode was given, followed by a banquet. The odes, including Nicholas
Brady’s “Hail, Bright Cecilia,” set by Purcell in 1692, and John Dryden’s
“Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” set by Giovanni Battista Draghi in 1687 and
memorably by George Frideric Handel in 1739, often focus on the affective
powers of music and particular instruments, rather than on Cecilia herself,
and are thus in the nature of “hymns to music” with reference to Cecilia,
rather than hagiographic commemorations.
Inspired by Sir Henry Wood, a modern annual observance was revived in
London in 1945 under the sponsorship of the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund,
with the service taking place at St. Sepulchre’s, London, and drawing on the
choirs of the Chapel Royal, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and
St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. The service has now relocated to an alternat-
ing venue of either St. Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, or Westminster Cathedral,
with the music provided by the choirs of those three institutions.

ST. JAMES’S HALL. London concert hall in use between 1858 and 1905.
It seated about 2,000 people and included an organ. As the most central of
London’s mid-19th-century halls, it was used by numerous important groups
for concerts, including John Ella’s Musical Union (1858–80), Henry
Leslie’s Choir (1858–87), the Royal Philharmonic Society (1869–94),
Novello’s Oratorio Concerts (starting in 1869), and concerts directed by
Hans Richter (frequently called the “Richter Concerts”; starting in 1879).
The hall, sponsored by the publishers Cramer, Beale & Chappell, also held its
own series of Monday and Saturday Popular Concerts (given at various times
between 1858 and 1904). Besides music concerts, the hall was also used for
public meetings. See also SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY; VARIATIONS
ON AN ORIGINAL THEME (“ENIGMA”), OP. 36.

ST. MARTIN’S HALL. Concert hall (with 3,000 seats and an organ) and
lecture room (with 500 seats) built for John Hullah, mainly for classes and
concerts to promote his sight-singing notation. He began teaching singing
classes to schoolteachers there in 1849; the concert hall was officially open
in 1850 and hosted choral, instrumental, and organ concerts. St. Martin’s Hall
burned to the ground in a fire in 1860, was rebuilt solely as a concert hall in
1862, and then was rebuilt again as the 4,000-seat Queen’s Theatre in 1867,
which housed concerts, plays, and the occasional scientific demonstration
until it closed in 1878.

ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE. School organized in 1854 at Tenbury Wells

and dedicated in 1856 by Sir Frederic Arthur Gore Ouseley for the promo-
tion of Anglican sacred music. St. Michael’s included a chapel with a daily

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 264 • SALOMON, JOHANN PETER

choral service, a school for 30 boys, and a library containing a collection of

musical and theological tracts from all eras. The institution existed until 1985.

SALOMON, JOHANN PETER (1745–1815). German violinist, impresario,

and composer of German birth active in London. Salomon is most famous for
a series of subscription concerts begun in London in 1783 that brought Franz
Joseph Haydn to the city twice (1790–91 and 1794–95) and spurred the com-
position of the London Symphonies, several string quartets, and The Creation.
Salomon came from a musical family in Bonn, began working for the court
there in 1758 as a violinist, and toured various courts in Germany. Once estab-
lished in England in 1781, he made the country his home for the remainder of
his life and became a major figure within various musical establishments. He
was famous for his quartet playing and was one of the founders of the Royal
Philharmonic Society, leading the ensemble at its first performance in 1813.

SALVATION ARMY. English evangelical philanthropic organization

founded by William Booth in 1865 as the East London Christian Mission to
minister to the urban poor and destitute and named the Salvation Army in
1878. Choral and brass band music quickly became integral to the organiza-
tion, the former often being printed in the Tonic Sol-fa sight-singing nota-
tion. Bands and choirs freely adopted contemporary popular tunes for their
Salvationist music and hymns, and Salvation Army musicians began com-
posing some as well, which provided a revenue stream for the organization.
Booth published several tune books, including The Christian Mission Hymn
Book (1868), Salvation Music (1880), and The Musical Salvationist (1886);
the last is still in print as Sing to the Lord.

SARGENT, SIR MALCOLM WATTS (ALSO HAROLD MALCOLM

WATTS SARGENT; 1895–1967). Conductor. With Sir Adrian Boult and
Sir Thomas Beecham, Sargent was one of the most important conductors
of his era, known especially for his interpretations of English music. During
his childhood at Stamford, he was encouraged by his father—whose avoca-
tion was church organist—to study organ and piano and sing in local choirs.
He earned his associateship of the Royal College of Organists (ARCO) in
1911 and was articled to Haydn Keeton, organist at Peterborough Cathedral
in that year. Sargent became parish organist at Melton Mobray in 1914. For
the balance of the decade, he earned a BMus (1914) and a DMus (1919) from
Durham University, while working as a conductor of amateur ensembles and
a composer, frequently performing his own music.
Recognition came in 1921, when Sargent conducted Sir Henry Wood’s
Queen’s Hall Orchestra; shortly after this, he settled in London and focused

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 THE SCENES FROM THE SONG OF HAWATHA • 265

almost solely on conducting. He taught conducting at the Royal College of

Music from 1923 and conducted many of England’s best-known ensembles,
including the Hallé Orchestra (1939–42), the Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra (1943–49), the Proms (1948–67), and the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation Symphony Orchestra (1950–57), among others. Sargent
was particularly known for his conducting of mass choral ensembles, and
he directed the Royal Choral Society for 25 years, beginning in 1928. He
conducted the premieres of oratorios and operas by Gustav Holst, Ralph
Vaughan Williams, and Sir William Walton and was frequently in demand
as a guest conductor throughout the world. Sargent was knighted in 1947. See
also THE SCENES FROM THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.

SARUM USE. The liturgical practice, texts, and music for Salisbury Cathe-
dral. The installation of the Norman aristocrat Osmund as bishop of Salisbury
in 1078 ushered in a time of innovation at Salisbury that would eventually, if
not proximally, extend to liturgy and chant, and in this create an adaptation
of the Roman Rite reflecting Norman influence and constituting one of sev-
eral local practices within the Church of Rome. Though beginning as a local
practice, the Sarum Use became widespread in southern England and was
legislated for the whole southern province in 1542.

SAVOY THEATRE. Theater built in 1881 by Richard D’Oyly Carte to

house productions of operettas by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir
Arthur Sullivan. The Savoy was host for many years of the D’Oyly Carte
Opera Company. It seats about 1,300 and was the first theater in England to
be lit entirely by electricity. It has undergone extensive renovations twice, in
1929 and 1993 (the latter after a fire).

THE SCENES FROM THE SONG OF HIAWATHA. Cantata trilogy by

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, based on the poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfel-
low. The first part, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, was premiered at the Royal
College of Music on 11 November 1898; the second, The Death of Minnehaha,
was first heard on 26 October 1899 at the North Staffordshire Musical Festi-
val; and the final cantata, Hiawatha’s Departure, was first heard at the Royal
Albert Hall on 22 March 1900, along with the first two parts of the trilogy.
The whole work sets Longfellow’s stories of the marriage of Hiawatha and
Minnehaha, a famine, Minnehaha’s death and funeral, the arrival of Europeans,
and the departure of Hiawatha. Coleridge-Taylor uses reoccurring motives to
link the three works together into a contiguous whole, and a performance of all
three lasts about two hours. Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast was particularly loved
and was performed yearly at the Royal Albert Hall, with Sir Malcom Sargent

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 266 • SCHOLES, PERCY

conducting, between 1924 and 1939. These performances included nearly a

thousand costumed characters and were one of the last unabashed, naïve flow-
erings of exoticism in England before World War II.

SCHOLES, PERCY (1877–1958). Writer, critic, and teacher. Scholes was

one of the most prolific writers on a wide range of English musical subjects
of the first half of the 20th century. His major works include the first edi-
tion of the Oxford Companion to Music (1938), The Mirror of Music: A
Century of Musical Life in Britain as Reflected in the Pages of the Musical
Times, 1844–1944, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (1952), as well
as monographs on Charles Burney, Sir John Hawkins, the Puritans, and
many other subjects. He was largely self-taught, though he did later take
an associate diploma from the Royal College of Music and a BMus from
Oxford. He worked first as a teacher, and then as an editor (Music Student,
1908–21 [now Music Teacher], which he founded) and a music critic for the
Evening Standard (1913–20), the Observer (1920–27), and the Radio Times
(1923–29). He lived in Switzerland from 1928 to 1940, where he took a
doctorat ès letters from Lausanne University in 1934 and began to work on
several major dictionary and encyclopedia projects. He returned to England
between 1940 and 1957, where he continued writing and was named to the
Board of the Faculty of Music of Oxford University. He returned to Switzer-
land for the last two years of his life. Scholes was named to the OBE in 1957.

SCHOOL OF ENGLISH CHURCH MUSIC. See ROYAL SCHOOL OF

CHURCH MUSIC.

SCHROETER, JOHANN SAMUEL (ALSO SCHRÖTER; ca. 1754–88).

German keyboardist and composer active in England from 1767 until his
death. Schroeter was raised in a musical family and had early training with
Johann Adam Hiller in Leipzig. In London he was the organist of the German
Chapel and became the music master to Queen Charlotte in 1782. He was
also a musician to the Prince of Wales (later George IV). His wife, Rebecca,
studied with Franz Joseph Haydn after Schroeter’s death. Schroeter was
known as a piano teacher and publisher of keyboard works.

SCOTT, CYRIL (1879–1970). Composer, writer, and poet. Scott was a

member of the Frankfurt Group and as a composer inspired by the Decadent
poets and artists (including Maurice Materlinck, Stephane George, and Au-
brey Beardsley) as well as impressionism. He studied at the Frankfurt Hoch
Konservatarium between 1892 and 1893 (with Engelbert Humperdinck) and
from 1895 to 1898 (with Iwan Knorr) as a pianist and a composer. In the first

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 SEIBER, MÁTYÁS • 267

three decades of the 20th century, his career flowered in both Great Britain
and Europe, with frequent performances of large-scale works, including sym-
phonies, a piano concerto, cantatas such as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
(Norwich Musical Festival, 1936) and La Belle Dame sans Merci (Leeds
Musical Festival, 1937), and a one-act opera, but his popularity declined
after World War II.
Scott continued composing after this point but also focused increasing en-
ergies on other pursuits, including poetry. For a time until a recording revival
of his music in the first decade of the 21st century, much of his known output
was songs and chamber music. Among Scott’s literary output are several vol-
umes of poems, unpublished plays, books on homeopathy, and two volumes
of memoirs: My Years of Indiscretion (1924) and Bone of Contention (1969).

A SEA SYMPHONY. The first symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams, pre-

miered at the Leeds Musical Festival on 6 September 1910. The four-move-
ment composition is a hybrid form, mixing elements of a dramatic cantata
(a chorus and two soloists) and symphony, making it perfect for performance
at the many early 20th-century English musical festivals. The texts are drawn
from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (the author being a particular favorite
of Vaughan Williams’s) and, unlike the typical cantata of the time, celebrate
the technology of traveling the sea, combining it with a late-Romantic search
for the infinite.

SEARLE, HUMPHREY (1915–82). Composer and writer on music. Searle

studied at Winchester (1928–33) and Oxford (1933–37) before studying with
Gordon Jacob and John Ireland for a year at the Royal College of Music
(RCM) and then at the New Vienna Conservatory (1937–38), and privately
with Anton Webern. He worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC) from 1938 to 1940 and again from 1946 yo 1948, at Sadler’s Wells
from 1951 to 1957, and as a professor of composition at the RCM from 1965
until his death. In his work at the BBC, his writing, and his own composi-
tion, he promoted serialism. Aside from books on 20th-century counterpoint,
he wrote the seminal Music of Franz Liszt (1954; second edition 1966) and
a translation of Hector Berlioz’s letters. He was named CBE in 1968 and an
FRCM in 1969.

SEIBER, MÁTYÁS (1905–60). Composer and teacher born in Hungary.

Seiber was one of the first major figures in England to promote jazz and its
analysis. He studied cello and composition at the Budapest Academy of Mu-
sic (1919–24) before teaching at the Frankfurt Hoch Conservatory (1928–33)
and working as the cellist of the Lenzewski Quartet. Seiber settled in England

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 268 • SEMI-OPERA

in 1935, composing music for film and writing and lecturing on jazz. He
taught composition at Morley College from 1942 to 1957 and helped found
the Society for the Promotion of New Music and the Dorian Singers. His
musical works include a mixture of film scores, pop songs such as the semi-
famous “By the Fountains of Rome” (1965), folk song arrangements, and
various orchestra, choral, and chamber pieces.

SEMI-OPERA. Sometimes referred to as dramatick opera, semi-opera is a

uniquely English form of musical drama that combines a spoken play (often
in adapted form) with masque-like musical entertainments that could be both
lavish and extensive but were rarely integral to the drama itself. In fact, by
convention, the principal characters of the drama never sang; rather the music
fell to secondary characters and those for whom the singing might be rational-
ized, such as magicians, enchanters, etc. Semi-opera emerged in the 1670s
in adaptations of William Shakespeare, such as the 1674 performance of
The Tempest (a version by Sir William Davenant and John Dryden, likely
adapted by Thomas Shadwell) including music by Matthew Locke, Pelham
Humfrey, and John Banister, and in Shadwell’s Psyche (1675), also with
music by Locke. The genre came into its fullest blossom in the 1690s in
the stage works of Henry Purcell, such as Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur
(1691), and The Fairy Queen (1692). Other late 17th-century composers such
as John Eccles made strong contributions to the genre as well, as in his set-
ting of John Dennis’s Rinaldo and Armida (1698).
Semi-opera may well have gratified a lingering taste for the Caroline masque,
a taste that after the Commonwealth years presumably would prove safer in
the public theater than at court. But in particular, its hybrid nature was held to
be resonant with the national taste, a view emphasized by Peter Motteux in the
Gentleman’s Journal (1692): “[E]xperience hath taught us that our English ge-
nius will not relish that perpetual Singing [of fully sung opera]. . . . [O]ur English
Gentlemen, when their Ear is satisfy’d, are desirous to have their mind pleas’d,
and Music and Dancing industriously intermix’d with Comedy and Tragedy.”

SENESINO (ALSO FRANCESCO BERNARDI; ?–d. by 1759). Castrato.

The Italian castrato Senesino, so-called because of his birth in Siena, was
brought to London in 1720 by George Frideric Handel, where he was a star
figure on the stage in operas by Handel and Giovanni Bononcini, among
others. A company member of the Royal Academy of Music (1) from 1720
to 1728 and in its second iteration from 1730 to 1733, Senesino’s relation-
ship with Handel was long-standing but also characteristically difficult.
Unsurprisingly, Senesino was one of the key figures in the establishment of
the so-called “Opera of the Nobility,” a rival company to Handel’s. Abbé

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 SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM • 269

Prévost, in Le Pour et Contre (October 1733) oberves, “You already know

how there was an irreconcilable rupture between Senesino and Handel, and
how the former produced a schism in the company and hired a separate the-
atre for himself and his partisans.” Johann Joachim Quantz’s description of
his singing is often quoted:

He had a powerful, clear, equal and sweet contralto voice, with a perfect in-
tonation and an excellent shake. His manner of singing was masterly and his
elocution unrivalled. Though he never loaded adagios with too many ornaments,
yet he delivered the original and essential notes with the utmost refinement. He
sang allegros with great fire, and marked rapid divisions, from the chest, in an
articulate and pleasing manner.

His musical abilities were perhaps not matched by his acting skills, however,
if the remarks of the aristocratic impresario Francesco Zambeccari are to be
believed, for he likened him to a statue on stage, prone to make gestures op-
posite of the ones desired.

SERVICE. In the Anglican Church, choral settings of canticles and (often) pre-
ces and responses from Matins and Evensong or the Communion rite. Services
might be elaborate—William Byrd’s Great Service is a notable example—or
more modest in its demands, as seen, for instance, in Thomas Tallis’s Short
Service. Oftentimes services are named by their key or modality—the Tallis
Short Service is also the Dorian Service—but many make reference to places,
such as Herbert Howells’s for King’s College, Cambridge; St. John’s College,
Cambridge; Gloucester Cathedral; and Winchester Cathedral, among others. See
also ALCOCK, JOHN; AMNER, JOHN; ANGLICAN CHANT; ANTHEM;
BARNARD, JOHN; BARNBY, SIR JOSEPH; BATTEN, ADRIAN; BEVIN,
ELWAY; BLOW, JOHN; BREWER, SIR HERBERT; COOKE, BENJAMIN;
GREENE, MAURICE; JACKSON, WILLIAM (1); LUMLEY PARTBOOKS;
MORLEY, THOMAS; MUSICA BRITANNICA; ORGAN; OUSELEY, SIR
FREDERIC ARTHUR GORE; ROGERS, BENJAMIN; SMART, HENRY
THOMAS; STAINER, SIR JOHN; TE DEUM; VOLUNTARY; WANLEY
PARTBOOKS; WESLEY, SAMUEL SEBASTIAN.

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564–1616). Shakespeare’s dramas require

music in varying degrees, some of which falls under the heading of “stage
music,” i.e., instrumental music to accompany various actions (processions,
battle fanfares, etc.), while other instances draw on both popular ballads and
“composed” song in ways that powerfully affect the drama itself. Rooted in
the notion that music has the power to be a dynamic force, namely, to affect
change, Shakespeare’s use of music gives it an active agency in the lives of

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his characters. The magic songs of Ariel in The Tempest I/ii furnish a familiar
example: Ferdinand is drawn by Ariel’s “Come Unto These Yellow Sands,” a
song that both calms the sea and beckons him forth: “This music crept by me
upon the waters, / Allaying both their fury and my passion / With its sweet
air; thence I have follow’d it, / Or it hath drawn me rather.” Elsewhere the
agency of music is revivifying, as for instance, in the curing of the mad king
in King Lear IV/vii. Lear’s daughter Cordelia tellingly describes her father’s
condition as one of “untun’d and jarring senses,” and the musical dissonance
of her imagery is echoed in the Doctor’s bidding “Louder the music there” as
Cordelia seeks to “repair those violent harms” with a filial kiss.
Recent study (Duffin, 2004) has underscored the frequency with which
the play texts allude to popular song, a rich and polyvalent intertextuality
achieved through the quotation of lines and song titles and even the naming
of characters. As Duffin notes, “Shakespeare’s choice to insert, quote, or cite
these songs in his plays reveals both the emotions and thoughts of his charac-
ters and something of his own state of mind as he wrote the plays.”
Shakespeare’s use of music in his texts, dramatic or otherwise, also shows
an understanding of music’s cosmological associations, as in the famous
“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank” from The Merchant of Ven-
ice V/i. Here the Platonic “Harmony of the Spheres” is lyrically referenced in
Lorenzo’s instruction to Jessica:

Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls . . .

And the idea present here, that the cosmic harmony finds a microcosmic echo
in the harmony of the soul, is what allows Cordelia to speak of her father’s
madness, referenced above, as “untun’d.” To the early modern world, the no-
tion of the soul as possessing harmony or dissonance was less metaphorical
than an embrace of the broad, metaphysical understanding of music. Shake-
speare, however, is no stranger to the metaphorical use of music; in Sonnet 8,
musical concord is, for instance, likened to a familial consortial relationship.
In the “true concord of well-tuned sounds,”

Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,

Strikes each in each by mutual ordering.
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing . . .

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 SHARP, CECIL • 271

Musical reengagements of Shakespeare have been frequent, and began as

early as the semi-opera productions of The Tempest (1674) and Macbeth
(1694) in the late 17th century. The modern canon includes tone-poem
evocations, such as Sir Edward Elgar’s Falstaff (1913) and Pytor Il’yich
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet (1869); composed settings of Shakespearian
texts, such as Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music (1938); a set-
ting of “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank” from The Merchant
of Venice; and a number of Shakespearian operas, of which Verdi’s Macbeth
(1847), Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893) are particularly prominent. See
also ARNE, THOMAS AUGUSTINE; BALLAD; CHOIRBOY PLAYS;
FORESTER SONG; GERMAN, SIR EDWARD; “GREENSLEEVES”;
JOHNSON, ROBERT.

SHARP, CECIL (1859–1924). Teacher, folklorist, and collector. Sharp re-

mains one of the most influential and most divisive figures in the folk music
revival of the first half of the 20th century. Sharp’s work as a collector was
colored by the prejudices of his time, but as a promoter of the importance
and possibility of folk music and dance, he was tireless. His education at Up-
pingham School and Clare College, Cambridge (1879–82), included a great
deal of amateur music-making and training in piano and voice. He took part
of the BMus exam while at Cambridge but graduated with a BA in math-
ematics. Sharp spent a decade in Australia (1882–92), where he played the
organ at Adelaide Cathedral and was a partner in a local music school. He
also composed two light operas and various choral works for the cathedral
while there.
Sharp returned to England in 1892 and worked first as a music master
in the Ludgrove Preparatory School (1892–96) and then as the principal of
the Hampstead Conservatory (1896–1905). From 1905 until his death, his
income came almost exclusively from writing and lecturing about folk music
and folk dance. To this end he worked at times with Mary Neal, though the
two had disagreements about both the method and the reasons for folk music
and dance collecting. Thereafter he collaborated with Maud Karpeles. His
major publications of collections began in 1904 (Folk Music from Somerset
[1904–9]) and continued with a systematic study of folk music (English Folk
Songs: Some Conclusions [1907]) and books promoting the study of folk
music and dance in elementary and secondary schools (1912 and 1917). He
also helped to found the English Folk Dance Society (1911), which became
the English Folk Dance and Song Society. His visits to the United States
during World War I with Karpeles led to interest in collecting American folk
music by local institutions. On Sharp’s death in 1924, Karpeles became his
literary executor.

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SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD (1856–1900). Music critic, writer, and dra-

matist of Irish origin. While Shaw is more known for his plays and drama
criticism, he is the most famous English-language music critic of the 19th
century. His work is easily reread even today, as it is witty and erudite and
always accessible, no matter what level of musical comprehension the reader
has attained. Shaw began writing music criticism for the Hornet shortly af-
ter his arrival in London in 1876 as an anonymous “ghost” (deputizing for
Vandeleur Lee). From 1888 to 1890 he wrote criticism under the pseudonym
Cornetto di Bassetto for the Star before becoming the music critic of the
World from 1890 to 1894. While he ended regular musical criticism at this
point, he continued to write occasionally on musical topics, including The
Perfect Wagnerite (1898; a political interpretation of the Ring cycle), as well
as articles on Sir George Grove and Sir Edward Elgar, among others.
Shaw was a great friend to Elgar and convinced the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation to commission the Third Symphony (left unfinished at the
composer’s death). Shaw’s particular musical interests included the operas of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, and Giuseppe Verdi; he detested
much of the work of Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, and most orato-
rios by English composers. Collections of his music criticism are still in print.

SHEPPARD, JOHN (ca. 1515–58). Composer. One of the defining figures

of the mid-16th-century liturgical style, Sheppard composed works that range
from several mass settings and a significant body of music for the Latin Of-
fice to English services and anthems. Of the five masses, the “Cantate” mass,
“a commanding monument to his genius” (Wulstan, 1985), is the most promi-
nent. Based on an unidentified cantus firmus, some of its florid figuration is
suggestive of ornamental improvisation (Blwl, vol. 2). His “Western Wind”
mass is based on the same secular tune set in the masses of Christopher Tye
and John Taverner. The richest of his works are his sonorous settings of
responds, antiphons, and hymns for the Office.
The first documentation of Sheppard’s musical activity places him as in-
formator choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1543 to 1548. He
was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel Royal by 1552.

SHIELD, WILLIAM (1748/49–1829). Composer, writer, violist, and song col-

lector. Shield was born in County Durham (there is no clear baptismal record of
his birth). He had early lessons with his father, a music teacher, and studied with
Charles Avison at Newcastle. He played violin in local concerts in Newcastle
and worked as a bandleader in Scarborough and Durham before moving to Lon-
don in 1772. In London he played violin and then viola at the King’s Theatre,
Haymarket (1772–91), and was house composer at Covent Garden from 1784

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 SILAS, EDOUARD • 273

to 1797. From 1797 to 1817 he held no permanent position but was regarded as
an important composer and violist. He composed music for more than 36 op-
eras, afterpieces, and other dramatic works. With the famous antiquarian Joseph
Ritson, Shield published collections of English songs (1793) and Scottish songs
(1794); other folk songs were included in his 1800 Introduction to Harmony and
Rudiments of Thoroughbass. Shield was a member of the Society of Musicians
(1777), was a founding member of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1813),
and was Master of the King’s Music from 1817 until his death.

SHORE. Prominent musical family in Restoration London:

Matthias (d. 1700)—Trumpeter

William (d. 1700)—Trumpeter
John (ca. 1662–1752)—Trumpeter and lutanist
Catherine (1669–1734)—Singer-actress

The Shore family collectively led the court trumpet establishment for over
six decades: Matthias became serjeant-trumpeter in 1687, followed by his son
William in 1700, who was followed by his brother John in 1707, who held the
post until his death. John was reputedly also the inventor of the tuning fork.
Sir John Hawkins gives a significant description of John’s playing, noting
that he “had extended the power of that noble instrument [the trumpet] . .
. beyond the reach of imagination, for he produced from it a tone as sweet
as that of a hautboy,” confirming that the trumpet was not only martial, but
also an instrument of refinement. Hawkins also suggests that John suffered a
disabling lip injury from playing.
One particularly famous reference to the family surfaces in the text to
Henry Purcell’s “Come, Ye Sons of Art” (1694): the aria, “Sound the Trum-
pet”—significantly sung without trumpets—contains the line “You make the
listening shores rebound,” a compelling pun in that with no trumpet part here,
the Shores in the orchestra for the ode (likely Matthias and William) would
have had no other choice but to be “listening.”
Matthias’s daughter, Catherine, described by Hawkins as a student of
Purcell, was a singer-actress on the London stage and the wife of the famous
actor and theater manager Colley Cibber, whom she married in 1693.

SILAS, EDOUARD (1827–1909). Organist, pianist, teacher, and composer

of Dutch origin. After training on piano and composition, including time
spent at the Paris Conservatoire, Silas settled in England in 1850. He held
various positions, including organist of a Roman Catholic chapel in Kings-
ton and teacher of harmony at both the Guildhall School of Music and the

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 274 • SIMPSON, CHRISTOPHER

London Academy of Music. His compositions included symphonies, a mass,

cantatas, and an oratorio, Joash, premiered at the Norwich Musical Festi-
val in 1863. See also ORGAN.

SIMPSON, CHRISTOPHER (1602/6–69). Violist, composer, and writer.

Simpson’s compositions and his career as a violist exemplify the cultivation
of virtuosic, florid division playing that rose to the fore during the interreg-
num. Enjoying the patronage of Sir Robert Bolles, Simpson wrote the Divi-
sion-Violist (1659; revised as Chelys/The Division Viol, 1665) for the instruc-
tion of Sir Roberts’s son, John. This highly regarded didactic work combined
instruction in playing the viol, descant, and divisions upon a ground. In 1665
Simpson also published his theoretical treatise, The Principles of Practical
Musick (later revised as A Compendium of Practical Musick, 1667), praised
by the likes of Henry Purcell as “the most Ingenious Book I e’re met with
upon this Subject.” Although by the late 18th century Simpson’s style and, in-
deed, his instrument had passed out of fashion, Charles Burney still praised
him as “a musician extremely celebrated for his skill in the practice of his art,
and abilities on his particular instrument.” His compositions, unsurprisingly,
include a large number of division pieces, but also virtuosic fantasia-suites.

SMART, SIR GEORGE THOMAS (1776–1867). Conductor, impresario,

organist, singing teacher, and composer brother of Henry Smart and uncle
of Henry Thomas Smart. Smart was one of the major conductors of the
first half of the 19th century and a well-regarded teacher of singing; his
interpretations of George Frideric Handel’s arias were particularly sought
after. His journals and annotated programs (held at the British Library) are
a rich source of information about contemporary music, gleaned from both
his own experience as a conductor and his travels to the Continent. He con-
ducted—from the keyboard—many of the major musical festivals held in
England between 1820 and 1840, including those at Bath, Cambridge, Derby,
Hull, Liverpool, London (such as the 1834 Handel Festival at Westminster
Abbey), Manchester, and Norwich. In addition, he was a founding member
of the Royal Philharmonic Society, conducting 49 concerts between 1813
and 1849; one of the founders of the Bach Society (1854); the first chairman
of the Royal College of Organists (1864); and conductor of the Lenten Ora-
torios at Drury Lane (1813–25) and the City Amateur Concerts (1818–22).
Smart was trained at the Chapel Royal (1783–93), where he was later ap-
pointed organist (1822) and composer (1838). Early in his career, he worked
variously as a keyboardist, a teacher of singing, an opera singer, and an impre-
sario, as well as a conductor. He was knighted in 1811 by the Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland in appreciation for a series of concerts given in Dublin in that year.

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 SMITH, “FATHER” BERNARD • 275

SMART, HENRY (1778–1823). Violinist and violist; brother of Sir George

Thomas Smart and father of Henry Thomas Smart. Smart studied violin
with Wilhelm Cramer and joined the orchestras at Covent Garden, the
Academy of Ancient Music, and the Concerts of Ancient Music in 1792.
He led the orchestra at the Lyceum Theatre (1809–12) and at Drury Lane
(1812–21), including performances of the Lenten Oratorios under the baton
of his brother. He also played regularly for the Royal Philharmonic Society.
In 1821 he founded a piano factory on Berners Street in London.

SMART, HENRY THOMAS (1813–79). Organist, organ designer, com-

poser, and music critic; son of Henry Smart and nephew of Sir George
Thomas Smart. Smart was known during his time as an opponent of plain-
song, a great extemporizer, and an expert on all aspects of organ building.
He was educated at Highgate School, and turned down careers in engineer-
ing, the military, and law before turning to music. He was mostly self-taught
on the organ. He held organist positions at the Parish Church at Blackurn,
Lancashire (1831–36); St. Philips, Regent Street (1836–44); St. Luke’s, Old
Street (1844–64); and St. Pancras New Church, Woburn Place (1864–79).
This last church remained an evangelical “low church” without a choir until
his death; he led a group of 40 boys to support the unison singing. He was
a music critic for the Atlas from 1836. He was cofounder of the Vocal As-
sociation (1855) with Sir Julius Benedict and of the Bach Society (1854).
During his life Smart was a well-regarded composer of dramatic vocal
works, anthems, services, and partsongs. His opera Bertha was performed
at Haymarket in 1855, and oratorio Jacob at Glasgow in 1873. Smart’s can-
tata The Bride of Dunkerron premiered at the Birmingham Musical Festival
in 1864 and remained a popular staple of choral societies until World War
I. Organs that he designed were placed in the Town Hall of Leeds and St.
Adrian’s Hall and the City Hall in Glasgow.

SMETHERGELL, WILLIAM (ca. 1751–ca. 1836). Organist, violist,

teacher, and composer active principally in London. Smethergell was princi-
pal violist at the Vauxhall pleasure gardens and had symphonies performed
there; he was organist at All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower (1770–1823),
and St. Mary-at-Hill (1775–1826). Aside from symphonies, he composed
numerous keyboard works and concertos.

SMITH, “FATHER” BERNARD (ca. 1630–1708). Organ builder. An

émigré organ builder, Smith relocated to England in the early years of the
Restoration, placing him (along with his competitor, Renatus Harris) as a
central figure in rebuilding the English organ culture, dismantled by Puritan

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 276 • SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER AND SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER

rule. Smith is associated with instruments at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford;

Christ Church, Oxford; Durham Cathedral; and St. Margaret’s, Westminster
(where he became the organist, as well), but he is most famously associated
with the Temple Church. There, he and Harris entered into unusually overt
competition—each built an instrument to be judged in situ—with Smith even-
tually getting the nod. He held a royal appointment as organ maker from 1671
until the year of his death.

SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER (THE ELDER; 1683–1762/63), AND

SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER (THE YOUNGER; 1712–95). The for-
mer was George Frideric Handel’s amanuensis and treasurer and the latter
his assistant, composer, and organist. Smith, the elder, was a German friend
of Handel’s from student years in Halle who came to London in 1716 under
Handel’s wing and became his chief copyist and treasurer. Smith, the younger,
was a pupil of Handel, Thomas Roseingrave, and Johann Christoph
Pepusch who composed both Italian opera and Handelian-styled oratorio,
as well as functioning as an assistant to Handel, playing a significant role in
bringing works to performance during the years of the composer’s blindness.
The younger Smith was also organist of the Foundling Hospital from 1754 to
1770, a venue importantly associated with benefit performances of Messiah.

SMITH, JOHN STAFFORD (1780–1836). Composer, organist, and early

musicologist. Smith is best known today as an antiquarian and collector of
2,191 volumes of music, including such items as the Old Hall Manuscript.
He published the first antiquary edition of English music, A Collection of
English Song in 1779, and a series of English and continental transcriptions
entitled Musical Antiquaries in 1812. He also put his considerable collection
of manuscripts at the disposal of Sir John Hawkins when the latter worked
on his history of music.
Smith was the son of a Gloucester Cathedral organist, sent to London to
study with William Boyce. He became a chorister of the Chapel Royal in
1761, was made a gentleman there in 1784, and was its organist from 1802
until his death and master of the children from 1805 to 1817. He was also
named a Lay Vicar of Westminster Abbey in 1785. During his life, Smith was
known as a composer of glees, including “The Anacreontic Song,” written for
the London Anacreontic Society and now used as the tune of Francis Scott
Key’s “Star Spangled Banner.”

SMITH, THEODORE (ALSO THEODOR SCHMIDT; ca. 1740–ca.

1810). Composer and keyboard player of German birth. Smith was likely born
in Hanover and was performing in London by 1766. He played concerts at
Hickford’s Room and composed for the pleasure gardens and theaters of

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 SNOW, VALENTINE • 277

London. Smith’s output includes keyboard works, symphonies, and songs—es-

pecially for his wife, the singer Maria Harris. When Harris left Smith for a “Mr.
Bishop,” Smith was devastated and took employment at a school for poor girls
in Chiswick. He was also the organist at Ebury Chapel, London, by ca. 1795.

SMYTH, DAME ETHEL (1858–1944). Composer, writer, and conductor.

Smyth was one of the most important and powerful voices promoting the cause
of women as composers and orchestral performers in the late 19th and early
20th centuries, and one of the original voices of the second generation of the
English Musical Renaissance. Smyth was born into a middle-class family
and began playing piano and singing early, as a matter of course. She attended
the Leipzig Conservatory (1877–78) but left after a year, staying in the city to
study privately with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. Smyth remained in Europe
for over a decade and, through von Herzogenberg’s circle, met Brahms, Clara
Schumann, and other composers. Her compositions in the 1880s focused on
chamber music and had many public and private performances.
By 1890 Smyth returned to London and began working on orchestral and
large-scale vocal works, including the Mass in D (1893) and the operas
Fantasio (Weimar, 1898), Der Wald (Berlin, 1902), The Wreckers (Leipzig,
1906), and The Boatswain’s Mate (London, 1916). As the cities of premieres
in the above list indicates, Smyth frequently found it easier to have her works
performed on the Continent than in London; The Wreckers, perhaps her most
important opera, was not heard in the city until 1909.
In the 1910s Smyth turned briefly to Suffrage work, writing “The March
of the Women” (1911), one of the two main anthems of the movement (the
other was Teresa del Reigo’s “The Awakening” [1911]). During World
War I, she worked as a radiologist in France and discovered her hearing was
deteriorating. Following the war, she resumed composing both instrumental
works and opera, including Entente Cordiale (London, 1925), and started
conducting revivals of earlier works and broadcasting. She also began writing
a series of memoirs of her life, including Impressions That Remained (1919),
Streaks of Life (1921), A Final Burning of Boats, Etc. (1928), Female Pip-
ings in Eden (1934), As Time Went On . . . (1936), and What Happened Next
(1940). Smyth was named DBE in 1922 and received an honorary doctorate
from Oxford University in 1926.

SNOW, VALENTINE (ca. 1700–1770). Trumpeter. Snow, the successor to

John Shore as serjeant-trumpeter in 1753, is best known as the trumpeter for
whom George Frideric Handel wrote a number of his most notable trumpet
parts, including those in Messiah, Atalanta, and Samson, inter alia. Charles
Burney’s reference to Snow’s part in the overture to Atalanta is particularly
interesting for its comment on the persistent tuning difficulties of certain

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 278 • SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF NEW MUSIC

harmonics on the natural trumpet: “the trumpet part, intended to display the
tone and abilities of Snow . . . had fewer notes that are naturally and inevitably
imperfect in the instrument, than common.” Burney also offers strong praise
for Snow’s playing at Vauxhall Gardens: “Valentine Snow, afterwards ser-
jeant trumpet, was justly a favourite here [at Vauxhall Gardens], where his
silver sounds in the open air, by having room to expand, never arrived at the
ears of the audience in a manner too powerful or piercing.”

SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF NEW MUSIC (SPNM). Orga-

nization founded in 1943 to promote the music of younger British composers,
now called Sound and Music after merging in 2008 with the British Music
Information Centre, the Contemporary Music Network, and the Sonic Arts Net-
work. Activities included promoting new music on the British Broadcasting
Corporation as well as seminars to expose younger composers to acknowl-
edged masters. Past presidents include Benjamin Britten, Dame Elizabeth
Maconchy, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. See also SEIBER, MÁTYÁS.

SOCIETY OF BRITISH MUSICIANS. Organization extant between 1834

and 1865 devoted to promoting British music. Membership in the society
was confined to indigenous British musicians, and the organization received
little notice in the press. Its concert series presented premieres of more than
70 chamber works.

SOCIETY OF FEMALE MUSICIANS. See ROYAL SOCIETY OF FE-

MALE MUSICIANS.

SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS. See ROYAL SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS.

SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL FEMALE MUSICIANS. See ROYAL

SOCIETY OF FEMALE MUSICIANS.

SOCIETY OF WOMEN MUSICIANS. Cooperative organization for

women in music founded in 1911. The society created a library and founded
a choir, a lecture series, and a concert series. Most of the important female
musicians of the middle of the 20th century, including Rebecca Clarke,
Imogen Holst, Liza Lehmann, Dame Elizabeth Maconchy, and Dame
Ethel Smyth were members; it also allowed men to participate as associate
members. The society disbanded in 1972.

SOMERVELL, SIR ARTHUR (1863–1937). Composer and music educa-

tor. Somervell held great influence during the first three decades of the 20th

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 SQUARE • 279

century as a teacher at the Royal College of Music (RCM; appointed 1894)

and as an inspector of music for the Board of Education (appointed 1901;
chief inspector, 1920; retired 1928). As a composer, he was well known for
his choral works, including the cantatas Helen of Kirkconnel (Bristol, 1894)
and the Forsaken Merman (Leeds, 1898), the oratorio the Passion of Christ
(1914), as well as his song cycles, such as that on Tennyson’s Maud (1898).
Somervell was educated at the Uppingham School and King’s College,
Cambridge (where he studied with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford); he com-
pleted his musical studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik (1883–85) and
the RCM (1885–87, where he studied with Sir Hubert Parry). He was long
associated with the competition musical festivals, especially the Kendall
Festival. Somervell was knighted (KB) in 1929.

SPEM IN ALIUM. Motet in 40 parts by Thomas Tallis. Few works of

Renaissance polyphony can rival Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium in either
grandeur or scale. Scored for 40 independent voices configured in eight dif-
ferent choirs, the motet is a compositional tour de force that combines master-
ful architectural control with rare sumptuousness of sound. In the main, the
motet proceeds through its vast landscape as an imitative chain linking the
various choirs, one by one, and then back again. To this basic framework,
Tallis also adds ten-voice antiphonal dialogue and a few instances of full tutti,
sometimes with active counterpoint, but never more memorably than with
homophonic acclamations on the word respice (“consider”).
An early 17th-century anecdote in the Commonplace Book of Thomas
Wateridge suggests that the motet was written at the behest of an English
nobleman (presumably Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk) in response to
the performance of an Italian work in “30 parts.” The anecdote further states
that Tallis’s work was sung in the “long gallery at Arundel House,” the home
of the Earl of Arundel, Norfolk’s father-in-law. Significantly, the earl also
owned Nonsuch Palace, whose library at one time held a now-lost copy of “A
songe of fortie partes, made by Mr. Tallys,” confirmed in a catalogue of 1596.
Davitt Moroney (2007) proposes that the Earl of Arundel was a likely
person to have sponsored the unnamed Italian work, and proposes that the
recently rediscovered Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno by Alessandro Strig-
gio, a mass in 40 and 60 parts, was a likely work to have instigated Tallis’s
response in the form of this extravagant motet. Earlier scholarship had cast
Striggio’s 40-voice motet, Ecce beatam lucem, in this role.

SQUARE. Mensural, monophonic melody derived from the bottom voice of

preexistent polyphony for cantus-firmus use in liturgical composition and im-
provisation, especially in the context of the Lady Mass. Three masses “upon

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 280 • STAGGINS, NICHOLAS

the square” by William Whytbroke and William Mundy appear in the Gyffard
Partbooks. These masses are cantus-firmus works, and some of their scaffold
melodies also appear in a separate monophonic source likely compiled to be
an anthology of squares (Bent, NG, 2001). Additionally, Nicholas Ludford’s
Lady Masses are alternatim works employing squares. Wulstan (1985) sug-
gests that, as the monophonic alternatim sections—the squares—are not under-
laid, they were to be used as cantus firmus for organ improvisation.

STAGGINS, NICHOLAS (?–1700). Violinist, wind player, and composer.

Staggins began his career at court in the royal violin band in 1670, quickly
also claiming an appointment as a wind player. In 1674 he become Master
of His Majesty’s Violins, to be followed shortly by appointment as Master
of the King’s Music in the same year, succeeding Louis Grabu, an appoint-
ment he held until his death in 1700 when he was succeeded by John Eccles.
Modern assessment of Staggins’s compositions tends to be unenthusiastic,
and Holman (1993) suggests this lack of enthusiasm may have extended to the
contemporaneous view as well, noting the scant survival of his works. Staggins
is best known as the composer for the court masque Calisto (1674/75), a work
performed on a grand scale with as many as 51 instrumentalists taking part both
in front of the stage and behind the scene. His theatrical interests were furthered,
no doubt, in travels on the Continent in the mid-1670s following Calisto.

STAINER, SIR JOHN (1840–1901). Composer, musicologist, and organ-

ist. Stainer was one of the most important pedagogical figures of the English
Musical Renaissance; the reforms he introduced in his various profes-
sional positions—as organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, regarding rehearsals,
attendance, and salary (1872–88); as His Majesty’s Inspector of Music in
Elementary Schools, advocating movable doh and Tonic Sol-fa over fixed
doh (1883–88); and as professor of music at Oxford University, publish-
ing lecture schedules and assigning teaching duties based on specialization
(1889–99)—all helped to reorganize and strengthen these institutions. His
formal academic work, including editing a volume of Christmas carols
(1871), a monograph on Guillaume Dufay (1898), and an edition entitled
Early Bodlean Music (1901), as well as papers presented before the Royal
Musical Association, was matched by his pedagogical primers on the organ
(1877) and harmony (1878) and a dictionary of musical terms (1876).
Stainer’s long association with St. Paul’s Cathedral began when he was
named a probationer (1848), then a chorister (1849); he began deputizing there
as an organist by 1856. Early in his career he held posts of organist at St. Benet,
Paul’s Wharf (1854); St. Michael’s College, Tenbury Wells (1857); Magda-
len College, Oxford (1860); and organist to Oxford University (1861). While

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 STANFORD, SIR CHARLES VILLIERS • 281

at Oxford, he took many degrees (BMus, 1859; BA, 1864; DMus, 1865; and
MA 1866), founded numerous societies, including the Oxford Orpheus Society
(1865) and the Oxford Philharmonic Society (1866), and directed others. While
organist at St. Paul’s and before returning to Oxford, Stainer also taught organ
at the National Training School for Music (a forerunner of the Royal College
of Music; 1876) and was its principal (1881–83), and was one of the instigators
of the Royal Musical Association (president, 1889–1901).
Stainer’s compositions include musical festival works, such as the orato-
rios The Daughter of Jarius (Three Choirs—Worcester, 1878) and St. Mary
Magdalen (Three Choirs—Gloucester, 1883), hymns, services, and an-
thems; but his most famous work, frequently performed in his lifetime, the
organ-accompanied oratorio The Crucifixion, was completed for St. Maryle-
bone Parish Church (1887). Stainer was knighted in 1888.

STANFORD, SIR CHARLES VILLIERS (1852–1924). Composer,

teacher, and conductor of Irish birth. Along with Sir Hubert Parry and Sir
Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, Stanford was part of the first generation
of great composers of the English Musical Renaissance. He was an im-
portant force, both compositionally and pedagogically. Stanford composed
within most of the genres available to him at the time, succeeding in all save
opera, and his students (including Sir Arthur Bliss, Frank Bridge, Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, Sir George Dyson, Ivor Gurney, Gustav Holst, Her-
bert Howells, John Ireland, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, among others)
carried his legacy far into the 20th century.
Stanford was born and raised in Dublin by a professional family; he was
grounded in the classics and amateur music-making (including study of vio-
lin, piano, and organ). Stanford’s early training also included meetings with
Joseph Joachim in 1862, as well as trips to London in 1862, 1864, and 1868,
where he studied with Ernst Pauer and attended concerts at the Crystal
Palace. Stanford was named a choral scholar at Queen’s College, Cambridge,
in 1870 and began classical studies there in 1871; he took a BA in 1874 and
an MA in 1878. In these years he became the assistant conductor (1871) and
then conductor (1873–93) of the Cambridge University Musical Society and
the organist of Trinity College (1874–92).
Stanford was granted leave for the last six months of the years 1874,
1875, and 1876 to study on the Continent with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig and
Frederich Kiel in Berlin. From 1877 to 1887, when he was named professor
of music at Cambridge, his reputation as a composer and conductor steadily
grew, and he was appointed professor of composition and conductor of the
orchestra at the newly formed Royal College of Music (RCM) in 1883;
he ceased conducting the orchestra there only in 1921. The positions at the

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 282 • STANLEY, JOHN

RCM and Cambridge led to further important appointments, including that

as director of the Bach Choir (1886–1902), the Leeds Philharmonic Society
(1897–1909), and the Leeds Musical Festival (1901–10), as well as three
commissions from the Birmingham Musical Festival for large-scale choral
works, namely the oratorios Three Holy Children (1885) and Eden (1891)
as well as the Requiem (1897). His symphonies and choral works were per-
formed internationally. In his later years, Stanford’s music fell out of favor,
and he criticized modern techniques and trends in various editorial-style
writings, but much of his liturgical choral music maintains a place within the
Anglican tradition. Stanford was knighted in 1902.

STANLEY, JOHN (1712–86). Organist, violinist, and composer. Stanley

was blinded at the age of two, “falling on the marble hearth with a china
bason in his hand” (Charles Burney). Studying under Maurice Greene, he
achieved acclaim as organist of St. Andrew’s, Holborn. His apparently prodi-
gious memory enabled a diverse music career that included directing George
Frideric Handel’s oratorios at Covent Garden and elsewhere and, notably,
performances of Messiah at the Foundling Hospital in 1775–77.
As a composer Stanley wrote concerti grossi in the tradition of Arcangelo
Corelli (1742), although later in his life his approach to the concerto moved
to the ritornello style, as in op. 10 (1775). He was also a prolific composer
of English cantatas and a few oratorios. However, he is best known for his
voluntaries, organ works that helped to solidify a two-movement form in
which the first movement for principal stop is slow, featuring some imitation
and often suspensions; the second movement, a fast movement, features a
solo stop (trumpet or cornet) and echoing phrases.
Toward the end of his life (1779), he received appointment as Master of the
King’s Band, reflecting his status as an “extraordinary musician” (Burney).

STORACE, STEPHEN (1762–96). Composer. Storace’s career in England

was short but included numerous innovations in opera borrowed from conti-
nental sources, such as action finales in The Pirates (1792) and The Cherokee
(1794). Born in England to an Italian father, Storace studied harpsichord and
violin before studying at the San Onofrio Conservatory in Naples. He per-
formed in Florence with his sister, the singer Nancy Storace (the first Susanna
in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Vienna’s prima donna
between 1783 and 1787) in 1774. Though nominally based in England in the
early 1780s, he composed two Viennese comic operas, Gli sposi malcontenti
(1785) and Gli equivoci (1786). When he and his sister settled permanently in
London in 1787, he composed for King’s Theatre, Haymarket, until 1789,
when the theater burned down, and again during 1792–93 and 1793–94 with

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 SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR SEYMOUR • 283

the singer Michael Kelly, and at Drury Lane for Thomas Linley (the elder).
His compositions remained popular for several decades after his death.

SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR SEYMOUR (1842–1900). Composer and

conductor. Sullivan was the most famous composer in Great Britain during
his own lifetime. While many of his non-operetta compositions were highly
praised and successful, he was best known internationally because of his op-
eretta collaborations with Sir William Schwenk Gilbert. Born into a musical
family (his father was a bandmaster at Sandhurst and later a clarinet teacher
at the Royal Military School of Music), Sullivan early learned elements of or-
chestration. He was admitted late as a singer to the Chapel Royal (1854–57)
and won the Mendelssohn Scholarship, funding initially a year of study at
the Royal Academy of Music (2; 1856, where he worked with Sir William
Sterndale Bennett and John Goss), and then time in Leipzig (1859–61;
studying with Ignaz Moscheles and Julius Rietz).
Sullivan returned to London and spent the 1860s establishing a reputation
within most of the grand genres, presenting works for musical festivals, such
as the cantata Kennilworth (Birmingham, 1864) and the oratorio The Prodigal
Son (Three Choirs—Worcester, 1869), a symphony (1866), a cello concerto
(1866), as well as incidental music for numerous plays. During this time, he
also composed a great deal of chamber music and religious music, including
anthems and hymn tunes (including “Onward, Christian Soldiers” [1871]).
Other contemporary famous work includes the song “The Lost Chord” (1877),
popular in parlor concerts in the last decades of the century and frequently
sung to Sullivan’s accompaniment by his longtime mistress, Mary Frances
(“Fanny”) Ronalds. Sullivan also took on a typical variety of professional en-
gagements, such as organist (1861–72), first at St. Michael’s, Chester Square,
and then St. Peter’s, Cranley Gardens, and conductor of the Civil Service Music
Society and the Glasgow Choral Union (1875–77). For a time he was also the
principal of the National Training School for Music (1876–81).
Sullivan began to work in operetta in 1866 with The Sapphire Necklace,
to a libretto by Henry Frothergill Chorley. His first collaboration with Gil-
bert, Thespis, came in 1871 (most of the music for this composition is lost).
An additional collaboration, Trial by Jury (1875), led to a formal partnership
between the two, brokered by Richard D’Oyly Carte and the formation of the
D’Oyly Carte Opera Company; in all, 13 operettas came from this partner-
ship, many of which are still in repertoire today, including H.M.S. Pinafore
(1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1880), and The Mikado (1885). The
partnership did not always run smoothly; Sullivan often felt that his music
was being held back by Gilbert’s words, and he felt considerable pressure to
abandon popular operetta in order to pursue more “serious” genres.

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 284 • “SUMER IS ICUMEN IN”

In the 1880s until his death, Sullivan therefore established himself in other
parts of the musical world, conducting the Leeds Musical Festival (1880–99);
for this organization he composed both the oratorio The Martyr of Antioch
(1880) and the cantata The Golden Legend (1886), and both received hun-
dreds of performances by choral societies during his lifetime. He also con-
ducted the Royal Philharmonic Society (1885–87) and composed his only
grand opera, Ivanhoe (1891; libretto by Julius Sturgis after the novel by Sir
Walter Scott). While little known today, it ran for 160 performances, in a
theater specially built for it by D’Oyly Carte. In the decade after his death,
the critical press savaged his reputation as a composer, but Sullivan’s music
remains popular to this day, with performances by both professional and
amateur companies; many “G & S” societies, started in the 19th and 20th
centuries, continue to thrive. Sullivan was knighted in 1883 and named to the
RVO in 1897.

“SUMER IS ICUMEN IN.” Known as the “Reading Rota” or the “Sum-

mer Canon,” “Sumer is icumen in” is preserved in GB lbl Harl. 978, written
around 1250. The canon, in modern reception one of the Middle Age’s best-
known works, is a four-voice construction (the rota) over a two-voice pes,
which gives an interlocked (via Stimmtausch) ground pattern. Significantly,
the use of the repeating ground pattern may also link the composition to the
tenor-based motet, evolving at the same time. The manuscript records some
alterations to the melody as well as a later stemming of the note characters,
pointing to a continuing engagement of the work. The manuscript also in-
cludes a Latin Easter text, Perspice, christicola, as a contrafactum to the
secular summer text. Some (Obst, 1983) have proposed that the contrafactum
was the original text.

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 T
TALBOT, JAMES (1664–1708). Writer on music. Talbot was Regius Pro-
fessor of Hebrew at Cambridge from 1699 to 1704, although his interests and
energies extended to an important consideration of musical instruments, re-
corded in a manuscript at Christ Church, Oxford (GB Och Music Ms. 1187),
a manuscript once owned by the music collector Henry Aldrich. Talbot
seems to have had a close friendship with Henry Purcell as well, noting in
his copy of Purcell’s Dioclesian that it was a gift from Purcell’s own library
and that in death Purcell was “mourned by many but by nobody more than by
his friend and admirer James Talbot” (trans. Unwin, 1987). Talbot also wrote
commemorative poetry on the death of Purcell.

TALLIS, THOMAS (ca. 1505–85). Composer and organist. Tallis is not

only one of the most prominent of 16th-century English composers, but ow-
ing to his longevity in royal service, he is an icon of the religious turbulence
of the day. A memorial at Greenwich, no longer extant, observed:

He serv’d long Time in Chappell with grete prayse,

Fower Soverenes Reynes (a Thing not often seen)
I mean Kyng Henry and Prynce Edward’s Dayes,
Queene Mary, and Elizabeth our Queene.

Tallis’s works span the richness of pre-Reformation counterpoint, the Cran-

merian constraints of an emerging Anglican devotional style, the floridity
of the return of Romanism under Mary Tudor and Cardinal Pole, and the
stylistic breadth of Elizabeth’s reign. And while there is surely a degree to
which his range represents a technical adaptability that is impressive indeed,
it is also much the case that the range represents the pragmatic demands of
the day.
Tallis held brief appointments at Dover Priory and the Parish Church of St.
Mary-at-Hill, London, prior to his work at Waltham Abbey (1538–40). The
dissolution of the monasteries under Thomas Cromwell led to the closing
of the abbey. Tallis briefly resurfaced at Canterbury and by 1543–44 was a

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 286 • TALLIS, THOMAS

gentleman of the Chapel Royal, an appointment he held until his death some
40 years later.
Like his Chapel Royal colleague William Byrd, Tallis may well have been
Roman Catholic, a supposition supported by his relationship with the recus-
ant Anthony Roper. And in this light, motets like the penitential “In jejunio”
may take on added personal resonance (“ . . . et ne des hereditatem tuam in
perditionem” [and give not thine inheritance to perdition]) in the same man-
ner as Byrd’s motets on themes of the desolation of Jerusalem (“Ne irascaris,”
for example).
The votive antiphon best captures Tallis’s florid, “Roman” style and its
links to the sonorous world of the Eton Choirbook. The early “Salve in-
temerata” and the impressively large-scale “Gaude gloriosa” are important
examples, the latter perhaps from the resurgence of Romanism under Mary
Tudor. This resurgence would provide the impetus for one of Tallis’s most
splendid works, the seven-voice Missa Puer natus, perhaps sung in 1544
by the combined chapels of Mary and her Spanish husband, Philip II. Tallis
here brings not only an expansive sense of sonority but at the same time also
a rigorous rational control of the writing; vowels of the unsung text to the
cantus firmus, for instance, systematically unfold a scheme for the mensural
durations of the melody.
Some of Tallis’s English music clearly reflects the emerging Protestant
idioms of the day. The anthems “Hear the Voice and Prayer” and the well-
known “If Ye Love Me,” both from the Wanley Partbooks, are simple and
largely syllabic, with ample chordal homophony to secure the integrity of the
text, and yet with a degree of undeveloped imitation to lend grace. Tallis also
treated the metrical psalm with nine harmonized settings for Archbishop
Matthew Parker’s Psalter (1567). Two of these psalms have gained particular
modern familiarity; “The Third Tune” (“Why Fumeth in Fight”) is the basis
of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and
“The Eighth Tune” (“God graunt with grace”) presents in a more extended
form the hymn melody known as the “Tallis Canon.”
The Elizabethan via media in piety would give the Latin motet a renewed
life in England, drawing on such factors as the monarch’s taste for ceremony
and the existence of a Latin prayer book (Liber precum publicarum, translated
by Walter Haddon) for use at the universities. Byrd and Tallis’s collaborative
anthology, Cantiones Sacrae (1575), is an important example; significantly,
its dedication to Elizabeth implies the royal approval of the genre. The an-
thology, the first publishing venture of Byrd and Tallis under their monopoly
for the printing of music, presents 17 motets from each composer, perhaps
a numerical salute to the 17th year of the monarch’s reign. The Latin motet
Spem in alium, also with an English contrafactum, “Sing and Glorify,” is

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 TE DEUM • 287

Tallis’s tour de force composition in 40 parts, written perhaps in response to

Alessandro Striggio’s Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno.
Although overshadowed by his vocal church music, Tallis wrote both litur-
gical and nonliturgical keyboard pieces, the former cantus-firmus based, as
well as a few consort In nomines and secular partsongs.

“TALLIS” FANTASIA. See FANTASIA ON A THEME BY THOMAS TALLIS.

TAVERNER, JOHN (ca. 1490–1545). Composer. Taverner emerges as

one of the most significant composers of the reign of Henry VIII. Caldwell
(OHEM, vol. 1) compellingly underscores his melodic gift and “superlative
command of contrapuntal resources,” as well as his combination of the dis-
tinctive traits of his contemporaries: “[William] Cornysh’s clarity of texture,
[Robert] Fayrfax’s sensitivity to the text, [and] [Nicholas] Ludford’s gran-
deur of design.” His compositions include several large-scale cantus-firmus
masses, of which the Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas furnishes the model for the
popular consort In nomine. Other masses include a variation setting on the
secular song “Western Wynde” (also known as “Western Wind”). Unsur-
prisingly, votive antiphons also figure prominently in his output, reflecting
the statutory requirement for three antiphons to be sung after Compline at
Cardinal College (later Christ Church), Oxford, where Taverner was infor-
mator choristarum from the college’s opening in 1526 until 1530. With the
political demise and death of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the college’s patron,
Taverner moved to Boston (Lincolnshire), where he was associated with St.
Boltolph’s and the Guild of St. Mary until 1537.
Older accounts of Taverner’s life have built a picture of a reform-minded
zealot, repentant of having “made songs to popish ditties” (Foxe’s Book of
Martyrs, 1563), involved in the suppression of the monasteries, and a figure
who had stopped composing by 1530. Modern scholarship (see for instance
Bowers, NG, 2001) has found little to support these claims, however. In
1528 Taverner was implicated in a purge of illegal books at Oxford, but his
prosecution was dismissed. Additionally, he was involved ten years later in
the removal of the rood in the Boston parish church, but these instances fall
short of the traditional depiction of the composer as religious fanatic. Peter
Maxwell Davies’ opera, Taverner (1962–68) gives modern voice to the tra-
ditional view.

TE DEUM. The Te Deum, whose origins are traditionally held to have been
joyfully extemporized by St. Augustine and St. Ambrose at Augustine’s bap-
tism, was liturgically prescribed as a hymn of praise at the end of Sunday
Matins, but it also emerged as a standard song of state celebration. See for

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 288 • THEORBO

instance William Shakespeare’s Henry V, IV/viii, commanding after the

victory at Agincourt:

Do we all holy rites;

Let there be sung “Non nobis” and “Te Deum;”
The dead with charity enclosed in clay:
And then to Calais; and to England then:
Where ne’er from France arrived more happy men.

It reappears as the vernacular “We Praise Thee, O God” as one of the morn-
ing canticles in the Book of Common Prayer. As such, many composers of
the 19th century and beyond set it in polyphonic versions, either quoting its
melody, as heard in Henry Smart’s Service in F, or within its own context,
such as Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s Morning Service in C major, op. 115.
A number of composers also used the Te Deum as the basis for large-scale mu-
sical festival works, including Sir Arthur Sullivan (1872), Stanford (1898),
Sir Hubert Parry (1911), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1928), and Sir William
Walton, whose 1953 version was heard at the Coronation of Elizabeth II.

THEORBO. A form of lute with an extended neck, accommodating longer

stopped courses than found on the conventional lute, and a second peg-box
for unstopped diatonic courses in the bass range. The stopped courses employ
reentrant tuning. Originating in Italy, where it was nominally interchangeable
with the chitarrone, it was introduced into England in the early 17th century,
possibly by Inigo Jones or the composer Angelo Notari (Spencer, 1976), where
it had a long usage in the continuo accompaniment of vocal music for much
of the century. Both Thomas Mace and John Wilson offer solo music for the
theorbo, as well, though solo repertory was always a secondary concern. In
Musick’s Monument (1676), Mace gives a compelling description of the instru-
ment, though he unusually puts it forth as an echo of “the old English lute”:

The Theorboe, is no other, than That which we call’d the Old English Lute; and
is an Instrument of so much Excellency, and Worth, and of so Great Good Use,
That in dispite of all Fickleness, and Novelty, It is still made use of, in the Best
Performances in Musick, (Namely, Vocal Musick.)
But because, I said It was the Old English Lute, It may be ask’d, Why is It not
then still so Call’d; but by the Name of the Theorboe?
I Answer, That although It be the Old English Lute, yet as to the Use of It
Generally, there is This Difference, viz. The Old Lute was Chiefly us’d, as we
now use our French Lutes, (So call’d’) that is, only to Play Lone-Lessons upon,
&c. But the Theorboe-Lute is Principally us’d in Playing to the Voice, or in
Consort; It being a Lute of the Largest Scize; and we make It much more Large

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 TIPPETT, SIR MICHAEL KEMP • 289

in Sound, by contriving unto It a Long Head, to Augment and Increase that

Sound, and Fulness of the Basses, or Diapasons, which are a great Ornament
to the Voice, or Consort.

THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850–92). Composer. Until his suicide,

Thomas was considered one of the best dramatic composers of his time. His
choral ode The Sun-Worshippers (Norwich, 1881) was a staple on the English
musical festival circuit, and his opera Esmeralda (1883), written for the Carl
Rosa Opera Company, was extremely popular in England and abroad. Thom-
as’s family wished a career in the civil service for him. He turned from this path
to study music in Paris with Émile Duran (1873–75). Thomas later studied with
Sir Arthur Sullivan and Ebenezer Prout at the Royal Academy of Music (2;
1877–80) and began to make his way as a dramatic composer. Thomas’s period
of creativity lasted from about 1878 to the completion of his opera Nadeshda in
1885; after this, composition was fitful. His last works were finished by others,
including The Golden Web, an operetta (S. P. Waddington), and The Swan and
Skylark, a cantata (Sir Charles Villiers Stanford).

THREE CHOIRS MUSICAL FESTIVAL. See MUSICAL FESTIVALS.

TIPPETT, SIR MICHAEL KEMP (1905–98). Composer and conductor.

Tippett was a major compositional force in the 20th century, one of the first
British composers to use popular musics postmodernly as a method of instill-
ing political commentary within the art music tradition. Tippett was raised
in a political family; his mother was imprisoned briefly as a suffragette.
He learned piano as a child while attending Stamford Grammar School in
Lincolnshire, and taught himself rudiments of composition. He attended the
Royal College of Music (RCM) between 1923 and 1928 (failing his degree
examinations in his first attempt), studying composition with Charles Wood
and C. H. Kitson and conducting with Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm
Sargent. Dissatisfied with his technique after presenting a concert of his own
music in 1930, he returned to the RCM to study with R. O. Morris (1930–32).
Tippett settled initially in Oxted, Surrey (1928–50), where he led numerous
amateur musical ensembles. Throughout the 1930s, Tippett became increas-
ingly involved in workers’ politics but decided by the end of the decade to
subsume political action into his compositions. This is first seen in A Child
of Our Time (1941), which described the murder of a German diplomat by a
displaced Jewish refugee in the form of a Passion, using African American
spirituals in the place of Johann Sebastian Bach–style chorales.
From 1940 to 1951 (except for a three-month period in jail due to his con-
scientious objection to World War II), he was the music director of Morley

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 290 • TOMKINS, THOMAS

College, London. After leaving his position at Morley College, Tippett broad-
cast musical commentary for the British Broadcasting Corporation, taught
at numerous summer musical festivals, including Aspen in the United States
of America (1965), and directed, for a time, the Bath Festival (1969–74). His
compositions continued to touch on issues of alienation, such as A Midsum-
mer Marriage (1946–52), and finding a place within a chaotic world, like
New Year (1986–88), which used jazz, rap, and reggae as part of its musical
materials. Like many composers of the 20th century, Tippett’s musical style
changed frequently. Tippett was named CBE in 1966 and OM in 1983.

TOMKINS, THOMAS (1572–1656). Composer and organist. It is likely

that Tomkins was trained as a chorister at St. David’s Cathedral, Pem-
brokeshire, Wales, where his father was organist; he also claimed to be a
student of William Byrd. In 1596 he was appointed instructor choristarum
at the cathedral in Worcester, a post that he held until the cessation of choral
services there in 1646 with the capture of the city by Thomas Rainsborough
and Parliamentary forces. Tomkins also held appointments in the Chapel
Royal, as gentleman from 1620 and organist from 1621. In this capacity he
made substantial contributions to the coronation of Charles I (1626), render-
ing his later “Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times” on the king’s death all
the more poignant. The lamentative tone that characterizes the “Sad Pavan”
also marks several of his most powerful works, including the two anthems
“When David Heard” and “Then David Mourned.”
Tomkins was prolific in a variety of genres. His keyboard music, most
of which is collected in an autograph manuscript (F Pbn 1122) and some
of which appears in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, includes contrapuntal
works, cantus-firmus compositions, and dances. In 1622 he published a col-
lection of madrigals, Songs of 3.4.5. and 6. Parts, the dedications of which
bear testament to his network of friends. His substantial body of English
church music was published posthumously in 1668 as Musica Deo Sacra.

TONIC SOL-FA. Movable-doh notation system to teach sight-singing

based on solfège, invented by Sarah Glover and modified and propagated
by John Curwen and John Spencer Curwen. In a century when many such
sight-singing systems existed in Great Britain, including those promoted by
John Hullah and Joseph Mainzer, Tonic Sol-fa was supreme. The system
represented solfège syllables with individual letters (e.g., doh=d, ray=r,
me=m, etc.) and rhythm via spacing and punctuation markings; it was based
on moveable doh (the tonic would always be doh, instead of the syllable doh
always representing the pitch C). The height of the system’s popularity was in
the last half of the 19th century; for a time (from 1883 forward), it was even

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 TRINITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC • 291

the recommended method to teach English schoolchildren musical notation.

Many philanthropic organizations of the century used the notation, including
the children’s education, temperance, and women’s suffrage movements.
British and North American missionaries used the notation within numerous
mission fields, especially Africa, India, and East Asia, and the Salvation
Army used it well into the 20th century. John Curwen founded a journal
(later edited by John Spencer Curwen), the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, which ran
in various incarnations, including the Musical Herald and the Musical News
and Herald, from 1851 to 1928; a school, the Tonic Sol-fa College; and an
organization, the Tonic Sol-fa Association, to propagate the notation.

TONIC SOL-FA ASSOCIATION. Organization founded in 1853 by John

Curwen for the propagation of Tonic Sol-fa. The association organized
demonstrations, classes, and concerts to forward the sight-singing method
in venues including the Crystal Palace and Exeter Hall, and occasionally
published method books and scores in the notation. See also MCNAUGHT,
WILLIAM GRAY; MESSIAH; PUBLIC CONCERTS.

TONIC SOL-FA COLLEGE. London school, founded in 1878 by John

Curwen to train educators to teach the Tonic Sol-fa sight-singing system.

TREBLE. Designation for a boy soprano in Anglican choirs. St. Paul’s dic-
tum mulieres in ecclesiis taceant (1 Corinthians 14:34) has spawned a long
tradition of all-male church choirs that has been particularly resilient in An-
glican cathedrals and not uncommon in Anglican collegiate chapels and some
parish churches as well. The restriction to an all-male choir does not in itself
require the use of boys, although they are pervasively documented as oblates
in monasteries and choristers in secular cathedrals. Additionally, some rep-
ertories, such as the music of the Eton Choirbook, present an extended high
register that musically would require them.
Controversially, the use of girl sopranos in alternation with boy trebles was
first instituted at Salisbury Cathedral in 1991, a practice that has gained ac-
ceptance in a number of Anglican cathedrals, while at St. David’s Cathedral,
Wales, the cathedral choir soprano section is constituted by girls alone.

TRINITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC. London conservatory of music founded

in 1872 as the Church Choral Society. It was renamed the College of Church
Music, London, in 1873 and became Trinity College in 1876. At this time it
also went from a focus on sacred choral music to general music. The institu-
tion was located in central London until 2001, when it moved to Greenwich.
It awards BMus and MMus degrees. Notable faculty of Trinty include Sir

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 292 • THE TRIUMPHS OF ORIANA

Frederick Bridge and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Prominent students of

Trinity include Sir Granville Bantock and Sir John Barbirolli.

THE TRIUMPHS OF ORIANA. A madrigal anthology edited by Thomas

Morley, published in 1601. Morley’s anthology of 24 madrigals by a range of
composers, including himself, John Wilbye, and Thomas Weelkes, is mod-
eled on the Italian collection Il Trionfo di Dori (1592). The diverse madrigals
are linked by the common refrain “Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of
Diana, long live fair Oriana.” Oriana was familiarly the wife of Amadis of
Gaul in the famous eponymous Spanish romance, and traditionally she has
been seen in the anthology as the allegorical representation of Elizabeth, the
queen. Recent work by Jeremy Smith (2005) suggests, however, that Oriana
is Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI of Scotland, and thus originally a
reference to the attempt by Essex to replace Elizabeth with James, an unsuc-
cessful attempt that resulted in Essex’s execution. In this interpretation, Diana
represents Essex’s sister, Penelope Rich.
The madrigals, typical of the Elizabethan adaptation of Italian models, are
light in tone and rich in text painting.

TUCKET. A trumpet fanfare. Emerging in dramatic contexts in the late 16th

century, tucket refers to a fanfare or flourish played by trumpets. Earlier schol-
arship sought to derive the term from the Italian toccata, with works like the
toccata to Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) an inviting corollary. However, more
recent study (Tarr and Downey, NG, 2001) traces the term to the late Middle
Ages in the use of “tuck” to refer to flourishes played by trumpets or drums.

TUDWAY, THOMAS (ca. 1650–1726). Composer and organist. Following

his training as a chorister in the Chapel Royal during the early years of the
Restoration, Tudway went on to a long appointment as organist at King’s
College, Cambridge, from 1670 until his death, a tenure interrupted by a brief
suspension for remarks critical of the queen (1706) but resumed after public
apology.
In 1714 Tudway began to compile a six-volume manuscript anthology
of English church music (GB Lbl Harl 7337–42) for Edward, Lord Harley.
Completed in 1720, it is a valuable predecessor to William Boyce’s better-
known collection. In the anthology, Tudway also offers an important account
of the development of the Restoration symphony anthem and its relation to
the musical tastes of the newly restored Charles II.

TURNER, WILLIAM (1651–1740). Countertenor and composer. Turner

was trained as a chorister both at Christ Church, Oxford, and in the Chapel

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 TYE, CHRISTOPHER • 293

Royal, where he was one of the first generation of trebles at the Restoration.
His youthful talent is acknowledged in being one of the collaborators with
fellow choristers John Blow and Pelham Humfrey in the composition of the
so-called Club Anthem.
He was appointed master of the choristers at Lincoln in 1667 and shortly
after (1669) began an extremely long tenure as gentleman of the Chapel
Royal, holding the post for a staggering seven decades. His London activities
also included solo singing and membership in the choirs of both St. Paul’s
and Westminster Abbey. In 1672 he also received appointment as a member
of the King’s Private Musick.

TYE, CHRISTOPHER (ca. 1505–73). Composer. Tye received the BMus

at Cambridge in 1536, the year before he became lay clerk at King’s College.
In the early 1540s he took up duties at Ely Cathedral as magister choristarum
and was associated with the Chapel Royal in the 1550s. He does not appear
on the surviving rosters of the Chapel Royal, but he is identified as “one of
the Gentylmen of hys [Edward VI’s] graces most honourable Chappell” in the
publication of his Actes of the Apostles (1553), as well as in a livery warrant
from that year. He was ordained in 1560 and left Ely to take up the clerical
living at Doddington-cum-Marche.
Tye’s mass Euge bone is perhaps his most impressive work; another mass,
like that of John Taverner and John Sheppard, is on the popular tune
“Western Wind,” which he fashions into a variation scheme. His Actes of
the Apostles is a four-voice setting of a metricized version of the scriptural
book of Acts, which Charles Burney thought must surely have been “the
delight of the Court in which he lived,” but also “doubtless an absurd under-
taking.” Tye is also the composer of a number of anthems and In nomines.
In the 17th century, the antiquary Anthony Wood described him as “a
peevish and humoursome man.” In the 18th century, Burney noted that he
“contributed greatly to the perfection of our Cathedral Music” and was “as
great a musician as Europe could then boast”; Sir John Hawkins was equally
laudatory, describing Tye as “a man of some literature” and noting that “there
are very few compositions for the church of equal merit with his anthems.”

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 V
VALENTINE, JOHN (1730–91). Composer, violinist, and music teacher.
Valentine owned a music shop in Leicester, and in his time he was one of the
most important performers and teachers in Leicestershire and taught many
instruments besides the violin. Most of his compositions were written with
amateur and student performance in mind, including his op. 6, Eight Easy
Symphonies (1782). The Valentine family remained important music-makers
in Leicester until the middle of the 19th century.

VAN DIEREN, BERNARD (1887–1936). Composer, music critic, and

writer on music of Dutch origin. Van Dieren was part of a group of composer-
critics, active in the 1920s, who saw their mission to be the reevaluation of
music history in general and recent British music in particular. His musical
circle included Cecil Gray, Philip Heseltine, and Constant Lambert; his
wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, however, put him into contact with many
other great and creative minds of his generation.
Van Dieren was largely self-taught musically but encouraged by Arnold
Schoenberg and Ferruccio Busoni (he met both while in Berlin in 1911 and
1912 as a music correspondent). He settled in London in 1909. His major
critical work, Down among the Dead Men (1935), called for—among other
things—the reappraisal of the reputations of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Gaetano
Donizetti, and Giacomo Meyerbeer. His music was much more praised by his
critic-friends than performed, though a string quartet was heard in Frankfurt
in 1927, and the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast some of his
works in the early 1930s.

VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL THEME (“ENIGMA”), OP. 36

(ALSO “ENIGMA” VARIATIONS). Theme and variations for orchestra
by Sir Edward Elgar, premiered at St. James’s Hall on 19 June 1899.
The “Enigma” Variations, along with his great oratorio The Dream of
Gerontius, made Elgar famous internationally. The piece is programmatic
in nature, with Elgar composing each one of the 13 variations in the voice
of one of his friends. Particularly evocative are the movements “Nimrod,”
commemorating a discussion Elgar had with his friend August Jaeger about

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 296 • VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH

Ludwig van Beethoven, and “Dorabella,” which portrays the antics of Dora
Penny (later Dora Powell), a particular friend of Elgar and his wife. The so-
briquet “Enigma” was applied to the work because Elgar later mentioned that
a secondary theme—not stated by the orchestra—interlocks with the primary
theme; a great amount of scholarly ink has spilled in the ensuing century
since the work’s premiere to discern this theme, with little success. The com-
position uses traditional key relationships to distinguish between masculine
and feminine variations; “Nimrod,” for instance, is in a heroic E-flat major.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH (1872–1958). English composer,

teacher, conductor, and writer. Vaughan Williams, with Gustav Holst, was
the most important musical voice of his generation and brought the use of
Elizabethan and folk music models for composition into great prominence.
He composed in every genre available to him, including symphonies (nine),
operas (five), masques, ballets, and even film music (11 scores completed,
starting in 1940), and was particularly known by his contemporaries as a
public music figure who could compose for any skill level from unskilled
children to the most virtuosic professional, and proud to do so, so long as it
would improve the musical life of Great Britain.
Coming from a genteel family (he was related to both the Wedgewoods
and the Darwins), his early musical training included lessons on piano and
violin from an aunt and study of the viola while attending Charterhouse
School (1887–90). Additional training occurred at the Royal College of Mu-
sic (RCM; 1890–92), at Trinity College, Cambridge (1892–95; BMus, 1894;
BA, 1895), and at the RCM again (1895–96). At these institutions, Vaughan
Williams studied with Sir Hubert Parry, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, and
Charles Wood and met Holst, forming an important musical friendship that
would last to the end of the latter’s life. He married Adeline Fisher in 1897.
Until 1910 Vaughan Williams interspersed employment in typical musical
fields (organist, editor of the English Hymnal [1906 edition], folk song collec-
tor [starting in 1903], conductor, etc.) with private studies abroad, first with
Max Bruch (1897) and later with Maurice Ravel (1908). Vaughan Williams
found fame in the first decade of the 20th century through the publication
of folk song transcriptions and then a series of musical festival premieres,
including “Toward the Unknown Region” (Leeds, 1907), A Sea Symphony
(Leeds, 1910), and the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (Three
Choirs—Gloucester, 1910). During this time he also began a long associa-
tion with the competition festival at Leith Hill in Dorking (1905–53); like his
work with the English Folk Dance and Song Society, the efforts he spent
with Leith Hill were aimed at all times toward introducing the public to good
works of music. For this reason, he instituted massed concerts there at the

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 VAUXHALL GARDENS • 297

end of the competitions. His frequent conducting of Johann Sebastian Bach’s

St. Matthew Passion between the wars became nationally famous. Vaughan
Williams spent World War I in a variety of jobs, including ambulance driver,
officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and after the armistice, music director
of the First Army of the British expeditionary force (he demobilized in 1919).
After the war, Vaughan Williams’s international compositional impact
strengthened; while his operas were performed primarily in Great Britain—
Hugh the Drover (1920), Sir John in Love (1928), The Poisoned Kiss (1929),
and Riders to the Sea (1932)—his symphonies became well known both on
the Continent and throughout North America. He began teaching composition
at the RCM in 1919 and conducted the Handel Society (1919–21) and the
Bach Choir (1921–28), prestigious positions that showed the continued re-
gard musicians held for him. After the deaths of Sir Edward Elgar and Holst
in 1934, Vaughan Williams became in essence the most important living
British composer. His music—whether in premieres or revivals—was heard
frequently at the remaining music festivals and presented in recordings and
broadcasts on the British Broadcasting Corporation, and he was frequently
sought out as a conductor or speaker both nationally and internationally.
During World War II, Vaughan Williams undertook a variety of tasks, in-
cluding working for what would eventually become the Arts Council of Great
Britain. From the end of the war forward, he remained extremely productive,
completing four of his nine symphonies, his last opera, The Pilgrim’s Progress
(1951), numerous choral works, and lecturing on folk music at Cornell Univer-
sity (1954). In 1951 Adeline died; he married Ursula Wood, a poet and family
friend, in 1953. She became his staunch companion in the last few years of his
life and brilliant champion of his works and legacy after his death.
Aside from his teaching work at the RCM and involvement with competi-
tion festivals such as that at Leith Hill, Vaughan Williams was also an im-
portant writer on music, always advocating a place for the British composer
and the importance of educating the audience through treating it intelligently;
many of his important writings can be seen in the collection National Music
and Other Essays, gathered posthumously (1963). Vaughan Williams turned
down a knighthood but was named OM in 1935.

VAUXHALL GARDENS. London pleasure garden located at Lambeth.

One of several pleasure gardens flourishing in the 18th century, Vauxhall
Gardens came to the fore under the entrepreneurship of Jonathan Tyers
(1732). Sir John Hawkins notes that the original house on the land belonged
to Sir Samuel Moreland and that the garden had “a great number of stately
trees, and [was] laid out in shady walks.” The garden became “a place of
musical entertainment for every evening during the summer season.” The

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 298 • VENUS AND ADONIS

covered bandstand, the “orchestra,” was equipped with an organ, making

the performance of popular organ concertos possible, and later another music
room was erected as well.
A number of composers were featured at the gardens, notably Thomas
Arne, William Boyce, and George Frideric Handel. Tyers held the latter in
particularly high esteem and commissioned the well-known statue of Handel
by Louis-François Roubiliac, which was installed in a “conspicuous part of
the garden” (Hawkins). A public rehearsal of Handel’s Royal Fireworks Mu-
sick drew a staggering 12,000 people to the gardens.

VENUS AND ADONIS. Short opera or masque by John Blow. Styled a

“masque” in a surviving score, but an “opera” in the libretto, Blow’s Venus
and Adonis is a short, fully sung dramatic work performed at court in the
presence of Charles II, with his mistress Mary “Moll” Davis taking the part
of Venus and their daughter, Lady Mary Tudor, the role of Cupid.
The performance date at court would have been sometime after December
1680 when the daughter Mary received her title (Baldwin and Wilson, DNB)
but prior to April 1684 when the work was performed at “Mr. Josias Priest’s
Boarding School at Chelsey” (Luckett, 1989). The connection to Priest’s
boarding school also strengthens the similarity to Henry Purcell’s Dido and
Aeneas; Purcell’s work was performed at Priest’s school, alludes to the Ve-
nus and Adonis narrative in its hunting scene, and shares the unusual status of
being a fully sung English dramatic work. Additionally, given the similarities
in the works, the performance history of Venus and Adonis—performances
at court and at Chelsea—has invited speculation that Dido may also have
had a court performance in addition to its lone documentable performance at
Priest’s school (Schmalfeldt, 2001).

VERSE ANTHEM. See ANTHEM.

VICAR-CHORAL. (L. vicarius choralis.) The common designation for adult,

professional singers in cathedral choirs, lay or ordained, though generally not
in holy orders, hence often “lay vicar.” Usage, of course, varies from cathedral
to cathedral; thus, for instance the vicars-choral at York are the “songmen,” and
in university settings the equivalent term would be “choral scholar.”

VIOL. Family of fretted and bowed strings, generally built in treble, tenor,
and bass ranges, and played held downward between the legs or, with smaller
sizes, on the player’s lap. Viols appear in England under the patronage of
Henry VIII, with his inventory in 1547 listing 19 instruments in a variety of
sizes. Interest in the instrument would swell in the latter part of the century

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 VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA • 299

and was characteristically widespread in the first half of the 17th century.
The “chest of viols”—the family of instruments in different sizes—found rich
deployment in England, including the accompaniment of anthems and songs
and in fantasias, dance pieces, and cantus-firmus compositions, such as the In
nomine and the Browning. Apart from the full consort of viols, single viols
were used to play the bass line in the instrumentally mixed English consort
and also played florid solos and polyphonic pieces. These latter two reperto-
ries are associated with smaller forms of the bass instrument, the “division
viol” for the ornamental playing and the yet smaller “lyra viol” for chordal
polyphonic playing. The divison viol is closely associated with Christopher
Simpson, who published The Division Violist in 1659; the lyra viol is closely
associated with the music of Tobias Hume.
In the last part of the 17th century, the aristocratic contrapuntal viol consort
waned in the face of the Italian violin school and its practitioners, foreign
advances that were nurtured by the Continental ties of the late Stuarts. With
the triumph of the violin secure in the 18th century, the persistence of the
solo viol in the career of Carl Friedrich Abel well into the second half of
the century is striking. His 1787 obituary in the Morning Post confirmed both
the contemporary rarity of the viol and that it “would probably die with him.”
The English viol tradition was nurtured in part by skilled viol makers, of
whom the family of John Rose is particularly notable. See also COPRARIO,
JOHN; FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO, (THE YOUNGER); FINGER, GOD-
FREY; FORD, THOMAS; HINGESTON, JOHN; HUME, TOBIAS; JEN-
KINS, JOHN; LAWES, WILLIAM; LUPO, THOMAS.

VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1755–1824). Italian virtuosic violinist,

composer, and impresario active in London primarily between 1792 and 1798.
His early training in Italy included studies with Antonio Celoniati and Gaetano
Pugnani. A tour undertaken with Pugnani led Viotti to Paris, where he estab-
lished himself as a performer at the Concerts Spirtuels, a performer in the reti-
nue of Marie Antoinette, and the manager of the Théâtre de Monsieur (1788;
from 1791, the Théâtre Feydeau). Fleeing the French Revolution in 1792, Viotti
settled in London, where be performed in Johann Peter Salomon’s concerts,
for Franz Joseph Haydn, and as acting manager of Italian opera (1794–95)
and director of the orchestra (1797–98) at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket. Af-
ter an exile in Germany, Viotti returned to England and eschewed music, taking
up a wine business for several years. He was one of the founding members of
the London Royal Philharmonic Society (1813) but seldom played in its con-
certs. The failure of his wine business led to a brief period in Paris (1819–21)
as the director of the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra), but Viotti
returned to London in late 1823, where he died.

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VIRGINAL. A term that in England during the 16th and 17th centuries
referred generically to all forms of plucked strung keyboard instruments and
particularly to a small form that featured a rectangular shape and a single set
of keys running laterally parallel to the keyboard. A clear depiction may be
seen on the title page of Parthenia (1613), “the first musicke that ever was
printed for the virginalls.” As this image shows a young woman playing the
instrument, it is suggestive of the probable connection between the gender of
performers and the term itself, although this is difficult to clarify. Marcuse
(1975) suggests the name may be derived from a confusion between the bibli-
cal “timbrel,” played by women, and “cymbel,” which in turn etymologically
parents “cembalo.”
The Memoirs of Sir James Melville preserve an account of his having
heard Queen Elizabeth I play the virginals:

[T]hat same day after dinner my lord of Hunsdon drew me up to a quiet gallery,
that I might hear some music . . . where I might hear the Queen play upon the
virginals. After I had hearkened a while, I took by the tapestry that hung before
the door of the chamber, and seeing her back was towards the door, I entered
within the chamber, and stood a pretty space hearing her play excellently well.
But she left off immediately so soon as she turned her about and saw me. She
appeared to be surprised to see me, and came forward, seeming to strike me with
her hand; alleging she used not to play before men, but when she was solitary,
to shun melancholy.

The emphasis on private music-making and its therapeutic use significantly

underscores important contexts in which music was engaged by the nobility.
See also BYRD, WILLIAM; COSYN, BENJAMIN; FARNABY, GILES;
FITZWILLIAM VIRGINAL BOOK; TOMKINS, THOMAS.

VOCAL ASSOCIATION. Large London choir founded in 1855 by Sir Ju-

lius Benedict and Henry Thomas Smart. Until its dissolution around 1865,
the association created a library of about 18,000 items and had a membership
of 300. It presented concerts in the Crystal Palace and had audiences rang-
ing from 6,000 to 18,000. Just before its dissolution, it was renamed “Mr. J.
Benedict’s Choral Society”; Smart ceased contact with the association some-
time around 1857.

VOLUNTARY. An organ piece for Anglican church use, either composed

or improvised. The term itself may refer either to an improvisatory cast to the
music or to the fact that the music was a nonprescribed, i.e., “voluntary,” part
of the service. Usage has varied, but historically voluntaries have been com-
mon at the offices of Matins and Evensong just prior to the first lesson or at

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 VOTIVE ANTIPHON • 301

communion during the offertory. In modern practice, the term applies to the
prelude and postlude that frame the service.
A “double voluntary” is one making use of two manuals; a “trumpet vol-
untary,” popular in the late 17th and 18th centuries, is an organ work that
features the solo trumpet stop, usually in alternation with echo repetitions, as
seen, for instance, in the music of John Stanley.

VOTIVE ANTIPHON. A devotional text appended to the conclusion of

the evening office, generally Compline, that is offered typically in praise
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Familiar from the Roman Rite are the seasonal
Marian antiphons “Regina coeli,” “Alma redemptoris mater,” “Ave regina
coelorum,” and “Salve regina” (see ANTHEM), though the rich flourishing
of this repertory in the early 16th century shows a range of other texts as well.
The music of the Eton Choirbook is a substantial trove of votive antiphons,
generally set in sections that alternate lavish full textures with florid soloistic
ones. The several votive antiphons set by Thomas Tallis, of which the six-
voice “Gaude gloriosa” is especially notable, mark the end of the tradition,
one that ultimately fell to religious reform after Mary Tudor. See also TAV-
ERNER, JOHN.

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 W
WAITS. An instrumental ensemble of civic musicians, descended from
watchmen who sounded alarms with horns, and, as Wulstan (1985) has
pointed out, an ensemble that bridged the social gap between music at court
and music of the street. Typically composed of four or five versatile players
along with apprentices, waits could range in activity from street patrols to
concerts, weddings, civic ceremonies, and liturgy.
In the early stages of its transformation from a watch group to a musical
ensemble, outdoor instruments held sway, most traditionally shawms and slide
trumpet or trombone, corresponding to the continental alta capella. (From
this association, the shawm was also known as a “wait pipe.”) However, with
increasing diversity in venue and function, the instrumentation also grew. Vio-
lins, for instance, appeared in the London Waits from 1619; earlier than that at
Cambridge and Colchester. The Norwich Waits played with an English Con-
sort instrumentation, as presumably did the London Waits, to whom Thomas
Morley’s English Consort Lessons were dedicated. Cornetts and trombones
were also common, with players like the cornettist John Adson in the London
Waits an important example of the association. See also AVISON, CHARLES;
BALLS, ALPHONSO AND RICHARD; WILSON, JOHN.

WAKEFIELD, MARY (ALSO AUGUSTA MARY; 1853–1910). Music

philanthropist and singer; with John Spencer Curwen, one of the found-
ers of the musical festival competition movement. Wakefield came from
a well-off family, and after attending a finishing school in Brighton, where
she learned some piano, she was able to study in London with Alberto Ran-
degger and George Henschel; she also studied in Rome with Giovanni Sgam-
bati. Contemporary accounts refer to her as an “amateur” vocalist, though
she was skilled enough to sing as a soloist in the Three Choirs Festival at
Gloucester in 1880 and was invited to sing at festivals in Leeds and Norwich.
Between 1880 and 1885, she organized numerous London charity con-
certs, where she often performed. Seeing the social good achieved through
the choral work of Henry Leslie, Wakefield founded the Kendal Festival in
1885 (now called the “Mary Wakefield Westmorland Music Festival”), using

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 304 • WALKER, ERNEST

Spencer Curwen’s competition festival at Stratford as a model. She directed

the festival until 1900 and remained active in the competitive festival move-
ment until her death. A great friend and admirer of John Ruskin, she compiled
and edited the volume Ruskin on Music (1894).

WALKER, ERNEST (1870–1949). Musicologist, conductor, teacher, or-

ganist, and composer. For many years, Walker was synonymous with music
in Oxford, and his writings on music remain an important point of departure
for any discussion of the English Musical Renaissance. Walker was born in
India to a mercantile family. When his family returned to London, he studied
piano with Ernst Pauer. Walker attended Balliol College, Oxford, beginning
in 1887, taking a BA (1891), BMus (1893), and DMus (1898). By 1891 he
was also assistant organist (to John Farmer) at Balliol and was organist from
1901 to 1913. From 1901 to 1925 he was director of music there and orga-
nized a series of important concerts on Sunday evenings that featured many
prominent artists and included premieres of chamber music. He resigned his
post in 1925 to concentrate on composition but remained in Oxford until his
death.
As a scholar, Walker edited the Musical Gazette (1899–1902), contributed
articles to J. A. Fuller-Maitland’s second edition of the Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians (1902) and to the Times and the Manchester Guardian,
and wrote monographs on Ludwig van Beethoven (1905) and the magisterial
A History of Music in England (1907; rev. ed. 1924). Some of his writings
were anthologized in Free Thought and the Musicians (1946).

WALSH, JOHN (THE ELDER; 1665/66–1736), AND WALSH, JOHN

(THE YOUNGER; 1709–66). Music publishers. The elder John Walsh was
appointed Instrument Maker-in-Ordinary to William III in 1692, an appoint-
ment to which his son succeeded in 1731 under George II, but it is chiefly
as music publishers that they are both known. The Walsh company began
publishing in 1695, and a change to pewter plates and the use of punches in
1700 allowed the printing process to be quicker and with greater quantity
more easily accomplished. Significantly, the extent of the Walsh catalogue
corresponds to a rise in the domestic market for printed music, a market in
which the Walshes proved savvy businessmen.
The Walsh catalogue included both English and continental composers
(Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi, for example), but it is as George
Frideric Handel’s publisher that the firm is best known. The relationship
with Handel began around 1730, corresponding largely to the younger
Walsh’s assuming leadership for the firm. From 1739 the firm held a 14-year
monopoly on the printing of Handel’s works.

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 WARD, JOHN • 305

WALTON, SIR WILLIAM TURNER (1902–83). English composer. Wal-

ton was one of the most striking musical voices during the interwar period; his
popularity only fell because of the subsequent rise of that of Benjamin Britten
and Sir Michael Tippett after World War II. Walton’s early musical education
came from his experiences as a choirboy at St. John’s church in Werneth, where
his father was choirmaster. His education continued at Oxford, where he was a
choirboy at Christ Church Cathedral (1912–18) under the patronage of Thomas
Strong and an undergraduate (1918–20; he failed to take a degree).
Patronage became a theme in Walton’s life: in the 1920s he was given an
annuity by the Sitwell family and lived for a time in their house in Chelsea.
His work Façade (1922–29) stemmed from a trip to Italy in 1920 sponsored
by the Sitwells, and the poetry set was that of Edith Sitwell. Façade was well
received. But Belshazzar’s Feast, commissioned by the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation as a work for chorus and small orchestra and eventually
premiered at the Leeds Musical Festival in 1931 as a work for soloist, choir,
and full orchestra, made his early reputation. Osbert Sitwell compiled the li-
bretto. In the 1930s Walton received the patronage of Sigfried Sassoon, Mrs.
Samuel Courtauld, and Lady Alice Windbourne. He also began composing
film scores. The 1937 commission for the Crown Imperial March for the
coronation of George VI showed the official regard in which the establish-
ment held Walton.
During World War II, Walton composed numerous patriotic film scores,
of which the best known is that for Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944). After
the war, Walton attempted to recoup some of his interwar popularity with the
opera Troilus and Cressida (1954), but the work was not received well by the
critics. Walton married Susanna Gil Passo in 1948 and with a bequest from
Lady Wimbourne was able to build an expansive villa on the Mediterranean
island of Ischia. He continued to conduct his own works in Great Britain and
abroad and work on additional scores until his death. Walton was knighted in
1951 and named OM in 1967.

WANLEY PARTBOOKS. An incomplete set of Edwardian partbooks (GB

Ob Mus. Sch.E. 420–22) presenting anthems and service music, textually
drawing on vernacular Primers that antedate the Book of Common Prayer.
Two alto partbooks and a bass partbook survive; the tenor partbook is miss-
ing. In the manuscript, all of the works are unattributed, but concordances
confirm that John Sheppard, John Taverner, and Thomas Tallis are repre-
sented, the latter, for instance, with his well-known anthem, “If Ye Love Me.”

WARD, JOHN (ca. 1589–1638). Composer. Trained as a chorister at Can-

terbury, in maturity Ward enjoyed the patronage of the family of Sir Henry

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 306 • WARLOCK, PETER

Fanshawe. He was prolific as a composer of consort fantasias and In nomi-

nes, and he was distinctive in the Italianate seriousness that he brought to the
more generally light Elizabethan madrigal. His madrigals unusually draw on
serious literary texts—poems by Sidney and Drayton, for instance—although
admittedly sometimes with a seeming disregard to original context. His only
madrigal collection, The First Set of English Madrigals, was published in
London in 1613. Modern criticism has noted his distinctions but also his
shortcomings: “What he lacks is imagination, and especially coming from the
work of his model John Wilbye one finds his music sententious and always
a little uninteresting” (Kerman, 1962).

WARLOCK, PETER. See HESELTINE, PHILIP.

WEBBE, SAMUEL (1740–1816). Composer, organist, and singer. Widely

known in his own time as a glee composer, Webbe also composed a great
deal of Catholic liturgical music for the Sardinian (1775–95) and Portuguese
(1776–96) chapels in London. An autodidact, Webbe was mostly self-taught,
save for some lessons from Charles Barbandt, organist at the Bavarian Em-
bassy Chapel. Sometime after these lessons commenced, Webbe converted
to Catholicism. Beginning in 1766, he composed regularly for the Noblemen
and Gentlemen’s Catch Club, was elected a privileged member (1771), and
was secretary of it as well (1784–1812). He sang at Drury Lane; the King’s
Theatre, Haymarket; and Covent Garden, and at the pleasure gardens of
Marylebone and Vauxhall.
Webbe was the father of Samuel Webbe, the younger (1768–1843), a com-
poser and organist active in London (like his father, at the embassy chapels
for Catholic countries) and in Liverpool; the younger Samuel Webbe was also
a director of the Royal Philharmonic Society for the 1815–16 and 1817–18
seasons.

WEELKES, THOMAS (1576–1623). Composer and organist. Weelkes held

appointment as organist of Winchester College (1598) and of Chichester
Cathedral (1602–17) and was dismissed from the latter post for drunken-
ness, a dismissal that seems not to have led to a reform of his behavior. His
compositions include a large number of anthems, both verse and full, and a
significant number of madrigals, the genre in which he was most prolific.
Four volumes of madrigals appeared in print (1597, 1598, 1600, and 1608),
and he was a contributor to the well-known The Triumphs of Oriana as well.
His madrigal in that collection, the popular “As Vesta Was from Latmos
Hill Descending,” is an impressive display of counterpoint, exuberance, and
pictorial text setting.

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 WESLEY, CHARLES • 307

Though recent scholarly literature is not blind to his shortcomings, it has

been quick to praise Weelkes at his best. Kerman (1962), for instance, in ref-
erence to the 1600 anthology, observes, “the style is still rough sometimes,
more from impatience than incompetence, but Weelkes writes with a flair and
vigorous enjoyment that is not approached by any of his contemporaries.”

WELDON, JOHN (1676–1736). Composer and organist. Weldon was a

chorister at Eton, where he studied with the organist John Walters and also
with Henry Purcell. He was variously employed as organist at New College,
Oxford; gentleman of the Chapel Royal (from 1701); organist and composer
in the Chapel Royal (from 1708); organist of St. Bride’s, Fleet Street (from
1702); and organist of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (from 1713/14). He rose to
prominence as winner of the “Musick Prize” in 1700, a contest centered on
setting William Congreve’s The Judgment of Paris to determine the best of
the English composers, echoing the theme of the story. It is also speculated
that the setting of music for The Tempest once attributed to Purcell is likely
by Weldon (Laurie, 1963/64). In certain of his songs he shows an awareness
of the popularity of musical Italianism, as seen in his “When Perfect Beauty,”
a song identified as “in Imitation of Mr. Nicola’s [Matteis] Manner.”

WESLEY. Family of musicians and theologians in the 18th and 19th centuries:

John Wesley (1703–91)

Charles Wesley (1; 1707–88)
Charles Wesley (2; 1757–1834)
Samuel Wesley (1766–1837)
Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–76)

WESLEY, CHARLES (1; 1707–88). Clergyman, hymn composer, and

brother of John Wesley and father of Charles Wesley (2) and Samuel Wes-
ley. Wesley supported his brother, particularly through his hymn writing and
itinerant preaching as a Methodist, but was buried as an Anglican. He was a
prolific hymn writer; he composed thousands of hymns, some of which—in-
cluding “Christ Is Risen Today” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”—are
in common use in multiple denominations of Christianity today. In order to
promote the great talent of his two musical sons, he held a private subscrip-
tion concert series at his home in Maryleborne from 1779 to 1787.

WESLEY, CHARLES (2; 1757–1834). Composer and keyboardist; son of

Charles Wesley (1), brother of Samuel Wesley, and nephew of John Wes-
ley. Wesley showed a prodigious early talent and was offered a place in the

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 308 • WESLEY, JOHN

Chapel Royal, which his father refused on account of not wishing his sons
to become professional musicians. Instead, the younger Charles received
training from an organist in Bristol until the family moved to London in 1771
so that Charles (2) and his brother Samuel could receive advanced training.
While in London, the Wesleys gave private subscription concerts at their
house between 1779 and 1787. These concerts were usually attended by from
30 to 50 people and included music written by the Wesleys, as well as that
of George Frideric Handel, Francesco Geminiani, and Arcangelo Corelli.
Charles (2) had lessons with Joseph Kelway and William Boyce and became
a good organist; he held positions at Anglican chapels at Surrey, South Street,
Walbeck, Lock Hospital (1797–1801), Chelsea Hospital, and Marylebone
Parish Church. He wrote a typical complement of concertos, sonatas, glees,
and even a Handelian cantata, Caractacus (1791). He composed few works
after 1785, living by giving lessons and by his organist positions.

WESLEY, JOHN (1703–91). Clergyman and founder of Methodism;

brother of Charles Wesley (1) and uncle to Charles Wesley (2) and Samuel
Wesley. Wesley, like many religious figures of his time, believed music
to have great power, and consequently he published numerous collections
of hymns and tunes that were influential not just with the new Methodist
church but for many of the 18th-century Dissenting churches, including the
Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1737; translations of German and Mora-
vian hymns Wesley heard while a missionary in Georgia, North America),
Foundery Tune Book (1742), Select Hymns with Tunes Annext (1761), and
the Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780).

WESLEY, SAMUEL (1766–1837). Composer and keyboardist; son of

Charles Wesley (1); brother of Charles Wesley (2); nephew of John
Wesley; and father of Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Samuel Wesley’s widely
recognized talent as a musical prodigy was offset by a stormy personal life,
partially caused by depression and partially by his own choices; he lived out
of wedlock for several years before marrying Charlotte Louisa Martin and left
her several years later for Sarah Suter, their housekeeper, whom he never wed
but stayed with for the remainder of his life. Living outside typical cultural
mores, as well as his public conversion to Catholicism in 1784, meant that
solid professional positions eluded Samuel Wesley for much of his career. He
therefore made his way teaching privately, lecturing (including at the Royal
Institution), and writing journalism and criticism.
Like his brother Charles (2), he received early training in Bristol before
moving to London in 1771. Both brothers played in a concert at Hick-
ford’s Room in 1777 and then for a series of subscription concerts in their

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 WESLEY, SAMUEL SEBASTIAN • 309

own home, from 1779 to 1787. Around this time, Samuel began attending
the various Catholic chapels in London and writing music for the Catholic
liturgy. The few professional positions he did hold, such as assistant to
Vincent Novello at the Portuguese Chapel (1811–24), organist at Covent
Garden (1813–17), director of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1815),
and Camden Chapel organist (1824–30), were offset by severe bouts of
depression, keeping him from work for months, even years at a time. In
spite of this, Samuel was a prolific composer of Catholic liturgical music,
anthems, odes, oratorios, glees, and organ music, and was one of the
major figures in the early revival movement of the music of Johann Se-
bastian Bach.

WESLEY, SAMUEL SEBASTIAN (1810–76). Composer and organist; son

of Samuel Wesley. Wesley was the most important composer of Anglican
music during the first half of the 19th century. The relative poverty of Samuel
Sebastian Wesley’s youth, due to his father’s inability to work because of fre-
quent bouts of depression, was somewhat alleviated when he was appointed
a chorister at the Chapel Royal (1817–26), where he was trained by William
Hawes, among others. When he left the chapel, he took on a number of posi-
tions at London churches, never staying for too long; this would become a
pattern of Wesley’s career. He also directed the chorus at the English Opera
House (1828–32) and was organist at the Lenten Oratorios (1830–32). In
1832 Wesley left London to work in a number of important country churches,
including Hereford Cathedral (1832–35), Exeter Cathedral (1835–42), Leeds
Parish Church (1842–49), Winchester Cathedral (1849–65), and Gloucester
Cathedral (1865–76). His frequent changes in position were caused at least in
part by his acerbic personality and inability to convince church administrative
authorities of his musical vision.
Accordingly, Wesley made attempts to gain a number of academic posi-
tions, first by taking a BMus and DMus from Oxford (1839); these applica-
tions came to nothing, aside from an appointment as professor of organ at
the Royal Academy of Music (2; 1850). Throughout this time, Wesley was
in much demand as a recitalist, and he conducted the Three Choirs musical
festivals at Hereford (1834) and Gloucester (1865, 1868, 1871, and 1874) as
part of his duties as organist. He also performed and conducted at the Bir-
mingham Musical Festival (1843, 1849, and 1852). Wesley’s output features
a great deal of Anglican liturgical music, including the Morning and Evening
Service in E (1845), anthems (some of the best of which were published as
a set of 12 in 1853), and other works; he also composed many glees. Wesley
was offered a knighthood in 1873 but decided instead to take a Civil List
pension of £100 per annum.

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 310 • “WESTERN WIND”

“WESTERN WIND” (ALSO “WESTERN WYNDE”). A secular melody,

likely popular, that forms the basis of three Tudor masses by John Sheppard,
Christopher Tye, and John Taverner. The source melody is preserved in
GB Lbl Royal App. 58 with the words:

Western wind, when will thou blow?

The small rain down can rain.
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again.

WHITE, MAUDE VALÉRIE (1855–1937). Composer particularly known for

her song settings in numerous languages. She studied with Sir George Alexan-
der Macfarren and Frank Davenport at the Royal Academy of Music (2) and
won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1879. White also studied briefly with
Robert Fuchs in Vienna (1883). She began a career in the early 1880s teaching
piano and performing her own works. Her compositions quickly became popular
and well regarded and were championed by some of the most important sing-
ers of her day, including Clara Butt, Nellie Melba, and Charles Santley. White
began to split her time between London and Italy in 1901. Following World
War I, her music was increasingly out of fashion, and she turned to translation
and memoir writing (Friends and Memories, 1914; My Indian Summer, 1932).

WHYTE, ROBERT (ALSO ROBERT WHITE; ca. 1538–74). Composer.

Trained as a chorister at Trinity College, Cambridge, Whyte held the post
of master of the choristers at Ely (appointed 1562, succeeding his father-in-
law, Christopher Tye), Chester (appointed 1567), and Westminster Abbey
(appointed 1570). His output includes Latin motets, some English anthems,
and consort pieces (In nomines and fantasias). That Latin works figure so
prominently here underscores the persistence of that genre under Elizabeth I.
See also GYFFARD PARTBOOKS.

WHYTHORNE, THOMAS (1528–96). Lutanist and composer. Whythorne

held positions in service to a number of individuals, including John Heywood,
the Duchess of Northumberland, and her son; in the 1570s he was also chapel
master to the archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. His compositions
include a collection of partsongs (1571) and a collection of duets (1590). How-
ever, his chief historical distinction lies in his authorship of his autobiography, a
work that supplies interesting detail of Elizabethan life. See also LUTE.

WILBYE, JOHN (1574–1638). Madrigal composer. Wilbye enjoyed an

unusually long patronal relationship with the Kytson family at Hengrave Hall

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 WINCHESTER TROPER • 311

near St. Edmundsbury, working under their sponsorship from the late 1590s
until 1628. Wilbye’s compositions focus on the madrigal, and he is among
the most sensitive and accomplished of the English composers to engage that
genre. The texts that he set reveal an appreciation for a more literary style
than was common and also often for textual Italianism. However, it is in the
strength of his expressive vocabulary that he proves most singular, as seen in
madrigals like the poignantly sensitive “Draw On Sweet Night,” a musical
essay in melancholia. Wilbye’s madrigals are found chiefly in two collections
(1598 and 1609), the latter of which is seen as “the finest English madrigal
collection” (Brown, NG, 2001); he also contributed the madrigal “The Lady
Oriana” to the famous The Triumphs of Oriana.

WILSON, JOHN (1595–1674). Composer and lutanist. Known chiefly for his
body of songs, Wilson wrote for the King’s Men company during the reigns
of both James I and Charles I. Following his appointment to the London City
Waits in 1622, he received a court appointment (1635), in which capacity he
accompanied Charles I to Oxford during the Civil War, taking the DMus there
in 1644. His association with Oxford would become even more substantial fol-
lowing his being named professor there in 1656, a post that allowed him, as Sir
John Hawkins notes, to have a stimulating effect on the musical scene. Shortly
after the Restoration, Wilson returned to court and the King’s Musicke (1661)
and was named a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1662.
His skills as a lutanist were praised in superlative tones by Anthony
Wood, echoed by Hawkins. Modern assessment of his compositions, how-
ever, is mixed. Spink (1974) suggests that “[H]is ballads show that he had
a pleasing melodic gift, popular in character and undeniably attractive. But
with few exceptions his declamatory ayres are dull and spoiled by awkward
passages that now seem inept.” See also LUTE.

WINCHESTER TROPER. Two manuscript collections of liturgical music

(“tropers”) from Winchester, each from around the beginning of the 11th
century, are historically significant. The manuscript GB Ccc473 contains
two-part polyphonic settings of mass movements of the Ordinary, tracts, Al-
leluias, and other responds. Although its neumatic notation resists accurate
transcription, one can discern in its counterpoint the use of contrary motion,
a significant development in moving polyphony beyond parallel and het-
erophonic voice derivation. This earliest surviving polyphonic source (apart
from theoretical examples) may have belonged to Wulfstan, the cantor at
Winchester (Caldwell, OHEM, vol. 1). The other manuscript, GB Ob 775, is
a monophonic source, copied around 1050, containing the earliest dramatic
version of the Easter sepulchre play based on “Quem quaeritis in sepulchro.”

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 312 • WISE, MICHAEL

WISE, MICHAEL (ca. 1647–87). Organist, cornettist, singer, and com-

poser. Wise was trained as a chorister in the Chapel Royal under Captain
Henry Cooke, and there, in the first years of the Restoration, he would find
himself in the company of fellow choristers John Blow and Pelham Hum-
frey. With the breaking of his voice he took up singing posts at St. George’s,
Windsor, and at Eton, and after a few years (1668) was appointed organist
and instructor of the choristers at Salisbury. Court appointments followed—
gentleman of the Chapel Royal (1676) and cornettist (1684)—although he
simultaneously retained his position at Salisbury. Just prior to his death, he
was appointed to be master of the choristers at St. Paul’s, London. His death
proceeded from an altercation with the Night Watch at Salisbury, an event
that underscores the patterns of troubled and troubling behavior that followed
him throughout his career. Nevertheless, Sir John Hawkins styles him a
“most sweet and elegant composer.” See also CORNETT; ORGAN.

WOOD, ANTHONY (1632–95). Oxford antiquary. Wood, self-styled “à

Wood,” was closely tied to Oxford throughout his life, and he devoted much
of his energies to being a historian of both the university and its distinguished
people, as seen in his Athenae Oxonienses and Historia et Antiquitates Oxon.
He was also, especially during the Commonwealth, much given to music. In
his autobiographical The Life and Times of Anthony à Wood, he describes
that in 1651 he

began to exercise his natural and insatiable genie he had to musick. He exercised
his hand on the violin; and having a good eare to take any tune at first hearing,
he could quickly draw it out from the violin, but not with the same tuning of
strings that others used.

Later he would study with Charles Griffiths, an Oxford musician, who taught
him to play with conventional tunings. He took part in weekly Oxford music
meetings and recorded opinions of the participants (“Dr. John Wilson, the
public professor, the best lute in all England,” for example).
Wood’s temperament was apparently notably sour. Llewelyn Powys ob-
serves, “Just as naturally as a cuttle fish ejects poisonous ink, so did Mr.
Wood eject spite” ([Wood], 1961).

WOOD, CHARLES (1866–1926). Composer and teacher of Irish birth.

Wood’s early training as a chorister at Armagh Cathedral, Ireland, led him
easily into study as a scholarship student at the Royal College of Music
(1883–89) with Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. He
won an organ scholarship to Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1888 and was an

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 WORGAN, JOHN • 313

organ scholar at both Gonville and Caius colleges; at the latter, he was made
lecturer in harmony and counterpoint (1889). He took the BA and BMus de-
grees in 1890, was appointed organist of Caius in 1891, took the degrees of
MA and DMus in 1894, and was named a fellow at Caius. He spent most of
his career at Cambridge, being named University Lecturer in Harmony and
Counterpoint in 1897, and eventually professor of music there (1924–26).
Wood’s compositions included dramatic music works, but he is most famous
for his Anglican liturgical music, especially settings of the Magnificat and
Nunc Dimittis, still in use today.

WOOD, SIR HENRY JOSEPH (1869–1944). Conductor. Henry Joseph

Wood was for nearly five decades synonymous with the Proms concerts at
Queen’s Hall, conducting them from 1895 to his death in 1944; he survived
changes in sponsorship of the series from Robert Newman to the British
Broadcasting Corporation. Under his baton, the Proms ensemble premiered
hundreds of works, and Wood was instrumental in reforming 19th-century
orchestra practices, such as his abolishment of the “deputy system” in 1904,
where a performer could send a substitute if a more lucrative opportunity pre-
sented itself, and his allowing women to join a professional orchestra in 1913.
Wood received early training on organ and was taught by Ebenezer Prout,
among others, at the Royal Academy of Music (2; RAM; 1886–88). For a few
years, Wood concentrated on opera, conducting at the Olympic Theatre and
the Carl Rosa Opera Company before beginning his work with the Queen’s
Hall Orchestra in 1895. Aside from the Proms, Wood conducted at many
musical festivals, such as those at Birmingham and Sheffield, as well as the
student orchestra at the RAM (1923–42) and the amateur Hull Philharmonic
Orchestra (1923–39). He was a frequent guest conductor for many ensembles
in Great Britain, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé
Orchestra, as well as in North America, such as the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the orchestra at the Hollywood
Bowl. He was the author of The Gentle Art of Singing (1927–28) and My Life
of Music (1938). Wood was knighted in 1911 and named CH in 1944.

WORGAN, JOHN (1724–90). Organist, composer, and publisher. Wor-

gan came from a family of organists and singers and worked in London
throughout his life. He had early lessons from Thomas Roseingrave and
Francesco Geminiani, and he took both a MusB (1748) and a MusD (1775)
from Cambridge. His professional appointments included organist at various
churches, such as St. Mary Axe with St. Andrew, Undercroft; St. Botolph,
Aldgate; and St. John’s Chapel, Bedford Row; he was also organist at the
Vauxhall pleasure gardens from 1751 to 1761 and again from 1770 to

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 314 • WYLKYNSON, ROBERT

1773. He composed songs for Vauxhall as well as two oratorios: Hannah

(1764) and Manasseh (1766).

WYLKYNSON, ROBERT (ca. 1475/80–1515 or LATER). Composer.

Wylkynson is documented at Eton from 1496 and was informator chorista-
rum from ca. 1500 to 1515. His contributions to the Eton Choirbook, the
sole source for his music, include two richly scored settings, the nine-voice
“Salve regina,” in which each voice is associated with one of the angelic or-
ders, and the 13-voice Credo, which also contains a 13-voice canon on “Jesus
autem.” These works well represent the interest in sonority that characterizes
English music in the late 15th century.

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 Y
YOUNG, NICHOLAS (?–1619). Editor and singer. Young can be docu-
mented as a singer at St. Paul’s, London, between 1594 and 1618. His histori-
cal significance resides, however, in his editing of two collections of Italian
madrigals with “Englished” texts, both of them appearing under the title
Musica Transalpina (1588 and 1597).

YOUNG, POLLY (1749–99). Soprano, composer, and keyboardist. Young

came from a musical family; her sisters were singers in various London the-
aters, and her father and uncles played for churches in the area. She was taken
by a sister to Dublin when six years of age and began performing there; she
returned to London in 1762 and sang at Covent Garden and then the King’s
Theatre, Haymarket, where she met and married the violinist and composer
François-Hyppolyte Barthélemon in 1766. Together they performed in
London at the opera theaters and pleasure gardens and on a successful con-
tinental tour (1776–77). She composed harpsichord sonatas, songs (in English
and Italian), and hymns

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 Select Bibliography

Introduction 318
Reference Works 321
General Works 321
Genres 322
Dramatic Music: Opera and Oratorio 322
Sacred Music 323
Song 324
Historical Periods 324
Medieval 324
Renaissance 324
Seventeenth Century 325
Eighteenth Century 326
Long Nineteenth Century/(Second) English Musical Renaissance 326
Twentieth Century 327
Music and Theater 327
Music and Dance 328
Musical Institutions 328
Composers 329
Thomas Arne 329
Malcolm Arnold 329
Arnold Bax 330
Lennox Berkeley 330
Benjamin Britten 330
Alan Bush 330
William Byrd 330
Thomas Campion 331
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 331
John Dowland 331

317

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John Dunstaple 331

Edward Elgar 331
Orlando Gibbons 332
Gilbert and Sullivan 332
George Frideric Handel 332
Gustav Holst 333
Hamish MacCunn 333
Hubert Parry 333
Henry Purcell 333
Charles Villiers Stanford 334
Thomas Tallis 335
John Taverner 335
Michael Tippet 335
William Walton 335
Thomas Weelkes 335
The Wesley Family 335
Ralph Vaughan Williams 335
Other Composers 336
Conductors 338
Critics, Journalists, and Assorted Writers on Music 338
Musical Instruments 339
Miscellaneous 340

INTRODUCTION

The field of English musical studies is currently robust, and the entries
within this Select Bibliography reflect this. Significantly, the past 30 years
have seen the emergence of a rich literature in support of this endeavor:
several full-scale histories have been completed or are in progress, most no-
tably John Caldwell’s The Oxford History of English Music and The Black-
well History of Music in Britain, Ian Spink, general editor; Festschriften
celebrating scholars of English music have offered new infusions of re-
search and criticism, as in Music in Eighteenth-Century England: Essays in
Memory of Charles Cudworth, Essays on the History of English Music in
Honor of John Caldwell: Sources, Style, Performance, Historiography, and
Music and British Culture, 1785–1914: Essays in Honour of Cyril Ehrlich;
major anniversaries of English composers, such as Henry Purcell, George
Frideric Handel, and Sir Edward Elgar, have occasioned impressive com-

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 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY • 319

memorative volumes; and archival resources, such as Andrew Ashbee and

David Lasocki’s remarkable A Biographical Dictionary of English Court
Musicians, 1485–1714 or Ashbee’s Records of English Court Music, have
powerfully enabled new levels of detailed study, as have archivally rich
monographs like Peter Holman’s Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at
the English Court, 1540–1690. Two publishers’ series—Ashgate Press’s
Music in 19th-Century Britain (Bennet Zon, general editor) and Boydell
and Brewer’s Music in Britain, 1600–1900 (Rachel Cowgill and Peter
Holman, series editors)—have ensured a continuing number of excellent
monographs on English music.
Here it is also necessary to acknowledge the pioneering work of Nicholas
Temperley, longtime advocate of British music in general, whose articles
and monographs, as well as his work with the journal Victorian Studies,
brought a great deal of post-Purcellian music into the realm of acceptable
musicological discussion and allowed such book series to be founded in the
first place. Through Prof. Temperley’s work, the study of English music has
indeed undergone a renaissance in the last 30 years and is no longer simply a
national enterprise: in the following Select Bibliography, scholarship is cited
from authors working in Great Britain, North America, and throughout the
rest of the world.
As is the case within any specialist field, the literature presented below
contains both wholly approachable general histories as well as highly spe-
cialized scholarly studies. The study of English music, though, has a distinct
advantage over many other fields of music history: frequently, the best con-
temporary descriptions of this rich musical and cultural tapestry were written
by some of the best contemporary writers. A simple way to begin research
in this history would be to read the works of Anthony Wood, Samuel Pepys,
Charles Burney, John Hawkins, and George Bernard Shaw, listed below; all
of these writers are both informative and enjoyably entertaining. General
secondary sources that are approachable include the volumes listed in the
first paragraph of this introduction to the Select Bibliography: these histories
and essays provide orientations to English music that may be genre-based,
such as the Oxford History of English Music and the Blackwell series, or
based within social history, such as James Day’s “Englishness” In Music:
From Elizabethan Times to Elgar, Tippett and Britten. Extremely readable
and informative social histories also include Simon McVeigh’s Concert Life
in London from Mozart to Haydn and Dave Russell’s Popular Music in Eng-
land. Further details can be gleaned on most composers from either the New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition (either in print or
in its electronic format at Oxford Music Online), or the Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography.

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The studies of individual composers and genres are listed within this bib-
liography because they are generally the best available; of particular note is
Howard Smither’s four-volume History of the Oratorio, which lavishes a
great deal of attention on the genre’s English manifestations. Studies of the
periods from the Middle Ages to the 17th century are extremely diverse and
include such wide-ranging sources as Harrison’s Music in Medieval Britain,
Stevens’s Tudor Church Music, and Wulstan’s Tudor Music; the last is par-
ticularly engaging as it is from the point of view of a scholar-performer. More
focused (but still eminently readable) studies include Bent’s essay “The Old
Hall Manuscript,” which provides a model overview of a major manuscript
source of English music; Kerman’s The Elizabethan Madrigal, which inves-
tigates both literary and musical elements of the genre; and Winkler’s “O Let
Us Howle Some Heavy Note”: Music for Witches, the Melancholic, and the
Mad on the Seventeenth-Century English Stage, which is recent and rich in
its interdisciplinary apparatus.
While there are not as many “classic” sources for the periods from the 18th
to the 20th centuries, there are a number of foundational ones, such as Percy
Scholes’s The Mirror of Music, 1844–1944: A Century of Life in Britain as
Reflected in the Pages of the Musical Times. Written by subject in a chronicle
format, the work provides contemporary voices at times as witty as Shaw’s,
without some of the latter’s prejudices. These centuries are particularly rich
in well-written contextual histories, such as Weber’s The Rise of Musical
Classics in Eighteenth-Century England, Gatens’s Victorian Cathedral Mu-
sic in Theory in Practice, Hyde’s New-Found Voices: Women in Nineteenth-
Century English Music, and Riley’s British Music and Modernism. It needs
to be emphasized, though, that all of the sources in the Select Bibliography
below are important works within the field of English musical studies, and
that most of them are of an excellent quality.
In addition to having many brilliant writers on English music, there are
many outstanding libraries and archives throughout Great Britain that include
resources for the further study of British music. First and foremost among
these is the British Library, London, which includes much of the primary
and secondary source material on British music for the period from the 18th
century to the present and has an extensive electronic presence as well. The
British Library is followed closely by the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and
the Cambridge University Library, which have extensive manuscript and
secondary source holdings. However, most cities and towns in the United
Kingdom have libraries and archives with some relevant information, be
it within a cathedral library like that at Lincoln, a centralized city library
such as the Manchester Central Library, or an excellent local history sec-
tion, as at Birmingham Archives and Heritage Center. Students will also be

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 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY • 321

quickly able to find many colleagues studying English music, either through
the many conferences for the study of British music founded in the last few
decades, including the biennial Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain con-
ference (MNCB) and the conference of the North American British Music
Studies Association (NABMSA). Academic programs for the specific study
of English music now exist: the Leeds University Centre for English Music
(LUCEM) and the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire, and
the Commonwealth (CHOMBEC) at Bristol University. Both offer graduate
degrees in the study of English music through their affiliated universities.

REFERENCE WORKS

Ashbee, Andrew. Records of English Court Music. Multivolume set. Aldershot, UK:
Ashgate, 1986–96.
Ashbee, Andrew, and David Lasocki. A Biographical Dictionary of English Court
Musicians, 1485–1714. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1998.
Fuller, Sophie. The Pandora Guide to Women Composers: Britain and the United
States, 1629–Present. London: Pandora, 1994.
Hefling, Charles, ed. The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie. New
York: Grove, 2001.
The Oxford Book of Oxford. Edited by Jan Morris. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1978.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Lawrence Goldman. http://
www.oxforddnb.com.
Strunk, Oliver. Source Readings in Music History. New York: W. W. Norton, 1950.
Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History: The Renaissance. Edited by Gary Tom-
linson. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Swain, Joseph P. Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2006.
Unger, Melvin P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2010.

GENERAL WORKS

Allen, Warren Dwight. Philosophies of Music History: A Study of General Histories

of Music, 1600–1960. New York: Dover, 1962.
Apel, Willi. The History of Keyboard Music to 1700. Bloomington: Indiana Univer-
sity Press, 1972.
The Blackwell History of Music in Britain. Edited by Ian Spink. 6 vols. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1988–96.

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Bumpus, John S. A History of English Cathedral Music, 1549–1889. London:

T. Werner Laurie [1908].
Burney, Charles. A General History of Music. 1776–89. Reprint, New York: Dover,
1957.
Caldwell, John. English Keyboard Music Before the Nineteenth Century. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1973.
———. The Oxford History of English Music. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991,
1999.
Cowgill, Rachel, and Julian Rushton, eds. Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nine-
teenth-Century British Music. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.
Cowgill, Rachel, and Peter Holman, eds. Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914.
Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2007.
Day, James. “Englishness” in Music: From Elizabethan Times to Elgar, Tippett and
Britten. London: Thames, 1999.
Ehrlich, Cyril. The Music Profession in Britain Since the Eighteenth Century. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1985.
Harrison, Frank Ll., Mantle Hood, and Claude Palisca. Musicology. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
Hawkins, John. A General History of the Science and Practice of Music. 1776. Re-
print, New York: Dover, 1963.
Hollander, John. The Untuning of the Sky: Ideas of Music in English Poetry, 1500–
1700. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961.
Hughes, Anselm. “Music of the Coronation over a Thousand Years.” Proceedings of
the Royal Musical Association 79 (1952–53): 81–100.
Hyde, Norman. Four Faces of British Music. Worthing: Churchman, 1985.
Krummel, David. English Music Printing, 1553–1700. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1975.
Langley, Leanne. “The English Musical Journal in the Early Nineteenth Century.”
PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1983.
Lebrecht, Norman. Music in London. London: Aurum Press, 1992.
Mackerness, E. D. Somewhere Further North: A History of Music in Sheffield. Shef-
field: J. W. Northend Limited, 1974.
McVeigh, Simon. Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1993.
Russell, Dave. Popular Music in England: A Social History. Kingston and Montreal:
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1987.
Tanner, Lawrence S. The History of the Coronation. London: Pitkin, 1952.
Walker, Ernest. A History of Music in England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1907.
Young, Percy. A History of British Music. London: Benn, 1967.

GENRES

Dramatic Music: Opera and Oratorio

Baldwin, Olive, and Thelma Wilson. “An English Calisto.” Musical Times 112
(1971): 651–53.

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 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY • 323

Dent, Edward J. Foundations of English Opera. 1928. Reprint, New York: Da Capo,
1967.
Hall-Witt, Jennifer. Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780–
1880. Durham: New Hampshire University Press, 2007.
Lew, Nathaniel. “A New and Glorious Age: Constructions of National Opera in Brit-
ain, 1945–1951.” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2001.
Luckett, Richard. “A New Source for ‘Venus & Adonis.’” Musical Times 130 (1989):
76–79.
Pinnock, Andrew, and Bruce Wood. “A Mangled Chime: The Accidental Death of the
Opera Libretto in Civil War England.” Early Music 36 (2008): 265–84.
Smither, Howard. A History of the Oratorio. 4 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1977–2000.
White, Eric Walter. A History of English Opera. London: Society for Theatre Re-
search, 1983.

Sacred Music
Bowers, Roger. English Church Polyphony. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999.
———. Singers and Sources: English Polyphony, 14th–17th Centuries. Aldershot,
UK: Ashgate, 1998.
———. “To Chorus from Quartet: The Performing Resource for English Church Po-
lyphony c. 1390–1559.” In English Choral Practice, 1400–1650, edited by John
Morehen, 1–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
———. “The Vocal Scoring, Choral Balance and Performing Pitch of Latin Church
Music in England, c.1500–58.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 112
(1987): 38–76.
Johnstone, Andrew. “‘As it was in the beginning’: Organ and Choir Pitch in Early
Anglican Church Music.” Early Music 31 (2003): 507–25.
Johnstone, H. Diack. “The Genesis of Boyce’s Cathedral Music.” Music & Letters
56 (1975): 26–46.
Le Huray, Peter. Music and the Reformation in England. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1978.
Long, Kenneth R. The Music of the English Church. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1971.
Mould, Alan. The English Chorister: A History. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007.
Phillips, Peter. English Sacred Music, 1549–1649. Oxford: Gimmell, 1991.
Plank, Steven. The Way to Heavens Doore: An Introduction to Liturgical Process and
Musical Style. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1994.
———. “Wrapped all in Woe: Passion Music in Late-Medieval England.” In The
Broken Body: Passion Devotion in Late-Medieval Culture, edited by A. A. Mac-
Donald, H. N. B. Ridderbos, and R. M. Schlusemann, 93–108. Groningen: Egbert
Forsten, 1998.
Rankin, Susan, and David Hiley, eds. Music in the Medieval English Liturgy: Plainsong
& Mediaeval Music Society Centennial Essays. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Spink, Ian. Restoration Cathedral Music, 1660–1714. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1995.

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Stevens, Denis. Tudor Church Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.

Temperley, Nicholas. Music of the English Parish Church. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1979.
Watson, J. R. The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical Study. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1999.
Wilson, Ruth. Anglican Chant and Chanting in England, Scotland, and America,
1660–1820. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Song
Johnson, David. “The 18th-Century Glee.” Musical Times 120 (1979): 200–202.
Lichtenwagner, William. “The Music of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’: Whence and
Whither?” College Music Symposium 18 (1978): 34–81.
Plank, Steven. “‘A Song in Imitation of Mr Nicola’s Manner’: A Melismatic ‘Mouth-
full.’” BACH 27 (1986): 16–23.
Spink, Ian. English Song: Dowland to Purcell. New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

HISTORICAL PERIODS

Medieval
Bent, Margaret. “New and Little-Known Fragments of English Medieval Polyphony.”
Journal of the American Musicological Society 21 (1968): 137–56.
Duffin, Ross W. “The Sumer Canon: A New Revision.” Speculum 63 (1988): 1–22.
Harrison, Frank Ll. Music in Medieval Britain. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1963.
Obst, Wolfgang. “‘Svmer is icumen in’—A Contrafactum?” Music & Letters 64
(1983): 151–61.

Renaissance
Austern, Linda Phyllis. Music in English Children’s Drama of the Later Renaissance.
Philadelphia: Gordon and Breach, 1992.
———. “Nature, Culture, Myth, and the Musician in Early Modern England.” Journal
of the American Musicological Society 51 (1998): 1–47.
Bent, Margaret. “The Earliest Fifteenth-century Transmission of English Music to
the Continent.” In Essays on the History of English Music in Honour of John
Caldwell, edited by Emma Hornby and David Maw, 83–96. Woodbridge: Boydell
and Brewer, 2010.
———. “Initial Letters in the Old Hall Manuscript.” Music & Letters 47 (1966):
225–38.
———. “The Old Hall Manuscript.” Early Music 2 (1974): 2–14.
———. “The Progeny of Old Hall: More Leaves from a Royal English Choirbook.”
In Gordon Athol Anderson (1929–1981) in Memoriam, edited by L. A. Dittmer,
1:1–54. Henryville and Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1984.

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Bent, Margaret, and Andrew Hughes. “The Old Hall Manuscript: An Inventory.”
Musica Disciplina 21 (1967): 130–47.
Boyd, Morrison Comegys. Elizabethan Music and Musical Criticism. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962.
Fallows, David. “The Contenance Angloise: English Influence on Continental Com-
posers of the Fifteenth Century.” Renaissance Studies 1 (1987): 189–208.
Kerman, Joseph. “Elizabethan Anthologies of Elizabethan Madrigals.” Journal of the
American Musicological Society 4 (1951): 122–138.
———. The Elizabethan Madrigal: A Comparative Study. N.p.: American Musico-
logical Society, 1962.
Nordstrom, Lyle. “The English Lute Duet and Consort Lesson.” Lute Society Journal
43 (1976): 5–22.
Price, David C. Patrons and Musicians of the English Renaissance. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1981.
Ravens, Simon. “‘A Sweet Shrill Voice’: The Countertenor and Vocal Scoring in
Tudor England.” Early Music 26 (1998): 122–34.
Skinner, David. “Discovering the Provenance and History of the Caius and Lambeth
Choirbooks.” Early Music 25 (1997): 245–66.
Smith, David. “Print Culture.” Review of Thomas East and Music Publishing in Re-
naissance England by Jeremy Smith. Musical Times 144 (2003): 63–64.
Smith, Jeremy. “Music in late Elizabethan Politics: The Identities of Oriana and Di-
ana.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 58 (2005): 507–58.
———. Thomas East and Music Publishing in Renaissance England. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003.
Stevens, John. Music and Poetry in the Early Tudor Court. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1979.
Williamson, Magnus. “Pictura et scriptura: The Eton Choirbook in Its Iconographi-
cal Context.” Early Music 28 (2000): 359–82.
Woodfield, Ian. English Musicians in the Age of Exploration. Stuyvesant, NY: Pen-
dragon, 1995.
Wulstan, David. Tudor Music. London: Dent, 1985.

Seventeenth Century
Clark, J. Bunker. Transposition in Seventeenth-Century English Organ Accompani-
ments and the Transposing Organ. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1974.
Corp, E. T. “The Exiled Court of James II and James III: A Centre of Italian Music
in France 1689–1712.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 120 (1995):
216–31.
Duffin, Ross W. “To Entertain a King: Music for James and Henry at the Merchant
Taylors Feast of 1607.” Music & Letters 83 (2002): 525–41.
Harwood, Ian. “Instrumental Pitch in England c1600.” Early Music 11 (1983):
76–78.
Haynes, Bruce. “Pitch Standards in the Baroque and Classical Periods.” PhD diss.,
University of Montreal, 1995.

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Mabbett, Margaret. “Italian Musicians in Restoration England (1660–1690).” Music

& Letters 67 (1986): 237–47.
Monson, Craig. Voices and Viols in England, 1600–1650: The Sources and the Music.
Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research, 1982.
Scholes, Percy. The Puritans and Music in England and New England. London: Ox-
ford University Press, 1934.
Tilmouth, Michael. “A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers Published
in London and the Provinces (1660–1719).” Royal Musical Association Research
Chronicle, no. 1 (1961).
Wainwright, Jonathan. Musical Patronage in Seventeenth-Century England: Christo-
pher, First Baron Hatton (1605–1670). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1997.
Westrup, J. A. “Foreign Musicians in Stuart England.” Musical Quarterly 27 (1941):
70–89.

Eighteenth Century
Baldwin, Olive, and Thelma Wilson. S.v. “Tom Trollope’s Mother-in-Law.” http://
www.florin.ms/garrows.html (accessed June 3, 2009).
Beechey, Gwilym. “Songs and Cantatas in Eighteenth-Century England.” Consort 49
(1993): 30–40.
Castle, Terry. “Eros and Liberty at the English Masquerade, 1710–90.” Eighteenth-
Century Studies 17 (1984–85): 156–76.
Fiske, Roger. English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1986.
Hunter, David. “Bridging the Gap: The Patrons-in-Common of Purcell and Handel.”
Early Music 37 (2009): 621–32.
Jones, David Wyn, ed. Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate,
2000.
Lovell, Percy. “‘Ancient’ Music in Eighteenth-Century England.” Music & Letters
60 (1979): 401–15.
Weber, William. The Rise of Musical Classics in Eighteenth-Century England: A
Study in Canon, Ritual, and Ideology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
Wollenberg, Susan, and Simon McVeigh, eds. Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century
Britain. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.

Long Nineteenth Century/(Second) English Musical Renaissance

Bashford, Christina. “Historiography and Invisible Musics: Domestic Chamber
Muisc in Nineteenth-Century Britain.” Journal of the American Musicological
Society 63 (2010): 291–359.
Bashford, Christina, and Leanne Langley, eds. Music and British Culture, 1785–
1914: Essays in Honour of Cyril Ehrlich. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Beedell, A. V. The Decline of the English Musician, 1788–1888: A Family of English
Musicians in Ireland, England, Mauritius, and Australia. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1992.
Fuller, Sophie. “Women Composers during the British Musical Renaissance, 1880–
1918.” PhD diss., University of London, 1998.

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Gatens, William J. Victorian Cathedral Music in Theory and Practice. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Gillett, Paula. Musical Women in England, 1870–1914: “Encroaching on All Man’s
Privileges.” New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
Howes, Frank. The English Musical Renaissance. New York: Stein and Day, 1966.
Hueffer, Francis. Half a Century of Music in England, 1837–1887: Essays Towards
a History. Philadelphia: Gebbie and Company; London: Chapman and Hall, 1889.
Hughes, Meirion, and Robert Stradling. The English Musical Renaissance, 1840–
1940: Constructing a National Music. 2nd ed. Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 2001.
Hyde, Derek. New-Found Voices: Women in Nineteenth-Century English Music. 3rd
ed. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1998.
McGuire, Charles Edward. Music and Victorian Philanthropy: The Tonic Sol-fa
Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Pearsall, Ronald. Victorian Popular Music. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1973.
Schaarwächter, Jürgen. “Chasing a Myth and a Legend: ‘The British Musical Renais-
sance’ in ‘A Land without Music.’” Musical Times 149 (2008): 53–59.
Scholes, Percy. The Mirror of Music, 1844–1944: A Century of Musical Life in Brit-
ain as Reflected in the Pages of the Musical Times. London: Novello & Company;
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947.
Temperley, Nicholas, ed. The Lost Chord: Essays on Victorian Music. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1989.
Trend, Michael. The Music Makers: The English Musical Renaissance from Elgar to
Britten. New York: Schirmer Books, 1985.

Twentieth Century
Pearsall, Ronald. Edwardian Popular Music. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1975.
Pirie, Peter J. The English Musical Renaissance: Twentieth Century British Compos-
ers and Their Works. New York: St. Martin’s, 1979.
Riley, Matthew, ed. British Music and Modernism. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2010.

MUSIC AND THEATER

Arundell, Dennis Drew. The Story of Sadler’s Wells. Newton Abbott: David and
Charles, 1978.
Chan, Mary. Music in the Theatre of Ben Jonson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Duffin, Ross W. Shakespeare’s Songbook. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.
Fuller, David. “The Jonsonian Masque and Its Music.” Music & Letters 54 (1973):
440–52.
Gooch, Bryan, and David Thatcher. A Shakespeare Music Catalogue. Oxford: Clar-
endon Press, 1991.
Lindley, David. Shakespeare and Music. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006.
Lowerre, Kathryn. “Music in the Productions at London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields The-
ater, 1695–1705.” PhD diss., Duke University, 1997.

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Mellers, Wilfred. Harmonious Meeting: A Study of the Relationship between English

Music, Poetry and Theatre, c. 1600–1900. London: Dennis Dobson, 1965.
Milhous, Judith, and Robert D. Hume. “The Haymarket Opera in 1711.” Early Music
17 (1989): 523–38.
———. “Heidegger and the Management of the Haymarket Opera, 1713–17.” Early
Music 27 (1999): 65–84.
Plank, Steven. “‘And Now About the Cauldron Sing’: Music and the Supernatural on
the Restoration Stage.” Early Music 18 (1990): 393–407.
Price, Curtis. Music in the Restoration Theatre. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research, 1979.
Walls, Peter. Music in the English Courtly Masque. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996.
Winkler, Amanda Eubanks. “O Let Us Howle Some Heavy Note”: Music for Witches,
the Melancholic, and the Mad on the Seventeenth-Century English Stage. Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

MUSIC AND DANCE

Playford, John. The English Dancing Master. London, 1651. Reprint, Brooklyn, NY:
Dance Horizons, n.d.
Sachs, Curt. World History of the Dance. New York: W. W. Norton, 1965.
Thorp, Jennifer. “‘So Great a Master as Mr Isaac’: an Exemplary Dancing Master of
Late Stuart London.” Early Music 35 (2007): 435–46.
Ward, John. “The Morris Tune.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 39
(1986): 294–331.

MUSICAL INSTITUTIONS

Baldwin, David. The Chapel Royal: Ancient & Modern. London: Gerald Duckworth,
1990.
Bashford, Christina. “John Ella and the Making of the Musical Union.” In Music
and British Culture, 1785–1914: Essays in Honour of Cyril Ehrlich, edited by
Christina Bashford and Leanne Langley, 193–214. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Cowgill, Rachel. “Disputing Choruses in 1760s Halifax: Joah Bates, William Her-
schel, and the Messiah Club.” In Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914,
edited by Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman, 87–113. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate,
2007.
———. “The London Apollonicon Recitals, 1817–1832: A Case-Study in Bach, Mo-
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Doctor, Jenny. The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music: Shaping a Nation’s Tastes. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Doctor, Jenny, and David Wright, eds. The Proms: A New History. London: Thames
and Hudson, 2007.
Fuller-Maitland, J. A. “The People’s Concert Society: Valedictory.” Musical Times
77 (1936): 317–18.
Gladsone, Viscount, Guy Boas, and Harald Christopherson. Noblemen and Gentle-
men’s Catch Club: Three Essays toward Its History. London: Noblemen and
Gentlemen’s Catch Club at the Cypher Press, 1996.
Harrison, Bertha. “A Forgotten Concert Room.” Musical Times 47 (1906): 602–5
and 669–72.
Keen, Basil. The Bach Choir: The First Hundred Years. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate,
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McVeigh, Simon. “Music and the Lock Hospital in the 18th Century.” Musical Times
129 (1988): 235–40.
———. “The Professional Concert and Rival Subscription Series in London, 1783–
1793.” Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle 22 (1989): 1–135.
Musgrave, Michael. The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1995.
Russell, Dave. “Abiding Memories: The Community Singing Movement and English
Social Life in the 1920s.” Popular Music 27 (2008): 117–33.
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Allen and Unwin, 1973.
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Royal Musical Association 118 (1993): 44–72.
Timms, Colin. “Steffani and the Academy of Ancient Music.” Musical Times 119
(1978): 127–30.

COMPOSERS

Thomas Arne
Adas, Jane. “Arne’s Progress: An English Composer in Eighteenth-Century London.”
PhD diss., Rutgers University, 1993.
Herbage, Julian. “Arne: His Character and Environment.” Proceedings of the Royal
Musical Association 87 (1960–61): 15–29.
Langley, Robin. “Arne’s Keyboard Concertos.” Musical Times 119 (1978): 233–36.

Malcolm Arnold
Jackson, Paul R. W. The Life and Music of Sir Malcolm Arnold: The Brilliant and the
Dark. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
Thöne, Raphael D. Malcolm Arnold—A Composer of Real Music: Symphonic Writ-
ing, Style and Aesthetics. Moers: Edition Wissenschaft, 2007.

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Arnold Bax
Bax, Arnold. Farewell, My Youth and Other Writings by Arnold Bax. Edited by Lewis
Foreman. Aldershot, UK: Scolar, 1992.
Foreman, Lewis. Bax: A Composer and His Times. 3rd ed. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell,
2007.

Lennox Berkeley
Dickinson, Peter. The Music of Lennox Berkeley. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2003.
Williamson, Malcolm. “Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989).” Musical Times 131
(1990): 197–99.

Benjamin Britten
Brett, Philip. Music and Sexuality in Britten: Selected Essays. Edited by George E.
Haggerty. With an introduction by Susan McClary and an afterword by Jenny Doc-
tor. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
Oliver, Michael. Benjamin Britten. London: Phaidon, 1996.

Alan Bush
Bush, Nancy. Alan Bush: Music, Politics, and Life. With essays on music by Lewis
Foreman. London: Thames, 2000.
Craggs, Stewart R. Alan Bush: A Source Book. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2007.

William Byrd
Bessler, Samantha. “London’s Madrigal Society and the Reception of William Byrd’s
Music.” Paper presented to the Fourth Biennial Conference of the North American
British Music Studies Association, Des Moines, IA, July 2010.
Brett, Philip. William Byrd and His Contemporaries. Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 2007.
Brown, Alan, and Richard Turbet, eds. Byrd Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1991.
Byrd, William. Preface to Cantiones Sacrae 1575. In The Byrd Edition, edited by
Craig Monson. London: Stainer and Bell, 1977.
Harley, John. William Byrd: Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Aldershot, UK: Scolar,
1997.
Kerman, Joseph. The Masses and Motets of William Byrd. London: Faber and Faber,
1981.
McCarthy, Kerry. Liturgy and Contemplation in Byrd’s Gradualia. New York: Rout-
ledge, 2007.
Monson, Craig. “Authenticity and Chronology in Byrd’s Church Anthems.” Journal
of the American Musicological Society 35 (1982): 280–305.

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Neighbour, Oliver. The Consort and Keyboard Music of William Byrd. London: Faber
and Faber, 1978.

Thomas Campion
Campion, Thomas. The Works of Thomas Campion; Complete Songs, Masques, and
Treatises. . . . Edited by Walter R. Davis. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967.
Lindgren, Lowell. Thomas Campion. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.
Ratcliffe, Stephen. Campion on Song. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.
Wilson, Christopher. Words and Notes Coupled Lovingly Together: Thomas Cam-
pion: A Critical Study. New York: Garland, 1989.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Carr, Catherine. “The Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912): A Critical
and Analytical Study.” PhD diss., University of Durham, 2005.
Self, Geoffrey. The Hiawatha Man: The Life and Work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1995.

John Dowland
Holman, Peter. Dowland—Lachrimae (1604). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.
Poulton, Diane. John Dowland. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Rooley, Anthony. “New Light on Dowland’s Songs of Darkness.” Early Music 11
(1983): 6–22.
Wells, Robin Headlam. “John Dowland and Elizabethan Melancholy.” Early Music
13 (1985): 5114–28.

John Dunstaple
Bent, Margaret. Dunstaple. London: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Stell, Judith, and Andrew Wathey. “New Light on the Biography of John Dunstable.”
Music & Letters 62 (1981): 60–63.
Wathey, Andrew. “Dunstable in France.” Music & Letters 67 (1986): 1–36.

Edward Elgar
Adams, Byron. “The ‘Dark Saying’ of the Enigma: Homoeroticism and the Elgarian
Paradox.” 19th-Century Music 23 (2000): 218–35.
———, ed. Edward Elgar and His World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
2007.
Grimley, Daniel, and Julian Rushton. The Cambridge Companion to Elgar. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

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Harper-Scott, J. P. E., and Julian Rushton, eds. Elgar Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2007.
Hodgkins, Geoffrey. Somewhere Further North: Elgar and the Morecambe Festival.
Rickmansworth: Poneke Pres, 2004.
Kennedy, Michael. Portrait of Elgar. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
McGuire, Charles Edward. Elgar’s Oratorios: The Creation of an Epic Narrative.
Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002.
Moore, Jerrold Northrop. Edward Elgar: A Creative Life. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1984.
Rushton, Julian. Elgar: “Enigma” Variations. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.
Thomson, Aidan. “Re-Reading Elgar: Hermenutics, Criticism, and Reception in Eng-
land and Germany, 1900–1914.” DPhil diss., Oxford University, 2002.

Orlando Gibbons
Harley, John. Orlando Gibbons and the Gibbons Family of Musicians. Aldershot,
UK: Ashgate, 1999.
Neighbour, Oliver. “Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625): The Consort Music.” Early Mu-
sic 11 (1983): 351–57.

Gilbert and Sullivan

Ainger, Michael. Gilbert & Sullivan: A Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2002.
Dillard, Philip H. Sir Arthur Sullivan: A Resource Book. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 1996.
Young, Percy. Sir Arthur Sullivan. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972.

George Frideric Handel

Burrows, Donald, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Handel. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
———. “Handel and the Foundling Hospital.” Music & Letters 58, no. 3 (July 1977):
269–84.
———. Handel: Messiah. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
———. “Handel’s London Theatre Orchestra.” Early Music 13 (1985): 349–58.
Burrows, Donald, and Robert Hume. “George I, the Haymarket Opera Company and
Handel’s Water Music.” Early Music 19 (1991): 323–43.
Dean, Winton. Handel and the Opera Seria. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1969.
Dean, Winton, and John Merrill Knapp. Handel’s Operas, 1704–1726. Oxford: Clar-
endon Press, 1987.
Hogwood, Christopher. Handel. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984.

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Hurley, David Ross. Handel’s Muse: Patterns of Creation in his Oratorios and Musi-
cal Dramas, 1743–1751. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Lang, Paul Henry. George Frideric Handel. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.
Larsen, Jens Peter. Handel’s Messiah. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972.
Roberts, John. “False Messiah.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 63
(2010): 45–97.
Shapiro, Alexander H. “‘Drama of an Infinitely Superior Nature’: Handel’s Early
English Oratorios and the Religious Sublime.” Music & Letters 74 (1993): 215–45.
Smith, Ruth. Handel’s Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1995.
Strohm, Reinhard. Essays on Handel and Italian Opera. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985.

Gustav Holst
Holst, Imogen. Gustav Holst: A Biography (with a Note by Ralph Vaughan Williams).
London: Oxford University Press, 1958.
Mitchell, Jon C. A Comprehensive Biography of Composer Gustav Holst, with Cor-
respondence and Diary Excerpts, Including His American Years. Lewiston, NY:
Methuen, 2001.
Scheer, Christopher. “Fin-de-Siècle Britain: Imperialism and Wagner in the Music of
Gustav Holst.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2007.
Short, Michael. Gustav Holst: The Man and His Music. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1990.

Hamish MacCunn
Oates, Jennifer. “Hamish MacCunn: A Scottish National Composer?” In Europe, Em-
pire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music, edited by Rachel Cowgill
and Julian Rushton, 145–157. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.
———. “The Making of Scottish National Opera: Hamish MacCunn’s Jeanie Deans.”
Opera Journal 35, no. 2/3 (June–September 2002): 3–28.

Hubert Parry
Beloliel, Bernard. Parry before Jerusalem: Studies of His Life and Works with Ex-
cerpts from His Writings. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1997.
Dibble, Jeremy. C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

Henry Purcell
Baldwin, Olive, and Thelma Wilson. “Purcell’s Sopranos.” Musical Times 123
(1982): 602–9.
Burden, Michael, ed. The Purcell Companion. London: Faber and Faber, 1995.

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 334 • SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

———. “Where Did Purcell Keep His Theatre Band?” Early Music 37 (2009): 429–43.
Buttrey, John. “Dating Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical
Association 94 (1967/68): 51–62.
Charlton, David. “‘King Arthur’: Dramatick Opera.” Music & Letters 64 (1983):
183–92.
Harris, Ellen. Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1987.
Holman, Peter. Henry Purcell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
King, Robert. Henry Purcell. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
Laurie, Margaret. “Did Purcell Set the Tempest?” Proceedings of the Royal Musical
Association 90 (1963/64): 43–57.
Plank, Steven. “Purcell, the Anthem, and the Culture of Preaching.” Musical Times
150 (2009): 17–30.
Price, Curtis A. “Dido and Aeneas: Questions of Style and Evidence.” Early Music
22 (1994): 115–25.
———. Henry Purcell and the London Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1984.
———. ed. Purcell Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Radice, Mark. “Sites for Music in Purcell’s Dorset Garden Theatre.” Musical Quar-
terly 81 (1997): 430–48.
Schmalfeldt, Janet. “In Search of Dido.” Journal of Musicology 18 (2001):
584–615.
Walkling, Andrew. “The Dating of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas?” Early Music 22
(1994): 469–81.
———. “The Masque of Actaeon and the Antimasque of Mercury: Dance, Dramatic
Structure, and Tragic Exposition in Dido and Aeneas.” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 63 (2010): 191–242.
———. “Political Allegory in Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas.’” Music & Letters 76
(1995): 540–71.
Westrup, J. A. Purcell. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1937.
White, Bryan. “Letter from Aleppo: Dating the Chelsea School Performance of Dido
and Aeneas.” Early Music 37 (2009): 417–28.
Wood, Bruce. Purcell: An Extraordinary Life. London: ABRSM, 2009.
———. “Purcell’s Odes: A Reappraisal.” In The Purcell Companion, edited by Mi-
chael Burden, 200–253. London: Faber and Faber, 1994.
Wood, Bruce, and Andrew Pinnock. “‘Unscarr’d by Turning Times’?: The Dating of
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.” Early Music 20 (1992): 372–90.
Zimmerman, Franklin B. Henry Purcell, 1659–1695: His Life and Times. Philadel-
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.

Charles Villiers Stanford

Dibble, Jeremy. Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2002.
Rodmell, Paul. Charles Villiers Stanford. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002.

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Thomas Tallis
Doe, Paul. Tallis. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Stevens, Denis. “A Song of Fortie Partes, Made by Mr Tallys.” Early Music 10
(1982): 171–81.

John Taverner
Benham, Hugh. John Taverner: His Life and Music. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
Hand, Colin. John Taverner: His Life and Work. London: Eulenburg Books, 1978.

Michael Tippett
Bowen, Meirion. Michael Tippett. 2nd ed. London: Robson Books, 1997.
Kemp, Ian. Tippett: The Composer and His Music. London: Eulenberg; New York:
Da Capo, 1984.

William Walton
Kennedy, Michael. Portrait of Walton. Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, 1989.
Lloyd, Stephen. William Walton: Muse of Fire. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2001.

Thomas Weelkes
Browne, David. Thomas Weelkes. London: Faber and Faber, 1969.
Shepherd, John. “Thomas Weelkes: A Biographical Caution.” Musical Quarterly 64
(1980): 505–21.

The Wesley Family

Horton, Peter. Samuel Sebastian Wesley: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Olleson, Philip. Samuel Wesley: The Man and His Music. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell,
2003.
Pratt, Andrew. Indistinguishable Blaze: Meditations on Charles Wesley’s Hymns.
Peterborough, UK: Inspire, 2007.
Tyson, John R. Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley. Grand
Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007.
Young, Carlton R. Music of the Heart: John & Charles Wesley on Music and Musi-
cians. Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1995.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Adams, Byron, and Robin Wells, eds. Vaughan Williams Essays. Aldershot, UK:
Ashgate, 2003.

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Day, James. Vaughan Williams. 3rd ed. The Master Musicians, edited by Stanley
Sadie. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Foreman, Lewis, ed. Ralph Vaughan Williams in Perspective. Somerset, UK: Albion,
1998.
Frogley, Alain. Vaughan Williams Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996.
Kennedy, Michael. A Catalog of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1996.
Onderdonk, Julian. “Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Folksong Collecting: English Na-
tionalism and the Rise of the Professional Society.” PhD diss., New York Univer-
sity, 1998.
Saylor, Eric. “The Significance of Nation in the Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams.”
PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2003.
Thomson, Aidan, and Alain Frogley, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan
Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
Vaughan Williams, Ralph. National Music and Other Essays. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clar-
endon Press, 1986.

Other Composers
Anonymous. “Sir Julius Benedict.” Musical Times 25 (1884): 384–85.
Ashbee, Andrew, ed. William Lawes: Essays on His Life, Times, and Work. Alder-
shot, UK: Ashgate, 1998.
Ashbee, Andrew, and Peter Holman, eds. John Jenkins and His Time: Studies in
English Consort Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
Barlow, Michael. Whom the Gods Love: The Life and Music of George Butterworth.
London: Toccata, 1997.
Boden, Anthony. Thomas Tomkins: The Last Elizabethan. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate,
2005.
Cunningham, Walker. The Keyboard Music of John Bull. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Re-
search, 1984.
Curtis, Liane. A Rebecca Clarke Reader. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press,
2004.
Dennison, Peter. Pelham Humfrey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Dibble, Jeremy. John Stainer: A Life in Music. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2007.
Dickinson, Peter. Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, and Painter. Woodbridge, UK:
Boydell, 2008.
Eatock, Colin Timothy. Mendelssohn and Victorian England. Farnham, UK: Ashgate,
2009.
Grogan, Christopher, ed. Imogen Holst: A Life in Music. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell,
2007.
Hurd, Michael. Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1993.
Jackson, Francis. Blessed City: The Life and Works of Edward C. Bairstow. York:
William Sessions, 1997.

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Kroeger, Karl. “John Valentine: Eighteenth-Century Music Master in the English

Midlands.” Notes 44 (1988): 444–55.
Lindgren, Lowell. “Ariosti’s London Years, 1716–29.” Music & Letters 622 (1981):
331–51.
Lister, Warwick. Amico: The Life of Giovanni Battista Viotti. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
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Little, Karen R. Frank Bridge: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood, 1991.
Lloyd, Stephen. H. Balfour Gardiner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
MacDonald, Malcolm. John Foulds and His Music: An Introduction. New York: Pro/
Am Music Resources, 1989.
Marr, Peter. “John Alcock and Fanny Brown.” Musical Times 118 (1977): 118–20.
Matthews, Betty. “Joah Bates: A Remarkable Amateur.” Musical Times 126 (1985):
749–53.
———. “The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Battishill.” Musical Times 133 (1992): 477–79.
McVeagh, Diana. Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell,
2005.
Milligan, Thomas B. John Baptist Cramer (1771–1858): A Thematic Catalogue of
His Works. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1994.
Moroney, Davitt. “Alessandro Striggio’s Mass in Forty and Sixty Parts.” Journal of
the American Musicological Society 60 (2007): 1–69.
Nettel, Reginald. Havergal Brian and His Music. Catalogue of works by Lewis Fore-
man. London: Dobson, 1976.
Palmer, Fiona M. Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794–1846): The Career of a
Double Bass Virtuoso. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
———. Vincent Novello (1781–1861): Music for the Masses. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate,
2006.
Parrott, Isabel. “William Sterndale Bennett and the Bach Revival in Nineteenth-
Century England.” In Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Brit-
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Payne, Ian. “The Sacred Music of Thomas Ravenscroft.” Early Music 10 (1982):
309–15.
Plantinga, Leon. Clementi: His Life and Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Platt, Richard. “New Light on Richard Mudge.” Early Music 28 (2000): 531–45.
Rees, Brian. A Musical Peacemaker: The Life and Work of Sir Edward German.
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Richards, Fiona. The Music of John Ireland. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000.
Rosen, Carole. The Goossens: A Musical Century. Boston: Northeastern University
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Shay, Robert. “Naturalizing Palestrina and Carissimi in Late Seventeenth-Century Ox-
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Skinner, David. “William Cornysh: Clerk or Courtier?” Musical Times 138 (1997):
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Smith, Barry. Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine. Oxford: Oxford University
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Walsh, Basil. Michael W. Balfe: A Unique Victorian Composer. Foreword by Richard

Bonynge. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007.
Wells, Robin Headlam. “Ars amatoria: Philip Rosseter and the Tudor Court Lyric.”
Music & Letters 70 (1989): 58–71.
Wilcox, Helen. “My Mournful Style: Poetry and Music in the Madrigals of John
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Wilson, Michael. Nicholas Lanier: Master of the King’s Musick. Aldershot, UK:
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Wright, David. “Sir Frederick Bridge and the Musical Furtherance of the 1902 Im-
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Music, edited by Rachel Cowgill and Julian Rushton, 115–29. Aldershot, UK:
Ashgate, 2006.

CONDUCTORS

Aldous, Richard. Tunes of Glory: The Life of Malcolm Sargent. London: Hutchinson,
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Atkins, Harold, and Peter Coates. The Barbirollis: A Musical Marriage. London:
Robson, 1983.
Blackwood, Alan. Sir Thomas Beecham: The Man and the Music. London: Ebury,
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Fifield, Christopher. True Artist and True Friend: A Biography of Hans Richter. Ox-
ford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Jacobs, Arthur. Henry J. Wood: Maker of the Proms. London: Methuen, 1994.
Kennedy, Michael. Adrian Boult. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1987.
Lucas, John. Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell,
2008.
Rothwell, Evelyn. Life with Glorious John. London: Robson, 2002.

CRITICS, JOURNALISTS, AND ASSORTED WRITERS ON MUSIC

Bledsoe, Robert Terell. Henry Frothergill Chorley: Victorian Journalist. Aldershot,

UK: Ashgate, 1998.
Brett, Philip. “Musicology and Sexuality: The Example of Edward J. Dent.” In Queer-
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Denke, Margaret. Ernest Walker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951.
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Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Edited by John Bowle. Oxford: Oxford
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Mace, Thomas. Musick’s Monument. 1676. Reprint, Paris: Éditions du Centre Na-
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Morley, Thomas. A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music. 1597. Reprint,
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Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription.
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Plank, Steven. “An English Miscellany: Musical Notes in Seventeenth-Century Dia-
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Playford, John. An Introduction to the Skill of Musick. Edited by Henry Purcell. 1694.
Reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1972.
Rainbow, Bernarr. “Bathe and his Introductions to Musicke.” Musical Times 123
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Shaw, George Bernard. Music in London, 1890–1894. New York: Vienna House, 1973.
White, Arthur. “Fabian Stedman: The First Group Theorist.” American Mathematical
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[Wood, Anthony]. The Life and Times of Anthony à Wood. Edited by Andrew Clark.
Abridged by Llewelyn Powys. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.
Young, Percy. George Grove, 1820–1900: A Biography. Washington, DC: Grove’s
Dictionaries of Music, 1980.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Baines, Anthony. European and American Musical Instruments. New York: Viking
Press, 1966.
Bicknell, Stephen. The History of the English Organ. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1996.
Dickey, Bruce, and Michael Collver. Catalog of Music for the Cornett. Bloomington:
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Herbert, Trevor. “The Sackbut and Pre-Reformation English Church Music.” Historic
Brass Society Journal 5 (1993): 146–58.
———. “The Sackbut in England in the 17th and 18th Centuries.” Early Music 18
(1990): 609–16.
———. The Trombone. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
Holman, Peter. Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court, 1540–
1690. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Lasocki, David. “Professional Recorder Playing in England 1500–1740.” Early Music
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Marcuse, Sibyl. Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. New York: W.

W. Norton, 1975.
Praetorius, Michael. Syntagma musicum II: De organographia. Translated and edited
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 About the Authors

Charles Edward McGuire studies British music of the 19th and 20th centu-
ries. His areas of interest include the music of Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan
Williams, the British music festival, sight-singing techniques, and the inter-
section of choral singing and moral reform movements. His publications in-
clude the monographs Elgar’s Oratorios: The Creation of an Epic Narrative
(Ashgate, 2002) and Music and Victorian Philanthropy: The Tonic Sol-fa
Movement (Cambridge, 2009) as well as essays in Vaughan Williams Essays,
The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, Elgar and His World, Elgar Studies,
19th-Century Music, Music & Letters, The Elgar Society Journal, and the
second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Dr.
McGuire holds bachelor’s degrees from both Oberlin College and the Oberlin
College Conservatory of Music and a PhD in music from Harvard Univer-
sity. He has taught in various capacities at Harvard University, Ball State
University, the University of Maryland at College Park, and James Madison
University. He is currently associate professor of musicology at the Oberlin
College Conservatory of Music.

Steven E. Plank is professor and chair of the Department of Musicology at

Oberlin College, where he has taught since 1980. His professional interests
have focused on the music of Restoration England, the intertwining of liturgy
and the history of musical style, the oratorio, performance practice, and brass
organology. He is the author of two books, The Way to Heavens Doore: An
Introduction to Liturgical Process and Musical Style (Scarecrow, 1994) and
Choral Performance: A Guide to Historical Practice (Scarecrow, 2004), and
a contributor to a number of journals, including Musical Times, Music & Let-
ters, Early Music, and Goldberg, as well as to the encyclopedia Musik in Ge-
schichte und Gegenwart. He is also the director of the Collegium Musicum of
Oberlin College and received the Thomas Binkley Award from Early Music
America in 2009 for his work as a university collegium director.

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