February 17, 2016marks the 363rd anniversary of the birth of composer, innovator and virtuosic violinist Arcangelo Corelli,the most influential - and arguably, the most important - figure to come out of Western Classical Music’s late baroque period.
Dubbed the“Founder of the Modern Violin Technique,”Corelli single-handedly brought much attention and praise to the musical art form ofconcerto grosso[1]as both an innovator on it’s technique, as a teacher of it’s art form, and composer of the wildly successful set ofXII Concerti Grossi,his6th Opus, first published in 1714 in the year following the musicians death at the ripe age (at least, for that period) of 60. The famed German-turned-British baroque composer Georg Friedrich Händel would use these concerti as a model for his own set of XII Concerti Grossi: op. 6.
Händelwasn’t alone in his reverence for the“world’s greatest violinist” (another moniker attached to the composer by fans and patrons of Corelli): the virtuosic Arcangelo’s innovations on the instrument and the concerto grosso were lauded across the European continent during the composers lifetime and reverence to the musician extended even after his death, with such prolific composers of note paying homage to, and citing the influence of Corelli as an objet d’inspiration: baroque composer Tomaso Albioni of Italy, the young Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, of the then Papal State of “Jesi” (now the Province of Ancona), Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, composer to Italy and later Spain;Georg Philipp Telemann of the German baroque and Antonio Vivaldi, also of Italy (revered in his day as second only to Corelli) and even Johann Sebastian Bach of Germany was said to have been heavily inspired and influenced by Arcangelo (Bach would pen the “Fugue in B Minor on a Theme by Corelli” (BMV 579) after the Vivace[2]of Corelli’s Trio Sonata Op. 3 no. 4 in c. 1710).
Corelli's XII Concerti Grossi, Op. 6:
Unlike many composers and musicians of the late Baroque and subsequent periods of Western Classical Music, Arcangelo Corelli lived and died in both reverence and wealth. He had acquired the patronage of 17th century gender-bender and Queen of Sweden, the regnant Christina following her abdication to Rome, whom he served until her death, immediately followed by an ecclesiasticalpost with the clergy under the service of a Cardinal Pamphili (who granted Corelli accommodations at his palace), and later, under Pamphili’s nephew, Cardinal Ottoboni, who paid top dollar for the virtuosos services and who would gainfully employ the musician until the end of his life. Corelli’s refined taste extended toother areas of the arts– quite literally – his acquisition of many and varied works of art culminated in a substantial sum to be added the late composer’s net worth of 120,000 marks. He died with the wages of a Prince– quite appropriate for a man who dominated the era of late baroque like aKing.[3] Buon compleanno maestro Corelli!
Footnotes:
[1]The implementation of two groups of musicians who share the same stage and alternate from a single composition musical material: a minor group of solo instrumentalists, called “concertino”, contrasted by a larger orchestral group (the “ripieno,” or “concerto grosso”).
[2]The fugal subject of the second movement.
[3]In a grand gesture befitting such an important and influential figure of the arts, Arcangelo Corelli's body was interred at the historic Pantheon in Rome, where he is buried alongside High Renaissance painter Raphael.
Listen below to one of my favorite pieces by Corelli, on the "Folia" theme: the Violin Sonata in D Minor(user's pt. I of II):
As we have already seen in my posts on Haydn and Bruckner, Beethoven the Johann(es) (Brahms and Strauss II), such megalithic talents would exude not only a mass adoration, but also a lasting curiosity that would prevail even after death – creating an entire industry of quack medicine as contemporaries and later classical aficionados struggled to try to explain the seemingly other-worldly aura of genius that circumnavigated our beloved composers of yore like some sort of mystifying intellectual halo.
"The Anatomist Overtaken by the Watch in Carry'ng Off Miss W--ts in a Hamper," William Austin, 1773
Grave robber Joseph Carl Rosenbaum and his partner in crimeJohann Nepomuk Peter attributed the presence of a so-called“organ of tune” – a protrusion of the skull above the brow thought to be indicative of inherent musical genius – on the heads of the great operatic masters of the classical age, not the least of whom was said to possess the ‘feature’ was the composer Joseph Haydn, whose skull Rosenbaum and Peter illegally possessed.
The 'Brothers in Bumps Three': L to R: Ludwig van Beethoven, (Franz) Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang "Wolfie" Amadeus Mozart.
The composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were also a part of the “organ” phenomena, and, based solely on the likeness of both composers in portraiture, both composers found themselves (allegedly, in the case of Mozart) fall victim to the phrenology cult[1] that had peaked in Europe and across (the) America(s) in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Even cultural icons were thrown into the mix – Poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethepurported to be in possession of both Mozart and Beethoven’s skulls at various times; while other, more sinister hands would cradle the fragmented skull of Beethoven throughout the height of the Second World War and it’s Nazi regime (as documented in Russell Martin's book "Beethoven’s Hair" (link in LIBRARY); also, read a record of travel by author William Meredith on this external link:THE HISTORY OF BEETHOVEN'S SKULL FRAGMENTS).
Others were more lucky: composer and pianist Franz Schubert’s skull was exhumed at Vienna in 1863, and later re-buried with it’s host after research scientist Gerhard von Breuning documented the following observations:“[The skulls] seemed to reflect the characteristics of the composers’ works. The walls of Beethoven’s skull exhibit strong density and thickness, whereas Schubert’s bones show feminine delicateness."
Plaster-casts of the skulls of Franz Schubert, Franz Joseph Haydn & Ludwig van Beethoven; Alois Wittman; Beethoven-Haus, Bonn c. 19th century
Much like in the case of Haydn’s missing skull in the 19th century, Wolfgang Mozart’s cranium is also said to have been the unfortunate object of a nocturnal heist, although in "Wolfie’s" case, the culprit this time was not a wannabe scientist of note but rather, at least according to legend, the gravedigger who worked the grounds of the St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna where Mozart’s body was first laid to rest in one of the burial grounds’ common graves. Mozart’s celebrated cranium was later said to have been acquired by the venerated anatomist Joseph Hyrtl, who, it is believed attached a note to the skull with the inscription “Musa Vetat Mori” – a promise to the future curator of the heisted skull of it’s supernatural protection: translated, the inscription reads: “The Muse Prevents Death”.
For a period of some 50 years, the skull of the classical icon Mozart could be found on display at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, who had first acquired, through confidential sources, the skull in 1902. It was later removed from display after public backlash due to its macabre nature – and the fact that the skull was said to haunt those who visited it. Although some damage to the skull, believed to have been caused pre-mortem have been linked to Mozart’s symptoms of headache and dizziness which were experienced by the composer during the final mysterious illness which prematurely took his life, later DNA tests, performed in 2006 (and which used DNA acquired from the cadavers of other members of the Mozart family for comparison) proved problematic. It’s not that the DNA of the alleged skull of Wolfgang Amadeus didn’t match with his kin per-sae – the test would show that the cadaverous members from which the scientists sourced familial DNA proved not to be Mozart DNA at all - opening up a huge can of worms and a giant question mark over the Mozart family tree.
To date, no one knows for certain the whereabouts of Mozart’s skull or whether the tale of it’s “absence” is purely one of folklore, and exhumation is not currently possible: to date, the memorial tablet at the St. Marx Cemetery is but a placeholder – Constanze herself (Mozart’s widow) failed to locate Mozart or his mass grave when she searched for her late husband some 17 years after his death. A temporary gravestone (where the tablet now stands) was erected in 1855 by the Cemetery in a presumed – yet unconfirmed - location of the grave.
Footnotes:
[1]The false science that suggested the cranial structure of man dictated both character and personality. Adherents to this now defunct ‘science’ believed the brain to be a segmented ‘organ of the mind’, with each segments (‘mental faculties’) size determined by an individual’s propensity and capacity to convey certain personality traits, which they believed would form on a relatively proportional basis, and which could then, in turn, be determined by the informed observer by “reading” the “bumps and fissures” of the skull.
Navigate the pages in the book below* to read just one of many fascinating treatises on the quack ‘science’ of Phrenology (this one by author Louis Allen Vaught, published in 1902) to learn more about what motivated grave robbers like Rosenbaum and medical ‘scientists’ in the 18th century: *This book is part of the public domain and is shared legally.
It’s time for another installment of fun (and macabre) facts related to Classical music and Opera!
La Danse Macabre, Michael Wolgemut
From naughty schoolboys receiving their just desserts in the end, to rivaling musicians and those whose talents were a gift – or curse – from the darkest depths of hell, and the ancient Latin hymn later set to theRequiem Massin the hope of guiding a recently deceased soul peacefully into the great beyond (the work itself being a depiction of the placement of souls on the Biblical "Last Day of Judgment") that would become associated with terror, morbid delirium and horrific respite in the coming centuries - to masterpieces composed by drunkards and drug addicts. The reader is sure to find in this months’ Trivia Post something for his or her every sinful curiosity.
*Featuring grave robbers and missing body parts.
FUNNY RIVALS VS. TEMPORARY AMNESIA
A Rival throws coffee into the face of a "frenemy";
from Vulgus Brittanicus, 18th century.
There is something to be said about getting old. Nothing seems to work like it used to, even with strenuous and extensive efforts. The memory is no exception to the laws of aging. Sometimes we walk into a room and forget why we walked into it in the first place. Sometimes we lose focus mid-sentence and completely lose our train of thought. And sometimes, as in the case of megalithic late 19th (and early 20th century) romantic composer Giacomo Puccini, we forget we are in afull blown battlewith our on-again, off-again “frenemy.” It was on one very festive Christmas in the 19th century that composer Giacomo Puccini was struck by the giving spirit of the season. Thinking of his friend and frequent musical collaborator, the iconic living legend, conductor Arturo Toscanini, Puccini at once sent for a surprise gift of Panettone (a delicious Italian bread and traditional holiday gift of the era) to his ‘brother’ in music. It was only after the gift had been duly dispatched that the absent-minded composer remembered that he and the maestro were fully engaged in one of their all-too-frequent quarrels and weren’t actually supposed to even be speaking to one another!
Daunted, but not too mortified to deliver one last punch, the hapless Puccini at once telegrammed his nemesis Toscanini, declaring in the exchange his error in but five simple words:
“PANETTONE SENT BY MISTAKE. PUCCINI.”
Toscanini, the wry little devil, seized upon the opportunity with a one-two punch of his own, when he sent a return telegram to Puccini in the same vein:
“PANETTONE EATEN BY MISTAKE. TOSCANINI.”
BEETHOVEN VS. NEIGHBORS
Many a great composer had equally robust reputations that seemed to precede them in their heyday. 18-19th century German composer Ludwig van Beethoven was no exception. Even in the years prior to the famed pianists’ descent into total deafness, Beethoven was engaged in war with his landlords and neighbors, who complained about everything from the composer’s hygienic habits (he was said to have lived in near squalor, with rotting food on spoiled dishes piled up in stacks and strewn about the abode, causing ungodly stenches that would permeate through the walls and into the streets) to being unceremoniously serenaded by Beethoven’s late night practice sessions on his piano, which he would play loudly into the wee hours of the morning. He was also becoming increasingly paranoid, a symptomatic condition that would only see an increase after the composer experienced the first onset of auditory paracusia (a precursor to deafness), in the few years to come. It was during one of those late night sessions at the piano that Beethoven roused the neighbors from their slumber when the composer flew into a rage, flipping over furniture, tapestries, carpets - and everything else in reaching distance - whilst shouting obscenities over a maid who he was sure had stolen from him his prized golden penny. That incident would go on to become a grand tale of popular folklore when it was discovered that the enraged Beethoven had been composing theRondo e Capriccioon that very evening, just prior to his total meltdown. The locals dubbed the Rondo“Rage Over the Lost Penny,”[1]a delightfully comical pseudonym that is still used by fans of the temperamental composer to this day.
The Rondo (or 'Rage'):
Footnote:
[1]"Rage Over the Lost Penny" is actually a shortened translation of a quotation which first appeared on Beethoven's "Rondo e Capriccio" autograph (manuscript), which had been auctioned off some seven months after the composer's death in November of 1827 by Diabelli & Co.
The original quote:"Die Wuth über den verlornen Groschen, ausgetobt in einer Caprice" is translated into English as "Rage at the loss of a Groat (a penny) stormed out in a caprice (a huff)." It's authorship is unknown, however what is certain is that the scrawl was not from the hand of Beethoven (there is some evidence to suggest the afterthought may have originated from the hand of biographer and confidante to the composer Anton Schindler.
The Rondo manuscript also guarded one more secret: it would later be revealed that the work was an incomplete project. It is said Anton Diabelli (of Diabelli & Co.) himself completed the fragmented work before putting it up for auction.
MAJOR WORKS WRITTEN 'UNDER THE INFLUENCE' & MAJOR DISASTERS CAUSED BY DRINK
As we have already seen in my post on Suicides, Schizophrenia & Syphlitics, the use of drugs and drink amongst many of the most prolific composers, librettists and musicians of their day would rob from the stage and theatre many a talent well before their time (a trend that is still going strong today, most notably in the genres of pop and rock music). Below we look at some of Western Classical Music’s most beloved compositions - works that continue to dominate the symphonic and operatic repertoire to this very day - all of which were composed ‘under the influence’. LA SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
This grandiose symphony of unrequited desire has been mentioned frequently here at unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca. The masterpiece - in particular it’s final movement - however, deserves further discussion, as it not only sets the tone for the entire work, but Berlioz’ morbid manipulation of sacred music into something one hears in their worst nightmares would go on to not only influence an entire genre of dark music in modern film, the final movement itself would personify it’s manipulateur, Hector Berlioz, as the tortured, love-crazed, slightly sadistic psychopath he was known to morph into during one of his famous self-harming episodes. Named the “fantastical symphony” with good reason, La Symphonie Fantastique’s final and horrific ‘scene’ is best enjoyed alongside the works’ penultimate movement, "Marche au supplice"(the march to the scaffold).While the works’ fifth and final movement is set in a hellish enclave during a witches’ Sabbath, the fourth movement sets the tone for the terrifying scene to come.
Troubled French composer Hector Berlioz
In the Fantastique's fourth, the love-sick protagonist that inspired the piece (believed to be an autobiographical character), downs a large amount of Opium in an attempt to commit suicide, so distraught is he at being the object of unrequited romance. His idée fixe, much like in the composers’ real life, didn’t seem to know he was even alive from romance's perspective– and the only solution for such a miserable fortune was for the brokenhearted to paint the final brushstroke on that dismal painting, and simply..not exist.Unfortunately for the pieces’ character (again, much like the symphony’s own composer) the overdose failed to kill the lovelorn, and, as the drug’s soporific effects began to take hold of its host, the protagonist steeps in and out of a brew of lucid deliriums – which display themselves in a cruel mélange of abundant love and a morbid delusion of marching toward a scaffold – a punishment to fit the crime of homicide (the condemned becomes convinced he has slain his beloved) – with the hallucination and the movement itself finally culminating in a horrific orchestral display of it’s protagonists head, rolling off the scaffold and bouncing down the steps after being unceremoniously hacked off by the sharp blade of the guillotine. The movement ultimus is where things really get ‘trippy’ (Berlioz was said to have composed the entire work under the influence of Opium, a drug of which he proudly propitiated). In this movement, the protagonist finds himself in his own twisted version of hell: a Witches’ Sabbath, complete with such grotesquery as can be found in every child’s hidden-under-lock-and-key mental vault of ghosts and goblins – all of whom have arrived as guests at the protagonists’ (Berlioz’) own funeral. Amongst the witches, shades, and monsters, who are collectively engaged in a sadistic orgy, is the shade of the protagonists idée-fixe (based on Berlioz’ own, one Harriet Smithson): formerly represented in the symphony’s earlier movements by a placid, pleasant, dream-like melodic theme - now grotesquely shrieking as an ominous series of funeral bells begin to toll, and a creepishly slow moving and bastardized version (Berlioz describes it as a "burlesque parody") of theDies Irae,a 13th century Latin hymn depicting the "Final day of Judgment" horrifically repeats itself before engaging in it’s own twisted musical orgy with thedance of the witches, probably focusing on the hymns darker themes of souls uninvited into heaven and cast into the fires of hell. It was this movement that would inspire countless composers to come, including prolific composer and pianist Franz Liszt, who took from from Berlioz’ macabre imagination the idea of transforming the ancient Gregorian melody of the Dies Irae into something both frightening and horrifyingly sinister: Liszt’s play on this theme was displayed most alarmingly in his gooseflesh-inducing “Totentanz”(“Dance of the Dead”):
Other composers who wrote some of their most erudite masterpieces under the influence of drink and drug includeWolfgang Amadeus Mozart,who wrote the Overture for his wildly famous opera Don Giovanni completely in the throes of an alcoholic induced ‘massive hangover’, toEdward Elgar - whose highly prized “Cello Concerto” that made the likes of iconic musicians Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim household names – and whose main theme was first imagined and quickly written down on a napkin immediately upon it’s composer awakening from dental surgery!
When it came to the consumption – and over consumption – of alcohol, even conductors were thrown into the mix – it is said that Russian Composer and Pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff was so horrified by the actions of conductor Alexander Glazunov – who led the orchestra at the composers’ premiere performance of his Symphony 1 in d minor, and who performed his duties whilst completely drunk – that Rachmaninoff refused to compose his next symphony until a full decade later! Needless to say, the premiere of the 1st was a total disaster. Apparently drink alone wasn’t enough to kill some composers straight off the bat - but when combined with an unfortunate set of fateful happenstances, it’s effects would often contribute to an early visit with the reaper:
Henry Purcell, one of 17th century England’s most famed composers, was such an advocate of drink, he dedicated a not insignificant amount of compositions entirely to his precious liquid gold in a series of bawdy drinking songs(many of them x-rated), in an ode to his much loved pastime of frequenting the town’s inns and public drinking houses - stomping grounds notorious for fellow playboys about town who enjoyed regaling - in the form of song - tales of vast and varied carnal exploits and other raucous debauchery over a pint of ale.
Perhaps due to an honest mistake, or perhaps fed up with his late hours, Purcell’s wife is believed to have locked her husband out of their abode one particularly frigid evening, directly contributing to the composers’ ultimately fatal case of pneumonia.
Another musician living in the 18th century, composerGiuseppe Tartini,was also known for engaging in a danse macabre with Beelzebub. Tartini’s most celebrated work, hisViolin Sonata in G minor,was famously coined the“Devils’ Trill”after it’s composer was alleged to have experienced a ‘visit from Lucifer’ in the form of a pseudo-nightmare. Tartini would relate the dream to the French astronomerJérôme Lalande:
Tartini's Dream - Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1824
"One night, in the year 1713 I dreamed I had made a pact with the devil for my soul. Everything went as I wished: my new servant anticipated my every desire. Among other things, I gave him my violin to see if he could play. How great was my astonishment on hearing a sonata so wonderful and so beautiful, played with such great art and intelligence, as I had never even conceived in my boldest flights of fantasy. I felt enraptured, transported, enchanted: my breath failed me, and - I awoke. I immediately grasped my violin in order to retain, in part at least, the impression of my dream. In vain! The music which I at this time composed is indeed the best that I ever wrote, and I still call it the "Devil's Trill", but the difference between it and that which so moved me is so great that I would have destroyed my instrument and have said farewell to music forever if it had been possible for me to live without the enjoyment it affords me."
While tales of selling one’s soul to the devil were abundant folklore well before the age of poets like Goethe, who made them famous with his epic magnum opusFaust in the beginning of the following century, the dark mystique of the violin itself dates back even further. The piercing ranges capable of the instrument had long been assumed to be a product of something unearthly (and therefore devilishly sinister) for many centuries previous across the European continent.
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF MISSING TEETH & FRANZ JOSEPH’S SKULL PLAYING HAYDN SEEK (Yep, I said it!)
The obsessive Anton Bruckner
It seemsAnton Brucknermay not have been the only one with an (alleged) morbid fascination with the decayed body parts of composer’s past. Anton, who was present at pianist Franz Schubert’s exhumation (he famously embraced the deceased’s skull at the first opportunity he could seize - or sneak), before proclaiming Schubert‘the master’(poor Wagner, Bruckner had attached the same honorific to his living hero Richard backstage at an opera theatre immediately following one of the German composers’ titanic operatic productions, embarrassing the stout Wagner by falling to his hands and knees, grasping his idols hands into his own and declaring Wagner to be his“Meister”); Bruckner was also present at the exhumation of yet another ‘master’ to the obsessive composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (as previously mentioned in my post on mental health here on unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca). Little did Bruckner know, that in the name of science, Beethoven’s skull would have become so damaged, dissected and exchange so many hands through the coming centuries that the latest fragments of the composers’ skull were believed to have been discovered in the present century and were even curated into the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at California's San Jose State University in 2005! (This finding, unfortunately, was later debunked through vigorous and modern DNA testing nearly a decade later). The story, nonetheless stirred up great public interest and renewed admiration for the late German composer (allegedly, the skull fragments were even considered for a possible trip to the famed Christie's auction block in 2010).
The modern era, of course, still has a morbid fascination with the cadavers of musical icons past:
In July of 2012, authorities in Austria reported the graves of 19th century Classical giantsJohannes Brahms and Johann Strauss IIhad not only been unceremoniously disturbed but also ransacked by a modern grave robber who made off, bizarrely, only with both composers’ teeth. Why a modern ‘resurrectionist’ would seek to steal from his cadaverous victims only their teeth remains unclear. For reasons of respect to the dead, the identity of the robber will not be mentioned on unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca, however he did become known to authorities after posting a series of videos on the internet's video-sharing hub Youtube, showcasing his ‘finds’ and bragging about his stolen ‘relics.' Unfortunately for our beloved composers, the strong arm of Lady Law continues to evade the grave robber: the evidence in question (the videos depicting the body parts) were believed to have been made in 2002, making the crime itself “too old to prosecute” under current Austrian Law.
Phrenology, Princes and Police Chases (oh my).
Franz Joseph Haydn
Finally, we come to the mysterious case of Franz Joseph Haydn,the grandfather and reigning King of the Classical Era. It was 1820 when Hungarian Prince Esterházy,Nikolaus II,issued an order for Haydn’s remains to be transferred from their burial place in Austria’s Capital of Vienna to Eisenstadt (the seat of the Eszterházy Hungarian noble family). No one was expecting (especially the Prince) what they would find upon exhuming the body and opening the coffin: there lay the skeletal remains of Joseph Haydn…minus the composers’ skull!
After much dismay and a grand amount of sleuthing, it was discovered that the skull of the composer had been lifted from the coffin under the cloak of night and the cunning hand of bribery in the name of the pseudo-science of “phrenology” – another of the many quackeries to be found in medicine of times past. This bogus “science” was formed on the thesis that the individual characteristics of man such as personality and intelligence were directly related to the proportions and mass of the skull. Two followers of the phrenology cult wereJoseph Carl Rosenbaum(who appallingly, had befriended Haydn during his lifetime) and his partner in crime, a thief named Johann Nepomuk Peter.
Haydn's ever illusive skull.
The nefarious pair had almost lost possession of the stolen relic when they fell under suspicion of authorities in the mid-19th century. On one particularly unfruitful visit to the home of Rosenbaum (which he shared with his wife), authorities found theMrs. curled up in the fetal position on her bed. She couldn’t get up, she informed the officers, because it was “that time of the month”. In reality, it wasn’t a case of crippling cramps doing her in – the lady Rosenbaum, alerted to the presence of the police at her door, had rushed into her bedchamber, stuffing Haydn's skull under the mattress on which she now lay. "That time of the month" was a most formidable excuse by the Mrs. – the bodily functions of ladies, at the time, were considered a topic too taboo for public - or even private - discussion and doing so was considered an assault on decency. The blushing officers simply took the Rosenbaums’ wife at her word, and at once vacated the premises, empty handed, and none-the-wiser for their noble efforts. Monetary gain did not seem to be the focus of the Rosenbaums in illegally hoarding the skull. The Prince Eszterházy, himself convinced of the couple’s guilty hidden treasure, famously offered a substantial payment to the nefarious duo in exchange for Haydn’s head, with the intent to reunite and re-bury it with it’s host. Rosenbaumdid indeed accept the money and in turn offer up a skull to the Prince for reburial – just not the head Eszterházy was hoping for. Unbeknownst to Nikolaus and those attending the reburial ceremony, Joseph Haydn’s body was re-interred into the earth – complete with someone else’s head! This baffling case of Haydn seek would not see a resolution until the mid-20th century, when, through the hands of centuries worth of inheritors (almost all belonging to the medical sector), Haydn’s skull was finally returned to it’s rightful host in 1954– but not before a select group of admirers held for the composers’ head a public procession (featuring almost 100 automobiles). The skull had been appropriately dressed in a peony-covered urn for the occasion.
They say "Two Heads are Better than One": To add further macabre details to this bizarre story, it is said the skull of Haydn, now peacefully resting, fully intact with it's host cadaver, was re-buried...alongside the bogus cranium, leaving the composer permanently at rest - with two skulls! Some say the case of Haydn's traveling skull was a comically overzealous retribution of just desserts for the composer, who, as a notoriously naughty young lad was known to taunt the heads of fellow pupils with a sharp pair of scissors - once earning for himself the distinction of being expelled from school after unceremoniously hacking off a student's ponytail!
Now that is a revenge-filled conclusion of operatic proportions, indeed. Who said classical music was boring?
The exquisite vaulted ceiling and one of the many frescoes of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace
In a followup to Tuesday's post on the historic Latin Vespers Service at the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace, this post will discuss what the press who reported on the monumental occasion missed. If you found yourself clicking on the external links provided, or simply perused other news articles in print or on the web, you may have noticed an not-altogether insignificant discrepancy in the dates provided in regards to the beginning of the reformation under Henry VIII (which, as stated in Tuesday's post here on unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca began in 1534) and the last Latin Serviceperformed at the Palace'sChapel Royal, documented by the press as"450 years ago...in the1550's":
in regards to the Latin Mass ultimus, the reference is made to the King Henry VIII and the "mid-16th century"- but the reality is, the patriarch Tudor was already dead by 1547! According to the given timeframe of "450 years ago" (from today), the 'last Latin Service' would have been employed in the year 1566 - making Henry almost a full two decades into his grave - and three successive monarchs Tudor in. So what exactly happened to music at the Chapel Royal, and to Cathedrals and Churches across England in the 32 year time span since Henry VIII initiated reformation proceedings with the issue of Act of Supremacy in November of 1534?
Read below to find out!
The boy-king Edward VI, the only
legitimate son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Queen
Jane Seymour, who died in less than two weeks of
Edward's birth due to post-natal complications.
Half-brother to Mary I and Elizabeth I.
KING EDWARD VI (Reigned: 28 January 1547 – 6 July 1553):
Six months into the reign of the nine-year old newly crowned King of England, the incorrigible Edward VI, under the influence of Lord Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (the same Archbishop who aided Henry VIII in his annulment from his Queen, Catherine of Aragon and his subsequent break from Rome), bothProtestants like the boy-king,would orchestrate a series of ‘royal visitations’ at the countries’ major Cathedrals (including Winchester, York, Canterbury, and Windsor) with the explicit intent to ensure ‘Popish Rituals’ were abolished. Although the minutiae of details regarding who would be made allowed to participate in the act of singing the mass and by what frequency it would be permitted varied according to church, an edict issued by the Archbishop Cranmer at Lincoln Cathedral in 1548 made the changes to both language employed and the use of ornate polyphony within the music itself unmistakably transparent. In the demand, Cranmer (and effectively, the Monarch) decreed that“the choir shall henceforth sing or say no anthems of our Lady or other saints, but only of our Lord, and them not in Latin; but choosing out the best and most sounding to Christian Religion they shall turn the same into English, setting thereunto a plain and distinct note, for every syllable one: they shall sing them and none other.”
The Chapel Royal, the reigning Monarch’s personal Church (and establishment of musicians) at court, had already introduced the first English form of the compline (the evening service) three months prior. This is of interest to note, as it was one of the first precursors of what was to become of liturgical services across the nation. The Chapel Royal, under it’s Sovereign held the distinction of immunity from the actions of reformists. Nonetheless, the conversion from Latin to English at the Chapel set a precedent for the Church of England and all major Cathedrals across the nation.[1] Within five months of the first compline at the Chapel Royal in May of 1547, the Mass Ordinary was sung entirely in English at Westminster Abbey in London. Two years later, the Act of Uniformity would declare the English-language “Book of Common Prayer” as the ‘dictation of God’ to be used in the Church in replacement of the Latin Service books. By the time the second edition was issued, revised under the hand of the Archbishop Cranmer, music itself in regard to liturgical services was reduced to a diminutive role, considered by the ‘church’ as an unnecessary distraction, and as a result, received scant mention. As the new King, the Archbishop and members of Edward's Regency Council began whitewashing Cathedrals, stripping them of ‘Popish iconography’ - including the organs used for music - so suffered the choirs, and their choir books, which were systematically sold, destroyed and burnt.
Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII & the
annulled ex-Queen Catherine of Aragon; half-sister to
Edward VI & Elizabeth I.
QUEEN MARY I: “BLOODY MARY” (Reigned: July 1553 –17 November 1558)
Edward's whitewashing and dissolution of Services according to the Latin Rite would briefly change under his successor and half sister Mary I, whose stalwart dedication to Catholicism and her invasive measures to restore it as the religion of England and it's peoples earned her the moniker “Bloody Mary” as she systematically rooted out present and ex-conspirators,enemies of Catholicism, potential threats to the throne (this period included the sad tale of Lady Jane Grey, the sixteen year-old "Nine Day Queen” – a sobriquet earned upon her execution at the command of Mary in 1554) and protestants alike for public burnings-at-the-stake. Portions of the Acts of Uniformity were overturned, organs were restored to their Cathedrals and icons returned - and by 1557, around 13 Latin Service books, hoarded in secret by citizens during the Protestant reign of Edward VI - suddenly came to light under the ‘protection’ of the Catholic Queen Mary.
In fact, it has been written that immediately upon a thrice-echoed proclamation of “God Save the Queen!” (shouted in earnest by awaiting crowds after the announcement of Mary’s ascension to the English throne was made - at Cheapside Cross by the Lord Pembroke in July of 1553) overjoyed civilians celebrated with a ringing of bells and festivities that lasted through the evening and into the following day. They also celebrated in song: as Pembroke and various Lords of the Council walked in state to St. Paul’s Cathedral, the building’s choir was already preparing to sing aTe Deum Laudamus in honor of the Queen. Formerly stowed organs were dusted off and rolled out to accompany the music: England had not heard it’s like for nearly six whitewashed years of Edward’s reign and imposed reformations. Such (Latin) musical festivities appear to have been celebrated nation-wide: there are multiple documented accounts of public organ playing, bell ringing and singing well up until Mary’s procession. There is even evidence English composer William Mundy’s six voiceVox patris caelestiswas penned for the Queen’s pre-coronation procession, or perhaps even for the coronation itself. Learn about Mundy’s possible connection with Queen Mary at Oxford Academic.
Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII &
executed ex-Queen Anne Boleyn; half-sister to
Edward VI & Mary I.
QUEEN ELIZABETH I: “GLORIANA; THE VIRGIN QUEEN” (Reigned: 17 November 1558 – 24 March 1603)
The great neutralistElizabeth I, half-sister to Edward VI and Mary I and daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, ex-Queen Anne Boleyn (the seductive spark that fueled the reformation’s fire under the King) herself employed Latin Services at the Chapel Royal and in her own private Services at the beginning of her reign. Under the new Acts of Uniformity, issued by Elizabeth in 1559, reformist theologyand tradition would also be included into the doctrine: lessons and readings from the gospel were to be in English, and some of the Latin Rites would be suppressed - including the Elevation of the Host - in an attempt to placate Protestant zealots. This combination of half-measures, of course, did not sit well with extremists: in Easter of 1559, reformist John Jewel, who had witnessed Elizabeth attending a Latin Mass at the Chapel Royal rebuked the Queen, declaring the “masses and all the follies and abominations of Popery [were] everywhere sanctioned by the authority of the laws.” Elizabeth’s seemingly relaxed and neutral stance on religion was not to be taken at face value. The so-called "Virgin Queen" was notorious for her fickle indecisiveness and famously maddening ability to ride the fence on almost all major decisions affecting the State. She would, over the course of her 45 year reign on the throne of England, execute more Catholics than the Protestants killed by her late half-sister Bloody Mary and the victims of the Spanish inquisition combined.
Footnotes:
[1]This transition, however, did not happen overnight, but rather gradually. There is some evidence that suggests the composition of additional church music in the Latin tongue during this period, including the works of composer Christopher Tye (the Quaesumus Omnipotens and Domine Deus Coelestis, among others). In fact, for the two year span between Edward’s coronation and the indoctrination of the first edition of the English Prayer Book in 1549, it is believed most of the attendees to church would have experienced worship according to the Latin rite, using recycled music as compositions in the official Roman tongue began to phase out. It was, naturally, at the Chapel Royal under King Edward VI that experimentation with English liturgy first occurred, eventually branching out across English churches and cathedrals at St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, both of which performed the mass ordinary entirely in the native English tongue in suit of the Kings establishment at the Chapel Royal. A deeper look into the minutiae of the Act of Uniformity issued in 1549 reflects a gradual transition from Latin liturgy into English:
“it shall be lawful to any man that understandeth the Greek, Latin and Hebrew tongue, or other strange tongue, to say and have the said prayers heretofore specified, of Matins and Evensong in Latin, or any other such tongue, saying the same privately, as they do understand…though it be appointed in the afore-written preface that all things shall be read and sung in church in the English tongue…yet it is not meant but when men say Matins and Evensong privately, they may say the same in any language that they themselves do understand…”
MUSIC IN THE REIGN OF MARY I:
Latin works from the Composers Thomas Tallis:Videte Miraculum[2] & Gaude Gloriosa;[3] and John Sheppard: Missa Cantate[4]
Thomas Tallis,Videte MiraculumThomas Tallis,Gaude GloriosaJohn Sheppard, Missa Cantate
Musicologists, Tudor Enthusiasts and Theologians! MarkTuesday February 9, 2016in your calendar ofawesome historical events!
Today, at Hampton Court Palace, for the first timein almost 450 years, a small number of very lucky attendees (some 350, who applied via ballot) at the Palace’s Chapel Royal heard sung the first Catholic Service at the royal chapel (according to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, and as such performed largely in the Latin tongue), since it’s turbulent fallout following King Henry VIII’s infamous break from Rome in 1534 and it’s fickle presence (and absence) throughout the reigns of his children, the future monarchs Edward VI (a Protestant), Mary I (unshakably Catholic), and Elizabeth I (the last of the Tudor dynasty, whose neutral approach to religion and it’s music we have recently discussed here on unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca).
The Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace.
According to the Chapel Royal’s official press release in January 2016, the service of Vespers was slated to be “celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols…includ[ing] a sermon from… the Bishop of London…” in “an unprecedented coming together of Catholic and Anglican churches on... a historically important site." This monumental occasion was formed to mark the 500th anniversary of the Hampton Court Palace, and to help bring awareness to the upcoming half-millenium mark since the onset of the Reformation. The historic event also featured an informative discussion (prior to the service) in The Great Hall that covered the role and absence of Catholic Services as it relates to the Monarchy during the era of the Tudors right through to the modern age.
WHAT WAS SUNG:
music included works from the ComposersThomas Tallis:Magnificat;William Cornysh:Salve Regina; and John Taverner:"Leroy" Kyrie
Thomas Tallis, MagnificatWilliam Cornysh, Salve ReginaJohn Taverner, “Leroy” Kyrie
