OLD ENGLISH CHURCH MUSIC

New Zealand Tablet, 4 August 1921, Page 37

OLD ENGLISH CHURCH MUSIC

Mr. Edmund H. Fellowes, in the course of an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph, tells that during the past three years he has been engaged, in conjunction with four other musicians, in collecting material for an edition of English Church music composed during the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries, which is to be printed and published by the splendid enterprise of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust (says the Irish Catholic). This edition, he says, should be the means of bringing within the reach of the British people the works of their own national composers, who in their time led the music of the world. For it is not sufficiently understood by the English-speaking people of to-day that in the 16th century England stood first among the musical nations of Europe, and that the musical contemporaries of Shakspere—among them William Byrd, John Dowdand, and John Wilbye, to mention no more than these three men, supreme in their own special branches of the art of musical composition are to be counted amongst the greatest names in the whole history of European music. The special task of Mr. Fellowes has been to collect and prepare for publication the English Church music of William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. Byrd, as is well known, wrote much of his finest music for the Offices of the Catholic Church, and connection with the forthcoming edition this very important branch of his work has been undertaken by Dr. R. R. Terry, organist of Westminster Cathedral. Of Priceless Value. Before the days of Barnard, who in 1641 issued a famous collection entitled The First Booh of Selected Church Music, it was the universal practice in the English cathedral and church choirs to sing from manuscript part-books, and every new anthem or service was, it would seem, sent round and copied into these part-books, according to the individual selection of the local musical authority. Most of these old books perished through actual wear and tear, and no doubt many were deliberately discarded in favor of Barnard’s printed collection, but many more were wantonly destroyed in the 17th century, when music throughout England suffered so acutely from distorted political opinion. The marvel to-day, writes Mr. Fellowes, is not so much that but few of these old manuscripts have survived as that any of them are still in existence. Several odd volumes and some very valuable complete sets have found their way to the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, and Christ Church, Oxford, where, of course, they have been properly cared for and catalogued. In many cathedrals, and in certain college chapels, single stray volumes have been preserved—in most cases quite fortuitously—but in few instances is their value appreciated. Their value will be the better realised when it is stated that many of these part-books contain music by the Elizabethan composers of which no other text, whatever exists. They are, in fact, unique, and of absolutely priceless value.

Hope for Further Finds. The finest known collection of these part-books is at Durham Cathedral; but a splendid complete set known as the (Jostling Manuscript," is at York Minster. Another important collection is the "Barnard" manuscript at the Royal College of Music, formerly the property of the Sacred Harmonic Society; while several valuable partbooks are in the library of Ely Cathedral. St. Peter's College Cambridge, owns two splendid sets; unfortunately they are incomplete, but, unlike those just mentioned, they contain much of the. earlier music set to Latin words by composers like Taverner, for example (According tc the Catholic Encyclopedia, Taverner wrote nothing for the English Service, but he has bequeathed eight Masses, with fragments of other Masses, Latin Magnificats 1 and ' other settings of Catholic anthems and hymns which stamp him as a composer of the first rank.) A few more o these part-books are to be found here and drnl? S o W ° ?t' G ! oucester > an St. Asaph Cathedrals, St. George's Chapel, Windsor, St. John's College

Oxford, Lambeth Palace, St. Michael's College, Tenbury, and Wimborne Minster. Many more may be hidden away in old abbey churches or cathedrals, and a valuable service, says Mr. Fellowes, would be rendered to English music if the existence ,of any such hidden treasures could be revealed by those in whose guardianship they may be preserved.