Science, Ancient Authority and the Advancement of English Music
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Benjamin Cooke (1734-93), Composer and Academician: Science, Ancient Authority and the Advancement of English Music Timothy John Eggington Volume I Goldsmiths, University of London Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2008 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own work. Where other sources of information have been used they have been acknowledged. 2 Abstract As organist of Westminster Abbey and conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music for most of the second half of the eighteenth century, Benjamin Cooke constitutes an important yet now forgotten figure. Extant Cooke manuscripts preserved in the Cooke Collection at the Royal College of Music represent an extensive though hitherto little examined source through which this study is made possible. In Cooke's compositions, musical tastes and theoretical writings may be perceived an all encompassing philosophy according to which not only the materials of music but even elements of musical style are seen to be governed by a priori principles. In this approach may be observed a philosophy consistent with wider eighteenth-century thinking, according to which antiquity and science were viewed as a source of universal and immutable truth. Chapters I and 2 of this thesis set out the intellectual background to Cooke's theoretical writings and assessthe significance of his unpublished treatise Musical Conjectures. Here we seehow Cooke used his learning to resolve musical issuesof his day (such as tuning) and to hone critical tools for the assessmentof music. Chapter 3 provides a survey of the Cooke Collection. Here Cooke's editing of early music reveals an aspiration to map the musical past in order to establish terins of reference for the present, knowledge which impinged upon his own composing. Chapters 4 and 5 survey a representative sample of Cooke's compositions, culminating with an in-depth examination of two defining works, The Morning Hymn and Collins's Ode. Although these reveal a pronounced debt to music of the previous 200 years,they also exhibit a profound senseof innovation and creativity in style and language. In this we find an aspiration to advance music in a manner consistent with later eighteenth-centuryimperatives for simplicity, whilst retaining the gravitas and substanceinherent in earlier styles. 3 ,J Benjamin Cooke by William Skelton, after unknown artist (late eighteenth-century). Reproducedby kind pen-nissionof the RoyalCollege of Music. 4 Table of Contents Volume I Declaration 2 Abstract Acknowledgements 6 List of Abbreviations 7 Introduction 8 1 The Academy of Ancient Music and Enlightem-nent 22 Music Theory: the Context to Cooke's treatise, Musical Conjectures 2 Musical Conjectures: a Study of its Contents 54 3 Cooke's Musical and Theoretical Interests as 110 Documented in the Cooke Collection 4 The Recasting of Ancient Styles in a Modem Context: Cooke's 136 Part Songs and Orchestral Anthems of the 1760s and 70s 5 The Apogee of Cooke's Composing, Career: 188 The Morning Hyinn and Collins's Ode Conclusion 264 Bibliography 268 Volume 11 Appendix I Works of 'Masters' in which the Expressive Properties 285 of the Common Scale are Properly Exploited Appendix 2 The Cooke Collection: its Numbering and Composition 289 Appendix 3) Cooke Work-List and Editions 293 Musical Examples 1011 Acknowledgments Many people have helped me in completing this research. First, I owe enon-nous intellectual debts to my supervisor Simon McVeigh for his astute advice. patience, . judicious I like to thank Roger criticism and constant encouragement. should also Z=1 Wibberley who supervised me in my second year and then came out of retirement in the final stages of this project to read Chapter 2. There are many others to whom I should like to express gratitude for advice provided during the course of this project. These include Bill Weber, A. C. N. Mackenzie of Ord, H. Diack Johnstone, Claire Nelson, Meredith McFarlane, Ann van Allen-Russell, Tony Trowles, Penny Gouk, Peter Asprey, Paul Banks, Jenny Nex, Caroline Shaw and Peter Horton. Special thanks are due to Andrew Pink and Angela Escott, both of whom read this thesis and made valuable comments. I arn also grateful to Library staff at the Pendlebury Library, the Bodleian Library, the British Library and fon-ner-colleagues at the Royal College of Music for their Moreover, I indebted to the Royal College Music Library assistance. am C, of and Centre for Performance History for allowing me to reproduce all musical examples and the portrait of Cooke (on p. 3) from their respective collections. Above all, I wish to thank my wife Anna and parents, each of whom have provided immense encouragement and practical assistance, without which it would not have beenpossible to completethis work. 6 Abbreviations Gb-LbI British Library, London Gb-Ob Bodleian Library, Oxford US-Wc Library of Congress, Washington GB-Lcm Royal College of Music, London US-NH Osborne Collection, Yale University Library, New Haven The Helmholtz system has been adopted for pitch notation (cl = middle C) and abbreviations for instrumentation are those used in New Groie rev. edn. 7 Introduction Amidst the cosmopolitan, fashion-obsessed concert life of later eighteenth-century London there existed a discrete counterculture borne of native musical culture. Now forgotten, this Enlightenment school of musical thinkers sought through a high-minded intellectual curiosity to further music by proffering an alternative It) vision. Perceivingz: 1 only empty ostentation in mainstream music, they pursued their vision through recourse to universal exemplars borne of science, nature and ancient authority. Central to this counterculture was a group of ex-pupils and associates of the Gen-nan immigrantt: ý composer-theorist Joharm Christoph Pepusch (1667-1752). Foremost amongst these were Benjamin Cooke, John Hawkins (1719-89), William Boyce (1711-79), Marinaduke Overend (d. 1790), John Keeble (1711-86) and John Travers (ca. 17031-58). Common to this for Z:groupI was a studious enthusiasm music's august theoretical traditions (especially Greek harmonic theory), alongside an overridingZý for interest in collecting,I:, studying, editing and performing11= earlier music. A focus their preoccupations was provided by a concert- givingM, body instituted in 1726 known initially as the Academy of Vocal Music, which from the 1730s until his death in 1752 had been led by Pepusch. Under his leadership it became known as the Academy of Ancient Music and adopted a programming policy now deemed a landmark in the Western music tradition for its overriding devotion to the perforinance of what was termed 'ancient music'. The principal component of ýaiicient music' was vocal polyphony of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This included psalms, madrigals and motets by composers such as masses, Z:I Palestrina, Tallis, Byrd, Carissimi, Marenzio and Victoria, some of which had not been performed since their initial time of cornposition. By performing such music the Academy anticipated the emergence of musical classics later in the century, no comparable programming apparently occurring elsewhere in Europe until the earlier nineteenth century. Moreover, alongside this ancient music were performed works by the Academicians themselves. Although influenced by earlier forms, these works frequently exhibited a sense of irmovation and artistic ambition in its way no less forward-looking than that found in contemporaneous music of mainstream concert life. Key to this group was the now little-known figure Benjamin Cooke, who forms the subject of this study. As organistZ:' of Westminster Abbey and conductor of the 8 Academy of Ancient Music for much of the second half of the eighteenth century, Cooke was prominent and respected in his day as a composer, teacher, organist and theorist. The significance of Cooke both as composer-theorist and as representative of this entire counterculture is documented by the existence of an extensive collection of hitherto neglected manuscript sources once owned by him arid now held at the Royal College of Music library. Existing in 27 volumes (RCM MSS 807- 33)) this constitutes not just the principal Cooke source but also a focus for study of this important episode in English musical history. It is partly upon the Cooke Collection that this study will focus. The historicist to figures this preoccupations common Z__ associated with counterculture have caused subsequent commentators to deem their outlook and compositions conservative, derivative and unworthy of attention. From this study of Cooke, however, a quite different picture emerges; Cooke's interest in music and theory is to be borne forward-looking Enlightem-nent revealed of a Z__and quintessentially pursuit of universal principles. The initial objective of this study is, therefore, firstly to investigate Cooke's interests in Greek theory, science and ancient music. The purpose of this is to demonstrate how these interests coalesced to form a distinctive philosophy of music common to Cooke and his circle and to show the integral role this philosophy played in Cooke's development as a composer of innovation and creativity. Following this, Cooke's own music will be exarnined, concentrating principally on the period 1764-77 when he reached his creative peak. In addition to long-forgotten ground-breaking compositions, this examination will uncaithing z:1 yet z:1 further reveal how Cooke deployed his learningz:: 1 as a means of advancing music. Moreover, by considering Cooke's music and theoretical interests together, a vivid picture of the counterculture he represented will be elicited. This picture will reveal how the quest for universality underlying Cooke's activities inspired a bold musical developments the following agenda,1= anticipatingt_1 seminal of century. Before a brief biographicalz:, account of Cooke it maybe useful at this stage to in detail be termed Cooke's the Academy introduce týareater what might alma mater, of Ancient Music. ' Although, the Academy's main raison d'etre was the perfon-nance of ancient music it also advocated its study.