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The Journal of the Viola Da Gamba Society Text Has Been Scanned With The Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society Text has been scanned with OCR and is therefore searchable. The format on screen does not conform with the printed Chelys. The original page numbers have been inserted within square brackets: e.g. [23]. Where necessary footnotes here run in sequence through the whole article rather than page by page and replace endnotes. The pages labelled ‘The Viola da Gamba Society Provisional Index of Viol Music’ in some early volumes are omitted here since they are up- dated as necessary as The Viola da Gamba Society Thematic Index of Music for Viols, ed. Gordon Dodd and Andrew Ashbee, 1982-, available on-line at www.vdgs.org.uk or on CD-ROM. Each item has been bookmarked: go to the ‘bookmark’ tab on the left. To avoid problems with copyright, some photographs have been omitted. Volume 19 (1990) (Editor: Lynn Hulse) Ian Payne The Provision of Teaching on Viols at some English Cathedral Churches, c. 1594 – c. 1645: Archival Evidence Chelys, vol. 19 (1990), pp. 3-15 Robert Thompson The Sources of Locke’s Consort ‘for seaverall friends’ Chelys, vol. 19 (1990), pp. 16-43 Carl Hugo Ågren The use of Higher Positions on the Treble Viol. Chelys, vol. 19 (1990), pp. 44-54 Dietrich Kessler A Seven-String Bass Viol by Michel Colichon Chelys, vol. 19 (1990), pp. 55-62 Letters, pp.63-4 Obituaries (Robert Donington; Marco Pallis), pp. 65-69 Reviews, pp. 70-80 [3] THE PROVISION OF TEACHING ON THE VIOLS AT SOME ENGLISH CATHEDRAL CHURCHES, c. 1594-c.1645: ARCHIVAL EVIDENCE IAN PAYNE This paper is intended to supplement an earlier article outlining the archival evidence for a viol-playing tradition at Trinity College, Cambridge, c.1594-c.1615.1 Like its predecessor, it is based on doctoral research among the administrative archives of selected institutions (of which only Ely, Lincoln, and Peterborough Cathedrals and York Minster are relevant to the present paper)2 and is concerned with the evidence for the provision of viols by the authorities. Generally, surviving cathedral archives become more continuous, detailed and informative after c.1600, and the amount and quality of musical detail contained in them faithfully reflects this trend. While the higher quality of the sources themselves might be felt, at first sight, to give a disproportionate picture of the strength of post-1600 musical developments as against that arising from late sixteenth-century sources, there is little reason to doubt the impression given by the extant records - namely, that the provision of viols by such authorities was not usually undertaken earlier than the mid 1590s.3 It goes without saying that the results of such a study as this, based on a small selection of institutions, should be regarded as illustrative rather than exhaustive, though its conclusions broadly agree with known musical trends at other cathedrals. There can be no doubt that the provision of viols, which increased in importance through the 1620s and 1630s, both originated and developed primarily as a valuable teaching aid. As such, it must be considered as a 1 Ian Payne: `Instrumental Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, c.1594-c.1615: Archival and Biographical Evidence', M & L, lxviii/2 (April, 1987), 128-40 2 Exeter, Hereford and Norwich are included in my Ph.D. dissertation, entitled `The Provision and Practice of Music at Cambridge Colleges and Selected Cathedrals, c.1547- c.1646: a Comparative Study of the Archival Evidence' (University of Cambridge, forthcoming). At Exeter, instrumental music is so richly documented that it is dealt with separately in `Instrumental Music at Exeter Cathedral, c.1547-1645: Archival and Musical Evidence' (forthcoming). Evidence for viols at Norwich is negligible, and non-existent for Hereford. In quotations from manuscript sources, standard scribal abbreviations have been expanded without comment, square brackets being used only in cases of ambiguity or doubt. I am grateful to Dr Roger Bowers both for reading the typescript, and for numerous helpful comments. 3 This undoubtedly forms part of the wider expansion of musical resources that began in the 1580s and 1590s. For an example of this, see Ian Payne: `The Musical Establishment at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1546-1644', Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, lxxiv (1985), 54-69 (pp. 60-63). For a brief note on the use of cathedral viols for recreational purposes in the early seventeenth century, see John Bennett: `John Oker/Okeover', Chelys, xvi (1988), 3-11 (p.8). natural extension of a long-established tradition of instrumental teaching which is recorded in many English cathedrals. Most cathedral authorities arranged for apt boys (usually, but not exclusively, choristers) to be taught to play instruments which, prior to the 1590s, were largely of the stringed keyboard variety at the institutions studied.4 The underlying pre-Reformation motive was probably the supply of a number of able organ players who could be called upon to play the organs in services or deputize for the organist.5 After the Edwardine Reformation, however, there was an additional reason for such teaching: the abolition of elaborate polyphony and the reduction of the number of daily services from ten to three left choristers with less to occupy them, and teaching them to play on viols (probably in addition to keyboard instruments) was a profitable, educative and vocational way of filling their leisure time.6 Thus, in 1550, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral 4 Here are some examples. As early as 29 March 1477, the master of the choristers at Lincoln (William Horwood) was directed to teach two or three suitable choristers to play the `clavycordes' (Lincoln Archives Office (LAO), D&C A/2/36, f. 96). A similar Lincoln patent of 1539 is quoted in John Stevens: Music and Poetry in the Early Tudor Court (Cambridge, 1979), 304. The earliest Ely Cathedral letters patent to mention instrumental teaching is that of John Farrant (1567), who was appointed `ad docendum et instruendum Choristas in arte musica [sic], tam Cantando quam instrumenta musica[lia] excercendo', as also were those of his successors William Fox (1572) and George Barcroft (1583) (Cambridge University Library (CUL), Ely Dean and Chapter Records (EDC), 2/4/1, ff. 84, 102v, 138v, respectively.) Although viols are not specifically referred to in Farrant's contract, it may well be that a tradition of string playing (using privately owned instruments) was already established there by the 1560s since both of his immediate successors - -- Tye and White -- have left a substantial body of In nomines, fantasias, etc. which probably date from their time at Ely. White's compositions in particular are very much in the nature of teaching pieces. (I am grateful to an anonymous referee for this suggestion.) The Henrician statutes for Ely confirm that the master of the choristers was expected to teach the boys to play on the organ (`pueris docendis organis pulsandis suo tempore') (CUL EDC 1 E/2, f. 7v, c.25, `De Choristis et ipsorum Magistro') and a virtually identical statute exists also for Peterborough (CUL Peterborough MS 25, f. 19, `De Choristis & eorum Magistrc'). Probate records show that John Usher, a vicar choral of York Minster, owm:d a clavichord in 1526 (see `York Clergy Wills, 1520-1600: 1, Minster Clergy', ed. Claire Cross, Borthwick Texts and Calendars: Records of the Northern Province, x (York, 1984), 7); and in 1537 Robert Dowffe (i.e. Dove', a vicar choral and organist and master of the choristers of Lincoln, bequeathed `a payr of vyrgynallys' to the succentor (LAO D&C Wills, 11, f. 59v.) Virginals and organ were still being taught at Durham in May 1628 (quoted in Brian Crosby: Durham Cathedral Choristers and their Masters (Durham, 1980), 19, who has kindly communicated to me the date of the entry).. 5 Thomas Butler, William Byrd's nominee for the post of organist and `choristarum ludimagister' at Lincoln, was admonished on 11 January 1595 for failing to instruct anyone at all in the art of organ playing, so that no-one was available to deputize for him. This entry confirms that a supply of suitable, players was essential (LAO D&C A/3/7, f. 121). 6 This is concisely stated by the royal commissioners' injunctions delivered to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral in October 1547. They require that `masters and governors...bestowe theyr children... even from theyr childhode, either to learnyng, or to some honest exercise, [or] occupation' so that they need not resort to begging or stealing for want of some suitable `craft... to lyve by' (Exeter Cathedral Archives (ECA) D&C 3674, p.5 (Injunction no. 4)). Mulcaster's statement that 'Musick by the instrument' puts `Musicianes in minde, that they be no brawlers' is in a similar vein (quoted in Bruce Pattison: Music and Poetry of the English Renaissance, second edition (London, 1970), 10). See also I. Woodfield: The Early History of the Viol (Cambridge, 1984), 212-13. ordered the lay clerk incumbent of the newly-redefined post of informator choristarum to teach the boys to `playe upon Instrumentes' which, exceptionally at Exeter at this early date, certainly included viols.7 [4] The early evidence for the use of viols in England is both vague and conflicting. They were probably introduced via the court in the 1520s, and had achieved great popularity there by the 1540s.8 But while viols occur in the extant pre-c.1580 probate records of town waits (who occasionally supplied unspecified instrumental music in ecclesiastical institutions), they do not figure in those of vicars choral and lay clerks of the study institutions before this date.9 This suggests that they were less common in ecclesiastical contexts before the 1580s than afterwards.
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