History of the Chapel Royal

[ardcarp]

Or, as I prefer it, The Chapels Royal.

Recorded at the Palace of St James's in London. Lucie Skeaping examines music written for the Chapel Royal with its director Joseph McHardy, with the backdrop of more than 300 years of turbulent history of Britain from the 15th to the 17th centuries, the different monarchs that were in power at the time and the composers who served them. Familiar names like Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Henry Purcell feature, but also those of lesser-known composers like John Pyamour, Robert Faryfax, Thomas Tomkin and Pelham Humfrey among others.

Why Thomas Tomkins (no 's' ?) and Robert Fayrfax are considered 'lesser-known' I really don't know.

[DracoM]

[ardcarp]

It seems from the blurb that the programme is concentrating on the 15th - 17th centuries. That rather leaves out the Croft (b.1678) - Greene - Boyce generation...but I guess there have to be limits.

There is a book published originally I think in the late 19th Century and edited by Rimbault, The Old Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal. It is a somewhat loose collection of records of appointments of Gentlemen and servants (e.g. 'organ blower', 'bell ringer') of the institution. Also of deaths. Useful for scholars.

https://archive.org/details/oldchequebookorb00stjarich

re-published by Da Capo Press: https://www.abebooks.com/first-editi...30375262342/bd

[ardcarp]

Why Thomas Tomkins (no 's' ?) and Robert Fayrfax are considered 'lesser-known' I really don't know.

...and apparently, according to Lucie, Orlando Gibbons is lesser-known too!

But it was a good overview of the role of the Chapels Royal through history, something which has been my 'thing' since a student. They left out the quote from Pepys' diary, on Hunfrey's return from studying in France, "Little Pelham Humphreys is an absolute monsieur as full of form and confidence and vanity, and disparages everybody's skill but his own." However, he was one of the vectors of continental styles to England, influencing, among others, John Blow and Henry Purcell.

The programme is still doing its 'talking over music' thing, which was particularly annoying in O Nata Lux, which is a short piece anyway. If they had to do it, why not in one of the harpsichord pieces, the one by Byrd being especially long and nothing whatever to do with the topic?

It would have been good to hear at least one piece sung by the choristers and gentlemen of St James's Palace Royal Chapel.

[oddoneout]

I thought this might have been a repeat as all the music was listed before the show finished and the download flash. The talking over music looks set to be standard now when there is too much material to sensibly fit into the hour. I was particularly annoyed about the missing opening of the Purcell.

[ardcarp]

Agreed! The show may be a repeat, but I don't remember it. Can anyone verify? The EMS website still doesn't have today's under 'Available Now'. !

[cat]

First broadcast September 2019.

A decent introduction by Joseph McHardy to the Tudor period of music sung at Chapel Royal services, and good to hear Captain Cooke getting a mention at the end with the new generation of musicians he nurtured.

Nothing about the theatre though, or much talk of anything outside the Tudor period.

I don’t know how R3 produce this sort of program, but I am guessing that on this occasion, after the scripted interview was conducted it was dumped on someone’s desk whose task it was to select recordings to use. Consequently we had nothing recorded in the chapel where they did the interview, or by the Chapel Royal choir, or by similar choirs. So when Joseph McHardy said with regard to Loquebantur variis linguis “listen to how those soaring treble voices are back…it’s a piece our present day choristers love performing” we are given a performance of the work by Stile Antico. If there’s any program that would have benefited from music performed by liturgical choirs rather than vocal ensembles I would have thought it would have been this one. David Hill’s Salve intemerata mass recorded at Winchester for example. But perhaps I’m expecting too much of this sort of program, which is really just a brief chat with a few tunes thrown in.

A few months after this was first broadcast McHardy conducted a recording by the full choir of works by Pelham Humphrey, which is well worth buying if you’re interested in music of that period. (btw I was going through some nineteenth century music lists a while ago and encountered at least a dozen different spellings of Pelham Humfries' surname!)

[ardcarp]

So when Joseph McHardy said with regard to Loquebantur variis linguis “listen to how those soaring treble voices are back…it’s a piece our present day choristers love performing” we are given a performance of the work by Stile Antico. If there’s any program that would have benefited from music performed by liturgical choirs rather than vocal ensembles I would have thought it would have been this one. David Hill’s Salve intemerata mass recorded at Winchester for example.

Wholeheartedly agree!!!

In spite of knowing some members of Stile Antico! They're fantastic of course, but we were on the subject of a traditiopnally composed liturgical choir.

[cat]

Wholeheartedly agree!!!

In spite of knowing some members of Stile Antico! They're fantastic of course, but we were on the subject of a traditiopnally composed liturgical choir.

Indeed they're one of my favourite such groups, and I'd hope R3 wouldn't think it appropriate to accompany a documentary on their style of Tudor performance as pioneered by the Clerkes of Oxenford with a recording of Byrd by the Choir Westminster Cathedral.

It would have been nice if they'd replaced the irrelevant Byrd harpsichord piece with something from his Great Service, as it's complexity means it was likely written for the Chapel Royal, simply as few other choirs at that time had a sufficient number of singers capable of doing it justice. Perhaps someone thought there was too much singing and we needed an instrumental interlude.

Reminds me of COTW once where they discussed the landmark first performance of a particular work. This happened to have been released as a commercial recording, but instead of hearing it we were treated to a seemingly randomly chosen recording from 20 years later containing none of the elements they'd just been discussing.

I wonder whether program budgets perhaps won't stretch to recordings that aren't on an approved list?

[ardcarp]

There must be a whole bureaucratic BBC department negotiating fees with record companies (and individual artists?) for putting stuff on air. Must be a nightmare...and probably with a mandate to get the cheapest deal.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Indeed they're one of my favourite such groups, and I'd hope R3 wouldn't think it appropriate to accompany a documentary on their style of Tudor performance as pioneered by the Clerkes of Oxenford with a recording of Byrd by the Choir Westminster Cathedral.

It would have been nice if they'd replaced the irrelevant Byrd harpsichord piece with something from his Great Service, as it's complexity means it was likely written for the Chapel Royal, simply as few other choirs at that time had a sufficient number of singers capable of doing it justice. Perhaps someone thought there was too much singing and we needed an instrumental interlude.

Reminds me of COTW once where they discussed the landmark first performance of a particular work. This happened to have been released as a commercial recording, but instead of hearing it we were treated to a seemingly randomly chosen recording from 20 years later containing none of the elements they'd just been discussing.

I wonder whether program budgets perhaps won't stretch to recordings that aren't on an approved list?

You might be interested in knowing that for commercial recordings there is pretty much a standard fee on radio so it’s unlikely one classical disc recording would cost any more than another. Live performances (ie live relays ) are a different matter. The standard fee varies from station to station though and indeed what territories (countries ) you want to clear it for.The UK fees payable are on the PRS website .
The one area where it can get tricky are US commercial recordings particularly if you want to clear them for use globally. Using American pop music on a film track that is being shown globally can get very expensive very quickly.