Canterbury Christ Church University's Repository of Research Outputs
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Canterbury Christ Church University’s repository of research outputs http://create.canterbury.ac.uk Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. Saint, L. (2011) Choral music in Canterbury Cathedral, 1873-1988: the role of service settings and anthems in the regeneration, preservation and sustenance of cathedral worship. Ph.D. thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University. Contact: [email protected] 1 Introduction ‘What service settings and anthems were sung in Canterbury Cathedral during 1873- 1988’ is a straightforward question to answer. The significance of the practice of choral music making in Canterbury Cathedral in the restoration and growth of Cathedral worship and early music repertoire deserves close examination through the information discovered in that first answer. The implication is that reinstatement of the worship and development of early music, following a period of impoverishment, was necessary. Investigation of the nature of changes made in Canterbury Cathedral, together with the progress of expansion of that worship, through music, becomes a challenging essential. Regeneration describes the breathing of new life, as in recovery from serious illness, which was shown to be necessary in the music and worship of the early 19th century, following the vicissitudes of disagreement, war and apathy regarding style of worship in general and the role and compositional characteristics of music in particular. Preservation implies maintenance and safeguarding something of value, which had been hard won, in the battle for well- crafted music that conveyed and supported the meaning of the words that the music carried. Sustenance speaks of active feeding and nurture of something that has been made healthy, on a daily basis, so that it will have future life. The churchmanship evident in regular choral services in Canterbury Cathedral is middle to high, as is that of the writer, (akin to the Via Media recommended by John Henry Newman, between ‘the superstitions of Rome…and the errors of Protestantism’1). The Cathedral building, its people and its musical life were historically damaged by those of excessive Puritanism. A teenage exposure to The Wilderness: John Goss, made a deep and life-changing impression on the writer; in later years serving as Organist and Choir Master of an Anglo-Catholic church choir, together with singing in a national chamber choir in Cathedral services made a significant contrast to the crushing puritanism experienced in childhood and also to some extent the low Anglican church services of early adulthood. However, a respect for those with different approaches to spirituality and worship remains an essential component of the Cathedral ethos and the views of the writer. The knowledge of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist has given purpose to the writer’s life, especially when combined with well-crafted music, and in its original language wherever possible. One of the chief roles of this study is to demonstrate the way in which Canterbury Cathedral’s music has been an essential part of the movement towards reconciliation of the differing tenets of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. 1 Rainbow, B. (1970) The Choral Revival in the Anglican Church: 1839-1872. London: Barrie and Jenkins. p6. 2 1.i. Purpose of the study No systematic study of Service music and Anthems in Canterbury Cathedral since 1760 has been located. The low state of worship in churches and Cathedrals, nationally, at the beginning of the Victorian period, has been examined by many scholars and musicians, but the sustained regeneration of musical life in Canterbury Cathedral during the period 1873-1988 has not been acknowledged. It is right and proper that this lacuna, in the musical history of the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, should be filled. This study records the results of examination of the primary source evidence, available in the Cathedral Archives, relating to the music used during 1873-1988, and relates this information to the history of Cathedral and church music and the environment in which it was used, with specific reference to Canterbury Cathedral. The service settings and anthems in use are assessed to ascertain the extent to which the external influences both of those interested in early music revival, and S. S. Wesley and his supporters, were utilised, in that music. The view will be extended to take account of the musicians who performed the music; this will cover the work of the Organists and the Precentors and their role in the preparation and ordering of the services, followed by the choristers and their Choir School, together with the lay clerks. The music of the Cathedral was affected by both the First and Second World Wars, the latter even more directly affecting the personnel of the choir and their participation in the services. The field of study will also include matters relating to the organ, and the ethnology of Cathedral life. An outline history of attitudes towards music in Worship and English Cathedral choral music from the beginnings of Christianity to 1873, from the political, ecclesiastical and musical point of view, in Canterbury Cathedral, will demonstrate a symbolic seed-bed in which music prior to 1873 was nurtured or neglected. The substantive study subsequent to that date, will consider how significant the practice of choral music making in Canterbury Cathedral was, firstly in the restoration of Cathedral worship, and then the growth and the development of the repertoire within that ancient building. Cathedral archival evidence will be supported by research drawn from books, journals, contemporary accounts and examination of musical documents. The following areas of interest will be observed throughout the study as indicators of progress: The ordering of the service: processing; orderly and reverent services Attitude towards use of music in services, conformity to the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer which provided opportunities for music Clergy and Choir attendance, behaviour and pluralism Music selection 3 Changes in the Liturgy Value of matters of antiquity and tradition shown in the inclusion of early music and texts Inclusion of polyphonic music Numbers of Matins/Evensong Service settings, without frequent repetition Frequency of Sung Communion and the number of settings used Number of anthems Plainsong-style music, then inclusion of true plainsong Inclusion of music from countries other than England Greater inclusion of new music, i.e. contemporary music Movement towards authenticity of musical performance Movement towards authenticity of language Evidence of compositional developments in the repertoire chosen Use of early traditional music 1.ii. Background to Music in Worship with Special Reference to Canterbury Cathedral There has been a place of worship on the site of Canterbury Cathedral since before the withdrawal of the Roman armies in circa AD 410;2 sacred music has been heard in that location for more than 1600 years. The Cathedral has undergone several rebuilds and seen much trouble, but apart from eighteen years of silence during the Civil War, the Choir of the Cathedral has been the scene of sung services, which for most of that time have been held daily. From the arrival of St Augustine in Canterbury, in AD 597, monks would have sung the services for the Cycle of Canonical Hours, using the Old Roman Rite.3 The first Cathedral survived until 1067. In 1070, the first Norman Archbishop, Lanfranc, brought Gregorian chant, which was sung by both men and ‘pueri’, boys aged between 8 and 10 years old, who were preparing for a monastic life, using the Sarum Rite.4 In Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, this practice of ‘child oblation’ died out from c1140. Boys’ voices were not heard again until 1438, when they were formed into a Lady Chapel choir, singing a Lady Mass each morning and a Votive Antiphon every evening in the Lady 2 One of three possible temples, dating from the late second century, lies beneath St Gabriel’s Chapel in the present Cathedral. (Lyle, M. (1994) Book of Canterbury. London: B. T. Batsford/English Heritage. p31). 3 Guilmard, Dom Jacques-Marie. (2006) The Discovery of the Origins of Gregorian Chant: the Office at Tours (800) and at Saint-Denis (835). In Music and Liturgy Issue 323, Volume 32 No 3. p9 4 Bowers, R. (1999) English Church Polyphony: Singers and Sources from the 14th to the 17th Century. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited. p411. 4 Chapel, under the direction of Lionel Power, while the monks continued their daily and nightly singing of the offices alone. Following the Dissolution of the monasteries and the re-founding of Christ Church Abbey as a Cathedral in 1540-1541, the adult male singers and the Lady Chapel Choir were combined. In this way the men, the lay clerks, as they are still called in Canterbury Cathedral today, were joined by boys, as choristers, to form a choir similar to that heard in the Cathedral of the present. Extensive information about the liturgy and music of the Cathedral is covered in Bowers’ book, including the fact that for a short period following Tallis’s departure from Waltham Abbey, at its dissolution, he was a lay clerk at Canterbury, departing to the Chapel Royal in 1542. The Lutheran Reformation in Germany was aimed at addressing Clergy immorality, ignorance, pluralism and absenteeism, and the problem of Papal Indulgences.