The music of the English parish church

Bibliographic Information

The music of the English parish church

Nicholas Temperley

(Cambridge studies in music)

Cambridge University Press, 1979

  • v. 1 hard
  • v.2

Available at  / 8 libraries

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Note

Vol. 2 is an anthology of music

Bibliography: v. 1, P. 359-415

Vol. 1 includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

v. 1 hard ISBN 9780521220453

Description

This book is the most thorough and extensive history of English parish church music ever published, covering the period from the late middle ages to the present day. Through the ages English parish churches have resounded to all manner of music, ranging from the rich choral polyphony of Henry VIII's or Victoria's reigns to the bare unaccompanied psalm tunes of the seventeenth century. Temperley has found in this neglected field a wealth of fascinating music, as well as a host of intellectual problems to intrigue the scholar. A recurring theme of the book is the conflict between two incompatible goals for Protestant parish church music: artistic performance and popular expression. Professor Temperley suggests that the Elizabethan metrical psalm tunes were survivors of a mode of popular music that preceded the familiar corpus of ballad tunes. Passed on by oral transmission through several generations of unregulated singing, these once lively tunes changed gradually into very slow, quavering chants. This later style, which came to be called 'the old way of singing', is fully described and explained here for the first time. Temperley guides the reader through the complex social, theological and aesthetic movements that played their part in the formation of the late Victorian ideal of the surpliced choir in every chancel, and he makes a fresh assessment of that old bugbear, the Victorian hymn tune. His findings show that the radical liturgical experiments of the last few years have not dislodged the Victorian model for the music of the English parish church.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • 1. The significance of parish church music
  • 2. The Reformation era (1534-59)
  • 3. The establishment of Anglicanism (1559-1644)
  • 4. Commonwealth and restoration (1644-1700)
  • 5. Urban parish church music (1660-1790)
  • 6. Country psalmody (1685-1830)
  • 7. Reform movements (1760-1830)
  • 8. The rediscovery of tradition (1800-50)
  • 9. The Victorian settlement (1850-1900)
  • 10. The twentieth century
  • 11. Past and present
  • Appendices
  • Bibliography
  • Index.
Volume

v.2 ISBN 9780521220460

Description

Professor Temperley suggests that the Elizabethan metrical psalm tunes were survivors of a mode of popular music that preceded the familiar corpus of ballad tunes. Passed on by oral transmission through several generations of unregulated singing, these once lively tunes changed gradually into very slow, quavering chants. Temperley guides the reader through the complex social, theological and aesthetic movements that played their part in the formation of the late Victorian ideal of the surpliced choir in every chancel, and he makes a fresh assessment of that old bugbear, the Victorian hymn tune. His findings show that the radical liturgical experiments of the last few years have not dislodged the Victorian model for the music of the English parish church. This volume provides an anthology of parish church music of all kinds from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, newly edited from primary sources for study or for performance.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • List of examples, sources and critical notes.

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