DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

578 KIRBYE KIRCHEN CANTATEN
already made some reputation as a musician. I
In 1597 he published what he calls the 'first t
fruites of my poore knowledge in Musicke,' a
set of twenty -four madrigals for 4, 5, and 6 voices,
dedicated to two of the daughters of Sir Robert
Jermyn of Rushbrooke, near Bm-y St. Edmunds,
in whose house he seems to have lived as music-
master, or domestic musician. On Feb. 16,
1597-98, George Kirbye married Anne Saxye,
at Bradtield St. George, near Rushbrooke.
In 160] appeared the 'Triumphs of Oriana,'
for which Kirbye wrote a 6-part madrigal. In
some copies of the ' ' Triumphs his composi-
tion appears to the words ' With angel's face
' and brightness,' elsewhere to the words
Bright
Phcebus greets most clearly,' the music being
the same in both cases. It may be conjectured
that Kirbj'e wrote his music to the words
'With angel's face,' to which it seems better
suited, but that, as these words were also set
by Daniel Norcoine, the editor of the 'Triumphs'
may have thought it advisable to supply new
words to Kirbye's composition.
In 1626 Kirbye was living in Bury St. Edmunds.
On June 11 of that year the burial
of his wife is recorded in St. Mary's parish
registers there, and in 1627-28 his name twice
appears in the same registers, probably as one
of the churchwardens. On Oct. 6, 1634, his
burial is entered in St. Mary's registers. His
will, dated March 10, 1633, and proved Oct. 7,
1634, shows that he owned j)roperty in Whiting
Street, Bury St. Edmunds, which he left to
his servant, Agnes Seaman, kinswoman to his
late wife, together with all his goods, chattels,
and personal estate ; excepting small legacies to
his brother, Walter Kirbye ; his sister, Alice
Moore, widow ; and a few others. There is a
note in a set of MS. part -books, copied by
Thomas Hamond, of Cressners, Hawkdon, near
Bury St. Edmunds, between the years 1631
and 1660 (Bodl. MS. Mus. f. 1-6), to the
etfect that the ' '
Italian songs to 5 and 6 voyces
contained in them were ' collected out of Master
Geo. Kirbies blacke bookes wch were soulrl after
ye decease of the said Geo. to the right wo"'^
S"" Jo. Hollond in ye yeare 1634. And he paid
as they said Kirbies maid, 40s.' This note is
of interest as showing that Kirbye possessed
copies of motets, etc., by the best Italian composers
of the day.
A large number of unpublished madrigals and
motets by Kirbye e.xist in the Bodleian Library,
and in the libraries of the Royal College of
Music and of St. Michael's College, Tenbury.
Unfortunately they are all imperfect, excepting
a 4-part madrigal, 'Farewell, false love,' in the
R. G. M. Library. In the British iluseum is an
imperfect pa van for viols (Add. MSS. 30,826-8),
' Jesu, look (Add. MSS.
ami a 5-part hymn, '
29,372-7). [See Arkwright's 'Old English
Edition ' (published by Joseph Williams), Nos.
3, 4, 5, and 21.] G. E. P. A.
KIRCHEN CANTATEF (Church Cantatas).
The Kirchen Cantaten of the German Lutheran
Church corresponded to a gi-eat extent with the
Anglican anthems, but they were for the most
part on a larger scale, and had a band accompaniment
as well as the organ, which is rarely the
case with anthems. They were used on the
great festivals of the Church and on festal
occasions, such as weddings of great people.
They flourished especially in the time immediately
before and with Sebastian Bach, and it is
with his name that they are cliiefly associated,
both for the prodigious number and the great
beauty of many of the examples of this form of
composition whicli he produced. [It has been
calculated that he wrote 295 cantatas, of which
206 are still extant.]
Among his predecessors, his uncles Michael
and Johann Christoph, and the great organist
Buxtehude, were composers of Cantatas of this
kind, and Bach certainly adopted the form of
his owm from them at fir.st, both as regards the
distribution of the numbers and the words.
With them as with him the words were sometimes
complete religious songs, but they were
also frequently taken from promiscuous sources,
passages from the Bible and verses from hymns
and religious songs being strung together, with
an underlying fixed idea to keep them bound
into a complete wdiole. In some cases they are
mystical, in others they are of a prayerful
character, and of course many are hymns of
praise. In many there is a clear dramatic
element, and in this form the dialogue between
Christ and the soul is not uncommon, as in the
well-known ' Ich hatte viel Bekiimmerniss,' and
in ' Gottes Zeit,' ' Wachet auf,' and ' Selig ist
der JIann,' of J. S. Bach. The treatment of the
subject is often very beautiful apart from the
diction, and expjresses a tender, touching kind
of poetr}' of religion which is of the purest and
most afi'ecting character, and found in Bach's
hands the most perfect possible expression in
music.
The dramatic element points to the relationship
of the Kirohencantaten to the Italian
Cantate da Camera, which formed an important
section of the operatic department of music
cultivated in Italy from the beginning of the
17th century. In composing the earlier
cantatas, Buxtehude and Bach's uncles do not
seem to have had this connection very clearly in
view, neither does it appear obviously in the
earlier examples of John Sebastian. But from
the year 1712 Bach began writing music to
cantatas by a theologian and poet named
Neumeister, a man of some importance in
relation to church music ; who wrote poems
which he called Cantatas for all the great
Festivals and Sundays of the year, following
avowedly the dramatic manner of the Italians.
Of Bach's contemporaries, Telemann preceded
him slightly in setting these Cantatas, as a