Music in the Elizabethan era

Musician playing on a bass shawm

Music in the Elizabethan Era, or Elizabethan Music, refers to music during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the I (1533–1603), oft titled The Golden Age of English History. It was a period in which English music was developed to a level that commanded respect from the rest of Western Civilization. After Elizabeth I's death, English music maintained its level of accomplishment for a short while, and fell off (largely after the Revolution) with the change of styles leading to the 'early baroque' period.

Background

Music was highly regarded in the period of the Tudor Dynasty of England, so much so that, by the end of the 16th century, one was not considered to be a gentleman unless he was able to read music and sing tolerably. An anonymous man in 1597 said, “a guest to refrain from singing was considered very rude (From Gail B. Stuart’s Life in Elizabethan London).” Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, was a musician, among his other talents, and by Elizabeth's time, music had become an established facet of court life.

During the era, most noblemen employed their own musicians and took lessons from them in playing the Lute and music literacy. Those in the rising middle classes employed music teachers. Music, which had been printed since the middle of the 16th century was becoming available at booksellers' shops at a reasonable price; such books included theory books, collections of music for voice and instruments or instruments alone, and instructional books, primarily for the lute.

The lute was the most popular of the early instruments. It had a long neck and strings of twisted sheepgut. It made a sweet melody that was appealing to the ears of many.

Elizabethan Music was known for its steady rhythm and its polyphony, which is a main theme that is established then played in more complex ways. Songs sung included a four to five part harmony with multiple melodies weaving throughout one another, similar to baroque music. It was also known for its reflection of moods and emotion. As musicianship during the 16th century was popular and widespread, it was broken down into five main categories: church music, court music, town music, street music and theatre music.

Religion

Church was a major significance for music in the 16th century. The puritans wanted to do away with all church music but the will of the people to sing only made it more predominant. Many composers that wrote for the church also wrote for the royalty. The style of the church music was known as choral polyphony. Hundreds of hymns were written for the church. Many of those are still sung today. It is “doubtless (that) your worship requires music (Pg. 121 Life in Elizabethan Days I).” At the most elegant of weddings, usually those of the nobility, the processional included musicians who played lutes, flutes, and viols. It was very common of that time for commoners to have music played for them whenever they wanted as well.

Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth I of England

Queen Elizabeth I fancied music and also knew well how to play instruments. She could play the lute and virginals, a small form of a harpsichord. Her example made it essential for courtiers and gentlemen to understand the art of music. Queen Elizabeth encouraged composers and musicians, employing over seventy musicians and singers. Dancing was considered part of propriety by Queen Elizabeth.

Musicians

Town musicians were known as Waits. They were the equivalent to that of a modern town’s band. The Waits have been in existence as far back as the medieval period. The role of the Waits were to perform at public occasions of the viewing pleasure of the town. They were to play original composed music.

Street musicians or traveling minstrels were looked down upon. They were feared and soon grew out of style and were replaced by the tavern and theater musician. Street music was common to be heard at markets and fairs. The music was usually light and quick. They performed using fiddles, lutes, recorders, and small percussion instruments attracting crowds whenever they played. The songs they played and sang were traditional favorites, “a far cry from the sophisticated and refined music of the Elizabethan court." [1]

Theater became increasingly popular when music was added. Location on stage meant everything to a theater musician. The location gave certain effects to the sound produced. This could the impression of distance or providing an atmosphere to the plays and performances done. Theater music became even more popular with the rise of William Shakespeare in 1556.

Composers

William Byrd

Many composers of the period are still known by name, today. William Byrd (1539–1623) was considered by most modern authorities “the greatest of all the Elizabethan composers (from Gail B. Stuart’s Life in Elizabethan London).” He was the leading composer of religious music. Many of his songs still exist today. William Byrd was the chief organist and composer for Queen Elizabeth. Also during the 16th century were John Bull (1562–1628), best-known organist of the Elizabethan era, and John Dowland (1563–1626), leading composer of lute music. John Dowland published his first book of songs or Ayres in 1597. It became a bestseller.

Music was starting to be taught in schools and universities such as The English Madrigal School. A madrigal was the most common form of secular vocal music. “The poetic madrigal is a lyric consisting of one to four strophes of three lines followed by a two-line strophe (www.encyclopedia.com).” The madrigal school was brief but contributed to the intense growth of the music in England. Many famous and less famous composers emerged from the Madrigal School. The English Madrigals were a cappella, light in style, and generally began as either copies or direct translations of Italian models. Most were for three to six voices. Other composers include Robert Johnson, John Taverner, Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, and John Blitheman.

Instruments

Rebec

Organology (the study of instruments) was aided greatly by the development of book printing. Michael Praetorius' encyclopedic Syntagnum Musicum has a section with woodcuts which shows instruments as they were used on the continent about 17 years after the end of the Elizabethan period, and even 20 years hadn't made great changes.

For the modern person, renaissance instruments appear odd. Most instruments came in 'families,' with sizes of the same instrument associated with the ranges of the human voice: descant (soprano), alto, tenor, bass. (In some cases, these were extended up (sopranino, garklein) and in others, down (quart bass, contrabass, etc.) This arrangement had been in use for centuries. Playing instruments from the same family together was referred to as playing in consort. During Elizabeth's reign, the first documented regular use of mixed ensembles (broken consort) are recorded.

Consorts were considered loud or soft, and the exact application of these titles is sometimes hard to pin down. Generally, loud consorts consisted of cornetti, sackbutts, shawms and the higher-pitched recorders and flutes. Soft consorts generally included the viols, flutes, recorders, krummhorns and other of the quieter instruments.

Instruments of the 16th century could be broken down into four main types: string, wind, percussion, and keyboard. The lute was the most popular stringed instrument. The lute is identifiable by its size and shape, with the pear-shaped body and angled head. Strings are grouped in courses, each course consisting of a single or doubled string, tuned in unison or octaves. The most common lute of Elizabeth's time had 6, 7 or 8 courses, and was used both for solo and accompaniment purposes. Although the lute came in sizes, the Tenor was most popular. Similar instruments include the cittern, orpharion and bandora.

The next most popular stringed instrument, made in sizes and played in consorts or alone, was the viola da gamba. The viol had six strings, and frets of gut tied around the neck, rather than embedded in the fingerbnoard. The shape of the body was somewhat like the violin family instruments, but with deeper ribs, a shallow top plate and a flat back in two parts with the upper part angled to give clearance to the player. There were three main sizes: treble, tenor, bass, with reference made in a Gibbons 6-part fantasia to the "great dooble bass." Unlike the violin family instruments, the viol bow was held underhanded, with the palm up and the middle finger in contact with the bow hair. The most popular size of the viol was the bass. Although roughly the size of a small 'cello, the bass viol had no end-pin, and, like the other viols, was supported by the legs (hence the Italian name, Viola da Gamba.) They were most commonly played in consort, i. e. as a family in groups of 3, 4, 5, and 6. In this way, they could be used as accompaniment for singing. Duet music for any two of the family still exists, and the bass, alone, was a popular solo instrument. A small bass (or tenor-sized viol tuned as a bass) was often employed to play polyphonic music, Leero way. When used in this fashion, the instrument was called lyra viol.

Four sackbuts: bass, alto, tenor, bass

The common wind instruments included the shawms, recorders, cornetti, sackbuts (trombones), krumhorns and flutes (which were known as 'piffari'.) The trumpets and piffari were used for the announcement of the arrival of royalty and during military exercises. The shawms, cornetti and sackbutts were used in loud consorts. The flute had a sweet and solemn tone, the recorder had a more rich sound, but because of the windway (which directed the breath against the edge where the sound is created) the player had less dynamic control. The shawms and krummhorns were double-reed instruments, but because the krummhorns had a cylindrical bore, they sounded an octave lower than the shawms of the same sounding-length and were quieter. (This cylindrical bore is what gives the clarinet its characteristic sound, but the clarinet, as such, had yet to be invented.) The soprano of the shawm family (called 'hautbois' by the French, for high or loud wood) would eventually be tamed to make the baroque oboe. The bass of the shawms was so long that the player had to stand on a box to reach the reed, and wood cuts exist which show a bass shawm player holding the instrument horizontally, with a friend helping to carry! For this reason, the Curtal, with a folded bore, was often used to replace the bass shawm. The fife was a wooden pipe with six finger holes used with the drum in marching formations.

Single reeds were used for the drones of bagpipes, but chanters used double reeds.

Percussion was normally just various forms and sizes of drums and bells. The keyboards were the organs, virginals, and harpsichord.

Other Elizabethan instruments included the organ portative, which was a type of small organ played with one hand while the player operated a bellows on the back of the instrument with the other. There was also the grand church organs and harps of various sizes.

References

1. Carpowich, Matt C. (2007). Music in the Elizabethan Era. Houghton Mifflin Co.
2. Stuart, Gail B. (2003). Life in Elizabeth London. Lucent Books.
3. Tostado, Dillon J. (1990). History Via Frankenbush. Leo Print International.
4. Lace, William W. (1995). Elizabethan England. Lucent Books.
5. Davis, William S. (1930). Life in Elizabethan Days. Harper and Row.
6. Palmer, R R., Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer (2002). A History of the Modern World. New York: McGraw Hill Company.
7. Alchin, L.K. "Elizabethan Music" from [2]. Retrieved Jul. 16, 2005

External links

• Elizabethan Music