Historical Question

[MrGongGong]

Hello

As part of a piece i'm writing i'm trying to locate an example of the music that might have been sung in Crowland Abbey (near Peterborough) prior to the 17th Century when the Fens were drained. A Lincolnshire based composer would be ideal ...... and as the amount of knowledge here is vast I thought that this would be the place to ask first !

So any thoughts or suitable examples ?

Many thanks

GG

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

John Taverner was born in Lincolnshire and died in Boston in 1545. His Western Wind Mass is readily available*:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9txUjrJ6yA

EDIT: "Readily available"???! ( = "lots of recordings")

[PJPJ]

William Byrd's first job was at Lincoln Cathedral - perhaps one of his earlier works would be suitable?

[MrGongGong]

William Byrd's first job was at Lincoln Cathedral - perhaps one of his earlier works would be suitable?

I was thinking along those lines
but thought it would be interesting to ask those who know most about the period and it's music

[jean]

I thought of that, too.

But Lincoln was a long way away from Peterborough in those days - and how much do we know about music being performed in institutions it wasn't written for? How much do we know about what would have been performed in monastic institutions as opposed to secular cathedrals?

Presumably the Order would make a difference - some were (or were supposed to be, anyway) more ascetic than others.

You'd be on safe ground with plainsong, but beyond that, who knows?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But Lincoln was a long way away from Peterborough in those days -

Nothing to do with tectonic plates. I don't suppose?

People still travelled long distances, but perhaps had greater patience than most of us do nowadays.

[Vox Humana]

Hello

As part of a piece i'm writing i'm trying to locate an example of the music that might have been sung in Crowland Abbey (near Peterborough) prior to the 17th Century when the Fens were drained. A Lincolnshire based composer would be ideal ...... and as the amount of knowledge here is vast I thought that this would be the place to ask first !

So any thoughts or suitable examples ?

Many thanks

GG

I fear the answer to your question is probably plainsong and nothing else, at least in the abbey proper. Prior to the reformation, Crowland Abbey was a Benedicitne monastery. Monasteries were not like the secular cathedrals. They did not follow the trend from c.1460 of founding full polyphonic choirs. Some Benedictine and Augustinian monasteries instituted a team of boys under a master to sing votive antiphons in the Lady Chapel - Leonel Power was such a master at Canterbury - and it seems that these boys did sometimes sing in polyphony. Later, in some places the monastic Lady Chapel choirs did grow into a larger, secular, body like the cathedral choirs - Thomas Ashewell had a full choir (perhaps not just a Lady Chapel one either) at Durham and Tallis was in another full choir at Waltham Abbey.

I do not know whether Crowland had a secular choir - I have never seen one mentioned. One aisle of the abbey was sealed off and functioned as a (secular) parish church. Whether this would have had a choir would have been no concern of the monks and would have depended on whether some wealthy benefactor had endowed one to sing antiphons for his soul, or whether there was a local guild wealthy enough to maintain one to sing for their departed members (and I confess I have no idea what the medieval town was like). After the reformation parish church choirs were very thin on the ground indeed - in fact, Ludlow parish church is the only one that I can immediately think of.

So all the chances are that Crowland was a musical desert. If it's any help, a 13th-century Gradual from the abbey, containing the chants for the mass, survives in the British Library http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlin...u00005v00.html

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Leicester is closer to Peterborough by about five miles. Hugh Aston was Master of Music there in the early 16th Century:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMdiwNbxYug

... and, if you want to combine Lincoln Byrd with Leicester Aston there's this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSVRayws7i0