[Theme music begins]

Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani. What are your favorite early music pieces? Do you think music lovers from a couple of centuries ago found them just as appealing? This hour, we’ll explore collections of British songs and dances made by lovers of early music in the 18th century. They didn’t have playlists or mixtapes, but they transcribed and often published collections of their favorite Medieval and Renaissance works to share with their friends and London’s music-loving public. We’ll think about how early music (or “Ancient Music,” as it was often called) was defined in 18th-century Britain and how it helped to define British musical taste.

[Theme music fades]

The gentlemen who led the series “The Concerts of Ancient Music” in the 1780s defined “ancient music” as works at least twenty years old. The society’s Anglo-centric concerts featured English Madrigals by Thomas Weelkes, anthems by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, and, of course, many works by Henry Purcell. The Earl of Sandwich directed a concert on February 24, 1783, Here is one possible excerpt they may have performed.

MUSIC TRACK
Purcell: The Tempest
Aradia Baroque Ensemble, Kevin Mallon
Naxos 2000 / 8.554262
Henry Purcell
Tr.13 Neptune’s Masque Act V no.13 (recitative and air) (4:23)

Music of Henry Purcell. “Your awful voice I hear and obey” from Act V of The Tempest performed by Aradia Baroque Ensemble, directed by Kevin Mallon.

Lovers of ancient music in the eighteenth century were often antiquaries—people interested in many historical topics from archaeology and natural history to literature and music. Thomas Percy, in addition to his official title as a bishop, studied old literature. In his search for old poetry manuscripts, he found “an ancient folio manuscript” with songs and poetry from the 12th to 17th centuries.” Percy’s historical essays focus mainly on poetry, language, and the role of poet-musicians who he calls English minstrels. In hundreds of pages of texts that were set to music, only one notated musical work is included—a facsimile of the original medieval notation for Deo gratias Anglia, or the Agincourt Carol, a 15th-century telling of the Battle of Agincourt.

MUSIC TRACK
Deo gratias Anglia: polyphonies sacrées: chansons anglaises de la Guerre de Cent Ans.
Ensemble Céladon
Aeon 2012 / AECD1218
Anon.
Tr.1 Agincourt carol (4:58)

Ensemble Céladon performed “The Agincourt Carol.”

Many antiquaries wanted to give their readers a taste of medieval notation, even if they couldn’t read it themselves. Joseph Ritson, *known for his collections of (Robin Hood) ballads and English nursery rhymes, admitted his lack of knowledge when producing a facsimile of the 13th-century English rota “Sumer is icumen in.”

MUSIC TRACK
Miri it is: songs and instrumental music from medieval England
Dufay Collective
Chandos 1995 / CHAN9396
Anon.
Tr.20 Sumer is icumen in (Summer is come) [13th century] (4:37)

“Sumer is icumen in” performed by the Dufay Collective.

Antiquaries with more musical training, such as organist and composer John Stafford Smith, collected manuscripts with musical notation, copied friends’ manuscripts, and published select songs. Smith played a crucial role in the survival of important sources of early English polyphony. He owned the Old Hall Manuscript for a time and made an early published edition of the Fayrfax Manuscript. Let’s hear a song from each of these collections.

MUSIC TRACK
Echoes of an old hall: music from the Old Hall manuscript
Gothic Voices
Linn Records 2021 / CKD644
Leonel Power
Tr.20 Ave regina coelorum (2:14)

MUSIC TRACK
A gentill Jhesu music from the Fayrfax Manuscript and Henry VIII's book
Pro Cantione Antiqua
Hyperion 1985 / A66152
Master Sheryngham (c1500)
Side 1, Tr.4 Sheryngham, Ah, Gentle Jesu (03:28)

Pro Cantione Antiqua performed Sheryngham’s Ah, Gentle Jesu from the Fayrfax Manuscript. Before that, Gothic Voices sang Leonel Power’s Ave regina coelorum from the Old Hall Manuscript.

[Theme music begins]

Early music can mean a lot of things. What does it mean to you? Let us know your thoughts and ideas. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org, where you’ll also find playlists and an archive of past shows.

You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.

[Theme music fades]

MUSIC TRACK
Harp collection: on original instruments
Frances Kelly
Amon Ra Records 1989 / CDSAR36
Edward Jones, arr.
Tr. 8 Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards: Rhyban Morfydd - Merch Megan - Glan Feddwdod myyn - Blodeu'r Grug - Confet Gruffydd ap Cynan - Rhyban Morfydd

Welcome back. We are listening to old songs and dances collected in 18th century Britain.

Antiquaries published many collections of old music in the eighteenth century. While some editors had little professional performing experience, Edward Jones was a notable exception. Jones was a harpist who played at the prestigious London concert series held by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel in the late eighteenth century. But Jones was also well-known for his performances of traditional Welsh music and for his role of promoting Welsh language, history, old poetry, and music. Jones boasted that his first Welsh music anthology was [quote] “preserved by tradition, and authentic manuscripts, from remote antiquity,” but really it featured melodies from previous centuries with added eighteenth-century harmonies and variations.

We’ll hear one of Jones’s sources and his later adaptation. Here is a medieval tune “Cainc of David the Prophet” from the Robert ap Huw Manuscript followed by Jones’s reimagining of the source.

MUSIC TRACK
Two worlds of the Welsh harp
William Taylor
Dorian Recordings 1999 / DOR 90260
Anon. [Robert ap Huw Manuscript]
Tr.14 Robert ap Huw ms.: Kaingk Dafydd Broffwyd/Cainc of David the Prophet (01:21)
Anon. [Arr. Edward Jones]
Tr.15 Edward Jones, 1802: Caingc Dafydd Brophwyd/Cainc of David the Prophet (08:08)

Harpist William Taylor performing two versions of the tune “Cainc of David the Prophet”: first, a medieval setting; second, an arrangement by Edward Jones.

There were collections of old tunes for a variety of instruments and countries, focusing on regions of England, Scotland, and Ireland. This suited the music book market (which produced much repertory for popular amateur instruments), but also connected these musicians to older musical traditions as sources of cultural identity.

We’ll hear tunes from two such books: The Scot’s Musical Museum and Orpheus Caledonius.

MUSIC TRACK
Auld Scottish Sangs
Scottish Early Music Consort
Chandos 1988 / CHAN0581
James Oswald
Tr.4 Rory Dall’s Port (2:32)

MUSIC TRACK
Love is the Cause: Scottish Tunes for Viola da Gamba and Baroque Guitar
Jonathan Dunford & Rob MacKillop
Alpha 2009 / ALPHA530
Traditional [pub. Orpheus Caledonius]
Tr.3 Mary Scot (2:47)

Two Scottish tunes: James Oswald’s “Rory Dall’s Port” performed by the Scottish Early Music Consort, followed by “Mary Scot” performed by Jonathan Dunford on viola da gamba and Rob MacKillop on baroque guitar.

Our featured release this week is the 2023 album Indiscretion by the ensemble The Curious Bards. It combines several collections of songs and dances, exploring Irish and Scottish identities through regional dance types like the strathspey, the reel, and regional airs, as well as featuring instruments associated with Ireland and Scotland, like the harp and bagpipe. The vocal works on this recording reflect the traditional role of the bards as historians, a practice since the medieval period that was categorized and historicized in many eighteenth-century publications on old bardic music by Edward Jones and others. This bardic song sets a poem, to commemorate the Jacobite uprising.

MUSIC TRACK
Indiscretion
The Curious Bards
harmonia mundi musique 2023 / HMM 905327
James Oswald
Tr.7 Tears of Scotland (4:01)

That was James Oswald’s “The Tears of Scotland” performed by The Curious Bards on their 2023 album Indiscretion.

Bards not only commemorated the past but also honored their present patrons and countrymen. Names of individuals are prevalent in song titles, lyrics, and writings about musical culture at the time. Songs set texts about particular people, past and present. Dances were dedicated to patrons or claimed to be the favorite dances of notable society members, especially women. Many bardic musicians in the British Isles were highly regarded for their technical skills as well as their storytelling abilities. Like notable musicians in Wales and Scotland, [late C17] harpist Turlough O’Carolan was well-known for his playing style and heralded as a treasure of Irish cultural identity during his life and in later centuries.

MUSIC TRACK
Indiscretion
The Curious Bards
harmonia mundi musique 2023 / HMM 905327
Turlough O’Carolan
Tr.10 Miss Noble (6:19)

Turlough O’Carolan’s air “Miss Noble” performed by The Curious Bards on their album Indiscretion.

Finally, let’s hear some Scottish reels considered “old” in the 18th century.

MUSIC TRACK
Indiscretion
The Curious Bards
harmonia mundi musique 2023 / HMM 905327
Anon.
Tr.13 Reels [The Honorable Miss Rollo’s Reel, Drunken Friday, Kelo House (3:05)

The Honorable Miss Rollo’s Reel, Drunken Friday, and Kelo House performed by The Curious Bards on their 2023 harmonia mundi recording, Indiscretion.

[Fade in theme music]

Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.

Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.

The writer for this edition of Harmonia is Devon Nelson.

Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.

[Theme music concludes]