The English Reformation and its impact on liturgy and music

A brief discussion on the impact of religious change in sixteenth century England on church music and liturgy, from a layman's 21st Century perspective!

The Reformation is a hugely misunderstood and underestimated period of flux in Europe and beyond over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have long been intrigued by the way religion not only underpinned society at every level during the Early Modern period, but how those influences are still relevant today. Having studied this period of history in depth at university I believe there are two significant themes of the English Reformation and its impact on liturgy and music:-

1) The Reformation was not an event which occurred at a single point in time.

The Reformation was not an event, it was more an evolutionary phase which spread out from Henry's break with Rome in 1530 like a mycelium which infiltrated every aspect of English life - and then re-wove itself through again and again creating a vast web of differing experiences, opinions and outcomes. It was the all and everything for the English people for almost 200 years, whether they participated religiously or not. In religious life it encompassed "English Catholics" with their highly latinised services, and Quakers who worshipped in words and silences only.

Henry VIII lived and died a Catholic, his break with Rome was a matter of convenience only. Whilst the establishment of the Church of England was hugely significant nationally and internationally, the average parishioner would have noticed very little difference in daily worship during Henry's reign. For the common people, the dissolution of the monasteries would have had a far greater impact on their lives, since these institutions helped the poor and sick and were paid to sing masses for the souls of the dead. (i-see below)

Henry VIII

Whilst Henry VIII did indeed break with Rome in 1530 and become Head of the Church of England via the Act of Supremacy in 1534; Henry he remained a Catholic, taking the last rites on his deathbed. Indeed, on 11 October 1521 Pope Leo X granted Henry and his descendants the title "Defender of the Faith" in recognition of Henry's book "Assertio Septem Sacramentorum" (Defense of the Seven Sacraments), which defended the sacramental nature of marriage and the supremacy of the pope in defence of the ideas of Martin Luther. (ii)

Music and Liturgy after the dissolution
Most parish churches had been endowed with chantries, each maintaining a stipended priest to say Mass for the souls of their donors, and these continued unaffected under Henry. In addition there remained over a hundred collegiate churches in England, whose endowments maintained regular choral worship through a body of canons, prebends or priests. All these survived the reign of Henry VIII largely intact, only to be dissolved under the Chantries Act 1547, by Henry's son Edward VI.

Edward, Mary and Elizabeth
After the death of Henry VIII in 1547, the new king Edward VI advanced the Reformation in England, introducing major changes to the liturgy of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer had significantly greater freedom under Edward and in 1549, Cranmer's new Book of Common Prayer swept away the old Latin liturgy and replaced it with prayers in English. Church choirs began singing some songs in English, eg Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s.  This brand new liturgy suddenly demanded that new music should be written for the church in English, and musicians of the Chapel Royal such as Thomas Tallis, John Sheppard, and Robert Parsons were called upon to demonstrate that the new Protestantism was no less splendid than the old Catholic religion. Some composers also began writing in a more chordal style because it was argued that the words were easier to hear and understand that way.

William Byrd

Written by Kitty Thompson

As a Renaissance composer in England during the sixteenth century William Byrd achieved what few other of a similarly high profile did, namely to remain in favour no matter which way the religious wind prevailed in England. Like Thomas Tallis (who is believed to have been his teacher at the Chapel Royal) Byrd managed to navigate the fall out of the Reformation in Elizabethan England and remained popular and published. More than that, sometime during the 1570s he became a Roman Catholic and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life, whilst keeping his job, and his head!

Byrd's early years
In his will of 15 November 1622, Byrd described himself as "in the 80th year of [his] age", suggesting a birthdate of 1542 or 1543. However a document dated 2 October 1598 written in his own hand states that he is "58 yeares or ther abouts", indicating an earlier birthdate of 1539 or 1540.

There is no documentary evidence on his early musical training. His two brothers were choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral, although evidence suggests William was a chorister with the Chapel Royal where he was a pupil of Thomas Tallis. His first known professional employment was his appointment in 1563 as organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral. Lincoln had a strong Puritan influence and in both 1569 Byrd was in trouble for both over-elaborate choral polyphony and organ playing during the liturgy. Perhaps then he realised there was a fine line to tread within the bounds of acceptability?

The Chapel Royal
Byrd obtained the prestigious post of Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1572 following the death of Robert Parsons. Byrd was listed as "organist" but this was not a specific role in the Chapel at that time, he was merely most capable of playing it.

Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) was no Puritan, and retained a fondness for elaborate ritual. Many still presume Elizabeth held a "laissez faire" attitude to religious practise in her country but this was far from the truth. Whatever her personal preferences, she expected compliance and insisted upon it.

In 1559, Queen Elizabeth I of England issued a set of solemn Injunctions to strengthen the nation's Oath of Supremacy and its worship by the Book of Common Prayer. They specified that services should contain a hymn or song of praise to God, "in the best sort of music that may be conveniently devised." This phrase firmly ensconced choral music within the English church service and it helped establish the genre that would later be known as the anthem.

J.S. Bach - Cantatas for Eastertide

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he is generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Below is a whistle-stop-tour of Bach Cantatas, of which I'm no expert! I've thoroughly enjoyed my research for this post however and have listened to some beautiful music in the process.

Cantatas
Cantata means "sung" or "to sing". It is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of the term changed over time, from the simple single voice madrigal of the early 17th century. Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantata; other cantatas can be indicated as secular cantata. Several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas.

The Bach Cantatas are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. J. S. Bach composed cantatas for both secular and sacred use, his church cantatas composed for use in the Lutheran church, mainly intended for the occasions of the liturgical year.

Bach started composing cantatas around 1707, when he was still an organist in Arnstadt. Bach's early cantatas are "Choralkonzerte" (chorale concertos) in the style of the 17th century, different from the recitative and aria cantata format that he began to use for church cantatas in 1714 when in Weimar.
The texts for the early cantatas were drawn mostly from biblical passages and hymns. These early cantatas include 17th-century elements such as motets and chorale concertos. Recitatives and arias on contemporary poetry were not yet present, although Bach may have heard them in oratorios by Buxtehude who was his teacher, or even earlier.  His early cantatas often begin with an instrumental sinfonia or sonata. Bach worked at the ducal court in Weimar from 1708 to 1717 and from 1714-1717 he was commissioned to compose one church cantata a month. In the course of almost four years there he thus covered most occasions of the liturgical year. These cantatas have become known as the "Weimar Cycle".

Bach was appointed Thomaskantor, (director of music) in Leipzig 1723, and was responsible for the Thomasschule and the church music at these main churches. A cantata was required for the service on Sundays and additional church holidays of the liturgical year, and Bach composed many, preserved in five annual cycles. The Lutheran church of Bach's time prescribed the same readings every year, a Gospel passage and, recited before this, a corresponding section from an Epistle. A connection between the cantata text and the readings (or at least one of the prescribed hymns for the occasion) was the aim, facilitated by repetition and prescription with readings and hymns linked to the church cantata for each occasion.

A typical Bach cantata from his time in Leipzig follows the pattern below:

• Opening chorus 
• Recitative 
• Aria 
• Recitative (or Arioso) 
• Aria 
• Chorale

The opening chorus is usually a polyphonic setting, with the orchestra presenting the themes or contrasting material first. Most arias follow the form of a da capo aria, repeating the first part after a middle section. The final chorale is typically a homophonic setting of a traditional melody.

Eastertide
Eastertide is the period of 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, celebrated as one great event. Each Sunday of the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter. Following the Sunday of the Resurrection, they are named Second Sunday of Easter, Third Sunday of Easter, etc. up to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, concluding with Pentecost Sunday. Bach wrote cantatas each year for each of these Sundays whilst in Leipzig. Our girl choristers recorded "Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt" (BWV 4) for the first Sunday after Easter, embedded below:-




Misericordias Domini 
This Sunday (26th April) is the Third Sunday of Easter, known as Misericordias Domini Sunday.

The gospel readings for Misericordias Domini is Luke 24:13-35 (Walk to Emmaus) and a suggested Bach Cantata for this reading is Cantata 66, "Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen" (Rejoice, you hearts)

Bach composed this cantata for the Second Day of Easter in Leipzig and first performed it on 10 April 1724. The cantata was Bach's first composition for Easter as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, first performed in Köthen on 10 December 1718. You can read more about it here and listen below! A translation is available here.



If you enjoyed reading this post, then you can read part 2 here!

The Silver Swan - Orlando Gibbons

So it seems yesterday's choice of Thomas Weelkes' setting of "Hosanna to the Son of David" was significantly downvoted in favour of that by Orlando Gibbons'! Thing is... I had already planned to write about Gibbons today, so Weelkes was the natural choice for Palm Sunday!

Orlando Gibbons was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel Royal by King James I around May of 1603 and a senior organist by 1605. By 1606 he had graduated from King's College, Cambridge with a Bachelor of Music and received an honorary Doctor of Music from Oxford in May of 1622. In 1623  he was appointed organist at Westminster Abbey, a position which he held for 2 years until his death on the June 5th, 1625.

Due to his untimely death Gibbons was not such a prolific composer as his (older) contemporary William Byrd, but he still managed to produce many secular and sacred polyphonic vocal works, including consort songs, services, motets, more than 40 full anthems and verse anthems, a set of 20 madrigals as well as at least 20 keyboard works and various instrumental ensemble pieces including nearly 30 fantasies for viols. his most famous works are "This is the Record of John", "O Clap your Hands Together" and "The Silver Swan".

Gibbons was a key transitional figure in the early seventeenth century, bridging the later Renaissance to early Baroque eras. Dubbed by the composer Frederick Ouseley as "the English Palestrina" and many believed he paved the way to the new era of music.

Music
The Silver Swan is a famous and much loved madrigal which presents the legend that swans sing only just before their deaths. The words might be Gibbons creation or more likely, that of his sponsor Sir Christopher Hatton . Whilst not "sacred", it is a hauntingly beautiful piece deserving of inclusion here!

It's a beautiful piece, and there are many recordings online. My favourite is the one below by The Gesualdo Six.  (We tried to record our own at home but are missing a reliable bass part!!) 

The score can be downloaded from Choral Wiki here.

The Silver Swan who, living, had no note, 

When death approach'd, unlock'd her silent throat. 

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, 

Thus sung her first and last, And sung no more: 

"Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes. 

More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise."

Tallis - Salvator Mundi

As our choir begins to rehearse apart and come together online, I thought this might be helpful. We will be recording Tallis' "Salvator Mundi" individually soon, before submitting to produce a multi-tracked finished result.

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 - 23rd Nov 1585) is considered to be one of England's greatest composers. Little is known about his early life, although there is a suggestion that he was a child of the Chapel Royal, which he joined as an adult. Born at the end of Henry VII's reign his life spanned a period of enormous change in music and worship in England.  What makes Tallis so unique is the way he avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs. Like William Byrd he remained an "unreformed Roman Catholic" but was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit the different monarchs' vastly different demands. Tallis was one of the first church musicians to compose anthems in English after the Anglican liturgy was reformed under Edward VI, switching back to Latin to compose major works such as Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater under Mary when she overturned the reforms of the preceding decades. He found favour with both Queen Mary I and her protestant sister Elizabeth I, and composed in Latin, English, French and Italian.

Posthumous portrait by Gerard Vandergucht

In 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted Tallis and William Byrd a 21-year monopoly for polyphonic music and a patent to print and publish music, which was one of the first arrangements of that type in the country. Tallis had exclusive rights to print any music in any language, and he and Byrd were the only ones allowed to use the paper that was used in printing music. Tallis' original polyphony ( two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody) was groundbreaking at the time, and not initially popular.  As Calvinism gained favour in England polyphony was discouraged unless the words were clear - and in the vernacular. Homophonic music (where one main part is supported by one or more additional strands of complimentary parts) became the norm after the Reformation, Tallis' motet "If ye love me" is an excellent example of this.  This period also saw the rise of the verse anthem for this reason, as the Word of God took priority in church music.

Salvator Mundi
Tallis persisted in writing polyphony addition to his more widely accepted homophonic compositions, and Salvator Mundi was first published in 1575. You can download a PDF here on Choral Wiki, although the music is reproduced on the YouTube recording below. I highly recommend subscribing to Morphthing1's YouTube channel, I have found most of our repertoire on there and used it for practise for years! Scroll down to find the links for isolated parts for rehearsal!


 

Alto 1 part is available here
Alto 2 part is available here
The Tenor part is available here
and the Bass part here

Update :- here is our choir's recording for Good Friday:-