=The English Polyphonic School= is at once the least important and
the most peculiar of all the schools of the Polyphonic Period. It is
usually ignored by the writers on early music, not because there was
no musical culture, but because there was not continuous and original
development. English writers on this phase of musical development are
too apt, through a pardonable pride of nationality, to exaggerate the
value of British music, and in consulting such authorities, one should
be careful to examine thoroughly all proofs of a dominant national
school and discard such statements as are not perfectly authenticated.
It is hardly the Englishman’s fault that he has had no definite culture
which he may call genuinely English, for native composers have had more
encouragement in England than usually falls to the lot of a creative
musician. Indeed, England has always been a patron of the best in
music, native or foreign, and no one nation has, as a whole, been more
generous in appreciation; her treatment of Beethoven on his death-bed
is a notable example of disinterested generosity. But in real,
original, creative art England has had no great past; and especially is
this true of the Polyphonic Period.
=A Warlike People=.—This is almost entirely due to her geographical
position; there are many other reasons but they are almost all
dependent on this one, and so must be treated in a subordinate sense.
In her early days, England’s position served as a protection and
kept intact her wealth of native Folk-music; but with the advent of
the Romans and the spread of the knowledge of her natural wealth,
came invasion after invasion. Since the first invasion, England has
never been at peace; she has either been busily engaged in repelling
the enemy from her own shores, or aiding in a conquest of some less
fortunate foe. These wars and conquests not only served to cultivate
a militant and restless spirit, but also produced a race of fighters
from natural inclination. Look at the warlike Angles and Saxons,
note the mixture of Romans, Normans, Dutch and Huguenots, all at
the zenith of their fighting powers, and then cease to wonder that
England’s greatness has been in the power to fight, to govern, to make
conquests, rather than to cultivate art. England, when she reached the
stage of conquering rather than defending, began to give, more than
to acquire, and never reached the acquisitive stage until the present
time with Elgar and the lesser lights of the new school, unless we
except Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the realm of literature.
England’s cathedrals are but the results of European cathedral building
and the unity of Government and Church; had the Church and State always
been separate, it is safe to say that England would have waited much
longer for her cathedrals.
=The Kindred Arts=.—Literature was the only exception; and it is not
necessary to seek for a further reason than the fact that Literature,
as an art, always developed before Music. Art, in painting, was in
the early days borrowed from other countries, and not until modern
times did England acquire a national school of Painting; a noteworthy
fact, for like Literature, such an art almost always precedes a
national culture of Music. But these examples of the evolution of the
kindred arts of Literature and Painting are encouraging rather than
discouraging, for, having attained a high standard in these, England
may now hope to develop a national culture of Music. In Music much
the same conditions obtained as in Literature and Painting. With the
exception of one or two isolated composers, and these trained in
foreign schools, England always borrowed her music; note for example,
Handel, Buononcini, Mendelssohn, to quote just a few noteworthy foreign
composers. Each race as it conquered England brought its own music. St.
Augustine sang a Gregorian chant as he entered Canterbury; the Normans
and the Dutch had their own music; and Italian and German music long
held the boards in England. Thus little time was spent in developing a
native music, because the frequent wars and political troubles directed
the strength into other channels than those of art; the proximity of
a higher culture in Europe, and the tendencies of England’s foreign
rulers, enabled them to import and subsist on foreign music when they
should have been developing a native style. And finally, the isolation
of England in the early days, later became an actual help to the
acquirement of an alien style, because of the absolute necessity for
students to live abroad to acquire musical learning.
=Native Musical Life=.—There was a certain amount of native musical
life, but this did not tend to produce music along the conventional
lines. Of Folk-music there was much, and the development, as a general
rule, was aided rather than retarded by the conquests, though the
combination of Folk-music of different nationalities does not usually
tend to aid its unified evolution. The only real example of noteworthy
writing, in the early polyphonic school, is the canon “Sumer is icumen
in,” dated 1228, and attributed to an early English writer. There
is no proof excepting the fact that the manuscript is in English,
that the canon is of English origin; neither is there proof to the
contrary. Single instances, however, do not prove the existence of an
original school; and especially is this the case when that school, in
its writings, far surpasses any other school of that period of which
we know. In spite of the fact of the English text, and that this
canon may be but one of many surviving the destruction of the English
monasteries, impartial historians believe most strongly that the canon
is of French origin, reset to English words and carried to England by a
student of the Paris school. The Paris school was at its height at this
time, and was the only school of such writing in the world; and while
we have no other example of that school equal to this canon, yet it
is easier to believe it to be French than English, for England had no
such school at all. She had musicians (like Odington), but they were
all pupils of the Paris school; and even had this work been produced in
England, it would be safer to credit it to the Paris school, for the
man who wrote it would, almost of necessity, have studied there. The
only other way of accounting for it is to presume the date to be too
early.
It is but fair to say that while this canon _may_ owe its origin to the
principles of the Gallo-Belgic school, it stands alone as an article
of historical interest to the musician. Nowhere on the Continent has a
work of equal importance of so early a date been brought to view. Mr.
Wm. Chappell, the English antiquarian, brought to light several other
productions of early English composers, including a hymn in English,
scored for two voices, and another in Latin, for three voices. The
manuscript has been definitely attributed to the middle of the 13th
century. There can be little doubt that when so many monasteries,
with their treasures of learning, were suppressed and their inmates
scattered, in the time of Henry VIII, owing to the national change from
the Romish faith, many valuable manuscripts that would today have the
utmost interest to the musical historian were destroyed.
[Music: OLD ENGLISH CANON “SUMER IS ICUMEN IN.”]
[Music]
Whether this is purely English or not matters little, for it is a fine
specimen and exemplifies Walter Odington’s rule for the construction of
a Roundel, cited in a former lesson. This is more than a mere roundel,
having not only a little Inversion and much Imitation, managed in a
most ingenious manner, but also the whole canon is founded on a ground
bass in two parts, themselves in canonic form. This bass consists
of the regulation metrical form as seen at A and the following two
measures, has one measure forming a connecting passage, thus bringing
in the portion marked B which is the same as A only a fifth higher;
the whole forms a remarkable evidence of an early conception of the
relation of the Tonic and Dominant, hardly to be believed. This
metrical form is introduced, slightly changed and inverted, in the
upper voices at A and B. The first voice states in all five melodies
and the other voices follow at intervals of 4, 8, and 12 measures; in
ending voice number two omits part of theme V, voice number three all
of it and voice number four all of V and the imitation of the metrical
bass.
Outside this one example, England produced little but moderately
good polyphonic music in the form of motets and madrigals, and in
the time of Gibbons and Purcell, sonatas and operas. There were also
anthems, the old plain chant and much Folk-music, but nothing that
can be considered as important. The Folk-music is all that can claim
originality, and that ranks favorably with the best examples of other
nations and is, indeed, in advance of that of other nations considered
more musical.
=The Men of the Time=.—While English music was not, at this period,
very important, there were many composers whose names at least
should be familiar. After the passing of the bards and minstrels,
the monks controlled the composing of music until the dissolution of
the monasteries, when it passed into the hands of the schoolmen of
Cambridge and Oxford, where it remains today, though there are, at
present, signs of an important awakening, presaging the passing of
musical power from the hands of the conservative doctors of Oxford
and Cambridge, to the present generation of younger and more talented
writers. =Walter Odington= (1180-1250) was a pupil of the Paris school
and a theorist of note, writing on the Mensural System as exploited in
the French school. =Robert DeHandlo= (1326) was another theoretician
who wrote on the same subject. =John Dunstable= (1400-1458) was
contemporaneous with the men of the Gallo-Belgic school and did the
same for English music in reforming it as the latter did for the
foreign school. In recent years examples of his writings have been
unearthed in the cathedral libraries of Trent and Bologna, as well
as elsewhere, making it clear that in his lifetime he was regarded
as one of the foremost composers of Europe. The theorist, Tinctoris,
of the Netherlands school, considered in the next lesson, speaks of
the “source and origin of the new art [Counterpoint] being among the
English, the foremost of whom is John Dunstable.” A contemporary
who was also well-known in Italy was John Hothby, who wrote several
treatises on music. There were other musicians of prominence prior to
the Reformation under Henry VIII, but we know little about them save
their names. =John Merbecke= (1515-1585) adapted the Gregorian chant
to the English prayer book, which was published in 1550. =Christopher
Tye= (1515-1580) was a teacher and wrote much church music; so also was
=Thomas Tallis= (1515-1585), one of the most learned composers of his
time, who set the choral portions in the service to music. He is noted
for a celebrated canon in forty parts and for a hymn-tune, known as
“Tallis” or “Evening Hymn,” which contains a canon between the soprano
and tenor parts. =William Byrd= (1538-1623) was another noted composer
of this school, being also famous as a writer of instrumental music.
Queen Elizabeth granted to Tallis and Byrd the exclusive right to print
music and to rule music paper. =Orlando Gibbons= (1583-1625) wrote
motets and madrigals and is known as a writer of both polyphonic and
monophonic music. =Henry Purcell= (1658-1695) was the greatest composer
of the English Polyphonic school, writing operas in the English and
Italian style, songs, sonatas, motets and anthems. He seems to have
been in many respects a very able writer and musician, but died too
young to make any decided impression on his times.
=Summary=.—From this it will be seen that while England had a musical
people composed of a mixture of the most musical peoples of Europe, yet
because of geographical position, political disturbances, religious
troubles and wars, she was never able to produce a great and commanding
school. She did not lack force, but it was directed into other, and
for the time being, more important channels. Almost everything of
an artistic nature was borrowed, or was a transplanted culture; and
while the art of music never lacked men to cultivate it, yet these men
were not of the calibre of the men employed in the other works of the
nation, so that so far as the Polyphonic period is concerned, England
is not important, and but for such men as Dunstable and Purcell and
the canon “Sumer Is Icumen In,” England might be completely ignored in
respect to her influence on polyphonic development.