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The Music of Philip Hart (c. 1676–1749)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1967

Frank Dawes
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Extract

Philip Hart has been hitherto not so much underrated as overlooked. Indeed, if one were to compile an anthology of Hart criticism prior to 1965, when I published what I would now describe as a preliminary survey of the Hart corpus, one would be hard pressed to enlarge upon the one sentence written by Louisa M. Middleton in 1891: ‘As a composer, Hart was no more than respectable’. A few words of Hawkins might find a place, though they are more historical than critical. They refer to Hart's last published composition:

… the Morning Hymn from the fifth book of the Paradise Lost, which latter work he published in March, 1728–9. Mr. Galliard had set this hymn, and published it by subscription in 1728; and it is said that Mr. Hart meant to emulate him by a composition to the same words; but if he did, he failed in the attempt, for Mr. Galliard's hymn is a fine and elegant composition, admired at this day, whereas that of Mr. Hart is forgotten.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 94 , 1967 , pp. 63 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © 1968 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

1 ‘Philip Hart’, The Musical Times, cvi (1965), 510–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1891, art. ‘Philip Hart’.Google Scholar

3 Sir John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, new edn., London, 1875, ii 825.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., ii 734–5.Google Scholar

5 History of English Music, 2nd edn., London, 1921, p. 344.Google Scholar

6 A History of Music in England, Oxford, 1907, p. 216.Google Scholar

7 Notes on Old London City Churches, their Organs, Organists, and Musical Associations, London, [1909], p. 67.Google Scholar

8 The General Advertiser, 20 July 1749.Google Scholar

9 The dates given for Hart's compositions in The British Union-Catalogue of Early Musicz are in many cases approximate.Google Scholar

10 Sleeve-note to gramophone record AVM 019, London, 1964.Google Scholar

11 John Wilson, Roger North on Music, London, 1959, p. xx.Google Scholar

12 Op. cit., ii 825.Google Scholar

13 Alfred Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, 2nd edn., Geneva, 1955, i.112.Google Scholar

14 The Daily Courant, 10 February 1703.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., 24 February 1703.Google Scholar

16 Hawkins, op. cit., ii 791.Google Scholar

17 Ibid.Google Scholar

18 John Newte, The Lawfulness and Use of Organs in the Christian Church. Asserted in A Sermon Preached at Tiverton in the County of Devon Upon the 13th. of September, 1696 …, quoted by Denis Stevens in The Musical Times, civ (1963), 55.Google Scholar

19 Hawkins, op. cit., ii 825.Google Scholar

20 The General Advertiser, 20 July 1749.Google Scholar

21 Press-mark G.505.Google Scholar

22 Fortune, op. citGoogle Scholar

23 An account of the Musical Celebrations on St. Cecilia's Day in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, London, 1857, p. 53.Google Scholar

24 The Daily Courant, 3 March 1703.Google Scholar

25 Op. cit., p. 51.Google Scholar

26 See The Registers of St. Margaret in the Close, Lincoln, Lincoln, 1915.Google Scholar

27 See Guildhall MS 4118/1.Google Scholar

28 Guildhall MS 4216/3.Google Scholar

29 Guildhall MS 4215/1.Google Scholar

30 British Museum, Harl. MS 7341.Google Scholar

31 British Museum, Add. MSS 31444–31445.Google Scholar

32 British Museum, Add. MS 33161.Google Scholar

The following specially recorded illustrations were played during the course of the lecture:Google Scholar

  1. a

    a ‘Welcome as morning-rayes of light’ (e.1700), second (A minor) section.

  2. b

    b ‘The charming Iris’ (e.1700).

  3. e

    e ‘Proceed sweet charmer of the ear’ from Ode in Praise of Mustek (1703).

  4. d

    d Fugue No. 2 in C minor (1704).

  5. e

    e ‘To love and to languish’ (c.1735).

  6. f

    f ‘The Lord is high’ (bass solo); ‘Who is like unto the Lord our God?’ (duet for alto and tenor on a ground); ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord’ (chorus) from the anthem ‘Praise the Lord yee servants’ (c. 1700-5?).

  7. g

    g The Prayer and Hallelujah from The Morning Hymn from the Jiflh book of Milton's Paradise Lost (1729).

These were edited by Frank Dawes and Walter Bergmann and were recorded in the Church of St Andrew Undenhaft, London. The author wishes to thank the Rector and Churchwardens for granting free use of the church and organ for the purpose of recording the music examples; the organist of St. Andrew, Mr. R. J. Cruden, for much helpful advice; the musicians who performed the music—Miss Jacqueline Froom (contralto), Messrs. Ian Thompson (tenor) and Maurice Bevan (bass), Mr. Michael Amo and Miss {Catherine Jeans (recorders), Miss Jane Ryan (cello), Mr. Gordon Phillips (organ), Dr. Walter Bergmann (harpsichord) and the Marylebone Institute Choir (conductor, Walter Bergmann); Messrs. Hugh Boyle and Edgar Howard for the loan of equipment and for undertaking the technical side of the recordings; Mr. Ivan P. M. Chambers for reading the manuscript of the paper and for suggesting some improvements; Mr. Peter Marr and Dr. Nigel Fortune for kindly answering queries.Google Scholar