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244 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
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REIGN OF JAMES I.
The most distinguishing feature of chamber music, in the reign of James I., from that of his predecessor^, was the rapidly-increasing cultivation of instrumental music, especially of such as could be played in concert; and, coevally, the incipient decline of the more learned, but less melodious descriptions of vocal music, such as madrigals and motets.'
During the greater part of the reign of Elizabeth, vocal music held an almost undivided sway, and the practice of instrumental music, in private life, Tvas generally confined to solo performances, and to accompaniments for the voice.
The change of fashion, so far as I have been able to trace it, may be dated from 1599, in which year Morley printed a "First Booke of Consorte Lessons, made by divers exquisite authors," for six instruments to play together; and Anthony Holborne a collection of " Pavans, Galliards, Almaines, and other short airs, both grave and light, in five parts." Morley's publication consisted of favorite subjects arranged for the Treble Lute, the Pandora,3 the Cittern, the (English) Flute,b and the Treble and Bass Viols. Holborne's was for Viols, for Violins,* or for -wind-instruments.
I know of no set of Madrigals printed during the reign of Elizabeth, -which is described on the title-page as "apt for Viols and Voices"—it was fully understood that they were for voices only;—but, from 1603, when James ascended the throne, that mode of describing them became so general, that I have found but two sets printed without it.d . |
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* There was a foreign instrument of the lute description, with a great number of strings, called the Pandwra, hut I imagine the English Pandora to he the same instrument as the Pandora. In Thomas Robinson's "School of Musicke, the perfect fingering of the Lute, Pandora, Orpnarion and Viol da Gamba"the music is noted on six lines, for an instrument of six strings like the Lute. In 1613, Drayton and Sir William Leighton severally enumerated the instruments in use in England. Drayton names the " Pandore" among instruments strung with wire. Sir William Leighton speaks of the "Bandore," but neither of both. In 1609, Philip Rosseter printed a set of " Lessons for Consort," like Morley's, and for the same six instruments, if the Bandora be not an exception. It was a large instrument of the lute kind, with the same number of strings (but in all probability of wire), and invented In 1562 by John Rose, citizen of London, dwelling in Bridewell. It was much used in this reign, especially with the Cittern, to which it formed the appropriate base.
b The English flute, described by Mersenne as the Fistula duleis, ten Anglica, and by some ss the Flute a bee, has eight holes for the fingers, and a mouth-piece at the end like a flageolet. Of the eight holes, six are in a row in front, one at the end for the little finger (added afterwards), and one at the back for the thumb. The tone is soft, rich, and melodious, but less brilliant than the present flute. The ordinary length is |
rather more than two feet. I had three or four of different sizes, the largest exceeding four feet in length. The base flute must have been still longer. The modem flute is blown like the old fife; or as in the ancient sculpture of The Piping Fawn.
• Under the name of " Violins " the four different sizes of the instrument are here comprehended. The word Violoncello is of comparatively modern use. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fairf we find, "A set of these Violins I would buy, too, for a delicate young noise" (i.e., company of young musicians) "I have in the country; tbey are every onea size lees than another;—-just like your fiddles."—Act ih\, ac. 1. Charles the Second's famous hand of "four-and-twenty fiddlers, all in a row," consisted of six violins, six counter-tenors, six tenors, and six bases. The counter-tenor violin has become obsolete, because all the notes of its scale could be played upon the violin or tenor.
d The exceptions are Bateson's First Set of Madrigals, 1604, and Pilkington's First Set, 1613, but the second sets of both authors are described as " apt for viols and voices.*' Soare Wfibye'z Second Set, 1609; Michael Este's Eight Sett, of various dates, and the Madrigals of Orlando Gibbons, Robert Jones, John Ward, Henry Lichfield, Walter Porter, as well asByrd's Psatmes, Songs, and Sonnets, 1611: Peer-son's Motets or Grave Chamber Music, 1630; and many lighter kinds of music. See Rimbault's Bibliotheca Madrigaliana, 8vo., 1S47. |
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