John Merbecke’s Missa Per arma iustitie: Credo

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England.



https://youtu.be/ZfFOELPs6_E


In 1550, the Anglican theologian and musician John Merbecke (c. 1510–c. 1585) published his Book of Common Praier Noted, in which he set the new English prayer book to music adapted from Gregorian chant. Apparently Merbecke had been asked to do this by none other than Archbishop Thomas Cranmer; the requirements were that it would be simple enough for anyone to sing, and that there was to be “for every syllable a note.” The image today is from Merbecke’s Nicene Creed.

Merbecke had an interesting life -- the little that we know about it, anyway. He was a chorister at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and later organist there. In 1543, he was arrested for heresy: he had in fact converted to Calvinism in the early 1540s and had managed to keep that secret for a few years. He was sentenced to burn at the stake. Fortunately, the Bishop of Winchester interceded and Merbecke received a reprieve from King Henry VIII. He went back to Windsor and it seems that he lived out his days there, again as organist.

Before the Book of Common Praier Noted, Merbecke was highly regarded as a composer of Latin church music. Sadly, very little of his work is extant. His Missa Per arma iustitie was found in the Forrest-Heyther partbooks and there are no more than two or three other works that we know, either from other partbooks or from copies of manuscripts.

Perhaps the reason why so little of Merbecke’s music pre-1550 is known is because of his conversion to Calvinism. In the Preface to his Biblical Concordance, written in 1550, he made it pretty clear that he no longer wanted to be associated with the music that he composed in Latin: “in the study of music and playing on organs ... I consumed vainly the greatest part of My life.” But this is a shame. The Missa Per arma iustitie is a beautiful Latin setting of the liturgy, with some very beautiful soaring polyphony interspersed with plainsong.

My classical music post for today is the Credo from John Merbecke’s Missa Per arma iustitie.

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