English People Are Unmusical

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 27, 16 January 1931, Page 13

English People Are Unmusical

is an oft-made but nevertheless unjust accusa-~ tion-one probably based on the comparative: lack of prominence of English music composers. In the following article, a synopsis of a talk

given recently by Mrs.

Daisy

Basham

jrom

2YA, the statement is severely criticised.’ "Preference for foreign singers, fiddlers and dancers, grew into a fashion. English artists and composers were thrown into the shade for generations," she asserts.

T HAT England is not a musical country has often been brought against her as a serious reproach. This is not really just, and is largely due to a want of historical perception on the part of somewhat hasty critics. It is true that for the 200 years extending from about 1675, we went through a kind of musical ecitpse-and that just at the time when Germany was rising to her finest

heights in musical art by the works of Bach, Handel, Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and others. But, just as winter does not characterise the whole year, so the winter of music in England should not be taken as representative of the national mind. Certainly this charge of being unmusical was largely contributed to by the attitude of English people themselves. It is characteristic of us to disparage in the realm of art-particularly in music-whatever is of hotne-growth, and to welcome what is foreign. The preference accorded to foreign music began in the latter part of the reign of Charles I. It was commented upon by Henry Lawes in 1653, thus :- "This present generation’ is so sated with ~~\what’s native, that nothing takes their ear but hat’s sung in a language which, commonly, they understand as little as they do the music." ly

This exaltation of what was French or Italian grew into a prevailing fashion in Charles the Second’s reign; and the introduction of foreign singers, fiddlers and dancers, tended largely to throw English artists, as well as composers, into the shade, for generations. In London, in the latter part of the 19th century, we read that the sign "No Englishman need apply" was written up on the * doors of London concert halls, while in 1874, the Irishman Balfe, having written an opera based on sf }Walter Scott’s novel "The ‘alisman," had to have it translated into Italian in order to make it a success in London. It was called "Il Tatismano," and the cast included Mr. Campbell, who had to call himself "Signor Campobello," and Mr. Green, who was billed as "Signor Brocolini." T ux music of England, however, dates back to early times, and reached a_ high state of development at an epoch when Continental Europe had scatcely emerged from the Dark Ages. We find historical glimpses of this in the music of the early

Bards, who flourished in very remote times. In Wales, every free man carried his harp, and to be seen without it meant disgrace. It was in the disguise of a harper, tradition says, that King Alfred penetrated the camp of the hostile Danes, and learned their strength and their plans. At a later date, we find King Canute improvising a song, inspited by the sunset and. the distant vespers at Ely. Maxy of the old "rounds" and "catches" (so-called because one gtoup had to "catch" the tune from another group) date back into the Middle Ages. Such was "Turn Again Whittington," first sung (with other words) in 1453. England was well advanced in counterpoint long before the beginning of the first Flemish an

school. The early English school of counterpoint found its worthiest expression in the works of John Dunstable, who lived in the first half of the 15th century. It has been said that he invented counterpoint, but that: art was probably of gradual growth, and due to the work of may men. Dunstable wrote a fairly large number of compositions, and in the British Museum is an enigma (riddle) canon by him, which has not yet been

deciphered. Such mathematical music, in which the parts fitted forward or backward, or in more complicated ways, gradually gave way to the madrigals or part-songs, written in contra-puntal style, with melody supporting melody. These, in turn, were followed by the simpler ballads and carols-melody supported by harmony. Haamoxy in singing was ctistomary in Britain long before it was so on the Continent. At the close of the 17th Century, Archdeacon Giraldus writes thus :- "The Britons do not sing their tunes in unison, like the inhabitants of other countries, but in different parts. So that when a company of singers meets to sing, as is ustial in this country, as many different parts are heard as there are singers .... In the north- | ern parts of Britain, and on the

borders of Yorkshire, the inhabitants make use of a similar kind -of symphonious harmony in singing, but with only 2 varieties of tune and voice-the one murmuring the under part, the other singing the upper, in a matmer equally soft and pleasing." We have but to look in Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales" to see that the knowledge of music, and the love of song,’ pervaded all classes. We learn that country squires, in the 14th century, could pass the day in singing or in playing the flute, and that the most attractive accompaniment in a young lady was to be able to sing well, and that it afforded the best chance of het obtaining an eligible husband! Also that the cultivation of music extended to all classes. Knights, as they rode to tourney, sang ballads; indeed it was part of the training of a perfect knight to be a musician, No banquet was complete without. music, E asus, speaking of the English in the reign of Henry VIII, said that they challenged (Concluded on page 17.)

Down to the Sea : IN Ships \ @

Away to the Magic of Tropical Nights with 3YA Wednesday 21 tune in to -CHRISTCHURCH |

hes and 7 away with the old Windjammers

English People are Unmusical

An Effectively Answered Challenge | » -(Continued: from page 138.)

the prerogative of having.the handsomest women, of keeping the best table, and of being the most accomplished in music, of any people." In the reign of Elizabeth, music was in universal. estimation. Tinkers sang catches; milkmaids sang ballads; cadgers whistled; each trade, and even the beggars had their special songs. VIII composed music, and ueen WDlizabeth was a clever keyboard performer-one of many fine performers of her realm, In the draw-ing-rooms of the great houses hung the bass-viol, for the amusement of waiting visitors, while the lute, cittern, and virginals, for the amusement of waiting customers, were the. necessary furniture’ of a barber’s shop. Sir Francis Drake, in his little ship, managed to find room for musicians; for it is recorded by a Spanish prisoner of his: that he "dined and supped to the music of viols." In Devonshire, every farmhouse had an instrument: called the thrums, hung in the common hall, It. consisted of a board, with fret. and strings, and was taken up in the evening by one of the farmer’s sons or daughters, or by one of the farm lab--ourers, who struck cords on it while. singing a ballad. John Dowland, the English lute-player and madrigalcomposer, was long.in the employ of the King of Denmark, and in an age of very little music-printing, works of his -were published, in France, Holland and Germany. In many courts and cities of the Continent, English musicians and actors were employed. Nobocy in those days. thought. of saying that England was not a musical country. It is always assumed that. during the years of the Commonwealth, "The voice of music was silenced in England. and that music. of evéty’ kind became an object of loathing and contempt." So, at least, says: Ernest Ford’s "History of Music in Wngland," published: in 1912. Certainly, the Puritans destroyed cathedral organs, disbanded the singing men and boys, and burnt jnuch of the anthem and service music. : th they did not hate music itself, nor ‘did they all hate even music in church. ‘What they did dislike was elaborate choir-music, instrumental music in church, and professional church musicians; and even to-day many of their descendants maintain the same posi‘tion, Traditional Folk Songs "THE folk-song movement of the present day has sufficiently rebutted the accusation that as a people we are unmusical. These folk-songs were at first preserved by tradition, and, when the decline set in, they tended to become forgotten and lost. Fortunately, large numbers have now been recovered and written down, before it was ton late. There was, for a time, a little danger of a sort of folk-song and folk-dance worship, Not everything that . the "folk" think or say is gospel; and not all that they sing is as good as Schu-

bert or Mozart. But at its best, British folk-music is really great. According to a recognised authority, Mr. Percy Scholes, no composer of the past. or present has made anything more lovely, within tiny limits, than the more perfect of the: British folk-tunes. The quantity still preserved is enormous. In England alone 5000. have been collected; and who knows. how many:more were lost before the collecting hobby came into vogue? And how many more can Scotland, Ireland and Wales, all of them: singing countries, add to that number? These songs are tender. lyrics, longwinded narrative ballads, and. rhythmic labour-songs. There are sea-chan-ties of the sailing-ship days; there are hunting-songs and drinking-songs; soi-dier-songs and poacher-songs; Christmas carols and wassails. "Whence Came Our Tunes?" OW did these tunes come into existence? Some, no doubt, were "composed" by the village musical genius, and then handed down the generations, to suffer 'some change, small or great, from the hand, or rather mouth, of almost everyone into whose possession they came. Most, perhaps, simply. grew upcame to existence as mere germs, and then evolved and developed. ‘Children to-day, quite little children, often unconsciously hum tiny tunes of three or four notes. And so. in an early age of civilisation, may have come into existence phrases instinctively "composed," phrases which may have haunted the memory of their originator, passed into the ears of his fellows, and started on a long period of evyolution. They were lengthened into actual "tunes," fitted with words, refitted with fresh words, elaborated, re-simpli-fied, changed in all manner of ways as they spread about the country and came down the centuries. So, the tune we may hear in a Yorkshire bar-parlour to-day may have for its ancestor some wassail-ecry that came over with the Danes; and the old woman sitting at the door of a Kentish farm-house, and thinking of her son away at the other side of the world, may be crooning a tune that, in an ‘earlier form, cheered Boadicea in her moments of discouragement. "Summer is a’ Cumen In" F the evolution of such songs the following example is of outstanding interest. It is described by authorities as "An English musical miracle" and as "The most interesting musical manuscript in the world." It is-called "Summer is a’Cumen In," and is, indeed, the only piece of choral musie earlier than the fifteenth century that could be performed in a modern concert room without a demand for "money back."’ It was’ written about 1226 by a cheerful monk called. "John of Fornsete," belonging to Reading Abbey. The joyous words. of

"Summer is a’Cumen In" suggest that it was composed for a merry May meeting in a castle grounds, when the barons were all-powerful and a musical monk had to do as he was told. : In any case, John of Fornsete immortalised himself by writing a dance measure in the form of a canon or round for four tenor voices, Now, the curious thing is that the canon, a most, ingenicusly artificial form, occurs nowhere else in musical: records for over two centuries to come; and to anticipate one’s artistic descendants by two centuries is surely a feat unparalleled. But this is not all! Our friend also anticipated a practice of Purcell and of Bach, that of composing a tune over a ground bass-a little phrase repeated over and over again-but John of Fornsete "went one better" than these two, for his ground bass was a double one, for two bass voices, also singing in eanon! So here we have a remarkable piece of music, to be performed by four tenor monks singing in canon, and by two bass monks singing a ground, also in canon! Surely this was trolled out on many a festive occasion in the refectory! We can imagine the six jolly monks at it, and their fellows joining in until the vaulted ceiling rang with the sound. A second set of words, religious words, in Latin, is provided; but these fit clumsily, and seem to have been an after-thought. Perhaps they served as an alternative when the abbot’s form was. seen approaching ! ‘This manuscript is now in the British Museum. When it .was written Henry III was King of Wngland, and the signing of Magna Charta was but a few years old in the memory of living men! Cees