Tercfiance to 1Jreame

Les Yoix liumaines
Charles Daniels, tenor
Susie Napper & Margaret Little, violas da gamba
Sylvain Bergeron, archlute

GUEST ARTIST SERIES
ORGAN HALL
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2015 • 7:30 PM

A511'Herberger Institute
FOR DESIGN AND THE ARTS

ARIZONA

STATE

UNIVERSITY

Perchance to Dreame - program notes
The period between Dowland's Elizabethan era and Purcell's age of the Meny Monarch are
relatively unknown musically despite a unique, rich and varied repertoire.
The brothers Lawes and their colleagues, Christopher Simpson and John Jenkins, were on
the cutting edge of England's musical life in the first half of the 17th century! Virtuoso viol
divisions and vocal music were their mediums. The Lawes' brothers, in a tradition
immortalized by John Dowland, brilliantly set the greatest poetry of the time to music. It
was an honour for poets such as John Milton, Thomas Carew, Abraham Cowley and Robert
Herrick to be "heard" as well as read, in this 17th century form of"rap"! Poets would
publicize the fact that a Lawes had set their poems to music. Meanwhile, Christopher
Simpson, William Lawes and John Jenkins, perfected the art of virtuoso viol playing with
brilliantly elaborate, usually impro~~sed, divisions that are a form of musical acrobatics!
When Henry and William Lawes were active musicians, there was a fierce dispute about
the role of music, especially in public life. Opinions were usually dependent on religious
beliefs.
Anglicans (those following the national protestant church founded by Henry VIII) agreed
with Luther that music was an essential part of church life and a means to express the glory
of God. After the beheading of Charles I in 1649, Cromwell's puritanical regime saw an
end to music in church. The distraction was removed from services except for the
congregational singing of hymns.
In the secular sphere, music was also acceptable to Anglicans, in plays, for example, which
had been accessible to the public since the 16th century. However, for hard-line Protestants, ·
all music, public, secular and sacred, was sinful and a distraction from the constant duty to
serve God. Theatres and other public entertainments were suppressed during the
interregnum.
Music between friends for private enjoyment was, however, acceptable. Viol consorts or art
songs might be enjoyed as an after-dinner entertainment at a private party of the
bourgeoisie or aristocrats; thus the proliferation of spectacular chamber music, the only
musical expression condoned during an otherwise dour era. Feasting however, was,
unfortunately, not encouraged!
Henry Lawes was born in Wiltshire, England and was the leading English songwriter of the
mid 17th century. He was employed by the nobility and at the Chapel Royal. In the
Commonwealth period, when public entertainment was suppressed, he taught voice and
viol privately. The nobility would also come to his house to hear his music. Henry wrote
434 songs besides church music and a lost opera. John Playford published over 200 of his
songs in 4 books; his autograph songbook has many more. His songs are sympathetic to
different styles of poetry and range from strophic, where the same tune is repeated for each
of the verses of the poem, to declamatory, where the style is closer to recitative, based on
the rhythms of spoken English.
William Lawes; Henry's younger brother, though best known for his highly original and
prolific consort music that includes the Royall Consorts and the Harp Consorts, also wrote
music for the stage and over 200 songs. They often have a catchy tunefulness and our
programme includes two of his best known. He lost his life in 1645 fighting for King and
Country during the Civil War and Charles I gave him the honorary title of Father of
Musick. Thomas Jordan ended Will's epitaph with a pun on the composer's name and the
fact that he died at the hands of those who denied the divine right of kings: "Will. Lawes
was slain by such whose wills were laws''.
••• continued on back•••

Percfiance to 'Dreame
The brothers Lawes and their colleague, Christopher Simpson, were on the
cutting edge ofEngland's musical life in the first half of the 17th century!
Virtuoso viols and voice were their medium. The Lawes' brothers brilliantly set
John Milton and Robert Herrick's poems to music while Christopher Simpson and
William Lawes perfected the art ofvirtuoso viol playing.
Paradise was lost when Charles I was executed in 1649, leaving a drab stage to
the Puritans and a musical moratorium. After a decade, the Merry Monarch,
Charles II, returned from Europe bringing a new musical dream to the Fairest
Isle. The stage was set for Henry Purcell and a new golden age of English music.
Divisions on a ground in G
Gather ye Rosebuds while ye may

Christopher Simpson (c.1602-1669)
William Lawes (1602-1645)

0 my Clarissa
Bird Song
One Charming Night

William Lawes
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

See, see the bright light shine
John Jenkins (1592-1678)
Pavan of Alfonso William Lawes
Fear not dear love
Courante/Sarabande/Chacone

Henry Lawes (1595-1662)
Anonymous (Goess Lute Manuscript
c. 1650)
Henry Lawes

Union in love

•• •intermission • ••
Suite in dD: Ayre, Almand, almand
Mediocrity in love
No reprieve
Coranto

John Jenkins
Henry Lawes

Anonymous (Goess Lute Manuscript c. 1650)
Love's ConstancyNicholas Lanier (1588-1666)

Almaine of Alfonso
A despairing lover
A Dreame
Divisions on a ground in F
She Loves and She Confesses

William Lawes
Henry Lawes
William Lawes
Christopher Simpson
Henry Purcell

.:

"

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John Jenkins, who lived well into his 80s and witnessed the momentous political and
musical transformations of the 17th century, was England's most famous viol virtuoso and
a prolific composer who "wrote dances by the cart-load" according to his biograp~;
Roger North. A friend of William Lawes, ten of his songs have survived inclllilng See,
the bright light shines from one of Playford' s collection of songs, The Treasury of Music.
Christopher Simpson was a brilliant improviser and theorist who left indispensible treatises
for viol players today including The Division Viol, or the Art of Playing upon a Ground. As
21st century viol players, we actually perform the divisions written in his book, even
though he explains that his examples are only to be considered exercises to learn to
improvise divisions over a ground bass!
He wrote, "a viol in the hands of an excellent violist may (no doubt) be reckon'd amongst
the best of musical instruments. To play extempore to a ground is the highest perfection of
it".
Paradise was lost when Charles I was executed in 1649, leaving a drab stage to the Puritans
and a partial musical moratorium during which private music, nevertheless, flourished.
After a decade, the Merry Monarch, Charles II, returned from Europe, bringing, amongst
other novelties, the concept of the public concert! The stage was set for new artistic dreams
on the Fairest Isle and Henry Purcell's golden age of English music
Henry Purcell was England's most celebrated composer of the late 17th century. In his 36
years he wrote operas, church music, viol fantasias, organ music and hundreds of songs,
· many of which were gathered by his widow, Frances, into two volumes called Orpheus
Britannicus, after his death. Purcell takes English song further along the path the Lawes
brothers had taken, from wonderfully memorable tunes to exquisitely sensitive declamatory
settings of longer poems. Come all ye Songsters and One Charming Night are both taken
from the opera The Faery Queen; She Loves and she Confesses too is a 1683 setting of
Abraham Cowley ' s poem.
Charles Daniels and Susie Napper
This concert is supported in part by the
following organizations:
Arizona State University School of Music in
the Herberger Institute for Design and the
Arts, Arizona Commission on the Arts which
receives support from the State of Arizona and
the National Endowment/or the Arts, Canada
Council for the Arts, and Consei/ des arts et
des /ettres du Quebec

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