Amersham Martyrs Community Play research
Music in the 1500s
Plainsong (sometimes known as Gregorian chant) was the main church music and would be used in the
parish church. The service (Mass) would be chanted by the priest; in cathedrals and larger monasteries
there would be a choir singing in four or more parts. The composers of most plainsong chants are
unknown but the fourteenth century composers began to write polyphonic settings of the complete mass
and some of these are still known. The settings became increasingly complex through the fifteenth
century, with Josquin des Prez the most famous composer of this time.
A particularly English feature at this time was the veneration of the Virgin Mary. A number of texts are
known, dating from the early middle ages; these have been sung in a variety of musical settings over the
years. The anthems were often sung after the service, the priest and congregation moving to the altar in
the Lady Chapel. At the beginning of the production, we will hear the priest sing the end of the service “Ite
missa est” followed by a plainsong version of Salve Regina (Hail Holy Mother).
Quite a few English composers are known from this time and one of the most famous was William
Cornyshe the younger, sometime Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal – this was a part of the Royal
household comprising priests and choir that travelled with the King. A number of Cornyshe’s pieces are
included in the Eton Choirbook. For the Martyrs play we are using the first part of Cornyshe’s setting of a
meditation on Christ on the Cross: “Woefully Arrayed”. Cornyshe would certainly have enjoyed this
production; the Children of the Chapel Royal took part in court pageants, as well as their sacred duties and
from 1509 Cornyshe was the designer of these pageants and author of the plays. In 1519, after a
sumptuous banquet, the pageant featured seven of the top choristers playing: Sun, Moon, Wind, Rain,
Summer, Winter and Lust! And in 1520 Cornyshe and the Children accompanied Henry VIII to his meeting
with Francis, King of France, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. This was a 62 day trip, including a two week
celebration after the peacemaking. The celebration comprised “competitive feasting”, jousting, sword
fights and revels – with the boys of the French chapel royal also present, no doubt as both allies and rivals.
Modern day teachers leading field trips may consider that they get off lightly in comparison.
Much of the music remaining from the early 1500s is extremely complex and florid, written in 7, 8 or even
19 parts and rather too much of a challenge for our volunteer choir. So we have looked outside the strict
chronology, with the remaining music coming from those two jewels of the English Renaissance, William
Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Tallis was born in 1505 and little is known of his early life or work. But he wrote a
number of anthems to the Virgin Mary and these are likely to be before 1534 when Henry VIII was, through
the English Parliament, created Supreme Head of the Catholic Church in England.
Tallis was organist at Waltham Abbey at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries; Waltham was the
last to fall, in 1540. And while the monasteries were pulled down, where there was an associated
cathedral it was re-founded, with a number of completely new cathedrals established. But the loss of the
smaller monasteries meant that music was concentrated within the major foundations, primarily the
cathedrals, Chapel Royal, certain Oxbridge colleges, Eton and Winchester. From Waltham Abbey, Tallis
moved to Canterbury Cathedral and then to the Chapel Royal. Meanwhile, after Henry VIII’s death, there
was a much swifter move to reformation, instigated by Lord Seymour, regent to the boy king Edward VI.
English was increasingly used within services, first when reading the lessons and then within the liturgy.
Cranmer’s first Book of Common Prayer appeared in 1549 and the second in 1552. New liturgies written in
English meant that there was a need for new music and Tallis was at the forefront of this, writing anthems,
psalm settings as well as music for the services.
And then in 1553, Edward died, to be succeeded by his Catholic half sister Mary. The Protestant, English
services were replaced by the Catholic, Latin liturgy and the music manuscripts, hidden since the 1540s,
were brought out once more. Tallis and his contemporaries began to compose in the old style, culminating
in the Missa puer natus est nobis for the Christmas Day service at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1554, attended by
the queen. But Mary died in 1558 and was succeeded by Elizabeth, a protestant in terms of her
upbringing. Liturgy reverted to the English Book of Common Prayer and there was a real danger that music
would be sidelined; the book itself has little provision for music. But Elizabeth insisted that the choral
foundations should remain in force and that both morning and evening services should include a hymn or
anthem “for the comforting of those that delight in music”. Tallis continued writing in both English and
Latin, dying in 1585.
Our final composer, William Byrd, was born in the early 1540s. He was organist at Lincoln in his 20s,
writing a number of settings for the Anglican church services. He was appointed to the Chapel Royal in
1572 and thus began his long friendship and cooperation with Tallis, almost 40 years his senior. Byrd and
Tallis were clearly great favourites of the queen, who granted them the monopoly of printing music for 21
years.
While Tallis was perhaps a closet Catholic, Byrd was much more openly so and indeed was suspended from
the Chapel Royal at one stage for his activities; he associated at one stage with one of the participants in
the gunpowder plot. But he escaped serious persecution and continued writing both in English and Latin.
Some surmise that Elizabeth was much more in sympathy with the Catholic cause than her advisors and
this may explain the fact that Byrd was allowed considerable licence. Byrd seems to have appreciated this;
he wrote a piece extolling her …
"O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen to rejoice in thy strength:
give her her heart's desire, and deny not the request of her lips; but prevent her with thine everlasting
blessing, and give her a long life, even for ever and ever. Amen."
… while at the same time writing Catholic protest songs in Latin:
“Ne irasceris Domine/Civitas sancti tui
Ne irasceris Domine satis, et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae. Ecce respice populus tuus omnes nos.
Civitas sancti tui facta est deserta. Sion deserta facta est, Jerusalem desolata est.”
The English translation:
“Be not angry, O Lord, and remember our iniquity no more. Behold, we are all your people.
Your holy city has become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem has been made desolate.”
This text from the Lamentation of Jeremiah was linked at this time to the state of the Catholic church in
England, using Zion/Jerusalem as the metaphor. Tallis also wrote a setting of the Lamentations, perhaps
another indication of where his sympathies lay.
Within the play we are using Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus, at the end of scene 2, and Sacerdotes Domini, as
the Bishop processes into the church. (Tr: ”Then did priests make offering of incense and loaves of finest
wheat to God and therefore shall they be holy to their Lord and shall not defile his most holy name.
Alleluia.”)
The play ends with music based on Tallis’ famous third mode melody – the basis of the Vaughn Williams
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. We are singing in English in recognition that the cause for which the
Amersham Martyrs gave their lives was eventually successful. The first verse is an adaption of Psalm 2, the
original text used by Tallis, which asks why the people rage and take counsel against the Lord? The second
verse is taken from a 17C hymn “How shall I sing that majesty?” and combines images of faith, fire, light
and celestial choir.
So while Byrd and Tallis fall outside the strict chronology of the play, it seems appropriate to include them,
not only because of their masterful and moving music but also because of their open and inclusive
attitude, Catholics working with Protestants, English and Latin equally respected.