A Short History Of English Music Part 2

"_Hamlet_: 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops."

We will content ourselves with one more quotation. It consists of some lines of incomparable beauty from the sonnets:--

"How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st, Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st, The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, Do I envy those jacks, that nimble leap To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap, At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand."

By the time of Queen Elizabeth the number and variety of instruments had greatly increased as the following lines by the poet, Michael Drayton, shew. It may be mentioned in explanation of the words, "the viol best in setts," that it was customary in those days to enclose in one case a set of these instruments, treble, tenor and ba.s.s, the last-named being probably the viol da gamba, the predecessor of the modern violoncello.

"The English that repined to be delayed so long, All quickly at the hint, as with one free consent, Strook up at once and sang each to the instrument; (Of Sundry sorts there were, as the musician likes) On which the practiced hand with perfect'st fingering strikes, Whereby their right of skill might liveliest be expressed.

The trembling lute some touch, some strain the violl best, In setts which there were seene, the music wondrous choice, Some likewise there affect the Gamba with the voice, To shew that England could varietie afforde Some that delight to touch the sterner wyerie chord, The Cithron, the Pandore, and the Theorbo strike; The Gittern and the Kit the wandering fidlers like.

So there were some againe, in this their learned strife, Loud instruments that loved, the Cornet and the Phife, The Hoboy, Sagbut deepe, Recorder and the Flute, Even from the shrillest Shawn unto the Cornemute, Some blow the Bagpie up, that plaies the country 'round, The Tabor and the Pipe, some take delight to sound."

As some of the above-mentioned instruments are probably unknown to the majority of readers, I will select for explanation a few that seem least likely to be familiar:--

_Cithron_--An instrument with wire strings, like a German zither.

_Pandore_--A variety of the foregoing.

_Theorbo_--A large double-necked instrument of the lute family. It somewhat resembles, on a larger scale, the modern mandoline.

_Gittern_--Resembles the guitar. Chaucer refers to it more than once.

_Kit_--Diminutive violin.

_Sagbut_--Akin to the slide trombone.

_Recorder_--A wind instrument of the clarinet family.

_Tabor_--A small drum. In olden times used as an accompaniment to the pipe.

We have alluded to the possible effect on music of the return of numbers of men from the wars of the Crusades. We pa.s.s now to the probable effect on the morals of the people, with special reference to the musicians of the period. One of the first results would be to swell the numbers of itinerant musicians and players who were already a source of trouble not only to the custodians of the law, but to the average law-abiding citizen.

It is not to be supposed that the restless spirit of these wanderers through Europe and the East, with all the concomitant experiences, would permit them to again settle down to the life of quietude and practical isolation of the tiller of the soil, from which, no doubt, many of them had sprung.

No, the roving life of the itinerant "minstrel" or the riotous life of the city roysterer would be more likely to attract them.

Certain it is, from the diseases they acquired in the East and disseminated in Europe, one may justifiably argue that their presence was not likely to raise the moral tone of any company they might be pleased to join.

To whatever cause it may be a.s.signed, it has to be admitted that musicians in those days had a most unenviable reputation, and were looked upon with the greatest contempt.

One qualification of this statement may be made, as there is little doubt that a great distinction was made between the _composer_ and the "musician."

Every rogue and vagabond who scoured the country giving crude and generally offensive performances styled himself musician, so the public, having no greater genius for fine discrimination then than now, came to regard all persons who were engaged in the performance of music, if not with active aversion, at any rate with pa.s.sive contempt.

It is in these early times that the foundation of the feeling was laid, only to be strengthened later on when Puritanism came with fanatic intensity to still further deepen it. How engrained in the spirit of the people this sentiment became is evident, even to this day.

That the _composer_ of music was regarded in a different light, we shall be able to prove.

He obtained degrees at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where he proceeded to the high position of Professor of the University in the Chair of Music.

Leases of Crown lands were made to him, with grants of armorial bearings in some cases; indeed, there are evidences of many kinds to show that his calling was held in high esteem. With the "musicians," as they were called, or "minstrels," as they called themselves, things went from bad to worse. Doubtless reinforced again by cast-off camp-followers from the armies of the Wars of the Roses, they became, by the reign of Queen Elizabeth, not only a source of terror to the countryside, but a nuisance and a pest to the towns. Gosson writes, about 1580: "London is so full of unprofitable pipers and fiddlers that a man can no sooner enter a tavern, than two or three cast of them hang at his heels, to give him a dance before he depart."[5]

In 1597 a law was pa.s.sed in which they were cla.s.sed as "rogues, vagabonds, and st.u.r.dy beggars," and were threatened with severe penalties.

The War of the Rebellion probably brought them still another accession to their ranks, as, so far from being harmed by this threat, things must have got even worse, to judge by the following edict issued by Cromwell only a few years later:--

"Any persons commonly called fidlers or minstrels who shall at any time be taken playing, fidling, and making music in any inn, ale-house, or tavern, or shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring, or intreating any to hear them play or make music in any of the places aforesaid, shall be adjudged and declared to be rogues, vagabonds, and st.u.r.dy beggars."

It may be at once a.s.sumed that if they were able to evade the hands of Elizabeth, they were little likely to escape those of Cromwell, who may be said to have, at last, cleared the country of what had become a positive menace to the security of life, since under the guise of wandering minstrels, highwaymen and other criminals had long been wont to carry on their occupations with comparative immunity.

The age of Queen Elizabeth was one of transition, the Commonwealth marked the birth of the new era, and with it the final disappearance of the picturesque, even if somewhat depraved, English troubadour.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A country that has taken its music at the hands of the foreigner for three centuries can scarcely be called musical.

[2] In its original meaning, the term implied a cheerful and righteously joyful sense of living. Its popular significance after three centuries of Puritanism, rather inclines to alcoholic elation.

[3] The leading note is a semi-tone lower than the keynote, and is essential to the modern scales, both major and minor.

[4] More familiarly known as shawn.

[5] "Short Apologies of the School of Abuse," London.

CHAPTER II

MUSIC BEFORE AND DURING THE REFORMATION--(_continued_)

Secular music dating from the thirteenth century--Origin lost in antiquity--Earliest specimens, dance music--Morris dance traced to Saxon times--Dancing always a.s.sociated with singing--Gradual independence--Popularity of the month of May--The ballad and its antiquity--Popular specimens--"Parthenia," a collection of pieces for virginals--Life in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth--Its happiness--Authority of Professor Thorold Rogers--Great men living at the time--Pageantry and the Queen--Her love of dancing and music--Her sympathy with the joys of her people--Queen Elizabeth as a musician--Sir James Melvil and his adventure--The masque--Its origin--Popularity--James I. and art--Masque forerunner of opera--The madrigal, catch, round and glee--Shakespeare and the catch--"Sumer is ic.u.men in," a wonderful specimen of ancient skill and genius--The "canon"--Instrumental music--Explanation of its late development--Purcell--Conclusion.

Authentic examples of secular music in England date from the thirteenth century. It is not from this fact, though, one must suppose that it did not exist prior to that period. On the contrary, music of some kind or other has, doubtless, been a source of solace as well as amus.e.m.e.nt for untold years.

For antiquity, vocal music stands pre-eminent. Ages must have pa.s.sed before instrumental music came to any position of efficacy at all correlative with it.

It must be remembered that music as we know it, is the gift that the ancient Church gave us centuries ago, and that the pangs of its birth were suffered in days of which all sense of record is lost.

That there were seculars, even in those remote days, whose ideas of musical progress would not be bound by the ties of ecclesiastical gravity may be taken for granted, and as the art progressed in the Church they would naturally take advantage of it to further their skill in the direction of a lighter and less serious type.

To seek for the earliest examples of dance music is simply to grope in the dark. As to its progress, all that can be suggested is that it fairly synchronises with that of sacred character.

This need be no matter for surprise, since seeing that the Church never did other than encourage the healthy outdoor life of the people, it may be a.s.sumed that the monks, who were responsible for the music in the Church, were as willing as able, to help in the advancement outside of it.

Research makes it certain that the first efforts at dancing were accompanied by singing, and only in its latest stages of advancement was it strong enough to dispense with this, and rely on the attraction of the rhythmic movements of the dancer.

From this it will be reasonably inferred that for countless centuries the two arts remained in combination, before the incentive genius of either proved too strong to longer brook the artificial ties that had bound them together.