Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

8
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596 SONG
style of their solo songs, consisting of a very
simple unaffected tune supported by simple
harmonies, had a close resemblance to the partsongs,
though in some few cases a melodious
declamation was attempted. In Rosseter, Jones,
Ford, and Campion, the lyric element was more
pronounced than in Ferrabosco.' Nearly all
the above-mentioned composers were among the
contributors to the collection published by Sir
W. Leighton in 1614. This collection was
entitled 'Teares or Lamentacions of a sorrowfull
soule,' but its contents were mostly songs
in four parts. ^ Ford's song,, ' Since first I saw
your face, ' shows the kind of lute accompaniment
employed for these songs. ^
The popularity of masques at Court offered
opportunities to composers for the introduction
of lyric songs and dance-tunes. Some scientific
musicians may have disdained this kind of
work, which only required simple little ditties
akin to the folk-songs. Nevertheless Campion,
Johnson, and later on Henry Lawes, won great
favour in this branch. Henry Lawes merits a
special mention as a composer. Known as a
professed writer of songs, he was the fu-st
Englishman who made it a study to give expression
to words by musical sounds,* and the
care with which he set words to music won him
recognition from the chief poets of his day.
One of his best-known songs, 'Sweet Echo,' is
taken from Milton's 'Comus.' Lawes published
also several books of Ayres and Dialogues for
one, two, and three voices, with the assistance
of his brother, William Lawes, whose fame chiefly
rests on his music to Herrick's words ' Gather
ye rosebuds.' At this epoch the influence of
the Italian recitative style can be plainly traced
in all English composers. Henry Lawes was
undoubtedly familiar with the works of his
Italian contemporaries and recent predecessors,
and especially with Monteverde, whose blemishes
and beauties were reflected in his own music.
A good illustration, both of his skill and of the
fragmentary character of his melody, will be
found in his music to Waller's ' While I listen
to thy voice. ^ '
It was a custom with poets in the 16th
and 17th centuries to write new words to
favourite old tunes, and this practice has made
it almost impossible to assign precise dates to
many songs and ballads. Thus in Sir Philip
Sidney's poems the heading ' to the air of ' etc.
— often a French or Italian tune—con.stantly
1 Pftrry, Music of the Seventeenth Centwry [Oxfiyrd SUt, vol. iii.),
p. 193 et seq.
2 Want of space precludes mention in detail of Flay ford's, Bavenscroft'a,
D'Urfey's, Leigliton's and the various interesting collections
of others, and the reader is referred to the articles under their
several names in this Dictionary.
3 Given in Parry's ilfusie qfthe SeventeeiUh Century, p. 196.
* See Sonnet addressed to Lawes by Milton in 1645-46.
s '
Page 13 of Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two and Three Voyces.
By Henry Lawes, servant to his late Ma*'^ in his publick and
private musiok. The First Booke, London. Printed by T. H. for
John Piayford. and are to be sold at his Shop, in the Inner Temple,
near the Church door 1653.' Reprinted in Book i. of Playford's
'.Treasury of, Miisick' in 1669. The song will be found with an
'
expanded accompaniment in Hullah's B8 English Songs of the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,'
recurs ;
and many of the folk-tunes were sung
to three or four sets of words bearing different
dates, and having little or no relation to each
other. Among songs to be found in the
principal collections of the first half of the 17th
century was the tune of ' Cheerily and Merrily,"
afterwards sung to G eorge Herbert's 'Sweet day,
and better known by its later name. Stingo, or
'
oil of barley,' 'The country lass,' and 'Cold
and raw ' were all sung to the same tune, and
many another example might be adduced.
During the Commonwealth secular music
flourished in England, and notwithstanding
the abolition by the Puritans of cathedral
choirs and theatre music, domestic music was
much cultivated. A few of the favourite
ballads of that time, both Puritan and Loyalist,
were, 'Hey then, up we go,' 'Love lies
bleeding,' 'I live not where I love,' 'When
love was young,' 'When the king enjoys his
own again,' ^ and ' I would I were in my own
country.' At the end of the Commonwealth
the secularisation of music was complete, and
with the Restoration of the Stuarts in. 1660 a
lighter and more melodious kind of music was
introduced. In his exile Charles II. had
grown fond of French dance music. Ballads,
too, came into popular favour again, as the king
was partial to lively tunes with strongly marked
rhythms. Of the abundant songs of that period)
amongst the most celebrated were: 'Here's a
health unto his Majesty,' Come lasses and '
lads,'
' Troy Town,
'
' Barbara Allen, '
' Under the greenwood
tree,' 'Duloe Domum,' ' Lilliburlero,'
and 'May Fair,' now better known as 'Golden
Slumbers.'
As already mentioned, educated musicians of
England were about this time very much under
the influence of the Italian and French schools.
The style of Pelham Humphrey, whom Charles
II. sent to France to study under LuUy, was
entirely founded on that of his teacher ; and
on his return to England Humphrey effected
a revolution in English music. Few artists
have exercised a more powerful influence on
their countrymen and contemporaries than
Humphrey ; and his work was all accomplished
in the brief space of seven years. He returned
from Paris in 1667, and died in 1674, at the
early age of twenty-seven. His song, ' I pass
all my hours in a shady old grove,' " has hardly
yet ceased to be sung, and it is a good example
of his work, which shows '
a continually varying
adaptation of music to changing sentiment of
words, and the most fastidious observance of
s Bitson calls this the most famous and popular air ever heard
in this counti-y. See Chappell, i. 214.
^ See LJI-LIBUBLERO.
8 During the lYth century many of our ballad-tunes had found
their way into the Netherlands, and wei-e thei-e printed with Dutch
words (only preserving the English titles) in most of the miscellaneous
collections of songs. For instance "The hunt is up' and
'Fortune my foe' appear severally in the Leyden Lute-Book and
the'Neder]andtscheGedeuck-Clanck,'1626. Chappell, Old EnijH^
Popular Music, i. xv. 1G, 84. (See The Netherlands section of this
article.)
9 The words are attributed to Charles II.