The Recorder Consort at the English Court I 54 0 - 1673 Part 2

David Lasoc~i

ENRY VIII's expansion of the Court The answer to the first question again to "the pitch of the organ," so that they H. musical establishment created a seems to lie with the Bassanos; the sizes could be played together. 92 (A letter ac­ new era for recorder playing in England can be deduced from treatises and companying the inventory also mentions (see Part I of this article in the August inventories. a chest of six large and a chest of issue). A keen musician himself, the Several pieces of evidence indicate three .) King knew the value of foreign musi­ that the Bassanos were significant A second inventory, made in 1566 of cians and went to great lengths to makers of recorders and other instru­ the collection of another member of the engage them for the Court. By his death ments, whose products can be traced on Fugger family-Johann Jakob's youngest in 1547, he had imported enough of the Continent as well as in England. brother, Raimund Fugger junior, an them to create four consorts-viols/ Family members who are known as Augsburg banker and patron of the , /, flutes/cor­ makers are Alvise and Anthony I of the arts-includes "a large case, in it 27 re­ netts, and recorders-that were kept in­ first generation (although the three corders large and small. Made in Eng­ tact until the early seventeenth century other bra:thers may have made instru­ land."93 Because there are not known to and formed the basis for instrumental ments too), Arthur of the second ha ve been any other recorder makers in music-making at Court until the Civil generation, and probably Anthony II of England in the sixteenth century, it is War in 1642. the third. 89 Anthony I was "maker of likely that the Bassanos made those The recorder consort was established divers instruments of music" to the too. in 1540. Its members were five brothers Court from 1538 until 1540, when he A third inventory that probably in­ of the Bassano family, four of whom had joined his brothers in the recorder cludes instruments by the Bassanos is previously been employed at the Court consort. 90 that of the collection of Henry VIII him­ as players around 1531 (one had The first generation made the re­ self. It shows that at the time of his also had a place as a corders listed in the inventory of an "in­ death in 1547 he had no fewer than maker at Court for two years). The Bas­ strument chest made by the Bassani seventy-four recorders. 94 The only sizes sanos introduced to England from brothers with instruments so beautiful mentioned by name are four basses and Venice the highest standards of and good they are suited for dignitaries one "great bass" (presumably a quart­ woodwind instrument making and prob­ and potentates." The list was compiled bass in c or quint-bass in Bh). The re­ ably a similar standard of recorder play­ by Johann (Hans) Jakob Fugger, superin­ mainder are in sets of four (three times), ing. Two members of the second genera­ tendent of music at the Bavarian court six (twice), seven, eight (three times, tion of the family in England­ in Munich, around 1571.91 In the chest one of them described as recorders Augustine and Jeronimo II-wrote mu­ was a set of nine recorders "with fin­ "great and small," and another including sic for the recorder consort that was gerholes in a straight line, except for the two basses), and nine (twice). The in­ more than competent. bass, which are beautiful and good," as struments of each individual set were well as four other sets of woodwind in­ presumably made to the same pitch, so Instruments struments-six bombards (?), seven they could be played together. Edgar Where did the consort obtain their in­ Pfeiffen (probably flutes), ten Hunt surmises that the sets were "not struments, and what sizes did they use? and a fife, and twelve crumhorns-tuned necessarily all trebles or tenors but

KO For full details of the family's instrument making, gemacht haben, mit gar schonen und guetten In­ Schaal, "Die Musikinstrumenten-Sammlung von see my recent study, Professional Recorder Players strumenten, so fur einen yeden grossen Herrn und Raimund Fugger d.]., "Archiv fur Musi~wissen­ in England, 1540-1740, 2 vols. (Ph.D. disserta­ Potentaten tauglich wern." See Bertha Antonio schaft XX1I3-4 (1964), p. 216. For an English tion, The University of Iowa, 1973), II, pp. Wallner, "Ein Instrumentenver4eichnis aus dem translation and commentary, see Douglas Alton 555-71. 16. Jahrhundert," in Festschrift zum 50. Geburtstag Smith, "The Musical Instrument Inventory of

00 Appointment given in Calendar of Letters and Adolf Sandberger (Munich: Hof-Musik-Yerlag von Raymund Fugger," Galpin Society Journal XXXIII Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry Ferdinand Zierfluss, 1918), p. 277. (1980), p. 41. VIII, XIII, p. 537. Payment records in British Li­ Q~"9 Fletten mit geraden lochern aussgenommen <" British Library, Harleian Ms 1419A, ff. 200­ brary, Arundel Ms 97, ff. 68, 83, 93v, 107, 125v, die Bass, welche dann gar schon und guett sind ... 205v. Transcribed in Raymond Russell, 'The ­ 137v, 151. For full details, see Lasocki, op. cit., II, auf den gemeinen Tonum der Orgel ...." sichord and Clavichord, 2nd ed. (London: Faber (#

pp. 550, 554. 0\ " ••• ain gross Fueter darin 27 Fletten. gross und Faber, 1973), pp. 155 - 58. Edgar Hunt gives the 01 " ••• Instrument Truhen, so der Bassani brueder klain. 1m Engelandt gemacht worden." See Richard number as 76; he seems to reason that the set of

November 1984 131 multiples of three and four" particular The survIvmg pieces by Augustine arrivals in France. 1u2 By the early seven; sizes. 95 and Jeronimo Bassano from the probable teenth century there do seem to have If the instruments were meant to be repertory of the Court recorder consort been other, native woodwind makers in the sets are puzzling, since (described in Part I) fit these four sizes England,IOJ but I suspect that only ex ... recorder consort consisted of only of instruments (with the exception of pert and experienced craftsmen like the five players during Henry's reign. one late piece by Jeronimo that may Bassanos were sophisticated enough to 1-"L'>·.. h~,,"\C: only five instruments, of vary ... have a part for the quart... bass in c). The produce recorders with such ingenious were played at any given time. two pieces by William Daman, however, key mechanisms. 104 The fact that re... Henrv was a recorder player himself, which could have been written either corders played at the French court had personal instruments, dating for the Court or for the household of Sir been made in England by the Bassanos from before the arrival of the Bassanos, Thomas Sackville, have parts the lowest could explain the origin of the term may have been inventoried in this col ... note of which is c'. These may have "flute d'Angleterre," apparently first lection. Presumably the King would been written for the in noted by Mersenne and commonly used have taken advantage of Anthony Bas ... c', first described by Praetorius. later in the seventeenth century. sano's appointment to have him make Did the Court recorder consort con ... If quint;basses and great basses were recorders for the Court; when tinue to use instruments made by the recent arrivals in France in the early ceased to be employed as a maker Bassanos in the seventeenth century, seventeenth century, the Bassanos may at Court in 1540 and took up a place in and what sizes did they then use? not have been making them for very long the recorder consort, Henry may have One piece of evidence strongly sug ... before this date. But at least we know continued to buy recorders from gests that the Bassanos were still mak ... that such sizes did exist in England at him privately. ing recorders and that a later member of that time. The surviving repertory, as In any case, succeeding monarchs the we have seen, has part ranges that fit would have been likely to buy from the sponsibl~ f~r one of the soprano in d", alto in g', tenor in c', Bassanos. On the other hand, and de ... mous sets of in and bass in f, with the exception of one spite the slight to the Bassanos who had Mersenne, in his Harmonie piece that may have a part for the quint ... to play on the instruments, recorders (1636), says that the three sizes of re... bass in Bb. As Mersenne suggests, how... may also have been imported. In 1582 corder most common in the sixteenth ever, the pieces also could have been The Rates of the Customes House 96 men ... century (alto, tenor, and bass) "make played in a lower "register" using tenor, tions among instruments for which duty the small register, as those that follow basse;s, quint... basses, and great bass. was payable: "Recorders the set or case make the great register, but they can all In 1636, after the wind players at the containing five pipes-5s." Unfortu... be sounded together, like the great and Court became one large group (see be; nately, no Court records have survived small registers of organs."99 Then he low), John Adson, nominally a new of payments for instruments between shows an engraving (Figure 7) of the re ... member of the flute/ consort, 1530 and 162l. corders in c' and f together with two was paid for"a treble cornett and a tre; The sizes of recorders the Bassanos larger sizes of the instrument-ap; ble recorder;' which he had presumably brought with them from Venice can be parently the quint;bass in Bh and the bought for himself to deduced from the treatises of Ganassi great bass in F-remarking, "The large Court. 105 Unfortunately, Court records (1535) and Cardan (c. 1546) mentioned recorders that follow have been sent never give the names of the makers of in Part I of this article. Ganassi uses so ... from England to one of our kings."loo The such instruments. The "treble" recorder prano, alto, and bass clefs to indicate the wording "have been" and "one of our was presumably an alto in g' . compass of three sizes of recorder, which kings" suggests that, although Mer; he calls soprano (lowest note sounding senne apparently did not know to which Duties g'), tenor (c'), and basso (j), and king they had been sent, they had ar ... Whereabouts in the Court did the re; correspond exactly with the sizes of re ... rived recently enough for him not to corder consort play, how frequently, and corder mentioned by Virdung consider them "old" or "out of date." for what kinds of events? We can find Tenor, Basscontra), and Agricola (Dis ... _ he also shows the fontanelle only incomplete answers in the surviv; cantus, Altus or Tenor, Bassus). Car... of the great bass removed to expose the ing records of the sixteenth century, not dan discusses the same sizes as well as a keywork necessary to play the low only for the recorder consort but for all higher recorder in d", to which he does notes on that size, "so that our makers the Court musicians. For the early not give a name (nowadays it would be could make similar ones [keys] ."101 seventeenth century, however, a little called a soprano in D). This is the first Clearly he expected that these low sizes more evidence remains. known reference to a recorder of such a would be unfamiliar to French The term "Court" actually signified size and pitch. presumably because they were recent not one particular place but the institu; eight with the two basses has those basses in addi, Commentary," 'The American Recorder XX/3 (No, peuuent toutes accorder ensemble, comme font les tion to the eight rather than as part of them (the vember 1979), p. 104. Martinus Agricola, Musica grands €i les ieux des See Harmo' original sentence is ambiguous, owing to its lack of instrumentalis deudsch (Wittenberg, 1528 €i 1545), 238. ed. Fran~ois punctuation). See 'The Recorder and its Music, 2nd ff. ix'[x]. For an English translation, see William E. du Centre National de la ed. (London: Eulenburg Books, 1976), p. 15. Hettrick, "Martin Agricola's Poetic Discussion of Scientitique, 1963. Ibid., p. 16. the Recorder and Other Woodwind Instruments, suiuent ont este Q" London, 1582. Part I: 1529," 'The American Recorder XXI/3 (No, enuoyees a de nos Rois" (see Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht und ausge, vember 1980), pp. 106, 108-09; and "Part II: ibid., III p. zogen (Strasburg €i Basel, 1511), sig. [0 iii]. Fac, 1545," ibid.,' XXIII/4 (November 1982), pp. HII " ••• afin que ... nos Facteurs en puissent faire de simile ed. Klaus Niem611er, Kassel: 143-45. semblables" (loc. cit.).

Barenreiter, 1970. For an translation, see 9R Syntagma Musicum, II, p. 34. 10, lowe the about when these recorders William E. Hettrick, Virdung's 99 "Or ces Flutes font Ie petit ieu, comme celles qui arrived in France to M. Ranum (letters to Method for Recorders of 1511: A Translation with suiuront apres font Ie grand ieu, mais elles se David Lasocki, 14 and 25 March 1982).

132 The American Recorder tion. constituted by the presence of the II and Henry held would have sovereign wherever he or she happened pIayed in the larger and more public part to be. 106 The Court spent most of the of the Chamber makes sense. By itself, year at one of the five"standing houses" however, this single record does not es; on the River Thames. The administra; tablish that these consorts played exclu; tive headquarters was Whitehall at sively in that part of the Court. A~\ 1--''''\ . - ~ JEh"'1! Westminster. Greenwich, Henry VIII's How frequently did the Court musi; wj~jm\ -~: favorite seat, was a few miles down; cians play? A letter from the Lord stream; Richmond and Hampton Court, Chamberlain to the Lord Mayor of Lon; a few miles upstream. Windsor, which don dated 17 November 1573 says that, '~ IE~~ @L,"II stood in hunting domain, was more than "being her [Majesty's] servants in or; twenty miles upstream. dinary they had to attend daily upon H Ii If.1 ®r. ,- The standing houses were all built to her."loH Apparently the only other sur; .~~·IlI the same general plan, consisting of Court record from before the three parts-the courtyard, the great Restoration referring to this point is the ..:d Hall, and the Chamber. The musicians certificate for the appointment of the ... were attached to the Chamber and violinist Ambrose Beeland in 1640 that ~~ I w 1 ~ therefore under the jurisdiction of the mentions "his nightlv and late atten; Lord Chamberlain. The Chamber was dance at Court."109 1~i , itself divided into four parts. First, the One other, non;Court, record relates Great Chamber, which might also serve directly to the recorder consort. Augus; ~'Jld::" as a Guard or Watching Chamber. Sec; tine Bassano, threatened with removal . ond, leading out of this, the Presence from his rented house in 1564, stated in B Chamber, which seems to have been a legal case that he was "one bounden to " j-. ~11 open to anyone who was entitled to ap; give daily attendance upon the Queen's pear at Court. Presentations to the sov; Majesty" (Elizabeth).llo Although Au; n ereign were normally made here. gustine was presumably trying to put ri opening out of the Presence Chamber, the best possible face on his activities in l~Ul -~'I' ~j~ the Privy Chamber, where the sov; order to impress the court with the ex; ereign dined. Access was reserved for tent to which the circumstances of the 0'.[;;; II ~': privy councillors and other favored per; case were interfering with him, it may .:~ ;~ ~ sons, although sometimes ambassadors well be that he and other musicians • ~ p i"'~, .•.~ 'I ~ or distinguished foreign visitors were re; were on call at Court all the time during iQ ceived there. Finally, the Privy Cham; the regular part of the year. '1 ~;.: ~JI ber gave admittance to the sovereign's Like other Court- servants, the musi; I ._, .~ RL,J'1 private apartments. cians were issued livery for coronations , " '1 To which part or parts of the Chamber and funerals of sovereigns-red cloth for ~ did the recorder consort belong? The the former and black for the latter. III In a ::,1 s~ t;~fu;: only surviving evidence seems to be the number of the musicians' servants I ...... _[ .... I.; !L~: ! ...... : • .!" 112 ! ".;..- ~::~ record of the Visitation of Essex in also received liveries. Although sev; "', 1'1. ,r: 1 ~"".t~ r-~ . -- .;~. 1634, during which the members of the eral modern authors have assumed that I [\.I,i1 T' , Bassano family living in that county re; the musicians performed on such occa; o ~; (~tft:\~ z ceived a coat of arms. 107 It describes An; Slons, it is not clear whether they played / .::tr~\ thony I, Mark Anthony, Arthur, and music in the processions or for the serv; ...;:.. , Andrea Bassano simply as "musician" or ices. Like other courtiers, however, they i; :::t!.i·~l "one of the musicians" to various sov; would have walked in the processions. ereigns; but Edward I, Jeronimo Judging by its surviving repertory, one \ ~£i.1 I Edward II, and Henry Bassano are said of the functions of the recorder con; \AlfC:1V I Q; ~t: to be "of the Presence Chamber" to the I,!' !.\"t ~.i sort-and apparently the principal func; I I ' :r .~ sovereigns they had served. That both tion of the consortlD-was to play J. the recorder consort (in which Jeronimo dance music. Elizabeth was herself a bl "tR'J'I' XII V~1~ ~~ " and Henry held places) and the sha wm keen dancer. This music was not, how; c/ £~ 111'.kl and sackbut consort (in which Edward ever, used only to accompany dancing: ~,~.! ~I .

The subject of the English woodwind makers of 1-70. the seventeenth century will be taken up in a fu­ Visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; ture article myself and Maurice Byrne. 1558; Coo~e, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen HI< But von Huene, of the C bass Lilly, 1634, Harleian Society Publications XIII k_~ of Hans Rauh von Schratt in says that (London, 1878), pp. 344 - 45. the Bassanos' instruments were "not quite as inge­ Analytical Index to the Series of Records ~nown as nious and, to my mind, more cumbersome" (letter the Remembrancia. Preserved among the Archives of to David Lasocki, 3 October 1982). the City of London. A.D. 1579-1664, ed. W.H. &' Lafontaine, op. cit., p. 92. H.C. Overall (London: E.]. Francis, 1878), p. 428. The classic account of the physical dlS,posltlon Lafontaine, op. cit., p. 104. Figure 7. Large recorders depicted of the Court and the composition of royal Public Record Office, C3/8/90/1. by Household is in E.K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Chambers, op. CiL, I, 52. Marin Mersenne, Harmonie Universelle Stage, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923), I, II' Public Record Office, (funeral of Henry 1636), Ill, p. 239.

November 1984 133 some of it, especially the contrapuntal "Charles I, when at Oxford, had service tion of the Duke of York" in May pieces and/or those with irregular struc­ at the Cathedral with organs, sackbuts, 1611. 123 Similarly, on 18 November 1624 tures, probably served as entertainment recorders, cornetts, etc." 118 It is there­ Andrea "and thirteen of his fellows" or dinner music. The surviving reper-. fore conceivable that recorders were were paid "for waiting at Windsor at tory of the violin band consists only of sometimes used in this fashion in the the installation of the Knights of the dances. 114 The fantasias and wordless Chapel Royal. Garter" that year.124 in the surviving repertory of Surviving texts of the numerous In 1625 the wind musicians were used the recorder consort therefore suggest masques performed at the Jacobean and during the great social event of the sea­ that the group had additional func­ early Caroline courts never mention re­ son. The event was heralded by an an­ tions-perhaps being used more fre­ corders by name, but, as in the contem­ nouncement in the Court records on 16 quently than the violins for entertain­ porary theater, the instruments may May that Charles I, who had inherited ment or dinner music. sometimes have been called upon to play the crown the previous March, During the reign of James I (1603­ the "soft music."119 The accounts of pay­ 1625) and the first five years of the reign ments to the musicians who performed intends to repair to his castle of Dover ... of Charles I (1625 -1649), the three six­ in Ben Jonson's masque Oberon at attended with a great train (both for quality teenth-century consorts of wind musi­ Whitehall on 1 January 1611 mention and number), being the place appointed by cians-flutes and cornetts, recorders, thirteen shawms and two cornetts. 120 His Highness for the landing and reception of Madame Henriette [Henrietta Maria], and shawms and sackbuts-still existed The fifteen musicians in question were Daughter of France [she was the sister of the in theory, but in practice the lines of de­ probably taken partly from the fourteen French king, Louis XIII], now His Majesty's marcation began to blur. In the second men who held places in the Royal Consort. 125 half of the sixteenth century, cornetts flute/cornett and /sackbut con­ and sackbuts had been employed in­ sorts, but it seems likely that at least A warrant issued two months later au­ creasingly to accompany voices on spe­ one man came from the recorder con­ thorized a payment to Jerome Lanier (a cial occasions in the larger English cathe­ sort. A Spanish visitor who attended brother of Alphonso and Clement), An­ dral and collegiate choirs;115 by the turn the masque reported that thony Bassano II (who by now held a of the century we begin to find refer­ When their Majesties entered accompanied place in the recorder consort), "and ences to their use on such occasions at by the princess and the ambassadors of Spain eleven other of His Majesty's musicians Court. Since cornettists had tradi­ and Venice, flageolets played and the curtain for the wind instruments ...for their at­ tionally belonged to the "flute" consort was drawn [Up].121 tendance at Canterbury and Dover."126 and sackbut players to the "shawm" consort, combining them necessitated a "Flageolets" is probably an erroneous The reorganization of the change in the organization of the wind reference to recorders (or flutes, or pos­ wind musicians, 1630-1673 musicians. This change was noted in the sibly tabor. pipes). Even if the instru­ From 1630 until the beginning of the records only in 1630, but in practice it ment in question was the flageolet-a Civil War in 1642, Court records show may have taken place rather earlier (see new French woodwind very similar to that the wind musicians were organized below). the recorder-it may well have been the into a single group, divided into three The many references to the increasing recorder players who performed on it. "companies," which alternated duties of use of wind instruments in English The recorder consort seems to have "waiting" in the Chapel Royal and at churches during the early seventeenth been used on special ceremonial occa­ the King's dinner table. The first com­ centuryl16 are to cornetts and sackbuts; sions. As mentioned in Part I of this ar­ pany seems to have been primarily cor­ recorders are mentioned only twice. ticle, six members of the shawm/sack­ nettists, and the second and third proba­ First, Sir Edward Dearing, a Puritan but consort plus six men who were bly players of the cornett, shawm, and holding forth against what he believed evidently those currently playing in the sackbut. 127 to be musical excess within the Angli­ recorder consort were paid "for attend­ The first company was described as can church, complained that ing the installation of the Elector Pala­ "cornetts, recorders and shawms" (and one single groan in the spirit, is worth the tine at Windsor for 3 days" in February also as "cornetts, flutes and shawms"). I 122 diapason of all the church music in the world. 1613. These twelve could well be the suspect that these were alternate and Organs, sackbuts, recorders, cornetts, etc. same as the group consisting of Andrea equivalent ways of expressing "wind in­ and voices are mingled together, as if we Bassano "and eleven others, His Maj­ struments." But the company presum­ would catch God Almighty with the fine esty's musicians and servants for wind ably did play the recorder sometimes. ayre of an anthem, whilst few present do or instruments" who had been paid "for As mentioned above, John Adson, a can understand. 117 their extraordinary service at Windsor member of the third company who had Second, Sir John Hawkins reported that by the space of six days at the installa­ joined the Court musicians in 1633, was

VIII), LC2/4(3) (coronation of Elizabeth), I," A General History of the Science and Practice of 1'0 Ben Jonson, ed. C.H. Herford, Percy &' Evelyn LC2/4(4) (funeral of Elizabeth), LC2I6 (funeral of Music (London, 1776), ed. Charles Cudworth, 2 Simpson, 11 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, James I). vols. (New York: Dover, 1963), II, p. 689n, quot­ 1925 - 62), X (1950), p. 341. II) Holman, 'The English Violin Band. ing Joseph Brookband, 'The Well 'Tuned Organ I" Historical Manuscripts Commission: Report on 114 Holman, ibid. (1660). the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire Pre­

II \ Andrew Parrott, "Grett and Solompne Singing: 110 John Marston's Huntingdon Masque, performed served at Easthampstead Par~, Ber~s., III (1938), p. 1. Instruments in English Church Music before the at Ashby Castle in August 1607, has the stage '" Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Ms A239, f. 74. Civil War," VlI2 (April 1978), pp. direction "The clouds descend while soft music '" Public Record Office, E3511544, f. 14 (warrant 183, 187. sounds." Ben Jonson's 'The Golden Age Restor'd, dated 20 May 1613). 110 Parrott, op. cit., pp. 184 - 86. performed at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, I" Ibid., f. 175. W A Declaration (London, 1644), p. 10, quoted in probably on 6 and 8 January 1615, mentions "a I" Acts of the Privy Council of England, new series, Parrott, op. cit., p. 184. softer music." XI (1895), p. 45.

134 The American Recorder paid for a treble cornett and a treble re­ sackbuts" (at the beginning of a listing of The status, rewards, and corder, which he had evidently provided all the royal musicians), and a similar or' privileges of court service for his own use. 128 The second company der of 1667 discharging all the musicians The many surviving records relating may well have played recorders, too. from paying poll money calls them "the to the service of the Court musicians in The wind musicians continued to play musicians for the recorders, flutes, haut­ the sixteenth century make it abun, for masques during this period, and the boys and sackbuts."133 But I suspect that dantly clear that they were wealthier texts of two masques mention "soft these are archaic titles, still in use in the than many other Court servants and far music."129 Court bureaucracy. That is almost cer' better off than virtually all other musi, The wind musicians also sometimes tainly true of the reference to the post of cians in the country. 140 The Bassanos, in for special ceremonies. First, a "keeper, maker, repairer and mender and particular, were well treated, receiving warrant dated 14 March 1640 lists fif­ tuner of all and every his Majesty's mu, grants of property-a measure of status teen of them who had been to Windsor sical wind instruments: that is to say re, as well as wealth-and trade licenses for the last two years and "were at ex­ gals, , organs, flutes, recorders that boosted their already generous in, traordinary for themselves and and all other kind of wind instruments come. All the Court musicians were their horses space of seven whatsoever" which Henry Purcell in' considered members of the gentry, and in each year and do therefore demand herited from Tohn Hingston in 1684 and three of the second generation of the for the accustomed allowance of 5s per Blow and Bernard Bassano family attained the rank of Es, day."130 Second, "the whole company" upon his death in 1695. The ti, quire, a step higher than Gentleman. (in the sense of group) was paid on 2 onginated with Andrea Bassano in Court musicians also received certain April 1642 for going to York and for at­ 1603, or perhaps even his predecessor. including freedom from some tending the St. George's feast. 131 The warrants of appointment of individ, exemption from paying At the beginning of the Civil War in ual musicians in the group and for the some taxes, and freedom from arrest 1642, the Court musicians were dis­ purchase of instruments during these without the permission of the Lord missed and remained without Court em­ years mention the cornett, curtal, Chamberlain. ployment until the end of the Common­ sackbut, and shawm, but not the re, During the reigns of James I and wealth in 1660. The Lord Protector, corder.136 The small quantity of surviv, Charles I, the financial position of the Oliver Cromwell, did employ a small ing music for the group is for cornetts majority of the Court musicians de' group of musicians, but none of them and sackbuts, with the possible excep' clined, owing to the unchanging rate of seems to have played the recorder. tion of two short movements by Nicho, pay in the face of inflation-the price of When the monarchy was restored un­ las Lanier II. m The ranges of the parts of food increased sixfold between 1551 and der Charles II, the Court musical estab­ these movements are: 1. g' g"; 2. 1640-late payment of wages, and fewer lishment was quickly reconstituted. Sur' f' -f"; 3. f-g'; 4. d-d'; and 5. F-a­ extra payments. Three members of the musicians who had served under which would fit a consort of recorders recorder consort during this period­ '--'lla.U~S I were reappointed, and those (two sopranos, alto, tenor, and bass, Robert Baker senior, Henry Bassano, who had died in the interim were re, sounding an octave higher) or flutes. and Clement Lanier-incurred debts placed, sometimes by relatives. The con' If the wind musicians were still play, that are mentioned in Court records of the places is sometimes impos' ing recorders in consort, that practice is when the lenders petitioned the Lord sible to trace after the Restoration, but unlikely to have lasted for long. In 1673, Chamberlain for their money. In theory Charles II seems to have retained all but the Baroque recorder was introduced the privileges and status of the musi, one of the twenty,two places of the from France by James Paisible and his cians were the same as in the sixteenth wind musicians.132 What had been the colleagues, and quickly supplanted its century. In practice, however, they six places in the recorder consort until counterpart. In any case, seem to have suffered from the growing the amalgamation of the consorts into a 1679, the "Wind music" was said to breach between Court and country that single group around 1630 were passed be only five in number. Only one of was to culminate in the Civil War. This on in such a way as to give no hint that these musicians is decline in value of a Court place to musi, the recorder was still being played. parently as a violinist-in cians was to have important conse, Did the Court wind musicians, then, those sworn in at the beginmng quences for music,making in England af, use the recorder after the Restoration? reign of James II. It therefore seems ter the Restoration, when the lead An order of 1663 discharging them from unlikely that the recorder now played a passed from the Court to the theaters paying subsidies describes them not significant role, if any, in the wind music and concert halls, and the new Baroque only as "Musicians for the Wind Mu, at Court. The group seems to have recorder assumed orchestral and solo sic" but also "musicians of the re, ceased to exist on the death of Charles roles. corders, the flutes, the hautboys and II in 1685.

Ibid., Lafontaine, op. cit., pp. 115ff. Matthew Locke, Charles Coleman, and Nicholas For d~tailed arguments on this point, see La, Ibid., pp. 163, 195. Lanier. Two of those by Locke also in his socki, op. cit., I, pp. 105 -12. Ibid., pp. 255, 364, 420. autograph scorebook (British Library, Ms Lafontaine, op. cit., p. 92. Public Record Office, C66/1607/117. 17,801) under the title "for his Sackbuu Aurelian Townshend's Albion's per' no See the following references in Lafontaine, op. and Cornetts." For an edition the two move, formed at the Banqueting House, on 8 cit.: cornett (pp. 115,118,122-23,129,135-36, ments by Lanier, see Peter Holman, ed., The Royal January 1632, mentions 138); curtal (pp. 147, 158, 220); flute (pp. 115, Wind Music Vol. 3: The Suites of Charles Coleman Shirley's The Triumph 118, 122, 129, 135, 138, 148, 177, 183, 188,208, and ~icholas Lanier in Five Parts (London: Nova formed in 1640, mentions 218, 251, 256); sackbut (pp. 123, 128, 136, 140, Music, 1982). I.'" Public Record Office, LC5/134, 381. 150, 177, 257, 267, 307, 330); shawm (pp. 115, '" Lafontaine, op. cit., p. 345.

I}I Public Record Office, 122, 173, 183, 188,208,218,369). 119 Ibid., pp. 371-72.

folio). The "five part things for the cornetts" in the 14() For full details of the material in this section, see Fitzwilliam Wind Manuscript (see Part I) are by Lasocki, op. cit., I, pp. 119 - 41.

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