24 - England, i : 1485–1600

Summary

BEFORE 1560

IN order to understand the context of the period before 1560 we need to look at the early Tudor period from 1485. The Englishness of the early years of the fifteenth century that had been noted abroad by Martin le Franc and Tinctoris was strongly developed by the early Tudor composers. Continental influence is found growing as the sixteenth century proceeds—from France (the courtly love ethic's influence on secular music, the pavane, and the influence of the chanson on the early English anthem), Italy (the galliard, and the presence of Italian instrumentalists at Henry viii's court), and Spain (in keyboard music)—and a small but relatively cosmopolitan group of continental composers lived and worked in England, some of them for fairly extended periods, notably Cabezon and de Monte, who were attached to Philip of Spain's retinue, Jacquet of Mantua, who seems to have worked at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Philip van Wilder, who worked at the royal court as one of Henry's household musicians. There are nonetheless several native characteristics typical of English music of this period, some of them unique ; fuller texture, larger choral compass (from the lowest bass note to the highest treble note), ornateness, massive sturdiness, exploration of contrasting scoring and sonorities, and esoteric construction ; and most important, towards the middle of the sixteenth century we find English traits, especially rhythms, that are the result of a growing familiarity with setting the English language, especially its use in the earliest Anglican music.

Music for the liturgy

The fuller texture and fuller-sounding chords, with their sixths and thirds, are typical of Dunstaple in the mid-fifteenth century, whose work demonstrates welljudged and varied harmonic rhythm, and they are amply demonstrated in music from the Eton Choirbook (GB-WRec 178, c.1490–c.1515), but the Tudors added two important qualities : the music was now leisurely and massive, and these qualities become important features throughout the sixteenth century.