Motets, Inscriptions and Musical Philosophy in Robert Dow's Partbooks
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Katherine Butler Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/em/article-abstract/45/1/89/3876361 by University of Northumbria user on 24 January 2019 In praise of music: motets, inscriptions and musical philosophy in Robert Dow’s partbooks he partbooks of Robert Dow (Oxford, Christ The primary focus of discussion regarding Dow’s TChurch, Mus. 984–8) reflect his positions as intentions in assembling this collection has so far con- Fellow of Laws at All Souls College, Oxford, and a cerned his religious convictions. David Mateer pointed teacher of penmanship, both in the elegance of their to the coincidence of the date 1581 given in the prefatory copying and in the intellectual culture evoked by the material with the death of the Jesuit priest Edmund Latin poems and quotations included alongside the Campion and argued that this event was the inspira- music.1 Inscribed with the date 1581, they may have tion for Dow beginning his collection with Robert been begun as early as the late 1570s, and Dow contin- White’s Lamentations and including many motets on ued to add to this collection of Latin motets, English themes of penitence, suffering and the hope of deliv- anthems, consort songs and textless music until his erance. Such texts, often linked with the Babylonian death in 1588.2 These books were designed not merely captivity or the destruction of Jerusalem, could be to be functional in communicating musical notation associated with the expression of Catholic oppression to players and singers, but also to be both witty and in Elizabethan England.7 More recently John Milsom visually appealing. Each book begins with a Latin has denied the suggestion that the partbooks express poem in praise of music by Walter Haddon, at one Dow’s Catholic identity, pointing out that there is no time President of Magdalen College, followed by Latin evidence that Dow was ever a practising Catholic or a verses requesting that users treat his books with care, recusant, and that neither the prefatory material nor and several quotations attesting to the value and joys the Latin inscriptions hint at a Catholic subtext.8 of music.3 These Latin inscriptions continue through- Robert Parsons’s Ave Maria is the only motet out the motet section of the partbooks. Many of them accompanied by inscriptions that has specifically praise particular composers, including Thomas Tallis, Catholic associations via its subject of Marian devo- William Byrd, Robert White, William Mundy and tion (which had been marginalized by Protestant Robert Parsons.4 A few promote the quality of English reform, even if Mary remained a prominent bibli- music, while many others cite myths and common- cal figure).9 In the Bassus partbook Dow attaches places about the benefits or qualities of music.5 The the phrase ‘music rejoiceth hearts’, while the Medius nature of these inscriptions is unique among Tudor has ‘everything that lives is captivated by music sources.6 Typically one finds little engagement with if it follows nature’ (both in Latin).10 Even if these specific songs in philosophical treatises about music, inscriptions were intended to comment on the piece and little philosophy in manuscripts or printed col- itself—i.e. this music rejoices hearts—it is not clear lections of music. Dow’s combination of notation and whether Dow was attracted by this motet’s Marian inscription therefore presents a rare and intriguing devotion and potential Catholicism, or rather mak- meeting point of musical thought and practice, offer- ing a more general plea for the continued perfor- ing insights into the motivations and philosophies of mance of musically rich repertory regardless of this amateur Elizabethan musician. any confessional associations. The latter would be Early Music, Vol. xlv, No. 1 © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. 89 doi:10.1093/em/cax006, available online at www.em.oup.com Advance Access publication June 21, 2017 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. more in keeping with the overall aims of the body of did not know it considered sufficiently polished by inscriptions as a whole. education’ (discebantque id omnes; nec qui nescie- In the midst of this debate, the contentious issues bat, satis excultus doctrina putabatur).16 This open- with which Dow’s inscriptions do explicitly engage ing material sets the agenda for the partbooks as have been overlooked. Dow was copying his part- a display of musical learning in both the practical books as disputations regarding the relative merits and philosophical spheres and a strong statement of Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/em/article-abstract/45/1/89/3876361 by University of Northumbria user on 24 January 2019 or vices of music were intensifying in Oxford circles. praise and justification for music. Ex-Oxford student Stephen Gosson had attacked Dow’s inscriptions arise within the culture of music in his School of abuse (1579) to which the commonplacing, in which key quotations or exam- newly appointed and (by his own admission) musi- ples were excerpted from authoritative sources and cally ignorant lecturer in music, Matthew Gwinne, stored in an ordered format from which they could responded in his inaugural lecture, ‘In laudem be extracted and used as the framework on which musices oratio’, of 1582.11 He was soon followed by to discourse on particular topics. Such techniques the anonymous author of The praise of music in 1586 were an essential part of the humanist education, and former Fellow of St John’s College John Case but the practice of collecting such epigrams, apho- with Apologia musices in 1588.12 As Dow had fam- risms, sententiae and other kinds of sayings also had ily in London and the repertory of the partbooks is broader cultural influence as they were likewise col- London-orientated, he might also have come across lected in less organized, miscellaneous compilations Lincoln’s Inn (and ex-Oxford) student Thomas and deployed in genres such as emblems, poetic Lodge’s defensive response to Gosson (1579) and epigrams and letter writing.17 Drawn from the Bible, the criticisms of Philip Stubbes’s The anatomy of humanist writers, and classical tradition or mythol- abuses (1583).13 The controversy was still on-going in ogy, Dow’s inscriptions were typical statements that the year after Dow’s death when William Byrd set one might gather in a commonplace book under to music lyrics by Thomas Watson in praise of John the heading ‘on music’, and we shall see that sev- Case’s defence of music, printed on a series of single eral can be found deployed in other contemporary sheets.14 defences of music.18 They exemplify the same con- In opening his partbooks with Haddon’s ‘De ventional themes found in Haddon’s poem, includ- musica’, Dow would not only have been drawing ing an emphasis on musical pleasure, its moral and on the long tradition of the ‘praise of music’ topos, medicinal benefits for humanity and its effects on but also making a polemical statement in a current nature, while eschewing others such as the music of debate. This poem praises music for its pleasures, the spheres and the pantheon of ancient musicians. antiquity, powers over the earth, beasts and human- Moreover, the inscriptions introduce two more typi- ity, and role as the guiding force of the universe.15 cal topoi, also traceable back to classical encomia: As such it touches in condensed form on the cen- music’s role in praising God and condemning the tral themes of the tradition and sets the context for unmusical man.19 The emphasis of Dow’s selection is the reception of Dow’s partbooks as a whole. On the therefore on the naturalness, godliness and practical verso of the opening poem Dow copies a couple of advantages of musicality for humanity. biblical verses including Ecclesiasticus xl.20 ‘Vinum With their combination of media, however, the et musica lætificant corda’ (wine and music rejoice partbooks have more in common with the emblem the heart). This theme of wine, music and pleas- tradition in which text and symbolic image com- ure is another recurrent one in Dow’s selection, in bined to communicate moral, religious or political which it is tempting to see the kind of social occa- values, often drawing on the same kinds of sayings sion in which Dow envisaged his musical collec- and quotations collected in commonplace books.20 tion being sung and played for enjoyment. Finally Just as in emblems the juxtaposition of different in the Medius book Dow also added a quotation media allows more complex and nuanced mean- from Cicero emphasizing the importance of music ings to arise, so too in Dow’s combination of music for social status and intellectual standing: in Greece and text. Whereas emblems often include a longer ‘everyone learnt it [music] and nor was anyone who poetic epigram that helps elucidate the combined 90 Early Music February 2017 meaning of image and motto, however, Dow leaves Eructabunt labia mea hymnum: cum docueris me iusti- his readers to draw their own connections based on ficationes tuas. Pronunciabit lingua mea eloquium tuum: their broader knowledge of the musical discourse quia omnia mandata tua sunt aequitas. surrounding the inscription and the adjacent piece. My lips shall pour out [thy] praise: when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My tongue shall sing of thy word: for all Whether or not Dow had a specific meaning in 25 thy commandments are righteousness.