Oxford’s mild early spring weather and sunny skies welcomed conference delegates from eight European countries and the United States to a splendid conference on the organ in Tudor England, organized by Katharine Pardee (Betts Scholar in Organ Studies, Brookman Organ Scholar, Wadham College, Oxford University). What better location for such a conference than a town full of architectural spaces and layout where music of the 16th century could be discussed and performed in settings of the period?
The centerpieces of the conference were the two reproduction organs built by Goetze and Gwynn, using as a basis the two soundboards of two organs found in Suffolk at Wetheringsett and Wingfield. The former had been reassigned as a dairy door for a 17th-century house, and the latter had been stored with abandoned pews and aging lumber in the shed of a church. The very successful and convincing five-foot instruments are a testament to the scholarship and sleuthing carried out by Dominic Gwynn and Martin Goetze on every imaginable source of information on the organ in England, and more broadly in Europe in the late 15th to the early 17th centuries. Thus it was fitting that the first day’s presentations were devoted to the topic of early English organs and to “The Early English Organ Project.”
Day one
In two sessions, John Harper and Gwynn jointly presented each of the reproduction organs in turn. Harper opened with a discussion of existing English organs (or fragments thereof) from the period. In addition to the two Suffolk soundboards, they include a stained glass window at Beauchamp Chapel of St. Mary’s, Warwick (1447), the organ cases of Old Radnor and Magdalen College, Oxford,1 a handful of unaltered pipes from the Chair organ of Magdalen College, surviving stoplists, and numerous written accounts mentioning organs in church and court inventories, wills, and indentures. Most helpful was Harper’s explanation of these organs as transposing organs in order to accompany choirs, that is, low C on the keyboard actually sounded F a perfect fourth higher (in terms of 8¢ pitch; a perfect fifth lower in terms of 4¢ pitch). Given that the organs of the period were also pitched higher than A-440, the resulting pitch when playing low C would actually be closer to G, a fifth higher, or possibly approaching G#.
Gwynn explained that the soundboards provided considerable evidence about the original organs. The toe holes indicated the layout of the pipes and location of the ranks, but also which ranks and the pipe widths as well. Hence it was clear that doubled ranks were the norm, as indicated in surviving stoplists of the period. The Wetheringsett soundboard indicated further that a duplicate Fifteenth rank had been prepared for (pilot holes drilled for the toe holes), but had been replaced by a Regal, for which the air had been ducted to stand behind the façade pipes in order that the pipes might be easily tuned from the front. The soundboards also indicated the dimensions of the pallets and sliders. The façade principals of the Wingfield organ lacked sliders, so they were permanently on.
In a presentation related to the Wingfield organ, Madeleine Katkov discussed medieval polychromy, of which hundreds of examples are preserved from the Middle Ages in East Anglia in churches and on church furnishings and decorative pieces. She demonstrated the methods used to prepare the paints, the choices of colors, and the styles of application, including stenciling. She chose the most common color scheme for the Wingfield organ pipes and case: alternating red and green separated by a white background. She chose a predominantly Marian theme in the design elements; for example the prominent W topped with a crown actually is a double V (for Virgin of Virgins), and the stylized M is actually an M containing an A to the left and an R to the right for “Ave Maria Regina.” Katkov is an independent conservator specializing in painted architectural surfaces, particularly of medieval churches.
To provide a better understanding of the architectural setting of the conference, Barrie Clark gave a presentation on late medieval and Reformation-era architecture in Oxford, and showed what was in place in 1600 before a number of buildings had been constructed—buildings familiar to contemporary visitors. Clark is an architect with English Heritage, with a special interest in organ preservation in historic churches in Britain and Europe.
The first day’s program concluded with a compelling concert of sacred and secular music from the early Tudor court and chapel. Kimberly Marshall of Arizona State University used the Wingfield organ masterfully and expressively as she played an In nomine by John Taverner, a Gloria tibi trinitas by John Blitheman, and an organ intabulation of Walter Frye’s Tout a par moy chanson. Emily Van Evera assembled a stellar quartet of singers who all specialize in early vocal and choral music to perform trios and quartets from Henry VIII’s manuscript and the Ritson manuscript. In addition, Marshall collaborated with the vocal ensemble in an alternatim performance of a Te Deum and an anonymous setting of Bina caelestis, both from the Tomkins manuscript. (Van Evera herself has been a member of the Taverner Players, Musicians of Swanne Alley, and Gothic Voices. Rogers Covey-Crump is a member of the Hilliard Ensemble; Daniel Auchincloss performs with the King’s Consort, Gabrieli Consort, and Le Concert Spirituel as well as many opera companies; and Stephen Charlesworth sings with the Tallis Scholars, Gothic Voices, Monteverdi Choir, and Taverner Choir, among other well-known vocal ensembles.) Although the four had not performed together as an ensemble prior to this concert, their performance was impeccable, showing the result of years of living with historic performance practices and skilled ensemble singing.
Day two
The second day was devoted to the role of the English organ in the pre- and post-Reformation era, as well as its place in medieval philosophy. Unfortunately the first speaker was ill (Diarmaid MacCulloch). In lieu of his paper on damage in churches done by the Puritans during the English Reformation, Peter Williams led a spirited discussion about the concert the evening before. John Harper followed with a detailed and very engaging study of the extant evidence of music in the pre-Reformation liturgy in cathedrals especially, and demonstrated that the surviving organ and choral music reflects the requirements for music (genres such as Mass Ordinary, Lady Mass propers, Office hymns and response). It is entirely desirable that he publish his book as soon as possible: Sacred Pipes and Voices: organs and their relationship to the liturgy choral institutions, and musical repertoires in Britain, c. 1480–1700.
Oxford historian of science and medicine Allan Chapman gave one of the finest of the conference presentations, on the organ as representative of medieval intellectual and spiritual technology. Chapman reminded us of the importance of music in the quadrivium—the fields of higher learning as sciences of proportion linked to the music of the spheres. Scholars and inventors needed to express the perfection of God’s world, and developed elaborate machines and instruments such as the astrolabe and the clock in order to keep track of time (including the movement of the sun in dark periods of the year when it was difficult for astronomers to see it) in order to observe all the required masses and offices. The organ similarly reflected the perfection of God along with polyphony and demonstrated reason and the wisdom of God to delight worshippers, performers, and the divinity.
Dana Marsh, a doctoral student at Oxford, next shared with us portions of his dissertation (Music, Church and Henry VIII’s Reformation), focusing on royal occasions for worship (royal processional entrances to cathedrals, coronations, funerals), the chants mentioned in conjunction with these services, and the participation in performances by voices and instruments, including the organ.
In spite of the dearth of documentation concerning the organs and their use at Westminster Abbey, David Knight shared with us a full listing of what direct evidence there is and fleshed out the picture with corresponding information drawn from other English collegiate churches. The earliest record dates from 1240 when Henry III paid for organ repairs. While there were new organs built and repairs made from the 14th to the 16th centuries, the number of organs declined in the late 16th century. Knight is the conservation assistant at the Council for the Care of Churches of the Church of England, and organist and choirmaster of Crown Court Church of Scotland.
Sherlock Holmes would have congratulated David Shuker, a professor from Leicestershire of organic chemistry at the Open University in Milton Keynes. Following up on a mention in a 1789 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine of an organ with a Gothic case found at the collegiate church of St. Bartholomew in Tong, Shropshire, Shuker laid out the course of his investigation and the tantalizing evidence that has simply disappeared. If he should discover the organ case, it might be the fourth surviving early English organ.
The day’s presentations concluded with services organized by John Harper so that we might experience something akin to the pre-Reformation use of organ, chant and split chancel choir, while not actually reconstructing these services. We sang Latin Vespers for Friday in the Octave of Easter according to the pre-Reformation Use of Sarum in the Ante-Chapel of New College, and Latin Compline for Eastertide according to the pre-Reformation Use of Salisbury in the Chapel of All Souls College. Leading us were the Rev. Dr. Simon Jones, organist Christian Wilson, and members of the vocal ensemble Sospiri, seated in decani and cantori formation, with the rest of the conference delegates scattered behind the singers on either side. Fortunately, Harper provided us with the entire text and music clearly written out with designations as to which side of the choir was to sing when.
Day three
The emphasis on Saturday was performance practices of organ music before 1600. John Caldwell (Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford) discussed the possibility that some music in the Mulliner Book was intended for the Offices. Jane Flynn of Leeds College of Music made a compelling case that the Mulliner Book consists of contrapuntal writing, showing that the material is organized in pedagogical order along the lines of the counterpoint methods of Lodovico Zacconi and Thomas Morley involving improvisation, and noting that some of the anonymous pieces may actually be Thomas Mulliner’s own attempts at the level of counterpoint exhibited by the surrounding pieces. Magnus Williamson, a music lecturer at Newcastle University, continued the discussion of the Mulliner Book and also Add. MS. 29996 at the British Library—the primary sources of English organ music in the 16th century. He discussed other sources in castle, church and cathedral archives that mention the use of the organ in worship services, notably Lady Masses, drawing connections between the improvised tradition of the 15th century and the composed pre-Reformation repertoires of the 16th century. A recent master’s graduate of Oxford, Christian Wilson, continued the theme of improvisation in the context of alternatim 16th-century English masses. Andrew Johnstone, a lecturer in music at Trinity College, Dublin, gave a valuable explanation of English choir pitch, which also had been touched upon by John Harper and Magnus Williamson, as well as the implications for transposition to accompany choirs in the context of alternatim services. This session concluded with Kimberly Marshall’s beautifully performed recital on the Wetheringsett organ in New College’s Ante-Chapel, featuring English and related continental organ music of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Following a much-needed coffee break during which many sought and found the tombstone of Robert Dallam in the cloister, the group gathered in the MacGregor-Matthews room for a variety of topics. Richard Hird, author of the acclaimed booklet Durham Cathedral Organs, gave a history of the organs at Durham Cathedral and its former Benedictine monastery St. Cuthbert. During the Tudor period there were three organs in the Choir: one on the screen above the Jesus altar in the center of the nave, one on the right, and one on the left. Interestingly, a dean of the cathedral married the sister of John Calvin, so the organs were all removed after 1561.
Paola Dessì of the University of Bologna discussed the very early English “organum” made by Aethelwold, the 10th-century Bishop of Winchester, “with his own hands.” While she provided a good presentation on documents to support her thesis that Aethelwold introduced the pipe organ to England, Peter Williams stressed problems with the word “organum,” which might refer to some other musical instrument entirely, possibly a wind instrument.
Joan Jeffrey, a retired secondary school teacher who is now a senior lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church College of Education [University], gave a most interesting paper on the presence of more than 80 organs in the coastal communities of Kent before the dissolution of the monasteries and eventual removal of organs from parish churches by 1571 with the exception of Faversham. The day’s program concluded with a superbly constructed concert performed by Musica Humana, Oxford, directed by Dana Marsh with Christian Wilson on the organ. The concert included examples of alternatim mass movements by Nicholas Ludford and an anonymous late 15th-century mass from York with improvised versets provided by Wilson, and an anonymous Te Deum from the Gyffard Part Books with alternatim organ verses by John Blytheman. The choral singing throughout the program was well balanced and expressive of the formal construction of the various motets, and about as perfectly tuned as could be desired. My favorites on the program were Mater Christi sanctissima by John Taverner, “Candidi facti sunt” from Thomas Tallis’s Cantiones Sacrae, and Omnes gentes plaudite minibus by Christopher Tye. Marsh’s conducting gave clear cues and beat to the choir without getting in the way of the singers. Wilson’s improvisations were certainly in the appropriate style, and his playing of the organ works was clean and accurate, with virtuosic display that contributed to the overall effect rather than drawing attention to the performer. Especially fine were William Byrd’s Fantasia in D Minor and Thomas Preston’s Felix namque.
Day four
Sunday morning was a bit of a catchall, though mainly about organs. Dominic Gwynn discussed the life, training, and professional routine of the London-based Tudor organ builder John Clymhowe, who apparently converted to the evangelical faith in the 1530s while maintaining his profession of building organs for Roman Catholic churches. José Hopkins, honorary secretary of the British Institute of Organ Studies, discussed the use of music at King’s College Cambridge on the occasion of the visit of Queen Elizabeth I in 1564 and again in 1571, contrasting the use of the organs and choral music as Cambridge became increasingly a bastion of the Calvinists within the Church of England. Hopkins discussed Elizabeth I’s defense of the Mass, while both English and Latin texts were sung, some with organ alternatim. Martin Renshaw, a professional singer and organbuilder in Normandy, discussed the removal of the organ from English parish churches during the Reformation, and the unexpected opportunities for the instrument as it was diverted to secular repertoires. One of the leading authorities on the history of musical instruments, Jeremy Montagu, gave a compelling presentation of the late 14th-century crozier of William of Wykeham that is kept in the nearby nave of New College Chapel with its beautiful and realistic sculptures in silver of a wide variety of musical instruments being played. Fittingly, Alexandra Buckle of Worcester College Oxford presented her dissertation research on the use of music at Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, clearly the finest medieval chapel in England. Among the depictions of musical instruments is a splendid stained glass representation of a medieval English organ similar to the Wetheringsett organ built by Goetze and Gwynn.
Katharine Pardee organized a truly exceptional conference, guided by experts in the field of early English organs including Peter Williams, John Harper, Dominic Gwynn, Melvin Hughes, and many others. The papers were of a very high quality, the musical performances excellent, and the liturgical services compelling. Unlike many conferences, this one provided much to think about and to discuss during the question and answer periods and breaks between sessions. We all look forward to the next conference, which will focus on the subsequent period during the reigns of the Stuarts and Hanoverians. While the leading English authorities on Tudor organs and organ music were present, very few Americans were in attendance, perhaps because this organ repertoire is not so well known or loved, or because of the decline in the value of the dollar relative to the pound. However, English 17th- and 18th-century voluntaries are well known and frequently played by organists in North America and England, and the next conference should be of interest to all organists. It will be held April 10–13, 2008, at Merton College, Oxford University, and the conference registration fee will probably again include lodging and most meals, making it a real bargain. There will likely be a London “organ crawl” the day before the conference (April 9).
