1630 (?)--1677
A prominent personage in the seventeenth-century musical world was
Matthew Locke. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it was
approximately 1630. Matthew Locke laid the foundation of his art as a
chorister in an English Cathedral, and at Exeter there is evidence that
he occupied that position in 1638. The evidence cannot be disputed, as
it is graven in the very fabric of the old Cathedral. The embryo
musician took the trouble, upon two occasions, to inscribe his name
upon the walls of the Cathedral, together with the dates. Upon the
inner side of the old organ screen runs the legend "Matthew Lock,
1638," and in a more abbreviated form at a later date "M. L., 1641." As
a boy he seems to have been content with a name of four letters _Lock_;
in his later years he always attached a final "e" to his patronymic.
At Exeter he had the advantage of being trained by Edward Gibbons,
brother of the great Orlando, and, in addition to Gibbons' share in
{85} his training, he owed much to William Wake, Organist, for whom he
wrote one of his first published works.
The period following Locke's later inscription--1641--was one not
calculated to encourage or foster the art of music; the country was in
a state of civil war, the soldiers of Cromwell wrought sad havoc in the
Cathedrals, and the musical portions of those establishments came in
for no small share of their destroying wrath.
At Westminster Abbey we are told "the soldiers brake down the organs
for pots of ale," and the Cathedral at which Locke served his pupilage
fared very badly at the hands of the Roundheads.
It is natural, then, that during the stormy times which marked that
period we have little intelligence concerning the doings of Locke. We
have the dates of some of his compositions, one as early as 1651. The
chief interest, however, which attaches to his work between 1650 and
1660 is that it is so much connected with the stage, and in that way
marks the progress towards the Opera, of the English form of which
Locke is sometimes credited with being the originator. As instances of
this kind of work we might, perhaps, draw attention to his association
with Christopher Gibbons in Shirley's {86} Masque _Cupid and Death_
(1653), and the music he wrote in 1656 for Davenant's _Siege of
Rhodes_, in the production of which he himself shared--playing the part
of the Admiral. Henry Lawes wrote some of the music of this Opera, and
Purcell's father was one of the actors.
The next item of importance that we have concerning him is in the
_Diary_ of Samuel Pepys; there, under date February 21st, 1659/60, we
read:
"After dinner I back to Westminster Hall. Here met with Mr. Lock
and Pursell, Master of Musique, and with them to the Coffee House,
into a room next the Water by ourselves. Here we had a variety of
brave Italian and Spanish Songs, and a Canon of eight voices which
Mr. Locke had lately made on these words 'Domine Salvum fac Regem,'
an admirable thing."
This is a very interesting entry. It shows Locke associated with
Purcell's father; it gives another instance of Mr Pepys never missing
the opportunity of cultivating the friendship of good musicians, and,
apart from the musical side, as an historical matter of interest the
words of the Canon _Domine Salvum fac Regem_ show the feeling of
loyalty towards the Crown which ended in the Restoration; words which
ten years before it would have been a heresy to utter. It may be
pointed out that the entry February, 1659, by the old way of reckoning,
{87} was really February, 1660, and therefore the year of the
Restoration. In the Ceremonies connected with that great event Locke
played an important part; it was to his music for _Sagbutts and
Cornets_ that the Royal Progress was made, from the Tower to Whitehall,
the day before the Coronation 1661. As a reward he was made "Composer
in ordinary to His Majesty," and "One of the Gentlemen of His Majesty's
Private Musick."
For the next year or two he appears to have been engaged in
composition, both for Church and stage; amongst the former may be
mentioned some Anthems, whilst his music for Stapylton's _Stepmother_
presents another instance of his association with dramatic music. This
dramatic side of his nature may have been the cause of Roger North's
complaint that "he sacrificed the 'old Style' for the modes of his
time" and of "his theatrical way."
The year 1666, the year of the Fire of London, is rather an important
one in the consideration of Locke's life. It introduces us to him in
another character, and that of a literary type. As will be seen later,
he was a scathing and bitter critic of his detractors, and first gave
evidence of this quality in the year now under notice. The cause of
this outpouring of his wrath was {88} the treatment a Kyrie of his
composition had received at the hands of the Chapel Royal choir. It
would appear that he had set the Kyrie in an original way, giving
different music to each response; such an innovation did not meet with
the approval of the Choir, and they seem to have given it rather a
rough time. The result was that Locke published it, and supplied a
Preface entitled "Modern Church Music; Pre-Accused, Censured, and
obstructed in its performance before His Majesty, 1st of April, 1666.
Vindicated by its Author, Matthew Locke." Some of his observations are
very severe and abusive. I give a small portion of the somewhat long
and windy preface.
"He is a slender observer of human actions who finds not pride
generally accompanied with ignorance and malice, in what habit
soever it wears. In my case zeal was its vizor and innovation the
crime. The fact, changing the custom of the Church by varying that
which was ever sung in one tune, and occasioning confusion in the
Service by its ill performance. That such defects should take
their rise from the difficulty or novelty of the composition I
utterly deny, the whole being a kind of counterpoint, and no one
change from the beginning to the end but what naturally flows from,
and returns to the proper centre, the key".
With regard to the Vindication, however convincing it might be, I
believe the Kyrie was not performed again at the Royal Chapel.
{89}
Pepys refers to the incident in his _Diary_ of September 2nd, 1667, in
which he says: "Spent all the afternoon, Pelling, Howe and I and my
boy, singing of Locke's response to the ten commandments, which he hath
set very finely, and was a good while since sung before the King, and
spoiled in the performance which occasioned the printing them, and are
excellent good." Mr Pepys evidently sympathized with the lacerated
feelings of the injured author.
I may say that some little time ago I edited these _Kyries_ and the
_Creed_, and they have been sung in the Abbey and in various
Cathedrals. The _Kyries_ are, many of them, very tuneful, and the
whole setting of _Kyrie_ and _Creed_ does Locke great credit.
I have not space to dwell longer upon his Church music, of which we
have some excellent specimens in the way of Anthems.
Somewhat later he was appointed Organist of the Chapel at Somerset
House; this Chapel was part of the establishment of Queen Catherine,
the Queen of Charles II, who throughout her life remained a Roman
Catholic. It would appear from Roger North that Locke was not
altogether a success in this position. He says: "Locke was organist of
Somerset House Chapel as long as he lived, but the Italian Masters that
{90} served there did not approve of his manner of play; but must be
attended by more polite hands, and one while, one Signor Baptista
Sabancino, and afterwards Signor Baptista Draghi used the Great Organ,
and Locke (who must not be turned out of his place, nor the execution)
had a small Chamber Organ by, on which he performed with them the same
Services." This seems a somewhat humbling position for such a man--and
one wonders what he said about it!
Another sharp controversy he took part in was in answer to Mr Thomas
Salmon, M.A., of Trinity College, Oxford, who had written and published
_An Essay to the Advancement of Music by casting away the perplexity of
different cliffs and writing all sorts of music in one universal
character_.
The desire to simplify musical signs seems to have been an old theme
and one that gave rise to a fierce controversy between Matthew Locke
and Mr Salmon. It is only fair to say that Mr Salmon was not over
judicious in his method of recommending his scheme. He seems to have
purposely hit out at music masters (of whom Locke was one of the most
eminent), and suggested that their opposition to his ideas sprang from
the sordid desire to make as much as they {91} could out of their
pupils, by keeping them as long as possible under tuition.
Matthew Locke replied to this in a treatise entitled _The Present
Practice of Musick vindicated against the exceptions and new way of
attaining music lately published by Thomas Salmon, M.A_. The
controversy was very warm. You shall hear a short address "To the
Reader" which will give some idea of the style of discussion Locke
adopted.
Though I may without scruple aver that nothing has done Mr. Salmon
more kindness than that his books have had the honour to be
answered, yet I have been forced to afford him this favour rather
to chastise the Reproaches which he hath thrown upon the most
eminent Professors of Musick than for anything of learning that I
found in him. Those gentlemen he accused of ignorance for not
embracing his illiterate absurdities for which it was necessary to
bring him to the "Bar of Reason" to do him that justice which his
follies merited. Though for the fame he gets by this, I shall not
much envy him, with whom it will fare as with common criminals, who
are seldom talked of above two or three days after execution.
A little farther on he gets angry and says:
Had I been "purblind," "copper-nosed," "sparrow-mouthed,"
"goggle-eyed," "hunch-backed" or the like (ornaments which the best
of my antagonists are adorned with) what work would there have been
with me?
Attention has already been directed to Locke's {92} association with
dramatic music, and so it would be well to glance briefly at the claim
he possesses to be considered the "Father of English Opera." The work
which entitles him to be ranked as the writer of the first English
Opera is Shadwell's _Psyche_; this, with the music to _The Tempest_,
was produced in 1673, with the title of _The English Opera_. It
contained a Preface, setting forth Locke's opinions on real Opera.
North calls his works in this branch of Art "semi-Operas," but from the
title just quoted it may be inferred that Locke, at any rate,
considered them full-grown specimens. It should be added that the Act
tunes in _Psyche_ were written by Draghi. The writer on Opera in
Grove's _Dictionary_ marks Purcell as the originator of English Opera.
"Henry Purcell (he says) transformed the Masque into the Opera, or
rather annihilated the one and introduced the other." Perhaps Roger
North's term "semi-Opera" is the best expression for Locke's essays in
this connection.
With regard to Locke's other dramatic music, reference must be made to
the _Macbeth_ music, which has for so many years been associated with
his name. For long the matter has been the subject of conjecture as to
whether he was really the author of it or not.
{93}
The music of _Psyche_ is so good that there is no ground for saying he
could not have written the _Macbeth_ music. He was exceedingly
dramatic and also melodious. There is a beautiful Dialogue on the
death of Lord Sandwich, the great patron of Samuel Pepys, which is to
be found in the Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. No
doubt this was written at the suggestion of Pepys. And there is a
remarkable setting of Hamlet's soliloquy, also in MS., in Pepys' book,
which I firmly believe is by Locke.
As usual Locke wrote an aggressive Preface to _Psyche_. It begins:
That Poetry and Musick, the chief manifestives of Harmonical
Phancy, should provoke such discordant effects in many is more to
be pityed than wondered at: it having become a fashionable art to
peck and carp at other men's conceptions, how mean soever their own
are. Expecting, therefore, to fall under the lash of some
soft-headed or hard-hearted composers (for there are too many
better at finding of faults than mending them) I shall endeavour to
remove these few blocks which perhaps they may take occasion to
stumble at.
He goes on to say the title Opera is of the Italian, and claims that as
far as his ability could reach, he had written agreeably to the design
of the author, and that the variety of his setting was never in Court
or Theatre till now presented to {94} the nation, "though I must
confess there has been something done, and more by me than any other of
this kind."
Locke evidently considered _Psyche_ as a real Opera and a novelty in
this country. The work was dedicated to James, Duke of Monmouth, who
(the composer says) "gave this life by your often hearing this
practised and encouraged and heartened the almost heartless undertakers
and performers."
Amongst his other works was one called _Melothesia, or Certain general
Rules for playing upon a continued Bass_. This is said to be the first
book of its kind, and he contributed to many other works. Roger North
tells us "Locke set most of the Psalms to music in parts for the use of
some vertuoso ladyes in the City, and he composed a magnifick Consort
of four parts after the old style which is the last that hath been
made."
His life was not long, but it was important, and perhaps the greatest
tribute to his memory was that Henry Purcell wrote an ode commemorative
of his decease "On the death of his worthy friend Mr Matthew Locke,
Music Composer in Ordinary to _His_ Majesty, and Organist of _Her_
Majesty's Chappell, who dyed in August, 1677."
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