| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
480 |
FIRST PUBLIC CONCERTS. |
||
|
skill and practice of music, and to encourage the masters, to the great increase of composition." As an instance, he says, that Mr. John Jenkins, one of the court musicians of Charles I., and an esteemed composer of instrumental music in his day, had written so much concerted music at the houses of different gentlemen, to suit the capabilities of the various performers, that there were " horse-loads " of his works dispersed about. " A Spanish Don having sent some papers to Sir Peter Lely, containing one part of a concert of four parts, of a sprightly moving kind, such as were called Fancies, desiring that he would procure and send him the other parts, costa che costa" North shewed the papers to Jenkins, " who knew the concert to be his, but when or where made he knew not. His compositions of that kind were so numerous, that he himself outlived the knowledge of them."
The number of superior musicians thus added to those who habitually performed at taverns, rendered them places of great resort, and brought a rich harvest to the tavern-keepers. After the theatres were closed, taverns were the only public places in which music was to be heard. However, in 1656-7, Cromwell's third Parliament passed *' an Act against vagrants and wandering idle dissolute persons, in which it was ordained that, " if any person or persons, commonly called fiddlers or minstrels, shall at any time after the 1st of July be taken playing, fiddling, and making music, in any inn, alehouse, or tavern, or shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring, or intreating any person or persons to hear them play or make music in any of the places aforesaid," they shall be adjudged rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and be proceeded against and punished accordingly. This checked instrumental music at the time, and the visitors being driven to amuse themselves, indulged the more in vocal, by joining together in singing part-songs, catches, and canons. As gentlemen had been taught to sing at sight, as a part of their education, there was rarely a difficulty in finding the requisite number of voices. Pepys mentions going to a coffee-house with Matthew Lock and Mr. Purcell (Henry Purcell's father), where, with other visitors, in a room next the water, they had a variety of " brave Italian and Spanish songs, and a canon for eight voices which Mr. Lock had lately made on these words,—"Domine, salvum fac Begem." This was while General Monk was in London, and before he had declared for the King. It was therefore a bold measure to sing such a canon at the time, and they must have been well assured that there were none but Cavaliers in the room.
After the Restoration, according to Roger North, the first place of entertainment where music was regularly performed was " in a lane behind Paul's, where there was a chamber organ that one Phillips played upon, and some shopkeepers and foremen came weekly to sing in concert, and to hear and enjoy ale and tobacco [as they do now in Germany]. And after some time the audience grew strong, and one Ben Wallington got the reputation of a notable base voice, who also set up for a composer, and hath some songs in print, but of a very low excellence." He adds, that " their music was chiefly out of Playford's catch-book." We know that in 1664 there was a " Musick-house at the Mitre near |
|||