BOOKS.

CHAPPELL'S POPULAR MUSIC OF THE OLDEN TIME.'

MR. CHAPPELL'S Collection of English National Airs was pub- lished nearly twenty years ago, and fourteen years have elapsed since the edition was exhausted. Meanwhile he continued those researches into the musical antiquities of England which had become to him a labour of love, with the view of producing an enlarged edition ; but he found that his investigations led him further and further into fresh fields of inquiry, and promised such an accumulation of matter, that he resolved to defer for a few years the republication of his work. At length he found the increase of his materials so great that it had become easier to re- write the book than to make additions to it. The present publi- cation, therefore, is not a new edition—it is a new work of more than twice the quantity, and ten times the value of the old. The alterations are not always additions : matter of inferior in- terest has been removed, and the form of the work is improved by the adoption of a chronological arrangement. The result of Mr. Chappell's labours has been a contribution to the musical literature of this country unequalled in value and importance save only by the works of our great historians, Hawkins and Burney. In regard to the latter of these writers, we may observe in passing that we cannot approve of the depreciatory tone in which he is uniformly spoken of by Mr. Chappell. He was often inaccurate, and often prejudiced, and has laid himself open to much criticism in regard both to fact and opinion. His errors have been several times exposed by Mr. Chappell himself, whose triumphs have not always been mingled with the courtesy due to his adversary ;—" a foeman worthy- of his steel," or of the steel of any combatant who has ever brandished his pen in the field of musical controversy. We cannot, with Mr. Chappell, impute wilful falsehood to Dr. Burney—his whole character forbids such an imputation. He was a gentleman and a scholar ; and his great work, with all its faults, is the most delightful, as well as the most instructive, that ever has been written on the his- tory of music.

Burney thought that England was not rich in national music : a great mistake effectually and practically confuted by the publi- cation of Mr. Chappell's work, in which we find a body of pure indigenous music not surpassed—nor perhaps equalled—by the music of any country in Europe. But Burney's mistake was pre- valent in his time. The subject had never been investigated, and no great collection of English music had ever been made. Burney did not enter upon the inquiry, and left the subject of national music untouched—an omission, certainly ; but one into which he was apparently led by the necessity of keeping down the bulk of his volumes. Probably when Mr. Chappell began to collect Eng- lish melodies, he himself did not anticipate the richness of his harvest.

It is somewhat difficult to define precisely what is meant by "National Music." The works of our English composers are English national music ; but this is not the sense in which the term is used. It is generally understood as being confined to music in common use among the people, and handed down to them by tradition from their forefathers, the names of the com- posers being unknown. But this last condition is not essential to the character of national music. The works of our Purcells or Ames are not, generally speaking, national music ; but a tune by Purcell or Arne may fall into this category by having come into popular use without reference to its composer. Thus "Britons strike home" and "Rule Britannia" are national songs, though the one is Purcell's and the other Ante's, because thousands are familiar with them who never heard the names of Purcell or Arne. Of such tunes Mr. Chappell's volumes afford many instances.

Mr. Chappell goes back to the time of the Norman Conquest, and his first specimen is the "Chanson Roland," said to have been the war song of Taillefer, the Norman champion, at the battle of Hastings. It is a regular melody in triple time, and without any intrinsic mark of antiquity, though that says nothing against its alleged date ; many `airs, undoubtedly ancient, being as smooth and rhythmical as if written yesterday. Internal evidence, de- rived either from the rhythm or the scale of a melody, goes but a short way in settling its genuineness. The next specimen is the famous song," Summer is icumen in" (Summer is come in), believed to belong to the thirteenth century, and the earliest se- cular composition in parts known to exist in any country. It is a great curiosity ; and, being unquestionably of high antiqui- ty, gives evidence of the early cultivation of counterpoint in Eng- land. Chaucer's poems are full of allusions to music, and to its use among all classes of people. Mr. Chappell quotes many pas- sages, and draws from them some curious conclusions. We learn," he says, "from the preceding quotations, that country squires in the fourteenth century could pass the day in singing or playing the flute, and that some could Bongos well, make and indite' ; that the most attractive accomplishment in a young lady was to be able to sing well, and that it afforded her the best chance of obtaining an eligible husband ; also, that the cultivation of music extended to every class. The Miller, of whose education Pierce Plowman speaks so slightingly, could play upon the bagpipe, and the apprentice both on the ribibk and gittern. The musical instruments named are the harp, psaltery, fiddle, bagpipe, flute, trumpet, rote, rebee, and gittern. There remain the lute, organ, ,halm (or shawni), and citole, the hautboy (or wayte), the horn, and shepherd's pipe' and the catalogue will be nearly complete, for the cittern or cithren differed • Popular Music of the Olden nme ; a collection of the Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, illustrative of the National Music of England. By W. Chappell, F.S.A. Published by Cramer, Beale, and Chappell.

chiefly from the gittem in being strung with wire instead of gut or other material. The sackbut was a brass trumpet with a slide like the modern trombone ; and the dulcimer differed chiefly from the psaltery in the wires being struck, instead of being twitted by a plectrum or quill, and therefore requiring both hands to perform on it. In the commencement of the Pardoner's Tale, he mentions lutes, harps, and gittems for dancing, as well as singers with harps ; in the Knight's Tale he represents Venus with a i

.stole in her right hand, and the organ s alluded to both in the History of St. Cecilia and in the talc of the Cock and the Fox."

We see, therefore, that in the fourteenth century, (the age of Chaucer,) the English were as richly provided with musical in- struments, and knew as well how to use them, as any nation in Europe. Erasmus, speaking of the English in the time of Henry VIII., says that they boast of having the most handsome women, of keeping the best tables, and being most accomplished in the skill of music of any people ; and it is well known that a race of musi- cians sprang up in England in the sixteenth century whose names are to this day illustrious in the annals of the art. They were pre- eminent in every branch, secular as well as sacred. The sublime ecclesiastical harmonies of Tye, Tanis, Byrde, and Gibbons are heard to this day in our churches ; and the beautiful madrigals of Wilbye, Bennet, Weelkes, Morley, Ward, and their illustrious contemporaries, have never been rivalled, the greatest modern composers having only approached their excellence. Nor was music in those days confined to professors of the art. Musicians were great, because their greatness was appreciated. All classes, even the lowest, loved music, and all classes, save the lowest, understood it. Henry VIII. was a composer of no mean acquire- ments, and Queen Elizabeth was a fine performer on the virginals, the pianoforte of that day. The universal cultivation of music in her time is described with much liveliness by Mr. Chappell.

"During the long reign of Elizabeth, music seems to have been in uni- versal cultivation, as well as in universal esteem. Not only was it a ne- cessary qualification for ladies and gentlemen, but even the city of London advertised the musical abilities of boys educated in Bridewell and Christ's Hospital, as a mode of recommending them as servants, apprentices, or hus- bandmen. In Deloney's History of the Gentle Craft, 1598, one who tried to pass for a shoemaker was detected as an impostor, because he could neither sing, sound the trumpet, play upon the flute, nor reckon up his tools in rhyme. Tinkers sang catches ; milkmaids sang ballads ; carters whistled ; each trade, and even the beggars, had their special songs ; the bass-viol hung in the drawing-room for the amusement of waiting visitors ; and the lute, cittern, and virginals, for the amusement of waiting cus- tomers, were the necessary furniture of the barber's shop. They had music at dinner, music at supper, music at weddings, music at funerals, music at night, music at dawn, music at work, and music at play."

As to the middle classes of society, their musical education and attainments were sufficient to put to shame the slight acquire- ments of the same classes in our day. To be able, in the social circle, to join at sight in the harmony of a part-song or a madrigal was deemed as essential to the character of a lady or gentleman as it now is to dance a quadrille or play a game at cards. In Morley's Introduction to Practical Music, a treatise written in dialogue according to the custom of the time, a young gentleman tells his friend that he is going in search of a music-master, in consequence of a mortification he had suffered at a party the night before, owing to his ignorance of music. "Supper being ended," he says, " and music-books, according to custom, being brought to the table, the mistress of the house presented me with a part, earnestly requesting me to sing ; but when, after many excuses, I protested unfeignedly that I could, not, every one began to wonder ; yea, some whispered to others demanding how I was brought up : so that, upon shame of my ignorance, I go now to seek out mine old friend Master Gnorimus, to make my- self his scholar."

Mr. Chappell quotes some satirical lines on the way in which fine ladies of the sixteenth century passed their time, which are, perhaps, not altogether inapplicable to the fine ladies of the nine- teenth—

" This is all that women do, Sit and answer them that woo ; Deck themselves in new attire, To entangle fresh desire ; After dinner sing and play, Or dancing, pass the time away."

And he quotes tile old French author of that day who says that "England is the paradise of women, as Spain and Italy are their purgatory." Queen Elizabeth's reign was rich in the production of songs and ballads. "Some idea," says Mr. Chappell, "of the number of ballads that were printed in the early part of the reign of Eli- zabeth may be formed from the fact that seven hundred and ninety-six ballads, left for entry at Stationers' Hall, remained in the cupboard of the Council Chamber of the Company at the end of the year 1560, to be transferred to the new wardens, and only forty-four books." These 'ballads were written by ,a host of ob- scure rhymers, and were adapted to the tunes in vogue at the time, most of which may therefore be supposed to belong to earlier periods. The ample section of Mr. Chappell's book which belongs to the time of Queen Elizabeth includes, under a distinct head, the ballad-music illustrative of Shakspeare. This portion is of great and peculiar interest. We have often wished to know what were the tunes to which the snatches of song, scattered through his plays, were sung ; now we find all, or nearly all of them ; and we find, moreover, that most of them are interesting and expres- sive. In As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, The Midsummer Night's Dream, and other plays, there are charming little lyrics whieh we are now able to join to the very melodies for which Shakspeare himself wrote them.

The high cultivation of musk among the upper and middle classes continued till the time of Charles II., when it began to de- cline. Even during his reign music in its most refined forms was still the most favourite pastime ; a fact of which we find much amusing evidence in the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn now in everybody's hands. Old Aubrey tells an anecdote of Dr. Richard Corbett, afterwards Bishop of Norwich.

"After he was D.D. he sang ballads at the Cross of Abingdon. On a market-day he and some of his comrades were at the tavern by the Cross, and a ballad-singer complained that he had no customS he could nGt put off his ballads. The jolly Doctor put off his gown and put on the ballad- singer's leathern jacket ; and, being a handsome man, and haviag a rare full voice, he presently had a great audience and vended a large number of ballads."

This reverend divine was himself a chansonnier, and wrote a ballad to the tune of Bonny Nell. The taste of Charles II., in music as in everything else, was light and frivolous. He aped the fashions of the court of Louis XIV., and gave exclusive en- couragement to French composers and performers. The royal

example was followed, of course' by the courtiers and higher

orders ; and, as fashion always descends, and spreads in de- scending, a great change for the worse was gradually wrought in the state of music in England. In later times there has been a revival: in our own day, especially, music in its higher forms is more and more generally understood. But, though the art itself

has made immense progress, its cultivation has not again risen to the old level of Elizabeth's age, when skill in music was so es- sential a branch of polite education' that if an unfortunate wight was obliged in society to confess his ignorance, "the company began to wonder and ask each other, how he was brought up?" Mr. Chappell, brings down his chronological series to the reign of George II., classing each particular ballad according to the period when its existence was first recorded; a classification_ which does not fix the actual date of its composition, for it may have existed long before it attracted the attention of any col- lector or publisher. Thus the lovely air, "Drink to me only with thine eyes" stands in the period from Queen Anne to George II., though it must have been much older, its words having been written by Ben Jenson. Mr. Chappell claims, as English, a considerable number of melodies which have been generally believed to be Scotch, Irish, or Welsh. On Scotland, indeed, his demands are so heavy, that, if they are admitted, that country will be stripped of many bor- rowed feathers. Into this controversy we shall not attempt to enter, because it would demand a degree of research similar to Mr. Chappell's own, and probably some Seotchman will be patriotic enough to undertake the task. We must observe how- ever, that we do not acquiesce in all Mr. Chappell's conclusions, because they do not always flow from his own premises. -Ad- mitting the accuracy of all his statements respecting a particular air—the various English collections and publications in which it appears, and the allusions made to it by English writers—and granting that no similar evidence of so old a date can be found on the northern side of the Border—still, we conceive, all this may be very true, and yet the air may be Scotch after all. There are, indeed, several popular airs, loosely reputed Scotch because they have been carelessly admitted into Scotch collections which are really and undeniably English, because we know that they were composed at such-and-such a time, and by such-and-such an English musician. But the discovery of a tune in an English collection merely tells us that it was known in England when that collection was published. It may have been sung in High- land glens and on Lowland braes for generations before it was ever carried across the Border. We know something of the Scottish peasantry. They love and cherish their music ; they learn it in childhood from those who are dearest to them ; and were we to hear a melody, in some Scottish district, familiar to its people from infancy to old age, we should be slow to believe it alien to them because it has found its way into some English publication.

But this question must remain sub judice—we cannot decide it. And we take our leave of a book from which we have received much interesting and entertaining information about the manners as well as the music of our forefathers—a book distinguished by scholarship, intelligence, and geniality of spirit—warmly recom- mending it to the attention of our readers.