Music at the English Chapels Royal c.1135—Present Day

Abstract

I can do no more than treat briefly the long story of the music at the English Chapels Royal.It covers with certainty, a period of nearly eight centuries and embraces the musical activities of many of the most prominent musicians that our country has produced. I propose to concentrate mainly upon its early period: and deal concisely with the entries in the Chapel Royal Cheque Book, which you may like to see before leaving the building. Illustrations—which will be sung towards the end of this paper—will stretch from the Tudor period to the present day; and in this way I shall hope to cover, however briefly, the whole story of the music and musicians of the Chapels. We know, of course, that the English, at least as far back as the period of John Dunstable (roughly from 1390 to 1453) were celebrated for their love of music and good voices. Cathedrals, College chapels, and religious houses had their choirs in those comparatively early days. But this is not so remarkable when we realise that references to the choir of the English Sovereign date from 250 years before John Dunstable. Great as we know the influence of the King's Chapel to have been in the Tudor and Restoration periods, we cannot doubt but that it was an even greater incentive to musical effort and development in very early times.