graphy, resemble each other so closely, that we now feel assured that the entire page was written by the same hand. Coussemaker seems to entertain no doubt that this was the hand of John Fornsete, a Reading Monk, of whom we have intelligence in the Cartulary, down to the year 1236, but no other record later than 1226. It seems rash to append this learned Ecclesiastic's name to the 'Rota,' until some farther evidence shall be forthcoming: but it is gratifying to find that the mystery in which the subject has hitherto been shrouded is gradually disappearing.
Besides the above Rota, and a few specimens of unisonous Plain Chaunt, the volume we have described contains three Motets, 'Regina clemencie,' 'Dum Maria credidit,' and 'Ave gloriosa virginum'—at the end of the last of which are three sets of Parts for 'Cantus superius,' and three for 'Cantus inferius,' added in a different hand-writing; and another Motet, 'Ave gloriosa Mater,' written in Three-Part Score, on a Stave consisting of from thirteen to fifteen lines as occasion demands, with a Quadruplum (or fourth Part), added, in different writing, at the end.[1] Beyond these precious reliques, we possess no authentic record of what may be called the First Period of the development of Art in England. Either the School died out, or its archives have perished.
The Second Period, inaugurated during the earlier half of the 15th century, and therefore contemporary with the School of Dufay, is more fully represented, and boasts some lately-discovered reliques of great interest. Its leader was John of Dunstable, a man of no ordinary talent, whose identity has been more than once confused with that of S. Dunstan! though we have authentic records of his death, in 1453, and burial in the Church of S. Stephen, Walbrook, London. In the time of Burney, it was supposed that two fragments only of his works survived; one quoted by Gafurius, the other by Morley. Baini, however, discovered a set of Sæcular Chansons à 3, in the Vatican Library; and a very valuable codex in the Liceo Filarmonico, at Bologna, is now found to contain four of his Compositions for the Church, besides a number of works by other English Composers of the period, most of whom are otherwise unknown.
The Third Period is more bare of records than the First. No trace of its Compositions can be discovered; and the only interest attaching to it arises from the fact that its leaders, John Hamboys, Mus. Doc., Thomas Saintwix, Mus. Doc., and Henry Habengton, Mus. Bac., who all flourished during the reign of King Edward IV. were the first Musicians ever honoured with special Academical Degrees.
The best writer of the Fourth Period was Dr. Fayrfax, who took his Degree in 1511, and is well represented by some Masses, of considerable merit, in the Music School at Oxford, and a collection of Sæcular Songs, in the well-known 'Fayrfax MS.,' which also contains a number of similar works by Syr John Phelyppes, Gilbert Banester, Rowland Davy, William of Newark, and other writers of the School. The style of these pieces is thoroughly Flemish; but wanting, alike in the ingenuity of Okenheim, and the expression of his followers. Still, the School did its work well. England had not fulfilled the promise of her first efforts; but she now made a new beginning, evidently under Flemish instruction, and never afterwards betrayed her trust.
Good work never fails to produce good fruit. If the labours of Fayrfax and Phelyppes brought forth little that was worth preserving on its own account, they at least prepared the way for the more lasting triumphs of the Fifth Period, the Compositions of which will bear comparison with the best contemporaneous productions, either of Flanders, or of Italy. This epoch extends from the beginning of the 16th century, to the period immediately preceding the appearance of Tallis and Byrd; corresponding, in this country, with the dawn of the sera, known in Rome as 'The Golden Age.' It numbered, among its writers, a magnate of no less celebrity than King Henry VIII, who studied Music, diligently, at that period of his life during which it was supposed that he was destined to fill the See of Canterbury, and never afterwards neglected to practise it. No doubt, this early initiation into the mysteries of Art prompted the imperious monarch to extend a more than ordinary amount of encouragement to its votaries, in later life; and to this fortunate circumstance we are probably largely indebted for that general diffusion of the taste for good Music, so quaintly described by Morley, which, taking such firm hold on the hearts of the people that it was considered disgraceful not to be able to take part in a Madrigal, led, ere long, to the final emergence of our School from the trammels of bare mechanical industry into the freedom which true inspiration alone can give. The Composers who took the most prominent part in this great work were John Thorne, John Redford (Organist of Old St. Paul's), George Etheridge, Robert Johnson, John Taverner, Robert Parsons, John Marbeck (Organist of St. George's Chapel, Windsor), Richard Edwardes, and John Shepherde—all men of mark, and enthusiastic lovers of their Art.
Contemporaries of Archadelt and Waelrant, in Flanders, of Willaert, in Venice, and of Festa, in Rome, these men displayed, in their works, an amount of talent in no degree inferior to that shown by the great Continental Masters.
Redford's Anthem, 'Rejoice in the Lord alway,' first printed by Hawkins, and since republished by the Motet Society, is a model of the true Ecclesiastical style, one of the finest specimens of the grand old English School
- ↑ The 'Regina clemencle' will be found on fol. 4b of the MS.; 'Dum Maria credidit,' on fol. 5; 'Ave gloriosa virginum,' on fol. 6; the three sets of Parts for Cantus Superius, and Inferius, on 7b and 8; 'Ave gloriosa Mater,' on 8b, and 9; and the Rota itself, on fol. 10. All. therefore, are included in 'the earlier portion of the MS,' as described by Sir Frederick Madden. (See page 268a, note 2.) A later copy of 'Ave gloriosa Mater,' without the added Quadruplum, has been discovered in the 'Montpellier MS.,' and is ascribed, by Coussemaker, to Franco of Cologne.
