William Lawes' "Lord, in Thy Wrath"

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




https://youtu.be/c0PS0C77aRs

The 17th-century English diarist Samuel Pepys left us a wonderful eyewitness account of life in the English Restoration period. His descriptions of major events including the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London, as well as other events in England and in Europe, are unparalleled. Pepys loved music, and he wrote about many of the great musicians of his day, including Matthew Locke, Henry and William (1602–1645) Lawes, and Henry Purcell. See, for example, this excerpt from his diray dated 7 November 1660: "After all this he called for the fiddles and books, and we two and W. Howe, and Mr. Childe, did sing and play some psalmes of Will. Lawes's, and some songs; and so I went away." And, again, on 1 February 1664: "After supper a song, or three or four (I having to that purpose carried Lawes's book), and staying here till 12 o'clock got the watch to light me home . . ."

Perhaps on one of these occasions, Pepys sang William’s three-part setting of Psalm 6: Lord in thy wrath. Paul Gameson says, “The overall dramatic and penitential mood of the psalms displays Lawes’ typical vocal style: expressive solo and chorus passages, combining Italianate declamation with more lyrical writing, exploiting limits of vocal range, chromaticism, dissonance and harmony. . . . Lawes’ use of common tunes conforms closely to the standard melodies included in contemporary publications. He sets a precedent in one psalm: Psalm 6 has a tune with which it was not usually associated, though eventually text and melody were combined in print in 1661.”

I will always have a special place in my heart for William Lawes. As Ian Thompson says, “None of his music was published in his lifetime; it survives today in autograph manuscript volumes under the signature ‘Wjllawes’. Lawes and his music fell into disfavour in the centuries following his death. It was not until after World War II, when a scholarly American former GI called Murray Lefkowitz began to study the volumes held in the Bodleian and the British Museum, that Lawes was rediscovered. Lefkowitz published the first monograph on Lawes in 1960.” I met Murray as an undergraduate performance major; he convinced me to go into musicology and, more importantly, to specialize in English 17th-century secular music. And the rest, as they say, was (music) history.

My classical music post for today is William Lawes' "Lord, in Thy Wrath."




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

William Byrd's "The Battell"

Image
Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/jomZcpqkfUI The great English composer William Byrd (1543–1623) wrote his wonderfully descriptive virginals piece "The Battell" after the great Armada victory of 1588, although most musicologists believe that it is more likely to have been inspired by a smaller skirmish, perhaps an uprising of some sort. Sally Mosher has said of "The Battell": "By the 17th century, battle pieces had become a popular genre, so Byrd can be said to have launched a new keyboard genre in addition to composing the first English keyboard suite. All in C major, sections of ‘The Battle’ are harmonically very simple; for the most part they alternate between the tonic and the dominant, using no more than a handful of chords. Like the march, they often suggest trumpets and drums, but they also quite successfully suggest the sounds of soldiers marching, of ho
Read more

Edmond Dédé’s Chicago, grand valse à l'américaine

Image
This February, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates Black composers and musicians whose music has been suppressed and ignored. All of these musicians should be added to the music history and music theory curriculum. https://youtu.be/gBeigjxviQc Edmond Dédé (1827–1901) was born in New Orleans. Following childhood studies on the clarinet and violin, he went to Paris and studied at the Conservatoire. He then became a conductor, mostly for ballet companies and also at the Folies Bordelaises. He continued composing and his works all met with success. Many of his scores can be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Lester Sullivan says, “In 1852 Dédé's melody Mon pauvre coeur appeared. It is the oldest surviving piece of sheet music by a New Orleans Creole of color. He supplemented his income from music with what today would be characterized as his day job: he was a cigar maker, as were a number of other local musicians.” Dédé’s Chicago, grand valse à l'américaine was p
Read more

Lili Boulanger’s Vieille Prière Bouddhique

Image
This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/xF9SltYJAT8   The French composer Lili Boulanger (born 1893, died 1918) was the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger. Lili’s talent was obvious from the age of two, and her parents (both of whom were musicians) took her to all the best people for instruction, including Louis Vierne, Paul Vidal, Georges Caussade, and Gabriel Fauré. When Lili was 19, she won the Prix de Rome for her Faust et Hélène; she was the first woman composer to win. Lili had been chronically ill almost from birth, and she died from what is now known as Crohn’s disease at the age of 24. Adrian Corleonis says, "Artists who die young leave behind such an aura of promise that one examines their musical remains with divinatory care, for glimpses of what might have been. Lili Boulanger . . . tantalizes in this way. . . . [W]hat strikes one about L
Read more