An English composer in royal and aristocratic service: Robert Chirbury, c. 1380–1454

Tallis was the English composer and organist who composed for the Anglican liturgy. For 48 years he was the organist at the Chapel Royal, a position to which he was appointed in 1543. In 1575 he and William Byrd were granted a royal privilege to print music.

When Handel arrived in London in the last weeks of 1710, Henry Purcell had been dead for just fifteen years. His younger brother Daniel, though still active as a professional organist, was no longer a productive composer, and much the same is true of the long-lived William Turner (1651–1740), who, with John Blow (d. 1708), had been the most distinguished of Purcell's colleagues and contemporaries in the Chapel Royal. Likewise John Eccles, the leading English theatrical composer at the turn of the century, and official court composer from 1700 until his death in 1735, had by this time retired from the hurly-burly of life in the city and gone to live in Hampton Wick where, according to Hawkins, he spent most of his time fishing. As for Jeremiah Clarke, one of the more impressive creative talents of the next generation, he had, seemingly for love, put a pistol to his head in late November 1707. Of those native composers still left and active on the London musical scene, much the most gifted were John Weldon (1676–1736) and William Croft (1678–1727), both of whom Handel must surely have encountered quite early on in his first visit.

Foremost English composer of the Baroque period. A chorister in the Chapel Royal, he succeeded John Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey and served in the Chapel Royal from 1682.

Reviewed by: Catalogue du motet imprimé en France (1647–1789) Deborah Kauffman Catalogue du motet imprimé en France (1647–1789). By Nathalie Berton-Blivet. (Publications de la société française de musicologie, deuxième série, tome 20.) Paris: Société française de musicologie, 2011. [cxv, 1270 p. ISBN 9782853570305. €95.] Bibliography, indexes. Until fairly recently, the study of the music of the French baroque has focused primarily on the secular repertory, exemplified by the first catalogues of Lully’s tragédies lyriques and Couperin’s harpsi-chord music compiled during the first half of the twentieth century. Interest in the sacred music of that era has been slower to develop, only gaining steam in the 1980s, a decade marked by some impressive recordings of liturgical music by Charpentier and grands motets by both Lully and Lalande. It is only in the last ten years that important basic studies of the major genres and composers of French baroque liturgical and spiritual music have begun to appear: Lionel Sawkins’ thematic catalogue of the works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (A Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657–1726) [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005]); Cécile Davy-Rigaux’s Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers: Un art du chant grégorien sous le règne de Louis XIV (Paris: CNRS, 2004); and Thierry Favier’s Le Chant des muses chrétiennes: Cantiques spirituels et dévotion en France (1685–1715) (Paris: Société française de musicologie, 2008). To this we can add Nathalie Berton-Blivet’s Catalogue du motet imprimé en France (1647–1789), a significant contribution and a much-needed scholarly resource. First, a matter of terminology. For some time scholars and performers have referred to two types of motets composed in France: the petit motet and the grand motet, following Pierre Perrin’s 1665 description of the music typically performed at the Chapelle royale during the King’s mass: “Ordinarily they sing 3 [motets], one grand, one petit— for the Elevation—and one Domine salvum fac regem” (p. xxiv; translation mine). Berton-Blivet assiduously avoids the term petit motet when referring to the works under consideration; they are simply “motets” composed for relatively small forces: from one to several solo voices, perhaps with one or more solo instruments (usually treble), or a small choir of one to four parts, or a combination of some or all of these, always accompanied by organ basse continue. Such restricted forces distinguish these pieces from what the author terms “motets à grand chœur”: that is, works represented by the compositions for choir, soloists, and divided orchestra composed by Lalande and his colleagues at the Chapelle royale, as well as similar works composed for larger collegiate churches and cathedrals—what previous scholars have termed grands motets. The catalogue indexes and describes 1044 works by 74 different composers, either published in collections (representing 87 different monographs, anthologies, or series) or individually; collections of motets were far more numerous than individual publications. Each piece and collection is given a unique catalogue number, with appropriate cross-references. The entry for each composition lists the composer, publication date, and the forces required for performance, including possible alternate combinations indicated in the publication itself, either within the original heading to the work, or in a preface or avertissement to the collection; such alternate performance options, both in terms of voices and instruments, are quite common in this repertory, since composers were keen to make their publications attractive to the widest possible public. The key and length of the piece are noted, and all relevant source material is listed, including information about the text that is set. Berton-Blivet also includes information about the possible liturgical use of the motet; such information is sometimes indicated in the original publication, but in other cases can be divined through the liturgical use of the text. As important as the catalogue itself is Berton-Blivet’s 98-page introduction, which positions the genre in terms of function and intended performers. One remarkable feature of this wide-ranging repertory is the [End Page 814] extreme variety seen in the formal and stylistic elements of the music and in the performing forces...

The organs were back in service in Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal in 1660.2 Common Prayer was restored in Oxford University’s college chapels by about June 1660, and Anthony Wood reported that on 11 November ‘the canons and students of Christ Church began to wear surplices and the organs plaid ... Great flocking’.3 Edward Lowe, restored to his post as organist of Christ Church in 1661, promptly published a complete manual with directions and music in response to the urgent need he and certain clergymen perceived for authoritative information on the performance of

This volume makes a welcome addition to the surprisingly sparse collection of early 18th-century English music available in modern critical editions, though it seems Croft’s previous neglect is giving way to a somewhat skewed picture of the composer’s output. Together with the Italianate sonatas written in the early part of his career, edited by H. Diack Johnstone for Musica Britannica 88 (see my review in Early Music, xxxviii/2 (2010), pp.298–300), the showy orchestral sacred music presented here reassuringly aligns Croft with the European lingua franca. A more rounded view of Croft’s career will require editions of the dozens of verse anthems that were his bread and butter in the Chapel Royal, which show a coherent attempt to interpret the tradition of Purcell and Blow in the context of the Italian style which Croft was arguably the first English composer to master from the inside, ‘without earlier gropings’, as Watkins Shaw memorably put it (Shaw, rev. Graydon Beeks, ‘Croft, William’, Grove Music Online).

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The vitae of bishops who came to office via service in the royal chapel of the Ottonian-Salian kings regularly contain a description of the court service of the young cleric, of his appearance, personality, and character. From these descriptions, which are at the same time vivid revelations of court life and manners, there emerges a picture of the aristocratic cleric as royal servant and future bishop in the imperial church. The circumstances that brought the figure of the courtier bishop' to prominence in the Ottonian empire are well known, but they are so closely tied to the subject of this paper that it will be useful to summarize them briefly.2 The close connection between court service and the bishop's office originated in the influence that rulers exerted on the appointment of bishops. Service to the ruler had been an avenue to the episcopate since late antiquity, and this continued in Carolingian times. But the frequency of this route, as well as its political importance, changed radically under Otto the Great and his successors. Otto built the episcopal office into an important political instrument, a buffer against the opposition of the feudal nobility. Loyal bishops could become powerful secular lords while holding ecclesiasti-

& soe hyt semys they … play whyche hate to be corektyd when they be ynfectyd nor wyll not Suffyr thys boke by hoke nor yet by croke pryntyd for to be … ( Collyn Clout , 1234–9, British Library, MS Harley 2252, fol. 153r) So spoke ‘Sceltony us Lawreat us ’ (the attribution occurring solely in British Library, MS Harley 2252) through the satirical mouthpiece of the Everyman persona of Collyn Clout. In this second of what are usually taken to be attacks on Cardinal Wolsey, Skelton makes quite clear the threat of imprisonment under which he writes. His comments about printed publication may explain why the earliest extant edition, by Thomas Godfray in ?1531 ( STC 22600.5), did not appear until after the deaths of both Wolsey (29 November 1530) and Skelton himself (21 June 1529), especially since the two men had achieved a reconciliation by late in 1523, when Skelton publicly praises the cardinal, along with the king, in the final (Latin) envoy of the Garlande of Laurell , printed by Richard Faques on 3 October ( STC 22610; Scattergood 2014: 351). While the supposed imprisonment of William Cornysh Junior, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, in the Fleet prison in 1504 for writing a seditious poem remains a matter for debate (his imprisonment is stated in the prologue to the ‘treatise bitwene Trouth, and Informacion’ published in John Stow's Pithy pleasaunt and profitable workes of maister Skelton, Poete Laureate , printed for him by Thomas Marshe in 1568 [ STC 22608]), it is known that in 1515 Polydore Vergil was sent to the Tower for writing a letter criticising both Wolsey and the king (Scattergood 2014: 354). In the early 1520s John Colyns, the owner/compiler of British Library, MS Harley 2252, knew of the imprisonment of Edward North for composing poetry against Wolsey, although later in his career he distinguished himself in royal service. (In all probability Skelton also knew of North's fate.) ‘The Ruyn of a Ream’ and later a ‘complaynte’ to Wolsey were written by North while he was still in prison; the latter poem ends ‘Surely all ynglond for hym ys bownde to pray’, and these compositions seem to have served their purpose, for he was released in January 1525 (Meale 2013: 83–4, cat. nos 46, 49).

There is an established literature on office-holding in the English royal household, which has focused on those members of the court involved in the royal body service and ceremonial; those associated with the domestic needs of the monarch, the royal family and wider domus and those involved in its administration. Yet this mainly deals with the late seventeenth century and beyond; comparable detailed and comprehensive information on this particular aspect of court history for earlier periods has yet to appear in print. The courts of the Tudors have, for example, suffered in this respect. This is surprising, for recent historical scholarship has shown that far from ossifying into a purely domestic establishment as an older generation of scholars thought, the Tudor Court was rather of central importance in the political, administrative, religious and cultural history of sixteenth-century England. By that time the royal domus was the centre of politics, patronage and power and access to the sovereign—the sole font of that power—and the ability to catch ‘either… [his/her] ear or… eye’ headed, to a large extent, the agenda of any ambitious courtier. A published investigation of the patterns and procedures of office-holding within this important institution is, therefore, long overdue.

The analysis is devoted to the St. Stanislaus chapel erected near Gniezno Cathedral on the initiative of Primate Jan Łaski between 1518 and 1523 (pulled down in the late 18th century). Foundation of this central, free-standing mausoleum plays an important role in the history of the beginnings of Renaissance art in Poland. Its realisation took place simultaneously with construction of the chapel: the mausoleum of King Sigismund I the Old at Wawel. Archbishop Jan Łaski was involved in bringing to Poland Bartolommeo Berrecci, a designer of the royal chapel, who perhaps also participated in preparing the Gniezno design. Undoubtedly, the Łaski foundation was influenced by his stay in Rome in 1513-1515, when the Archbishop was permitted to take some soil from the Roman necropolis of Campo Samo and use it to sanctify the cemetery at Gniezno Cathedral. The concept of the mausoleum was also connected with the tombstones ordered in Hungary in Giovanni Fiorentino studio. On the basis of the preserved line of foundations, we can distinguish a number of important features of the building. It had a central layout. The core part took the form of a cylinder, most probably vaulted by the dome. Three semi-circular apses formed a elear triconch. From the south there was an entrance to the chapel. No less important was location of the mausoleum, situated between the cathedral and St George’s a collegiate church. On the same axis was the original location of the tomb of St. Adalbert. The solutions applied in Gniezno may have had their sources in a Roman art centre. They were used in a sedes of projects and concepts appearing around the Julius II foundation, renovation of St. Peter’s Basilica and the concept of the papai mausoleum. They were related to the work of Donato Bramante and Giuliano da Sangallo. The Vatican architectural designs were formulated in the context of unique historical signifi of St. Peter’s burial place. A similar, ancient context appeared in Gniezno, a place associated with the beginnings of Christianity in Poland.

Orlando Gibbons was undoubtedly one of the greatest of English composers. Indeed, his music ranks among the finest written by any European composer of the day. His musical gifts received early recognition, and in 1605, at the age of twenty-one, he was appointed an organist of the Chapel Royal. John Bull and Edmund Hooper were among his colleagues. Doubtless, much of the organ music was written at this time, but since it is all stylistically mature it is impossible to date it accurately. However, some of the best keyboard music was included in Parthenia, and this dates from 1612–13. It is likely that much of the dance music—both for keyboard and for strings—was written after his appointment in 1619 as a musician of the Privy Chamber, for dancing was much in vogue at court and dance-music was enjoyed also in its own right. In 1623 Gibbons was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey, and two years later he died, at Canterbury.

The received biography available for the English composer John Sheppard (c.1514 – late 1558 or early 1559) is amenable to clarification at a number of points. He was employed as Master of the Choristers at Magdalen College, Oxford, for just a single spell, September 1543 to early 1548. The available evidence suggests that he proceeded thence directly to admission to the Chapel Royal. He had no further contact with Magdalen College; an instance of kidnap and confinement perpetrated in 1555 that is commonly attributed to him was instead committed by one Richard Sheparde/Sheper/Sheprey, a fellow of the college. Despite being only an imperfect draft, his ‘will’ of 1 December 1558 reveals much about his family circumstances at Westminster. He died between 1 December 1558 and 31 January 1559; the actual date must be reconcilable with expectation of his attendance at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation on 15 January 1559, as recorded on a list compiled not earlier than 15 December 1558.

Subject Composers Sacred Music Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online

Subject Composers Sacred Music Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online