ESSAY THE SECOND:* Ar the time of the Reformation CATHEDRAL MUSIC, as has been mentioned in the foregoing Essay, was extremely intricate. Abstruse harmonical Proportions, which had neither common sense, nor, in this case a better judge, the approbation of the common ear, for their support, were universally and diligently studied. Hence arose a multifarious contexture of parts, a total disregard of simple Melody, and, in consequence, a neglect even of syllabic distinction; insomuch that notes originally set to any words, in any language, might readily be adapted to different words in that or any other; being also totally inexpressive of sentiment, they were as well, or rather as ill, calculated to answer the purposes of praise as of penitence, of sorrow as of joy. Accordingly, we find that the thirty-two Commissioners, who were appointed to reform the Ecclesiastical Law in the time of Henry VIII. and who executed their commission in the days of his son Edward VI. justly condemned this species of singing, as causing confusion in the audience, and *This Essay was originally prefixed to a Collection of the Words of Anthems, &c. in the year 1782; it is here reprinted with some additions. rendering the very language it was meant to express unintelligible.* This intricate or, as it was then termed, curious Music had, it seems, at this time, taken possession of the whole Church Service; it not only was joined to the Psalmodical and supplicatory part, but even with those few fragments of Scripture which were selected from the New Testament and admitted into the Liturgy, under the title of Epistle and Gospel; these were all sung, not merely in simple intonation or chaunt, but in this mode of figurate Discant, in which the various voices following one another, according to the rules of an elaborate Canon, *The words are, << Itaque vibratam illam et operosam musicam quæ figurata dicitur auferri placet, quæ sic in multitudinis auribus tumultuatur, ut sæpe linguam non possit ipsam loquentem intelligere." I was some time at a loss to find out what was the meaning of the epithet vibratam in this passage, but the verb tumultuatur seems to explain it; for when we consider that this music was constantly choral, it was necessary each performer should, in order to do justice to his part, make it audible; hence each voice, struggling with the rest for audibility, the result was mere noise. I would, therefore, translate it Noisy Music, which choruses, as commonly performed, continue to be at this day. The epithet operosa, I suppose, means difficult to be learnt, which this music certainly was, and withal not worth the pains of learning-See Ref. Leg. Eccles. c. v. Yet it may probably have been used literally for labour both of lungs and limbs; for from a passage which I lately saw translated from Ailred, Abbot of Revesby, and which might be added to what I have said of the first Organ in my prior Essay, it appears that Music was a very Operose business in the twelfth century, and possibly continued so, with little abatement, till the Reformation. -See Andrews's History of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 231. were perpetually repeating different words at the same time.* It does not appear that King Henry VIII. did any thing towards reforming these absurdities; which indeed he could not have done without sacrificing a part of his own science, that we may suppose he held valuable; for he was himself a composer in this mode, as an Anthem left behind him sufficiently proves; which Dr. Boyce has given in complete Score, as the first piece in his Collection of Cathedral Music; yet it is so devoid not only of syllabic but metrical distinction, that the skilful Editor of that Score seems not to have discovered that it was metre; for he has printed the first line, O God, the maker of all things, which destroys the subsequent rhyme. I shrewdly suspect that King Henry was the author of the words as well as the music, for they are certainly very Royal Poetry.† * One example of this kind may suffice, and a more ridiculous one can hardly be conceived; I found it accidentally in a Missal or Breviary, in the Library of the Cathedral at York, printed in the reign of Queen Mary. The Genealogy in the first Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel was there set to Music, and the single part noted led me to conclude, that, if it was performed in Canon, according to the mode of the Age, while the Bass was holding forth the existence of Abraham, the Tenor, in defiance of Nature and Chronology, would be employed in begetting Isaac; the Counter-Tenor, Jacob; the Treble, Joseph and all his Brethren. + Dr. Burney, in his History, doubts whether the Music be the King's own, "for on a careful examination, it appears to him, not only too good for his Majesty, but almost for any English Composer during his reign."-See his History of Music, |