Thomas Morley’s possible association with, and contribution to, the Shakespeare theatre has been proposed and dismissed with equal weight by a host of scholars over many years. This chapter re-examines what we know, offers solutions to... more
Thomas Morley’s possible association with, and contribution to, the Shakespeare theatre has been proposed and dismissed with equal weight by a host of scholars over many years. This chapter re-examines what we know, offers solutions to major problems, and concludes that it is probably time to put the controversy to bed once and for all. The songs of Robert Johnson have long been admired by those interested in early seventeenth-century English theatre. Songs by or attributed to him survive for plays by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Webster, Thomas Middleton, Francis Beaumont, and John Fletcher, and many of them are exquisite. Is it possible, however, that our eagerness to have the original songs to the plays has led us to presume that any musical setting that survives in a seventeenth-century source was used in the relevant play’s first production? This chapter re-examines what we know of Johnson’s career and of the surviving sources for his play songs, explores the limits of what we...
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In modern times, scholars have widely regarded early Elizabethan tragedy, like Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville’s Gorboduc (1561/62) and its successors at the Inns of Court, as verbose and unlyrical. Those criticisms may reflect an... more
In modern times, scholars have widely regarded early Elizabethan tragedy, like Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville’s Gorboduc (1561/62) and its successors at the Inns of Court, as verbose and unlyrical. Those criticisms may reflect an incomplete understanding of the original performance tradition, however. Like Senecan tragedies from this period, those plays include act-ending choruses, mostly in pentameter and in various stanza configurations. This study proposes that in the English tragedies, at least, those choruses were very likely sung, most probably to tunes from the emerging repertoire of metrical psalms. These findings would significantly affect the character of such plays and how they are perceived by scholars and audiences alike.
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What if Bach and Mozart heard richer, more dramatic chords than we hear in music today? What sonorities and moods have we lost in playing music in "equal temperament"-the equal division of the octave into twelve notes that has... more
What if Bach and Mozart heard richer, more dramatic chords than we hear in music today? What sonorities and moods have we lost in playing music in "equal temperament"-the equal division of the octave into twelve notes that has become our standard tuning method? Thanks to How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony, "we may soon be able to hear for ourselves what Beethoven really meant when he called B minor 'black'" (Wall Street Journal).In this "comprehensive plea for more variety in tuning methods" (Kirkus Reviews), Ross W. Duffin presents "a serious and well-argued case" (Goldberg Magazine) that "should make any contemporary musician think differently about tuning" (Saturday Guardian).
ABSTRACT:Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 play She Stoops to Conquer is a beloved mainstay of the theatrical repertory, but its connections to music have been obscured or lost since its premiere. One song lyric, Let schoolmasters puzzle their... more
ABSTRACT:Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 play She Stoops to Conquer is a beloved mainstay of the theatrical repertory, but its connections to music have been obscured or lost since its premiere. One song lyric, Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, remains in the script, though without known tune, while several other songs were contemplated by Goldsmith at the time of his writing. This article investigates all of the surviving song lyrics, connects them to their recovered tunes, and identifies likely melodies for lyrics whose tunes are unknown. A handful of song snatches and other musical references are illuminated as well. The result is a much more musical version of Goldsmith’s play than has heretofore been known, but one that is closer to the author’s original conception.
... Page 9. Acknowledgments Thanks are due to the late Philip Brett, as well as to John Milsom, Jessie Ann Owens, and Kerry McCarthy, for many helpful comments concerning the introduc-tory material as well as the edition itself. ...
Calixa Lavallée's O Canada, composed in 1880, is beloved there as the national anthem, and admired around the world. Little known today, even in his home country, Lavallée enjoyed an international career as a performer and educator,... more
Calixa Lavallée's O Canada, composed in 1880, is beloved there as the national anthem, and admired around the world. Little known today, even in his home country, Lavallée enjoyed an international career as a performer and educator, and spent many years as a “popular” musician in the United States before turning exclusively to “classical” music. This article attempts to demonstrate that, contrary to the received view of the anthem as essentially Canadian, Lavallée used his broad experience of European and American music to assemble his “chant national” from a handful of pre-existing works.
The summer of 1602 featured a soggy ‘progress’ by Queen Elizabeth to various noble households in the vicinity of London, interspersed with elaborate royal entertainments. In the midst of the formal festivities occurred an enigmatic and... more
The summer of 1602 featured a soggy ‘progress’ by Queen Elizabeth to various noble households in the vicinity of London, interspersed with elaborate royal entertainments. In the midst of the formal festivities occurred an enigmatic and apparently distressing incident involving the Queen, her Principal Secretary Robert Cecil, and his niece Elizabeth, Countess of Derby. Cecil hastily used songs to try to win back the lost favour of his Queen, and though his long-mislaid lyrics were identified a quarter-century ago, their music has remained unknown. This article reviews evidence of music for the songs, and for other events during that summer's progress.
Giovanni Battista Benedetti’s letters to Cipriano de Rore, published in 1585 after the latter’s death, highlight the difficulty of using just intonation, strictly applied, in any repertoire of the ...
Just intonation has a reputation as a chimerical, theoretical system that simply cannot work in practice. This is based on the assessment of most modern authorities and supported by misgivings expressed during the Renaissance when the... more
Just intonation has a reputation as a chimerical, theoretical system that simply cannot work in practice. This is based on the assessment of most modern authorities and supported by misgivings expressed during the Renaissance when the practice was supposedly at its height. Looming large among such misgivings are tuning puzzles printed by the 16th-century mathematician, Giovanni Battista Benedetti. However, Renaissance music theorists are so unanimous in advocating the simple acoustical ratios of Just intonation that it seems clear that some reconciliation must have occurred between the theory and practice of it. This article explores the basic theory of Just intonation as well as problematic passages used to deny its practicability, and proposes solutions that attempt to satisfy both the theory and the ear. Ultimately, a resource is offered to help modern performers approach this valuable art.
The manuscript partbooks (CTB) preserved in the Special Collections Library at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, offer no obvious signs as to their origins. The contents are almost exclusively by London composers and are... more
The manuscript partbooks (CTB) preserved in the Special Collections Library at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, offer no obvious signs as to their origins. The contents are almost exclusively by London composers and are carefully laid out in an apparently unique alternation of texted and untexted works, as if in performance order. Using clues from the contents, as well as from the physical state of the books, a connection is proposed to events surrounding the death of Prince Henry in late 1612, and marriage of Princess Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine in 1613.
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‘Music and the Stage’ looks at the musical instruments called for or mentioned as used in plays during Shakespeare’s period, including evidence for a special consort of six contrasting instruments as a kind of ‘standard’ theatrical band.... more
‘Music and the Stage’ looks at the musical instruments called for or mentioned as used in plays during Shakespeare’s period, including evidence for a special consort of six contrasting instruments as a kind of ‘standard’ theatrical band. Also examined are the disposition of musical ensembles within the performing space, assessing such terms as ‘music above’, or ‘music within’, and the difficulty of dealing with songs in the plays, particularly with almost no musical settings of play lyrics apparently surviving from Shakespeare’s lifetime. Last is a discussion of the people associated with creating and performing music in Shakespearean theatre, including composers with known or suspected theatrical associations, and actors—including famous actors—with documented musical connections.
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... The second contribution was the invention of the cyclic mass, often attributed to Leonel Power with his Missa Alma redemptoris mater, in which a ... We know that this troupe was led by the comedian Will Kemp, and that they were... more
... The second contribution was the invention of the cyclic mass, often attributed to Leonel Power with his Missa Alma redemptoris mater, in which a ... We know that this troupe was led by the comedian Will Kemp, and that they were extremely popular, not just among the soldiers, but ...
... Assessment of the Independence of English Trecento Notations," in L'ars nova italiana del trecento IV (1975), ed. Agostino Ziino (Certaldo ... 55-94; Nino Pirrotta, "On the Problem of Sumer is icumen in," Musica... more
... Assessment of the Independence of English Trecento Notations," in L'ars nova italiana del trecento IV (1975), ed. Agostino Ziino (Certaldo ... 55-94; Nino Pirrotta, "On the Problem of Sumer is icumen in," Musica disciplina 2 (1948), 205-16; Bertram Schofield, "The Provenance and ...
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... Carine гчсвЙ, rtwfn-r rh( frfMifl trtifurej Tòcujial^iuiirmijOouicwbiffrlcííunrJ Г Rem ' BuJFi, TanD*d.*T№dr : ftor *■* thli а]Г¡ ipMtt Soutrijfne htld hiMiiXfr i ' Y< Л»а 11, TolfaoúUT ... P p j'r... more
... Carine гчсвЙ, rtwfn-r rh( frfMifl trtifurej Tòcujial^iuiirmijOouicwbiffrlcííunrJ Г Rem ' BuJFi, TanD*d.*T№dr : ftor *■* thli а]Г¡ ipMtt Soutrijfne htld hiMiiXfr i ' Y< Л»а 11, TolfaoúUT ... P p j'r pip MP Г" pip p i'p|JìJìJ'J'|J nJ J the prince is now come home with ho - nor and with fame who ven ...
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... occurs in a manuscript biography of a courtier from the time of Henry VIII: `For the Kynge hime self beinge miche delited to synge, and Sir ... that thus it pleased him to grace their Fraternity with his Royal presence: And... more
... occurs in a manuscript biography of a courtier from the time of Henry VIII: `For the Kynge hime self beinge miche delited to synge, and Sir ... that thus it pleased him to grace their Fraternity with his Royal presence: And therewithall the Master presented him with a purse of gold ...
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Research Interests: History and Musicology
The article by Peter Downey,'The Renaissance slide trumpet: Fact or fiction', has been the strongest attack to date on the existence of a slide trumpet in the early 15th century. It raises some important points and forces a... more
The article by Peter Downey,'The Renaissance slide trumpet: Fact or fiction', has been the strongest attack to date on the existence of a slide trumpet in the early 15th century. It raises some important points and forces a re-examination of the history and function of brass ...