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The English Anthem Text, 1549–1660

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

John Morehen*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

Extract

The extensive repertory of English anthems composed between the passing of the Act of Uniformity (1549) and the cessation of church services precipitated by the Civil War during the 1640s has been the focus of such concentrated attention in recent years that, on first sight at least, few important facets appear to have languished in neglect. Amongst those aspects of the anthem which have been subjected to detailed scrutiny are the genre itself,' the associated printed and manuscript music sources, the many vexing problems of performance practice, and the anthem settings of most of the principal composers. One conspicuous omission from this research profile, however, is any survey of anthem texts, a subject of such fundamental importance as to refute any suggestion that the present understanding of the anthem genre is complete.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1992

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References

1 Peter le Huray, ‘The English Anthem, 1603–1660’ (Ph D dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1959), and ‘The English Anthem, 1580–1640’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 86(1959–60), 113Google Scholar

2 Peter le Huray, ‘Towards a Definitive Study of Pre-Restoration Anglican Service Music’, Musica disciplina, 14 (1960), 167–95, John Morehen, ‘The Sources of English Cathedral Music, c 1617–c 1644’ (Ph D dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1969)Google Scholar

3 Smith, Alan, ‘The Practice of Music in English Churches and Cathedrals, and at the Court, during the Reign of Elizabeth I’ (Ph D dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1967), J Bunker Clark, Transposition in Seventeenth Century Organ Accompaniments and the Transposing Organ (Detroit, 1974), Craig Monson, ‘Consort Song and Verse Anthem A Few Performance Problems’, Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, 13 (1976), 411Google Scholar

4 For the anthems of the principal composers see Thomas Tallis, I English Anthems, ed Leonard Ellinwood, 2nd impression with revisions by Paul Doe, Early English Church Music (henceforth EECM), 11 (London, 1971), William Byrd The English Anthems, ed Craig Monson, The Byrd Edition (henceforth BE), 11 (London, 1983), Christopher Tye, I English Sacred Music, ed John Morehen, EECM, 19 (London, 1977), Thomas Morley, I English Anthems, Liturgical Music, ed John Morehen, EECM, 38 (London, 1991), Orlando Gibbons, I Verse Anthems, ed David Wulstan, EECM, 3 (London, 1964), Orlando Gibbons, II Full Anthems and Fragmentary Verse Anthems, ed David Wulstan, EECM, 21 (London, 1978), Nathaniel Giles Anthems, ed J Bunker Clark, EECM, 23 (London, 1979), Robert Ramsey, I English Sacred Music, ed Edward Thompson, EECM, 7 (London 1967), Robert Ramsey, II Latin Sacred Music, ed Edward Thompson, EECM, 31 (London, 1986), Thomas Tomkins Musica deo sacra, 6 vols, EECM, 5, 9, 14, 27, 37, 39 (London, 1965–93), Thomas Weelkes Collected Anthems, ed David Brown, Walter Collins and Peter le Huray, Musica Britannica, 23 (London, 1966)Google Scholar

5 London, 1901Google Scholar

6 EECM, supplementary volume 1 (London, 1972)Google Scholar

7 For example, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus e. 40 and the St John's College, Oxford, fragment See Morehen, John, A Fragmentary Bass Manuscript in St John's College Library, Oxford', Music and Letters, 53 (1972), 56–8 The setting of O Holy Lord and blessed saviour in this source is a contrafactum of Tallis's O salutaris hostiaGoogle Scholar

8 Of the domestic sources Thomas Myriell's anthology Tristitiae remedium (British Library, Add MSS 29372–7, c 1616) contains an unusually large number of pieces found also in liturgicalGoogle Scholar

9 For example, Richard Farrant's Call to remembrance (Psalm 25, vv 5–6)Google Scholar

10 For example, Orlando Gibbons's O Lord, in thy wrath (Psalm 6, vv 1–4)Google Scholar

11 For example, Thomas Tomkins's O pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122, vv 6–9)Google Scholar

12 For example, John Tomkins's Have mercy upon me, O God (Psalm 51, vv 1–3, 8, 9, 18, Amen?)Google Scholar

13 For example, Christopher Tye's I will exalt thee (Psalm 30, vv 1–4, 1113)Google Scholar

14 For example, Henry Lawes's Hearken unto my voice (Psalm 27, vv 8, 10, 1316)Google Scholar

15 For example, Robert Tomkins's Like as the hart (Psalm 42, vv 1–2, 9, 1415)Google Scholar

16 For example, William Crosse's Hear me, O Lord, and that soon (Psalm 143, vv 7–8, 6, 911, Amen - i e omitting last verse) and Adrian Batten's Hear my prayer, O God (Psalm 55, vv 12, 4, 6)Google Scholar

17 The practice of using anthems and canticles interchangeably is confirmed in the index of John Barnard's First Book of Selected Church Musick (1641), which carries the annotation Note that Deus Misereatur, in Mr Strogers Service The Jubilate in Dr Giles Service The Jubilate in Mr Gibbons Service Save me O God in Mr Birds 1[st] Psalmes Teach me O Lord in Mr Birds 2[nd] Psalmes Are many times, Sung in stead of Anthems'Google Scholar

18 Examples include the settings of Haste thee, O God (Psalm 70) by Sheppard and Batten, and the verse settings of Out of the deep (Psalm 130) by Thomas Morley and Adrian BattenGoogle Scholar

19 For example, William Crosse's Hear me when I call sets the first five verses of Psalm 4 and Gloria patri, while Walter Porter's Deliver me not over adds a Gloria patri after setting only three verses (w 14–16) of Psalm 27 Walter Porters Ponder my words, O Lord and Nathaniel Giles's O sing unto the Lord a new song, let the congregation add a Gloria patri to conclude settings of verses from several psalmsGoogle Scholar

20 Psalm 105, v 1, Psalm 107, vv 3, 15, Psalm 66, v 18, Psalm 85, vv 2–3, Psalm 115, vv 1 9–10, Psalm 105Google Scholar

21 Psalm 139, vv 1, 2, 68, Psalm 73, v 24, Psalm 71, v 20, Psalm 72, v 18Google Scholar

22 I lift my heart to thee, All laud and praise, Blessed art thou that fearest God and Lord, to thee I make my moanGoogle Scholar

23 Morehen, John, ‘The English Consort and Verse Anthem’, Early Music, 6 (1978), 381–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 The principal sources of those Hunnis poems which were set as anthems are The Paradyse of Daynty Devises (1578), Seven Sobs of a Sorrowful Soule for Sinne (1583), The Poore Widowes Mite (1583), Comfortable Dialogs betweene Christ and a Sinner (1583) and A Handfull of Honisuckles (?1589)Google Scholar

25 Ferrabosco's anthem is a contrafactum of his Four-Note Pavan For Jonson's poem, entitled A Hymn to God the Father, see Ben Jonson The Complete Poems, ed George Parfitt (London, 1975), 124Google Scholar

26 Weelkes's If King Manasses sets a text from Robert Southwell's Saint Peter's Complaynt (1595), 32Google Scholar

27 George Herbert is the author also of Rise heart thy Lord is risen, set by George Jeffreys, although this ought more properly to be regarded as a private devotional work rather than a bona fide anthemGoogle Scholar

28 For example, Thomas Tomkins's Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost, the Epistle for St Stephen's Day, and Henry Palmer's The end of all things, the Epistle for the Sunday after Ascension DayGoogle Scholar

29 For example, Thomas Tomkins's Jesus came when the doors were shut, part of the Gospel for St Thomas's Day, and Orlando Gibbons's This is the record of John, the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday in AdventGoogle Scholar

30 Weelkes's Second Service includes a setting of an offertory sentence, Blessed is he Glory be to thee, O Lord, which was not included among the 20 sentences provided by the 1549 Prayer BookGoogle Scholar

31 For example, Thomas Weelkes's Alleluia I heard a voice (Revelation xix 1, 6)Google Scholar

32 For example, the anonymous Hear, O heavens (Isaiah i 2, 4, 13, 1618, 20 and Isaiah xl 3 or 231)Google Scholar

33 The opening verse section draws on Lamentations iv 1, while the second choius sets Lamentations iv 20 The text of the first chorus is ‘The crown is fallen from our heads Woe unto us, that we have sinned’ and of the last chorus 'Turn thou us unto the Lord, and we shall be turned Renew our days as of old, for thy tender mercy's sake AmenGoogle Scholar

34 The text of Know you not is selected from 2 Samuel iii 38, Amos 5 16, Ezekiel xxx 2, Lamentations iv 2, Psalm 62, v 9, Zechariah xii 12–13 and Jeremiah xxii 18 Another anthem which conflates texts from various Books, including Psalms, Henry Oxford's Have ye no regard (Lamentations i 12, Isaiah lui 4, Psalm 66, v 10, Isaiah lui 5, Colossians i 21–2, Psalm 107, v 8), goes further still by combining verses from the Old and New TestamentsGoogle Scholar

35 The settings by Henry Loosemore, Mundy and Thomas Tomkins were apparently inspired by that by Edmund Hooper, the anthem of this title attributed to William Fox in Ely Cathedral MS 28 is Hooper's settingGoogle Scholar

36 See, however, Ralph T Daniel, ‘Contrafacta and Polyglot Texts in the Early English Anthem’, Essays in Musicology A Birthday Offering for Willi Apel, ed Hans Tischler (Bloomington, 1968), 101–6, John Milsom, ‘Songs, Carols and Contrafacta in the Early History of the Tudor Anthem’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 107 (1980–1), 3445, see also Milsom, ‘A New Tallis Contrafactum’, The Musical Times, 123 (1982), 429–31, Peter le Huray, Music and the Reformation in England (London, 1967), 194–5Google Scholar

37 The present article is not concerned with macaronic compositions, with works which survive in both texted and untexted versions, or with the numerous works which survive in eighteenth-century adaptationsGoogle Scholar

38 Monson, Voices and Viols in England, 40Google Scholar

39 Bumpus, John S, A History of English Cathedral Music, 1549–1889 (London, [1908]), 46Google Scholar

40 Stevens, Denis, Thomas Tomkins, 1572–1656 (London, 1957), 83Google Scholar

41 The only other source of this work is James Clifford's The Divine Services and Anthems (1663, revised and enlarged 1664), which preserves the English textGoogle Scholar

42 EECM, 37, p 120Google Scholar

43 EECM, 12, pp 40, 95Google Scholar

44 No precise number of surviving collect-anthems can be given, since those which appear anonymously in anthem wordbooks may equally well relate to existing settings by identified composers or to settings which are otherwise unknown On this account the figure of 84 collect-anthems might be reduced by up to fiveGoogle Scholar

45 See note 51 below, however, for references to a possibly lost collect-anthem by Tye Since very few music sources from before 1617 survive it is possible that some Elizabethan collect-anthems did once exist but became unfashionable in the 1600s or were discarded as old books were recopiedGoogle Scholar

46 Amongst the most interesting examples of unusual treatment of collect texts is John Geeres's setting of the collect for St John the Evangelist's Day, Merciful Lord, we beseech thee Although this comprises only a single verse/chorus pairing, it requires an eightfold division of the choirGoogle Scholar

47 The choral singing (as distinct from the recitation by the priest) of the versicle Glory be to the Father at the commencement of Morning and Evening Prayer – a practice adopted by all composers who set the versicles and responses – is one of the numerous examples of such licenceGoogle Scholar

48 Crosby, Brian, ‘A Service Sheet from June 1680’, The Musical Times, 121 (1980), 399401 Gibbons's anthem was also printed in John Barnard's First Book, an unlikely event if it was expected to be performed only during this one week in the liturgical calendarGoogle Scholar

49 No significance should be attached to the fact that settings of the collect for St Barnabas (11 June) and St John the Baptist (24 June) were not sung at Durham during June 1680 There is no evidence of any composer having set the St Barnabas collect The only setting of the collect for St John the Baptist is by the minor Oxford composer William Ellis, and survives only in an organ book from St John's College ChapelGoogle Scholar

50 This list excludes settings which are found anonymously in anthem wordbooks and which thus cannot be associated with a particular composerGoogle Scholar

51 Settings by Thomas Tomkins of the collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity and by Christopher Tye of that for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity are claimed in Foster, Anthems, 43, 204 Both were allegedly contained in manuscript or printed sources formerly owned by A H MannGoogle Scholar

52 Catalogue of the Musical Manuscripts at Peterhouse, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1953), 18, note 2 Perhaps the attribution to Dering is faulty, since the fluency of the solo writing suggests that it is the work of a composer already familiar with the verse formGoogle Scholar

53 The only manuscript source to name viols as the accompanimental instruments for consort anthems is Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Mus Sch d 212–16Google Scholar

54 On 2 June 1680 See Crosby,‘A Service Sheet’, 400 The text of Tomkins's anthem is one of only two (out of a possible eight) post-communion collects to have been set by composers at this period, the other is Prevent us, O Lord, which was set by both William Byrd and the Peterhouse organist Thomas WilsonGoogle Scholar

55 For a full account of Ramsey's association with Trinity College see Payne, Ian, ‘The Musical Establishment at Trinity College, Cambridge. 1546–1644’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 74 (1985), 5469, see also Ian C Payne, ‘The Provision and Practice of Sacred Music, c 1547-c 1646 Archival Evidence’ (Ph D dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1991)Google Scholar

56 The text is Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, heaven and earth are full of thy glory Glory be to God on high, peace on earth, goodwill to men Halleluia, world without end AmenGoogle Scholar

57 'The King shall rejoice in thy strength, O LordGoogle Scholar

58 The Caroline partbooks also contain Ramsey's setting of the Advent antiphon O sapientiaGoogle Scholar

59 Nicholas Strogers's Grant unto us, O Lord is the only other collect-anthem to adopt SSATB textureGoogle Scholar

60 The Old Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal, ed Edward Rimbault (London, 1872), 178–9 Wilson's setting was probably inspired by that of Byrd, the two settings are found in close proximity in the ‘latter’ set of Peterhouse Caroline partbooksGoogle Scholar

61 English Orders for Consecrating Churches in the Seventeenth Century, ed J Wickham Legg, Henry Bradshaw Society, 16 (London, 1911), 92, 198, 236, 254, 343Google Scholar

62 Legg, Wickham, English Orders, 294, 300Google Scholar

63 The consecration of the altar at Wolverhampton Collegiate Church on 11 October 1635 ‘was solemnely performed, the Organs blowing, great singing, not heard of in this Church before’ The service involved ‘diuers Anthems and Responds being sung’ (Wickham Legg, English Orders, 301–3)Google Scholar

64 British Library, Harleian MS 6346, f 10vGoogle Scholar

65 The anonymous setting of Almighty God, which in thy wrath included in Clifford's Divine Services almost certainly refers to Batten's settingGoogle Scholar

66 The words are found in British Library, Harleian MS 6346, f 89Google Scholar

67 Goodman provided the texts also for non-liturgical settings of The Paschal Lamb and Glory be to the Lamb by George Jeffreys and for Have mercy, God by the Scottish composer Andro KempGoogle Scholar

68 Glorious and powerful God was a popular text at church consecrations see Legg, Wickham, English Orders, 352–3 King provided the text of John Wilson's Hearken, O God, unto a wretch's cry alsoGoogle Scholar

69 Stroud is named in Clifford's Divine Services, 168Google Scholar

70 By Thomas Ford and an anonymous composer ‘R G ’ is identified in Clifford's Divine Services, 168Google Scholar

71 ‘Dr Th P’ is identified in Clifford's Divine Services, 164Google Scholar