Suspicion for 10 Voices

[Vox Humana]

Not a musical programme as such and it was on Radio 4, but I enjoyed the drama this afternoon about William Byrd and the coded messages in his motets. A well researched piece of fiction, I thought. Was the script floated past a Byrd expert?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xxvcv

[ardcarp]

Well, Vox H, having just listened, I think this must be one of the finest R4 plays I have ever heard. An NCO chorister playing the part of a Chapel Royal boy as a singing witness (albeit unheeding) for the prosecution at a 'star chamber' trial is, for a start, somewhat unusual. SRB and AL were absolutely magnificent in their roles, as were the rest of the cast, but cleverest of all IMO was Mark Lawson's idiom. He managed to devise a 'voice' or a mode of language that was immediately appropriate to the times, though clearly not of it (i.e. not pastiche Shakespeare). And the dialogue was very clever indeed. The play undoubtedly has extra resonance for musicians who have some knowledge of the period, but I'd say it brings alive the fevered reality of those dangerous post-Reformation times in a most subtle and gripping way.

In short, it's rather good.

[eighthobstruction]

thanks for reminding me ref this prog....

[Vox Humana]

Mind you, if Mark Lawson did float this past a Byrd expert he would probably have been steered away from the proposition that Byrd's motets were sung in the Chapel Royal. In any case, Byrd almost certainly ceased to take an active part in the chapel from February 1584 - isn't this why he begins to be cited for recusancy from that year and why a fourth CR organist (John Bull) was appointed in 1586? - but of course then the whole play would have begun to unravel. There were one or two other small artistic licences, but, really, who cares? It was so good to have a play highlighting this subject.

[jean]

I've been away and just managed to catch it on iPlayer.

I wonder how historically accurate the interrogations were. When I read in the blurb that Byrd's dense polyphony is dissected and decoded... I thought we were in for sone advanced musicological exegesis - but it was only the texts, really; Tu es Petrus assumed to be about the Pope, Marian texts supposed to refer to Mary Queen of Scots (unlikely, since Byrd depended so much on Queen Elizabeth's protection) and various expressions of regret for what had been lost indicating a longing for the old Faith (though they didn't include Civital sancti tui, one of the most obvious of those).

I liked the careful English pronunciation of the Latin. It was good too to hear the introduction top the Mass Introibo ad altare Dei: Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam, though it would have been nice if they'd completed the phrase.

[Vox Humana]

I wonder how historically accurate the interrogations were.

I think the answer to that is not a lot. A good deal of artistic licence was taken, especially with the dating of the pieces cited (e.g. the masses are thought to have been composed in the early 1590s). Also, though I stand to be corrected, I don't recall any evidence that Byrd was ever interrogated specifically about his texts. I don't think we have any details at that sort of level, but I need to read John Harley's book again.

[ardcarp]

The same sort of discussion is going on on the Ben and Imo thread (Radio 3 Arts). The playwright weaves a dramatic piece of part-fiction around a few historical facts...an equivalent technique to writing a historical novel. I thought Suspicion for 10 Voices was a brilliant play, and, being far removed from our own time (unlike the Britten piece), I had no problem in suspending any disbelief.

[Vox Humana]

I agree, ardcap. The licences didn't bother me because they didn't compromise the play, which was imaginative and a lot better researched than I expected. That said, I do kind of wish that Lawson had selected examples from Byrd's (definitely political) Cantiones Sacrae, some of which must have been in existence by 1585, rather than the much later Gradualia. But that is just pedantry on my part.

[ardcarp]

I do kind of wish that Lawson had selected examples from Byrd's (definitely political) Cantiones Sacrae,

Agreed.

[jean]

...I do kind of wish that Lawson had selected examples from Byrd's (definitely political) Cantiones Sacrae...

Which works would you consider most 'definitely political'?

[Vox Humana]

Oh, goodness, I've never thought about ranking them, but some fairly obvious ones are Ne irascaris (a lament for the state of the English Catholic church, particularly in its second half, Civitas sancti tui), Vide Domine, afflictionem nostram (ditto - he wrote a few of these), Memento Domine (asking God to deliver his [catholic] congregation from their troubles) and Exsurge Domine (similar message: arise and save us from our misery).

[jean]

I asked because I couldn't remember which texts were set in which collection - I agree Civitas sancti tui would have been an obvious one to focus on.

There's also the exchange between Philippe De Monte and Byrd, de Monte setting Super flumina Babylonis and Byrd answering with Quomodo Cantabimus. Not sure how that would have fitted into the imagined chronology of the play.

Anther obvious text would have been the Lamentations, but unlike Tallis and White, Byrd only ever set a small section in his De Lamentatione. There's something clearly political he chose not to do.

[ardcarp]

jean, I was just about to put finger to mouse when Vox answered far more eloquently than I could, and I agree with his selection. Ne irascaris is the one that cries out to me (in the same way as Tallis's Lamentations do) in anguish for the lost church (lost Jerusalem being the metaphor). One might add Tribulationes civitates and Vide domine. It is I suppose easy to read a 'politcal' message into all the more sombre motets (i.e. not of the Laudibus in sanctis or Haec dies ilk) and indeed the English had a special talent (lasting right up to Purcell and beyond) for a 'noble pathos' in their church composition. But it is hard not to feel the 'message' from the pens of Byrd and Tallis.

Sorry if all the above is stating the obvious, but I'm no scholar, just a jobbing musician!

[jean]

I am not just asking questions to which I do not know the answers, ardcarp - I'm looking for some discussion.

What do you think of my suggestions, which I think are quite pertinent?

[ardcarp]

Sorry, jean, if I got the wrong end of the stick. I didn't know about the Byrd/de Monte collaboration. The text, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land, can of course be interpreted as grieving for the loss of the Roman Rite, but I hoped I was contributing to the discussion by saying:

It is I suppose easy to read a 'political' message into all the more sombre motets

...my point being that the words of psalms (the most frequently chosen texts) are very often about yearning for former glories, or about punishment for turning away from the Lord and so on. Tu es Petrus, however, as used in the play, (a NT text) was a powerful weapon with which to beat Byrd for popery.

I wonder if anyone experienced the quite strong anti-Catholic sentiments around in the 1950s and maybe 60s as I did as a kid? I was unaware before the age of about 12 of the High Anglican movement, but middle-of-the-road Anglicanism certainly regarded bowing to the altar, crossing oneslf or even the wearing of a crucifix as a 'popish practice'. As for bells and smells, well, completely beyond the pale.