Twelve Good Musicians: From John Bull to Henry Purcell

In common with other composers of his day, Gibbons shows in his Clavier works an earlier and more successful attempt at a true Instrumental style than he does in his music for Strings. The Viols were later in forsaking the vocal polyphonic style than the keyed instruments, simply because the vocal style suited the bowed instruments so much better than the Clavier. So we find composers for the Clavier borrowing the rhythmic features of folk-songs and dance-tunes much earlier than they found it desirable or necessary to do in Viol music.

Out of six pieces by Gibbons in Parthenia, three are dances (a Pavane and two Galliards); one (The Queenes Commande) is an air with variations; and the other two are the Preludium (a piece of very simple harmonic design, with florid figuration like the early organ preludes) and a quite remarkable Fantasia in four parts– remarkable because rather exceptional as a Clavier piece, and also because of its protracted and serious working in the Canzona style. In the Fitzwilliam Collection the only pieces by Gibbons are an air with variations, The Woods so Wilde, and a Pavane – the latter, however, being identical with The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin, which is found also in Parthenia.

With regard to the Fancies written for "Base Viall," "Mean Viall," and "Trebble Viall," after the manner of the period, these were published absolutely devoid of any indications of pace, of phrasing, or of expression. To this fact is probably due some of their loss of popularity. They require artists to interpret them, and in good hands are capable of considerable effect in the old quaint style. The robust tones of the modern 'Cello, Viola and Violin can hardly give us a correct impression of these pieces, but by muting them a very good suggestion of "Viall" tone is obtainable.

One may mention another "Fancy" written this time for two "trebble Vialls" and a "Base." Whether it is the difference of the instruments, or the fact that it is a later number in the collection and may therefore be a later composition, I cannot say; but there is a distinctly more modern spirit about this "Fancy." It is more rhythmic, the sections are more marked, and at the end there is a complete repetition of an eight-bar phrase, the only difference in the repeat being that the first viall here takes the second part, and vice versa.

In the domain of Sacred Music Orlando Gibbons certainly holds the foremost place amongst the English composers of the contrapuntal school. No name is better known in our Cathedrals. In great gatherings of Cathedral Choirs in my young days (alas! we do not now have such gatherings to any great extent) Gibbons' splendid Service in F was always an item to which we looked forward. And he has left us almost as great a collection of anthems as Purcell did in later years. Many of them were composed for special occasions. One was a wedding Anthem "for my Lord Somerset"; another "made for the King's being in Scotland" (this was, of course, James I, and it was from this Anthem I extracted the splendid concluding "Amen" which was sung at the Coronations of King Edward VII and King George V, and which is now the recognized "Abbey Amen").

The Anthem "This is the record of John" has a string accompaniment for Viols; this was "made for Laud, President of St John's, Oxford, for St John Baptist's Day." Another "Behold thou hast made my days" was composed at the entreaty of Dr Maxey, Dean of Windsor, "the same day se'night before his death."

Mention must also be made of "O clap your hands," which has always had a suspicion attached to it of having played the part of Dr Heyther's Doctor's Exercise. This suspicion is deepened by the fact that Dr Cummings possessed a MS. of it with the following inscription upon it: "Dr Heyther's Commencement Song Composed by Dr Orlando Gibbons". They both took their degrees at Oxford on the same occasion viz: the foundation of the Camden History Professorship. Heyther was a Lay Vicar of Westminster, and it was he who founded the Oxford Music Lecture, now represented by the Professorship. It was originally worth £3 a year. The degrees were conferred on the two friends of Camden at his special request.

Gibbons was also a contributor to Wither's Hymns and Songs of the Church. Withers himself pays him the following tribute: "He hath chosen to make his music agreeable to the matter, and what the common apprehension can best admit, rather than to the curious fancies of the time; which path both of us could more easily have trodden."

Gibbons appears to have had a sense of humour, judging from a letter which we found in the Westminster Abbey Muniment Room some years ago. I believe this is the only letter of Gibbons' that is known. It is addressed to the Treasurer of the Abbey, asking that the organ-tuner, one Burrard, might be paid; it runs as follows:

Mr. Ireland: I know this bill to be very resonable for I have alredy cut him off ten shillings therfore I pray despathe him, for he hath delt honestly wth ye church soe shall I rest yr servant,

Orlando Gibbons.

The whole bill was very small, and by "cutting him off ten shillings" I think old Orlando was rather hard!

We get a glimpse of Orlando Gibbons' organ-playing in the Abbey from the Life of Archbishop Williams, sometime Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. The French Ambassadors who came over to arrange the marriage of the Prince of Wales (afterwards Charles I) with Henrietta Maria were entertained at supper in the Jerusalem Chamber. But before the Supper we are told "The Embassadors, with the Nobles and Gentlemen in their Company, were brought in at the North Gate of the Abbey, which was stuck with Flambeaux everywhere that strangers might cast their eyes upon the stateliness of the Church. At the Door of the Quire the Lord Keeper besought their Lordships to go in and take their seats there for a while. At their entrance the organ was touched by the best Finger of that age, Mr Orlando Gibbons. The Lord Embassadors and their Great Train took up all the stalls where they continued about half-an-hour, while the Quiremen, vested in their Rich Copes, sang three several Anthems with most exquisite voices before them."

This Dean Williams was a very great man, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York; he was Dean of Westminster in 1620. We are told in his Life, written by John Halket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry: "He procured the sweetest music both for the organ and for voices of all parts, that ever was heard in English music. In those days the Abbey and the Jerusalem Chamber, where he gave entertainment to his friends, were the votaries of the Choicest Songs that the Land has heard. The greatest masters of that delightful faculty frequented here above all others." I think it must be to this patron of music that we owe the fine collection of Madrigals and Motets (including the very rare and valuable books of Deering) which are now preserved in the Abbey Library.

This account of the perfection of the music at the Abbey in these remote days, under the fostering care of a Dean distinguished both as a statesman and a musician, may perhaps be followed by a contemporary description of the members of a choir – not, of course, of the Abbey Choir in particular by another Dean. This was Dean Earle, the first Dean after the Restoration. But the work from which I quote was first printed in 1628, so that it is only a year or two after the time of Gibbons. Earle was not Dean of Westminster until more than 30 years later. The book is entitled Microcosmographie: a piece of the World discovered in Essays and Characters, and was first published anonymously. I hope this description of what the writer calls "A Merry Crew, the Common Singing-men in Cathedrall Churches," is not a true description of the great body of such choirs at the time, but it is worth quoting.

The Common Singing-men in Cathedral Churches

Are a bad Society, and yet a Company of good Fellowes, that roare deep in the Quire, deeper in the Taverne. They are the eight parts of speech, which goe to the Syntaxis of Service, and are distinguish't by their noyses much like Bells, for they make not a Consort but a Peale. Their pastime or recreation is prayers, their exercise drinking, yet herein so religiously addicted that they serve God oftest when they are drunke. Their humanity is a legge [=consists in a bow] to the Residencer, their learning a Chapter, for they learne it commonly before they read it, yet the old Hebrew names are little beholden to them, for they mis-call them worse then one another. Though they never expound the Scripture, they handle it much, and pollute the Gospell with two things, their Conversation and their thumbes. Upon worky-dayes they behave themselves at Prayers as at their pots, for they swallow them downe in an instant. Their Gownes are lac'd [=streaked] commonly with steamings of ale, the superfluities of a cup or throat above measure. Their skill in melody makes them the better companions abroad, and their Anthemes abler to sing Catches. Long liv'd for the most part they are not, especially the base, they overflow their banke so oft to drowne the Organs. Briefly, if they escape arresting, they dye constantly in God's Service; and to take their death with more patience, they have Wine and Cakes at their Funerall: and now they keepe the Church a great deale better, and helpe to fill it with their bones as before with their noyse.

This quotation must not be taken too seriously. Earle's book was written when he was a young man, probably under the inspiration of Casaubon's translation of the fourth-century Theophrastus' Characters published in 1592. It consists of 77 "Characters," some of them serious studies, and others, such as the above, humorous or satirical sketches, not intended to be true representations, yet containing a basis of truth. Richard Baxter, writing to Earle, says: "In charity, and gentleness, and peaceableness of mind, you are very eminent."

A very unusual adventure is chronicled as having taken place on St Peter's Day, 1620: "Eveseed, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, did violently and sodenly without cause runne upon Mr Gibbons, took him up and threw him down upon a Standard whereby he received such hurt that he is not yet recovered of the same, and withal he tare the band from his neck to his prejudice and disgrace."

In 1625 Gibbons had to compose and direct the music for the reception at Canterbury of Henrietta Maria, on the occasion of her marriage with Charles I. It was to be his last commission, for he died on Whitsunday, June 5th.

With regard to his death, we have always been led to believe that he died of small-pox – all the histories, including the admirable Grove's Dictionary, have taught us so. Mr W. Barclay Squire, of the British Museum, has, however, shown this to be incorrect. In a letter, which he found among the State Papers, from Sir Albertus Morton to Lord Edward Conway, and endorsed "Mr Secretary Morton, touching the Musician that dyed at Canterburie and supposed to have died of the plague," a medical certificate is enclosed signed by Drs Poe and Domingo, stating that his sickness was at first "lethargicall" followed by convulsions: "he grew apoplecticall and so died" – thus refuting the small-pox theory in favour of apoplexy.

His portrait is in the collection at Oxford, and a fine monument with an excellent bust was erected in Canterbury Cathedral by the composer's widow.

It was my privilege to suggest and organize a Musical Festival of Gibbons' works in Westminster Abbey in 1907. Some of his finest Church music was given by a very large choir, and a beautiful replica in black marble of the bust of the composer, which is in Canterbury Cathedral, was unveiled. It has always seemed to me a reflection upon the Abbey that no memorial to the greatest of its organists – save Purcell – should be found there. This Festival created very great interest, and brought a munificent offer from Mr Crews, a well-known amateur and Master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, to defray the expense of a bust of the celebrated organist. It is well placed in close proximity to the memorials of his worthy successors, Blow, Purcell, and Croft.

VI. RICHARD DEERING

1580 (?) – 1630

In considering the careers and works of the first five musicians on my list of twelve, I have, it is true, been treating of men whose names are to be found in all musical histories. But of the next name on my list I am able to say I am on comparatively new ground. There is nothing so surprising to me as the universal neglect – nay, I may even use the word disdain – with which musical historians of many periods have treated the name of Richard Deering. In common with most people of my own age I knew very little about this composer, and certainly in common with, I venture to say, all my contemporaries, I never heard a note of his music until a few years ago.

The story of my awakening to the real merits of this admirable composer is simple. Looking over the music in the Chapter Library at Westminster, I found among many fine collections of Madrigals – original copies, mostly published in the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries – two sets of Latin Motets in 5 and 6 parts by Richard Deering. They were bound up in covers made out of an illuminated MS. On looking at the bindings, our late Dean, Dr Armitage Robinson (always interested in the Library, and also, I may add, in my musical researches) found that they were part of the Wedding Service of the fourteenth century. The binding was promptly taken off, the Deering books rebound, and handed on to me. I proceeded to score some of the first book – published in 1617 – and had not done many bars before it was plain I was indeed about to unearth a treasure. Full of beautiful Harmony and Contrapuntal devices with examples of melodic progressions, new and original, these works were speedily brought to a hearing at my Gresham Lectures, and, with as little delay as possible, edited (with English translations), published, and introduced into the Abbey Services. Since then many Cathedrals and great Churches have used them. The Bach Choir has performed some of them, and Deering's fame has, I hope, been re-established!

I may say, before proceeding to give details of Deering's career, that nearly a hundred years ago an effort was made by a musical amateur to get these Motets scored. By a curious chance I have come into the possession of letters which passed between the owner of copies of these fine things and Mr Sale of Westminster Abbey. The owner was the Rev Thomas Streatfeild, Vicar of Chart Edge, a well-known Kentish antiquary, and he came into possession – probably at a sale of some of the old Deering books – of a set of parts of these Motets. He applied to Mr Sale (a very prominent member of the musical profession, a Lay-Vicar of Westminster Abbey and a principal singer at the "Ancient Concerts") to get these Motets scored for him. A letter from Sale's daughter apologizes for delay, and says "her father does not think it will be worth while to go to any great expense, as he has tried some parts of it (i. e. the music of the Motets) with some who are used to and admire that ancient style of music and they do not form a very high opinion of it!" Curiously enough, a few bars in score of one of the most beautiful Motets was enclosed with a note from a copyist saying that it would take much time and be very expensive. So Deering's Motets were laid to rest again for nearly 100 years. I may add Mr Sale was the music instructor to Queen Victoria when she was a child.

Mr Streatfeild's copies of the 1617 Motets (uncut!) were sold (at his death) by auction, and fetched £4 16s. 0d.

The neglect of Deering is certainly extraordinary. He was, as usual, absurdly criticized by Dr Burney, who spoke of his music as "very sober, innocent, psalmodic, dry, and uninteresting," and further he "was never able to discern in any of his works a single stroke of genius, either in his melody or modulation." And Sir Frederick Ouseley actually writes of his style as "severe and correct, but very dry"! These verdicts amaze me! They are absolutely untrue, at least as regards Deering's great works, his Motets. I question if Burney or Ouseley ever heard one of them. They may have founded their opinion upon some of his less important works, published by Playford some 30 or 40 years after Deering's death, which Playford himself does not vouch for as being certainly by Deering. And, as regards Deering's Fancies, I can hardly believe either Burney or Ouseley had any real knowledge of them, for one which I produced at a University Lecture in 1912 was of a high order of merit.

That Deering was appreciated at his proper value by his contemporaries is apparent from the way in which Peacham, in his Compleat Gentleman (1622) couples his name with others "for depth of skill and quickness of concept." Almost the only bit of information which historians tell us is that "Cromwell was very fond of his music," and that John Kingston, the organist, with two of his boys, often sang Deering's music to the Protector. The mention of "two boys" points to the Two-part Motets as being the music performed – not, of course, to the Motets for five or six voices. Mace in his Musick's Monument (1676) mentions Deering's Gloria Patri and other of his Latin settings.

I must now turn to the personal history of this good musician.

Richard Deering was descended from an ancient family – the Deerings of the County of Kent. The branch from which Richard Deering traces his descent was the one headed by William Deering of Petworth, in co. Sussex, and his wife, Eleanor Dyke. The Deering of this sketch was the son of Henry Deering of Liss, near Petworth, by the Lady Elizabeth Grey. He died in 1630.

It is stated by Anthony Wood that Deering was "bred up in Italy, where he obtained the name of a most admirable musician. After his return he practised his Faculty for some time in England, where his name being highly cried up, became after many entreaties, Organist to the English Nuns living at Brussels." It is not easy to discover anything about Deering's Italian life or work. My friend, the Rev Dr Spooner Lillingston, made some Inquiries for me in Italy, and is kind enough to write as follows:

"The Earl of Kent's family (of which Deering's mother was a member) remained Catholic for many years, and this family, half a century before, seem to have intermarried with certain of the Italian nobility. Lady Elizabeth Grey does not appear in any record of the Greys of Kent. May not Deering's mother have been of Italian extraction? Hence his Catholic religion and Italian training."

As to his Italian sojourn Dr Spooner Lillingston continues: "There is no record of his first Communion at St John Lateran, so probably he did not go to Italy until about ten years of age, all such records of First Communions made in Italy being registered at St John's Lateran." Dr Lillingston also tells us there is a record of an 8-part Motet by Deering having been performed in one of the Churches, the title being O quam Gloriosa.

That Deering studied hard and composed while in Italy seems pretty certain. Judged from an observation in his "Dedication" of the 1617 Motets it would appear that it was in Rome that he wrote them. In this dedication he speaks of having composed them in the chief city of the world. I cannot help thinking that "the chief city of the world" to Deering – a Catholic – was Rome.

Almost the first fact of which we have very certain knowledge in connection with his life in England is the "Supplication" which he made for the degree of Bachelor of Music at Oxford, in April, 1610. In answer to an inquiry, the Keeper of the Archives said that there is a record of Deering's supplication, and it is stated that his plea is granted "providing he shall have composed a work of eight parts for the next 'Act.'" Dr Scott, the learned custodian of our Abbey Muniments for many years, made some inquiries for me on this matter, and gives the following note which he had apparently received from Oxford:

"Supplicateth in like manner Richard Deering, a scholar most highly trained in music, of Christ Church, forasmuch as he hath spent ten years in the study and practise of music, that this may suffice for him to be admitted to the lectures of the music of Boethius."

The statement by Deering that he had spent "ten years in the study and practise of music" absolutely disposes of the legend, so often repeated, that Deering published a set of 5-part Motets in Antwerp, in 1597. I have always entirely doubted that this had any foundation in fact. I believe it is a misprint for 1617, and it was not likely twenty years would elapse between the publication of two sets of Motets by so prolific a composer. "Ten years" makes the date of Deering's studies to begin in 1600, so he could not have published in 1597. I am glad to be able to correct this error on the authority of the Master himself.

It is very amusing, and rather annoying, to see how the musical historians have copied from one another the most untrue statements about Deering. Burney, Hawkins, and Mr Husk in the first edition of Grove's Dictionary, all give 1597 instead of 1617; and Burney and Hawkins say he was forced to leave England when the troubles of Charles I began. Hawkins says he was Organist to Henrietta Maria until she was compelled to leave England. The fact is Deering was dead before all this! He returned to England as Organist to Henrietta Maria in 1625, and died in 1630.

But space would fail me to point out more of the absurd statements about this musician. Let me rather now turn to his greatest contribution to our musical treasures.

I leave for a time further comment upon his work in England, and proceed to consider his magnificent Motets. It appears that on the invitation of the English nuns at Brussels he proceeded to that city and became Organist to the Convent. It was whilst there that he published in 1617 his fine series of Cantiones Sacrae for five voices; this was issued from the press of Peter Phalese in Antwerp. There are 18 Motets, all to Latin words, for five voices, and "Basso Continuo" for Organ.

I have already spoken of the way I made acquaintance with these masterpieces. It is very gratifying to find the increased favour with which they are received and the frequent performance of them by great choirs. The ignorant accounts of them which I have quoted shake one's faith in the opinion of such writers on other musical works.

The first set of Motets was dedicated to a remarkable personage, Sir William Stanley,5 and the Preface is so interesting I feel justified in giving it (with the title-page). The original Dedication is in Latin, but I give it in a translation.6

In the second set, published in 1618, Deering claims to have written in the Madrigalian style. It looks as if he had tried to imitate the Madrigals he had heard, and to adapt some of the phrases to sacred words. I do not think the second set is as good as the first. But there are some very fine things in it, one of the best being "Silence prevailed in Heaven," a dramatic account of St Michael's war with the Dragon. I have had this printed, and it produces a splendid effect, and hope in time to restore to life many more of these unknown and really beautiful masterpieces.

I have not space to chronicle all Deering's musical works. But I must conclude this notice by some account of his secular music, and, more particularly, his remarkable Humorous Fancy, The Crycs of London. This is the third of these interesting Fancies which I have had the opportunity of recovering from oblivion. I have already in the case of Weelkes and Gibbons explained the circumstances attending this recovery. Deering's Fancy is the most elaborate of the three, and, besides a number of Cryes which the other musicians omitted, he has preserved to us some most interesting and charming Tradesmen's Songs – those of the Swepe, the Blacking-seller, the Vendor of Garlick, the Rat-catcher, and the Tooth-drawer. The whole Fancy is full of life, and shows Deering to be both dramatic and humourous. This work (and a similar one on Country Cryes) were written before he left England for Brussels, as the copy in the British Museum was made 1616.