Music was an essential part of royal coronations, birthdays and other celebrations, but also a constituent of daily ritual in the Court's religious institutions. In 1660 the once proud choirs of the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey had been ravaged by nearly 20 years of inactivity and neglect. Charles II, highly aware of the value of royal liturgical ceremony in the demonstration of kingship, was also keen to re-establish the Chapel Royal as it had been in his father's day and he not only attended services on a regular basis but took an interest in the development of the choir. Unfortunately, few musicians trained before the 1640s were still alive but a handful, led by Captain Henry Cooke (c.1615-72), succeeded in resurrecting the choir school, albeit with considerable difficulties. With very few experienced treble choristers available in London, Cooke was charged with recruiting talented boys from provincial Cathedrals, eventually bringing together a team that included Pelham Humfrey, John Blow and Michael Wise, each emerging as leaders in the next generation of English musicians that included Henry Purcell. Cooke was assisted in those early days by the composer Matthew Locke, a Catholic who could not perform in the Chapel; he was organist to Charles II's Queen Consort Catherine of Braganza at St James's Palace (1662-71) and Somerset House (1671-77). Cooke and Locke composed anthems which became the staple diet of the young Blow and his colleagues. These works were testament to the abilities of Cooke's choir, constantly improving in the face of serious problems, the worst of which was a drastic reduction in court music expenditure in 1667. Cooke kept the boys away from the chapel for short periods in 1668 and again in 1670 because they were so ill-cared for, their clothes reputedly being ‘in tatters'. Samuel Pepys' diary alludes to the occasionally dire state of music in the mid-1660s when he compared it to the evidently superb music performed by the professional Italian musicians in the Chapel of Catherine of Braganza.
However, by the mid 1670s the tide had turned and Cooke had succeeded in building a choir which would be the envy of choral foundations throughout England. Not only did the second generation comprising Blow and his colleagues produce new, sometimes startling compositions for the Chapel Royal, but as organ teachers they nurtured the young Henry Purcell, rapidly developing as a musician of unparalleled talent who, from an early age, composed superb anthems whilst supplementing his income in the wider world as a teacher, virtuoso performer and theatre composer. By the time of Charles II's death in 1685 Purcell was 26 and at the height of his powers, to such an extent that John Blow respectfully relinquished his post as organist at Westminster Abbey in 1679 to him, only to retrieve it when Purcell died prematurely at the age of 36 in 1695.
The coronation of James II, set for 23 April 1685, was the first major testing of the combined choirs of the Chapel
Royal and Westminster Abbey since the coronation of Charles I in 1625, but it was also unlike any coronation since
Elizabeth I and any of those which followed. The new king was a Roman Catholic (having converted with Jesuit assistance
in the late 1660s) and his second wife, Mary of Modena, was an Italian Catholic princess.
Neither of them would accept
communion in the Anglican rite, and much of the service had to be adapted by William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury,
partly so that it did not offend leading Anglican Clergy but also to satisfy the needs of a king who made no secret of
his desire to advance his beloved Catholicism which had for so long been oppressed. As a result, some of the anthems
and prayers in the service were deliberately short, but there were some extended ceremonial offerings which demonstrated
not only the talent of composers such as Blow and Purcell, but also the abilities of the court musical establishment.The 1685 Coronation was unique in another respect in that it was the first for which a detailed account was published. The edition The History of the Coronation of James II (1687) by Francis Sanford, Lancaster Herald, was an elaborate and expensive attempt to flatter a monarch. Illustrations accompanying these programme notes come from this publication, a copy of which is owned by the present writer. Unfortunately, James' flight into exile in 1688 meant Sandford never recouped the cost of printing it and eventually went bankrupt.Nevertheless, it is a valuable and detailed account of the preparations for the event and the order of musical, ceremonial and liturgical components which often took place simultaneously.
We know, for example, that John Blow's ‘God spake sometime in visions', Anthem VIII,
occurred during the presentation of commemorative Coronation medals by the Treasurer of the Royal Household
to the congregation in the South, West and North sides of a temporary purpose-built wooden auditorium.
The text of this glorious work, comprising an evocative
opening symphony typical of Blow's orchestral anthems and three choral bass parts beneath first and second trebles,
altos and tenors, was adapted by Sancroft from Psalm 89 and makes considerable emphasis of the triumph of good over
evil; ‘the enemy shall not be able to do him violence', for example, was undoubtedly a pointed reference to James'
own feelings that, having lingered in the shadow of his brother for so long, he could now freely express his political
and religious convictions and woe betide any who disagreed. There must have been some last-minute changes, for the
opening line of the official text was ‘God spake sometime in visions unto his Saints, and said'; but the words ‘unto
his Saints' were removed. Perhaps Sancroft felt that this reference was a ‘papist' step too far for an event with
which numerous theological compromises had already been agreed.(back to top)
From February 1684 to early December 1686 James probably heard Mass and Vespers at the Catholic Chapel at St. James's Palace, then the principal chapel of Mary of Modena. At the same time a new Catholic chapel was being constructed at Whitehall, which finally opened at Midnight Mass, 1686. Designed by Christopher Wren and adorned with carvings by Grinling Gibbons and paintings by Benedetto Gennari and Antonio Verrio, it was ‘the most lavish ecclesiastical building produced in England since the reign of Henry VIII' (Thurley). Only two complete sacred works from this chapel by its Italian music master Innocenzo Fede are known to have survived, a setting of the Vespers Psalm 112, ‘Laudate pueri' and a ‘Nunc dimittis' for Compline, tantalising fragments of what was undoubtedly a large repertory of choral music which probably perished when Whitehall palace was almost totally destroyed by fire in January 1698. The ‘Laudate', with its double-choir interplay and serene fluidity of expression, illustrates the prevailing Roman aesthetic in the Whitehall Catholic Chapel, an opulent but provocative outpost of Counter-Reformation Europe in the heart of Protestant London.
Laudate pueri Dominum,
laudate nomen Domini.
Sit nomen Domini benedictum,
ex hoc nunc, et usque in saeculum.
A solis ortus usque ad occasum
laudabile nomen Domini.
Excelsus super omnes gentes Dominus,
et super coelos gloria ejus.
Quis sicut Dominus Deus noster,
qui in altis habitat
et humilia respicit in coelo et in terra, suscitans a terra inopem,
et de stercore erigens pauperem,
ut collocet eum cum principibus
populi sui,
qui habitare facit sterilem in domo
matrem filiorum laetantem.
Praise the Lord, you His servants,
praise the name of the Lord.
May the name of the Lord be blessed
from this time onward forever.
From the rising of the sun until its setting,
the name of the Lord is praiseworthy.
The Lord is on high above all nations
and his glory is over the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
who lives on high
and regards the lowly in heaven and on earth;
raising up the destitute man from the earth
and lifting up the poor man from the muck,
that he may place him with the princes
of his people;
who makes a barren woman live in a house,
the happy mother of children.
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Settings of the Mass for choir and orchestra were undoubtedly performed in the chapel on Feast Days, but whilst some surviving manuscripts in English sources from the 1680s suggest they may have been used there, the repertoire has yet to be precisely identified. Alessandro Scarlatti's sublime ‘Missa Santa Cecilia' is very similar to the orchestral settings James would have heard at Whitehall, and even more typical of the chapel music performed during the king's exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The whole effect of the service at Whitehall would have constituted worship as a Catholic monarch desired it to be; divine sounds (music, plainsong and speech) mixed with sights and smells (freshly-gilded pilasters and carvings, brightly coloured paintings, Jesuits dressed in rich copes, incense billowing out of a swinging thurible). Although the Cecilia Mass is a late work in the output of Scarlatti (almost an exact contemporary of Fede) his mass style (with frequent scorings for two soprano parts, as Giovanni Battista Draghi had done in his 1687 Ode to St Cecilia) changed little from the end of the seventeenth century. Excerpts have been included in this evening's programme partly as a small indulgence the conductor asks for his final appearance, the ‘Agnus Dei' being a favourite piece.
Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
And the life of the world to come. Amen.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
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Purcell's sublime anthem ‘My heart is inditing', Anthem IX in the 1685 Coronation, took place after the elaborate anointing and crowning of the Queen who, ‘having received all her Royal ornaments‘ arose from her footstool and approached the King, bowed herself reverently to His Majesty sitting upon his throne; and so was conducted to her own throne on the left hand of the king where she reposed herself till the anthem was ended'. Purcell's work must surely be one of the finest and most moving offerings composed to accompany a Royal procession, and persons present must have been dazzled not only by the Queen's clothing ‘in wrought gold' and ‘raiment of needlework' but also by her attested beauty set amongst heavenly sounds wafting from the choir loft above. Ironically, this anthem and Blow's ‘God spake' were two of the last elaborate religious works in English composed for James II. ‘My heart is inditing' effectively marked the end of the high point in the development of the English ‘Symphony' anthem for strings which had emerged during the reign of Charles II. From 1685 regular payments to string players in the Anglican Chapel Royal were discontinued, though a number did perform when Princess Anne attended services. The substantial Gostling score-book contains a handful of anthems for strings by Purcell which were probably performed for Anne in the 1680s, works from which Handel undoubtedly drew ideas and inspiration when he composed for Anne as Queen thirty years later.
Purcell spent as much time composing for the theatre as he did for the church and contributed significantly to the development of the semi-opera (a genre utilising spoken dialogue, vocal and instrumental music as well as elaborate scenery and dance) the most famous examples being ‘Dido and Aeneas', ‘King Arthur' and ‘The Fairy Queen', the last of which premiered in the Spring of 1692, with a revival in the following year. ‘The Fairy Queen' contains a rich repertory of superb arias and instrumental movements. The conclusion of Act V satisfies the prevailing contemporary tastes for exotic, far-eastern things when the East India Company monopoly of trade with China brought luxury goods such as silk and porcelain into English homes. By the 1690s there was a general fascination with all things Chinese, enhanced by the enthusiasm of Mary II (queen from 1689-94) for oriental ceramics and fabrics. The final scene is set in a Chinese Garden with (as the printed libretto states) ‘architecture, trees, plants, fruit, birds [and] beasts, quite different from what we have in this part of the world'. The relevance of this scene to the plot (based on Shakespeare's ‘A midsummer night's dream') is mystifying, but in any case Purcell composed fabulous instrumental and vocal music for it, the most beautiful example being the noble and rousing Chaconne.
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In one of his many public lectures the great English music critic, writer on music and editor of the third and fourth editions of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Henry Colles (1879-1943) referred to the text of Handel's ‘Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne' (by Ambrose Philips) as ‘fulsome doggerel'. Colles argued that Handel probably did not chuckle in response to being given the words containing the refrain ‘The day that gave great Anna birth who fix'd a lasting peace on earth', since ‘fulsomeness' was common in forms of address to Royal personages and because he did not yet know enough English to realize how awful the ‘doggerel' was. Regardless of the text, Handel quickly assimilated recent repertory of English churches and Cathedrals into his own musical understanding. In his early days in London he played the organ at St Paul's Cathedral, made friends with members of the choir and studied their daily musical activity, absorbing not only the style of Purcell but also John Eccles (chiefly a composer of court odes) and William Croft, at that time the leading composer in the Chapel Royal. By the mid 1690s the performance of celebratory odes, such as on New Year's Day and the monarch's birthday, had become an established part of the court's yearly cycle of activity. Eccles regularly provided odes during the first decade of the eighteenth century, but with a subsequent gap between 1712 and 1714. Court documents reveal little about music performed for the 1713 or 1714 birthdays of Queen Anne. Although the Queen was at Windsor for her birthday (6 February) there is no report of a court ode performance (Burrows) but there are records of payments to her musicians for attendance at Windsor on this day. The choice of composer for the 1714 birthday ode, sung by the choir of the Chapel Royal, fell luckily to Handel. In his book on Handel and the Chapel Royal Donald Burrows refers to the text as having ‘eminently settable verses and attractive pastoral imagery', (presumably not referring to the refrain in this comment) which Handel evidently found easy to work with, the autograph manuscript suggesting great fluidity and lack of hesitancy in the flow of composition.
A highlight of the work is undoubtedly the superb opening accompanied recitative for counter-tenor and trumpet, weaving their way in an ethereal dialogue which seems to be derived from another world. Although Purcell had composed similar trumpet/voice duets, Handel's ideas are carried to far greater lengths. The other arias are equally satisfying, with a delightful soprano item ‘Let all the winged race with joy' and first duet for soprano and countertenor ‘Kind health descends'. Interestingly the original counter-tenor soloist Richard Elford may not have been capable of maintaining his stamina, since No.4 ‘Let flocks and herds' exists in an alternative version for tenor. Other soloists are well-served, for example with the ebullient bass aria ‘Let Envy then conceal her head' (sung originally by Bernard Gates) - reminiscent of similar operatic ‘rage' arias - and the excellent duet, sung by Francis Hughes and Samuel Weely, over an intoxicatingly energetic ostinato bass. The short but effective use of double choir in the final chorus must have enhanced the all-round splendour of the occasion, each group probably taken by decani and cantoris respectively in Anglican fashion, though there is some debate as to whether the performance took place in St. George's Chapel or in the Great Hall at Windsor. The text of the choral refrain might not be of the highest quality, but the way in which Handel adapts it to the main thematic material in each solo movement is proof of the genius of a composer who quickly made his mark in England, impressing the most influential people at court. There is no doubt that the musical ingenuity of this work, far above anything produced by Croft or Eccles (both excellent composers) contributed to the composer's rapid assimilation into the vibrant and cosmopolitan music world of late Stuart and early Georgian London.
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We acknowledge the support of The Paragon Concert Society who administer funds left to them by the late Leo Reid Baker.