New Light on Early Tudor Composers. XVIII. Thomas Ashwell Author(s): W. H. Grattan Flood Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 62, No. 940 (Jun. 1, 1921), pp. 408-409 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/908818 . Accessed: 30/12/2014 19:26 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:26:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 408 THE MUSICAL TIMES-JUNE I 1921 the vocal solo to the righthand and the elaborate neglected. They are first-ratestudies in phrasing, 'cello part to the left,the pedals of course playing and theirvalue as exercisesin the melodic use of the continuo. This piece seems unpromisingon the pedal is obvious. Moreover, they serve to firstacquaintance, but the franklytuneful 'cello remindus, first,that Bach had a likingfor making parteventually takes one captive. Here is an extract: organ transcriptions,and, second, that when he did such the few he made Ex. arranging, very changes 7'. (- 96.) were always in the directionof simplification-a point worthnoting by some modernarrangers. This bringsus to Bach's last work-the set of Eighteen Chorale Preludes. With a discussionof these,and a brief Coda dealing with some general --_ as to _ principles the performanceof Bach's organ music on the instrumentsof to-day, this study ~.iL__ _ __ comes to an end. (To becotcluded.) NEW LIGHT ON EARLY TUDOR - = -- - -- - -- ---- COMPOSERS WV.H. GRATTAN FLOOD - -- ---_-r By - XVIII.-THOMAS ASHWELL - - -?--. _ As a brilliant contemporaryof Fayrfax it is surprisingthat the workof Thomas Ashwellhas not received adequate recognitionlong ere this. Not- withstandingthe destructionof manuscriptsat the period of the so-called Reformation, quite a respectablenumber of Masses, motets,songs, &c., by Ashwell may be cited as proof of his powers. In particular,he was one of the first-if not actually thefirst-English composers to give us a settingof the 'Stabat Mater.' Of coursewe knowthat Fayrfax did compose a settingof this beautifulSequence, which was formerlyincluded in the well-known Eton MS.; but, alas ! the pages containingit are long since missing. On this account, Ashwell's This curiously attractive piece is an excellent settingis of unique interest. forleft hand and Yet anotherclaim to famemay be put forwardin study pedals. case of Thomas The last Prelude of the set is the the Ashwell, namely, that he least successful. a 'God Save It is a of an alto solo in the cantata composed royalanthem, King Harry,' transcription which be regarded as the of the den the may precursor 'Lobe Herren,' voice-part being played presentNational Anthem. The date of thisEnglish by the pedals (4-ft.), while two manuals share Anthem-composedfor the marriageof HenryVII. the elaborate violin solo and continuo. The violin to Elizabeth of York-can be fixed with tolerable solo is awkward for the keyboard, and not very certainty,for the nuptials took place on January17, effective,containing a good deal of this kind of I48,. And a thirdclaim to notorietyis the inclu- thing: sion of a song by Ashwellin Wynkynde Worde's printedSong Book of 1530,in whichhe is represented by a four-partsetting of 'She may be called a Ex.8. soverant lady.' Yet the strange circumstanceis thatno memoirof this remarkablemusician has yet appeared, nor have any facts of his career been The chief drawback to the is its hithertopublished. All that has emerged is that piece length. and The intervals between the Ashwell lived 'between the years 1485 isio,' appearance of the and that is included in his list of chorale are and we he by Morley phrases long, get tiredof the famousEnglish musiciansof the early16th century. ratherfussy violin solo. On thisaccount it is a pleasure to be able to throw In addition to their very considerableclaims as a littlemore lighton his personality,even though music, special interestattaches to these Schiibler the detailsare not as copiousas could be desired. Preludes. They wereamongst the last of Bach's For a long time I believed that Ashwell held a works,and the cantatasfrom which they were taken Courtappointment under Henry VII., or else thathe was in some connectedwith the also date fromhis Leipsic days. In theirlightness way Chapel Royal, of texture we have fiveare but aftera protractedsearch I found that such a (as noted, trios),as well does as in the somewhat secular character claim was groundless. Nor his name occur in of a good the monumental'Calendar of Lettersof deal of theirthematic HenryVII I.' material,they have a decided However,I was fortunateto locate him as Masterof flavourof chambermusic. If, on the LincolnCathedral in whole, they the Choristersof 1508. show us Bach neitherplumbing the depths nor It is to be regrettedthat the published 'Chapter scaling the heights, they are too good to be Acts of Lincoln Cathedral,' carefully edited by This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:26:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES-JTUNE I 1921 409 Canon R. E. G. Coles, in three volumes, for the which he quotes Bodleian e 1-5, Cambridge Lincoln Record Society, begins only in 1520, University, and St. John's. The British Museum and consequently gives no information as to (Add. MS. 30,520) also has a fragment (two leaves) Thomas Ashwell. Yet a reference to the late of his 'Mass of St. Cuthbert,' and fragments of Canon Maddison's excellent little book on the another Mass, and a Motet (Bass only) 'Sancta 'Vicars-choral, Poor Clerks, and Organists of Maria' (Add. MS. 34,191). Lincoln Cathedral, from the I2th Century to the The Bodleian Music School Library (e 376-382) Accession of Edward VI.,' printed privately in 1878, has two Masses by Ashwell, namely, Mass 'Ave confirms the statement that Thomas Ashwell was Maria' and Mass 'Jesu Christe '-both complete. appointed Master of the Choristers-evidently in At Cambridge University Library (MS. 815) succession to John Davy-in 1508. At the same date is his remarkable five-part Mass, 'God Save King Leonard Pepei, a vicar-choral, was acting as organist, Harry'-but C.T. only, not Tenor, as in the 'ad lusus organorum in alto choro.' Catalogue-of which the Bass part is in the Library Yet though Ashwell was Master of the Choristers of St. John's College, Cambridge (No. 234).* of Lincoln in 1508, he was neither a vicar-choral nor In conclusion, it may be well to note that the chorister nor Poor Clerk of that Cathedral, and does inclusion of Ashwell's song, 'She may be called a not seem to have been previously connected with soverant lady' in Wynkyn de Worde's printed the place. He owed his preferment to William Song Book, dated October Io, 1530, is no certain Smith, Bishop of Lincoln,* who ruled from 1496 to proof that he was then alive. This unique music- 1514, and was also known to Bishops Wolsey (1514) book of twenty songs contains compositions by and Atwater (1514-21). At one time I was of Cornish, who died in 1523, and by Dr. Fayrfax, opinion that Ashwell had been engaged temporarily whose death cccurred in 1521; consequently the at Lincoln in 1505, but his name does not appear appearance of a song by Ashwell in 1530 cannot be in the detailed list of Cathedral officials at the quoted as evidence, and we are forced to the installation of Dean Symeon on August 14, I506. inevitable belief that his death occurred soon after the Consequently the date of his appointment at Lincoln year I518. At the same time, it is remarkable that a was not earlier than 1508. certain Thomas Ashwell was in receipt of an annuity From 1508 to 1518 Ashwell held officeat Lincoln, from King Henry VIII. in September, I543. And it and in the latter year was replaced by John Gilbert, is significantthat his name appears in the same list who had graduated Bachelor of Music at Oxford in of pensioners as William Crane, Master of the 151o, and who was appointed permanent organist of Children of the Chapel Royal, Richard Bowyer, Lincoln Cathedral in 1524. Henry Stephenson, and Thomas Byrd. In regard to the English Anthem written for the nuptials of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York in 1486, Miss Agnes Strickland, in her 'Lives of the aEb 2bittnI Queens of England,' makes the following statement: BY ' FESTE' An Anthemwas writtenfor the occasion in which a resemblance will be immediatelytraced to strong Fair a Those of us who have so often 'God Save the King'; the similarityof the music is play's jewel. still stronger. grumbled at the comparatively small amount of space to music in the must not It is added : given daily press grudge when our art does for once in a way This Anthemwas foundwith other ancient in appreciation papers get a fair show. A salute, then, to the Northcliffe the church-chestat Gayton,Northamptonshire.tf The press, which, having somehow realised (in good time) date is 1486.