1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:04,760 # Hallelujah! 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:07,200 # Hallelujah, hallelujah 3 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:09,520 # Hallelujah... # 4 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,280 Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, performed in the place where 5 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,840 monarchy and music have met for over a millennium - Westminster Abbey. 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,720 It's been performed here at royal occasions, 7 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,960 including Coronations, since the 18th century. 8 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:29,200 # Hallelujah, hallelujah 9 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:31,640 # Hallelujah, hallelujah... # 10 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:37,400 I first heard it in my childhood, sung by northern massed choirs. 11 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,520 # Hallelujah, hallelujah 12 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:43,760 # Hallelujah, hallelujah... # 13 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:45,320 Then, in my early 20s 14 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:48,640 and on the threshold of my academic career, 15 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:51,080 I heard it again here... 16 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,520 ..in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. 17 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:01,240 Now, the music and the building together hit me like a revelation. 18 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,400 # King of kings... # 19 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:07,040 The walls, with their crowns and coats of arms. 20 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,000 The words, thick with kings and lords. 21 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,960 The music with its thunderous rhythm. 22 00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:18,240 # He shall reign for ever and ever... # 23 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,440 All were royal. 24 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,560 This was the music of monarchy 25 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,240 in a shrine to monarchy. 26 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:35,240 This series is the story of how, over six centuries, 27 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:39,720 successive kings and queens have shaped the history of British music 28 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:41,880 as patrons and tastemakers, 29 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,800 and even as composers and performers. 30 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,320 Music takes you both into the most intimate, 31 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:53,560 personal aspects of monarchs' lives. 32 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:56,560 And then, of course, 33 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,720 the most public and triumphant, grand ceremonious face of monarchy. 34 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,680 I'll explore the monarchy's crucial role in the careers 35 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:07,320 of our greatest composers, 36 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:09,280 from Purcell and Handel, 37 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:11,440 to Parry and Elgar. 38 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:13,440 I'll be hearing their music 39 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:16,040 in some of Britain's most historic locations. 40 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,600 Performing this music in the places for which it was written, 41 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,560 you get a sense of that world in depth. 42 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:29,280 Because of the way music operates, I think it bursts out of time. 43 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:37,480 And I'll uncover why and when the music of today's Royal Family 44 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,960 was first created for their ancestors. 45 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,120 I'm beginning with the golden age of English music 46 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:48,280 which culminated in the genius of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. 47 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,360 It's the story of the kings who made English music the envy 48 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,800 of Europe, and then brought it to the brink of destruction. 49 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,120 And of the queen we have to thank 50 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:02,720 for the continuing glories of English choral music. 51 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:06,480 # Halle... 52 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:08,800 # Lu... 53 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:13,600 # Jah! # 54 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,560 Our story begins with King Henry. 55 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:25,320 The man who was our greatest king and finest general. 56 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:27,440 Who made the name of England feared, 57 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:31,240 and who reshaped the English church for his own purposes. 58 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,960 Who employed an unprecedented number of musicians 59 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,760 and who was even a composer himself. 60 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,040 I mean, of course, 61 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:42,720 King Henry V. 62 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:48,280 MUSIC: "Agincourt Carol" sung by Alamire 63 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:58,520 I'm listening to an English song that's nearly 600 years old. 64 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,040 Not only was this song heard in King Henry's lifetime, 65 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,360 it also takes HIM as its subject. 66 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,560 This is a musical account of Henry V's overwhelming 67 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:22,240 defeat of the French at Agincourt in 1415, 68 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:27,040 when Henry's much smaller army overcame a far bigger one. 69 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,400 It's perhaps the moment at which the English came nearest 70 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,000 to achieving the centuries old ambition of conquering France. 71 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,480 And it quickly became the stuff of legend, as in this carol here. 72 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:02,080 Nowadays we think of carols as only for Christmas. 73 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:06,160 But then they were used to celebrate any joyful event. 74 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:10,520 Mostly the sacred, like the birth of Christ, but sometimes 75 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,560 the apparently secular, like this great military victory. 76 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,920 To our ears, the English verses, with their uninhibited glorying 77 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:29,680 in battle and bloodshed, 78 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:34,520 and the refrain, with the solemn liturgical phrase "Deo Gracias", 79 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,520 "thanks be to God", belong to different worlds. 80 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:43,320 # Deo Gracias... # 81 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:47,560 But, to Henry V and his people, they were one and the same. 82 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,280 And their combination of military ambition 83 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:54,240 and the church militant 84 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,840 is the foundation of royal music in England. 85 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,720 By the time the King went into battle on that famous 86 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,240 St Crispin's Day, he'd already heard Mass. 87 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:13,520 And not a hurried, makeshift service but a beautifully sung one. 88 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,840 For, alongside the knights, archers and horses, 89 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:22,280 the King had also brought with him to Agincourt his own mobile choir. 90 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,640 These were the most important military supplies of all. 91 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:28,320 The dozens of priests, 92 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,960 singing men and choirboys of Henry's Chapel Royal, 93 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:36,600 along with all their equipment. The rich vestments, the altar plate 94 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:38,960 of massive gold, the relics, 95 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,640 the choir books and the sacred banners. 96 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:46,160 Henry's cannons were there to batter down the walls of Harfleur. 97 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:49,440 His Chapel Royal had a more vital task - 98 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:52,440 to bombard the gates of heaven with praise, 99 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:55,720 so's that God smiled favourably on his enterprise 100 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:57,760 and gave him the victory. 101 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:03,960 # Gloria in excelsis deo... # 102 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:06,560 This was a holy war to be fought 103 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:11,320 with the sacred weapons of prayer, and song, and music. 104 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:13,200 MUSIC: "Gloria" by Henry V 105 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:28,960 The year after Agincourt, Henry's forces again triumphed 106 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:32,520 against the French. This time, at the Battle of the Seine. 107 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:37,960 Henry celebrated the news immediately, 108 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:42,240 at the heart of English Christianity - Canterbury. 109 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:46,160 He offered thanks to God with magnificent music. 110 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:49,640 And in the company of a most distinguished guest. 111 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,360 In a diplomatic coup, equal to Henry's military victories, 112 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:57,160 the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund, was in England 113 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,080 and about to sign a treaty with the King. 114 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:06,320 I am standing where king and emperor stood 600 years ago. 115 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,560 And I am hearing the kind of English royal music they heard. 116 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:23,960 For me, it's one of those moments 117 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:26,520 when the centuries dissolve 118 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:29,080 and a window opens into the past. 119 00:08:36,680 --> 00:08:42,040 Sigismund, on the other hand, despite his Europe-wide travels, 120 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:45,120 would never have heard anything so fine. 121 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:03,920 The Emperor would have been treated to a pioneering new style 122 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:08,720 called "La Contenance Angloise" - the English sound. 123 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:11,960 It went on to conquer Europe even more effectively 124 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:13,760 than Henry's armies. 125 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,240 Its leading proponents worked for the Royal Family. 126 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:24,360 Chief among them, the first great English composer whose name 127 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:26,760 has come down to us - John Dunstable. 128 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:31,080 This piece by him, Preco Preheminence, 129 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:34,160 could be one that was sung on that very day, 130 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,200 and a contemporary copy remains at Canterbury. 131 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:45,240 Continental church music of the time often sounded rather angular, 132 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:47,680 intellectual and hollow. 133 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:52,240 Dunstable's music, by contrast, was smooth and sweet. 134 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:56,400 He underpinned strong melodies with rich harmonies. 135 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:09,720 It's wonderfully incantatory. 136 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,320 And you've just heard chords that last for a long time, 137 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,400 so that he's extending all the wonderful vocal lines 138 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:17,720 in the same sonority. 139 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:22,760 So, this is why this sense, almost of a languor, 140 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:25,520 a lingering on the note. 141 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:28,040 Some of the parts that they're singing are very florid 142 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:32,400 and are rhythmically very intricate, and something that would have been remarkable in the time. 143 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:35,400 So, this is really professional music of the highest calibre. 144 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,960 It certainly is, and he's making demands that he must have 145 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:40,680 been able to teach these people and demand from them even more 146 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:43,880 than they'd done before because what he's doing is new. 147 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:53,440 The victory celebrations for the Battle of the Seine 148 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:57,720 weren't just an opportunity to show off England's musical splendours 149 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:00,360 to one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. 150 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:05,520 They were also a turning point in the history of royal music. 151 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:10,240 The victory took place on 15th August, 1416, 152 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:13,760 the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 153 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:18,800 For Henry, the coincidence of the victory and the holy day, 154 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:23,680 was proof positive of divine intervention in English affairs. 155 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:29,120 And proof also that his prayers and sacred music worked. 156 00:11:32,680 --> 00:11:36,200 So, immediately, he decided to multiply the already 157 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:38,760 elaborate devotions of his Chapel Royal. 158 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:42,520 He added three antiphons - that is sung anthems - 159 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:45,720 to the daily high mass sung in his chapel, 160 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:49,520 and no fewer than six antiphons to the evening service. 161 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:59,080 Never had there been such profusion of praise and thanksgiving. 162 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,760 Never such demand for music. 163 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,680 The Chapel Royal was expanded to meet that demand. 164 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:12,520 In earlier centuries it had a dozen or so singers. 165 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:14,600 Under Henry, there were 50, 166 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,800 three times the size of any cathedral choir. 167 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:23,440 They travelled with the King from palace to palace 168 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,800 and in each there was a place of worship where they sang, 169 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:28,680 called the Chapel Royal, too. 170 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,760 And this is one of the books they would have used, 171 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:36,840 which includes compositions by four of the chapel's gentlemen. 172 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:44,240 But the most surprising composer of all is this - 173 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,520 Le Roi Henri, 174 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:52,520 King Henry himself, who composed this Sanctus and another 175 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:56,760 part of the Ordinary of the Mass, a Gloria, elsewhere in the book. 176 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,680 Henry led his armies from the front 177 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:03,440 because that was how he inspired his men to win victories. 178 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:07,480 He was equally hands on as a composer and liturgist 179 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,760 because that was how he believed you won God over to your side. 180 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,800 And that was the most important victory of all. 181 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:29,240 Barely heard in the intervening centuries, 182 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,760 this is music that came from Henry V's soul. 183 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:35,360 It's a simple, harmonised chant, 184 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:37,520 very much in the style of its time. 185 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,320 Musically competent, spiritually impeccable. 186 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:50,240 Such piety wasn't enough to save Henry 187 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:54,800 from death at the age of only 35 in 1422, 188 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,120 on another of his French campaigns. 189 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:02,600 He was succeeded by his infant son, Henry VI. 190 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,840 During his disastrous reign, 191 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:14,640 Henry VI lost all of his father's gains in France, and more. 192 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:16,800 He was a worthier heir, however, 193 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,880 to his commitment to England's music. 194 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:22,920 He maintained the Chapel Royal in its full splendour, 195 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:26,520 and he gave his kingdom a more permanent legacy 196 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:30,440 than his father's military victories, in two great institutions. 197 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:35,520 One was Eton College. 198 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:40,120 Today, it's the most famous school in the world. 199 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:44,400 When established, however, its chief purpose was not to educate, 200 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:49,160 but to pray and to sing for the souls of Henry and his family. 201 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:53,240 In the late middle ages, a college was first and foremost 202 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:57,080 a non-monastic community of priests. 203 00:14:57,080 --> 00:15:00,840 The collective worship of the chapel and its music 204 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:05,080 was most important, as can be seen from this early charter. 205 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,360 The official title of the college is 206 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:13,240 "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Windsor." 207 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:20,160 And here is Henry VI, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, 208 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:23,320 whom Henry VI believed, like his father, 209 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:25,960 was the special protectress of England. 210 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:31,520 And here, and here, and here are the "choirs of angels" 211 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:35,640 who "sing praises to the glory of God". 212 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:40,000 Henry's intention was that the clerks, or singing men, 213 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,040 and choirboys of the foundation, 214 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:46,800 would echo the heavenly choirs here on Earth in his college. 215 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:55,280 Henry's Chapel is still in daily use by the school. 216 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:59,120 The college has also preserved the kind of music that he intended 217 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,160 to be sung there in the pages of a choir book. 218 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:07,520 Written at the end of the 15th century, it's the most important 219 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:11,800 collection of English sacred music to survive from the period, 220 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,320 having miraculously escaped the mass book-burnings 221 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,760 of the Reformation. 222 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,840 'Dr David Skinner is an early music specialist, 223 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:24,440 'who is here to advise Eton's present day choirmaster, 224 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:28,520 'Tim Johnson, on how the book would originally have been used.' 225 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,240 It's extraordinary how different this is from the style of notation 226 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:35,280 that we would be used to using in the choir. 227 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:37,840 The other thing that's immediately apparent is how difficult 228 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:40,600 a lot of this music is and they must have been extremely good. 229 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:42,600 It's virtuosic. It's virtuosic, it really is. 230 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:46,920 I mean, you can see how the notation just speeds up towards the end, 231 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:50,400 it's like fireworks there, and then, again, it slows down. 232 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:51,920 So this is showing off music? 233 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,880 Yeah. This is music designed to show off the quality of the boys. 234 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,840 And really, only in England do you find this. 235 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:01,840 Continental choirs primarily are made up of three types of boys, 236 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,280 a treble line, a tenor line, and a bass line. 237 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:08,920 In England, there's one, two, three, four, five, 238 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:10,240 so you have the full spectrum. 239 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,920 The layout of the choir book really does determine 240 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:16,640 where the boys would stand in front of it. 241 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:21,520 So, the trebles, right up on the upper left hand portion 242 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:26,160 of this page, would you come, come through, boys? 243 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,920 And if you could position yourself quite centrally... 244 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:32,880 ..so you have a good view of that part. 245 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:36,320 Um, and then altos, you need to be able to see your part here. 246 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:40,600 Then let's bring in the high tenors, 247 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:43,240 and baritones, and then the low basses. 248 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,520 And the thing to remember is that this book 249 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:51,880 would have been much higher and on a lectern, about here, 250 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,000 so that you all could see your parts very clearly. 251 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,040 And, of course, the reason each one of them doesn't have a part, 252 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:00,640 as you would now, is there's no printing, 253 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:02,680 or there's no printing of music yet. 254 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:07,000 Books are unbelievably expensive. They are luxury objects. 255 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,320 Far too good for the likes of choirboys! 256 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,400 Right, Tim, are you going to take them forward? 257 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:12,360 Absolutely. 258 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,160 BOYS SING 259 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,880 'This is typical late medieval polyphony. 260 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:37,480 'Each of the five types of voice is singing an individual melody, 261 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:39,480 'which harmonises into a whole. 262 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:46,440 'Thanks to royal ambition, and royal investment, music was achieving 263 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,160 'unparalleled heights of complexity in late medieval England.' 264 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,720 That royal infrastructure remains central 265 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:59,960 to British musical life, even today. 266 00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:02,920 King's College, Cambridge was founded by Henry VI, 267 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:07,360 as Eton's twin, was completed by his successors, 268 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:11,160 and is still world-famous for the quality of its choir. 269 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:15,600 CHOIR SINGS 270 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:33,600 Look. Listen. 271 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:37,720 What the music and the architecture have in common. 272 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:39,840 It's a sense of proportion. 273 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:44,160 A perfect balance between extremes of simplicity and elaboration. 274 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:50,800 And the achievement of almost impossible effects 275 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:54,400 with seemingly effortless technical skill. 276 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,120 In the architecture, it's the fan vaulting. 277 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:01,240 It looks almost gossamer light. 278 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:04,240 In fact, it's held in place by its very weight, 279 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:09,120 which locks the voussoir, or the shape stones, into place. 280 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:12,720 In the music, it's the multitude of different lines 281 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,960 which weave together, just like the ribs in the vault. 282 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,680 Each separate, each interlocking with the other, 283 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:27,480 into a solid structure of miraculous sound. 284 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:46,400 Above all, both the music and the architecture 285 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,600 are uniquely, archetypically English. 286 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:54,120 And they're almost as exclusively royal, 287 00:20:54,120 --> 00:20:56,280 because only kings could afford them. 288 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:05,960 Others did aspire to them, however. 289 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:10,680 Across England, wealthy and noble families emulated the royal model, 290 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,320 and founded colleges of their own. 291 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,320 By the 16th century. they numbered in the hundreds, 292 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,800 providing musical employment on an unparalleled scale. 293 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,880 Monastic music-making had been restricted to those who'd taken 294 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:31,640 holy orders, but colleges were open to the outside world, 295 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,680 and able to pay for the best musicians. 296 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,880 Composers in turn took advantage of improvements 297 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,200 in both the skill and the size of choirs. 298 00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:48,200 So a piece like this from the early 1500s is built round eight 299 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,640 individual parts, even more complex than the five-part polyphony 300 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:53,720 I heard at Eton. 301 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:09,920 It was a moment to savour, 302 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:14,720 for the reputation of English music would never be so high again. 303 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:19,160 The responsibility for that lay with the monarch 304 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,400 who finally completed King's College Chapel. 305 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:27,440 Henry VIII loved the music that King's was built for. 306 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,120 He grew up with it. 307 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:32,560 He patronised its best performers and composers. 308 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,520 He even, like his namesake and role model, Henry V, 309 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,080 composed such music himself. 310 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,400 But there's a difference. 311 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,400 Henry V, the story goes, 312 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:47,040 got his bad behaviour out of the way as a young man. 313 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:51,480 Henry VIII's character, on the other hand, darkened and deteriorated 314 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,760 as he got older, and as it did so, it threatened to bring down 315 00:22:55,760 --> 00:23:02,280 everything that this building stood for. Choirs, church, the lot. 316 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:09,000 And both sides of his character, the profane as well as the sacred, 317 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,360 could be found in the music he composed. 318 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:16,480 # Pastime with good company 319 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,800 # I love and shall until I die... # 320 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,680 This is the so-called Henry VIII manuscript, produced for 321 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,840 Henry's court in the first half dozen or so years of the reign. 322 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:32,360 It gets its name from the fact that Henry is by far the most 323 00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:36,040 frequently named composer in the book, with some 30-odd pieces. 324 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:41,680 And this is his masterpiece - Pastime With Good Company. 325 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:03,320 First sight, it seems pretty straightforward, 326 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,800 all about youth having its fling, etc. 327 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,760 But listen again a bit more carefully. 328 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:18,360 "Who shall me let?" That is, who's going to stop me? 329 00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:21,720 This reflects the fact that Henry had just been stopped indeed, 330 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:25,800 by his council, from relaunching Henry V's war against France, 331 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,200 which he'd come to the throne determined to do. 332 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,920 In revenge, as it were, Henry spent the second summer of his reign 333 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:38,240 in a kind of internal exile, enjoying himself and writing music. 334 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:48,320 And it was then, in 1510, that most, maybe all, 335 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,000 the songs in this book would have been written. 336 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,280 But how can we be sure that Henry didn't simply put his name 337 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,360 to music that other people had written for him? 338 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,840 You can really tell that Pastime is, primarily, must be by the king, 339 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,960 because there are certain errors in the part-writing 340 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,520 that just would not have happened by one of his court composers, 341 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:30,960 it just wouldn't have happened. 342 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:32,640 He liked what he heard and it stayed in. 343 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,600 And everybody else, because the king had written it, liked it, too! 344 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:36,880 Yes. 345 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,920 On the other hand, Pastime is hugely popular. It is, yes. 346 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:43,240 Outside court circles where the King couldn't say, you know, 347 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:44,960 "You will like this, or else." 348 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,680 The simple fact is, is that the tunes really draw us in - 349 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:48,800 they're good tunes. 350 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:53,160 This is very different from the kind of liturgical music of Henry V, 351 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,320 in which the King exposes his faith. 352 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,440 Here we've got Henry exposing his heart. 353 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:00,800 It's autobiography in music and words. 354 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,840 Well, Henry's writing about the chase, isn't he? 355 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,200 About the hunt, about love. 356 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:08,240 Of women, especially! Love! Yeah, exactly. 357 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:10,800 I mean, this is a king as pop star, isn't it? 358 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:13,520 Yes. It's not the Henry that we see in Holbein, is it? 359 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,600 No, he's slim and handsome. Slim, good looking, tall. 360 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:17,760 Completely different man. 361 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,640 Henry employed nearly a hundred musicians by the end of his reign. 362 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,360 Not only the sacred singers of his chapel, 363 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:30,800 but the secular musicians of the court. 364 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,240 The range and number of his instrumentalists 365 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:36,720 would have made for a splendid orchestra. 366 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:38,320 At this point in history, however, 367 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:42,200 they weren't yet playing together in a single group. 368 00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,840 Instead, there were a number of smaller bands, 369 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:49,240 each playing a different kind of instrument. 370 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,880 The string consort, for instance, specialised in violins, 371 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,800 and the instrument played here, the viol, 372 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,840 which was first heard in England at Henry's court. 373 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:04,440 Further distinctions were made according to function, status, 374 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:05,880 and even volume. 375 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:11,320 TRUMPETS PLAY 376 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,600 Some instruments were classed as being "haut", meaning loud. 377 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:29,600 Chief amongst them were the trumpeters, 378 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:34,200 who blasted out fanfares for royal entrances and processions. 379 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,160 This instrument is also loud. 380 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:51,160 INSTRUMENT PLAYS 381 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:52,560 It's called a shawm. 382 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,200 The shawm players, unlike the drummers and trumpeters, 383 00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,720 could read music, and played "art" - that is to say, composed music, 384 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:05,080 like this piece by Henry VIII. 385 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:07,360 SHAWM PLAYS 386 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:09,920 With music like this, they accompanied the dances and revels 387 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,080 of the ladies and gentlemen of the court. 388 00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:16,280 They were the court dance band. 389 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:23,240 SHAWM PLAYS 390 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,440 Other instruments were classified as "bas", or soft, 391 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,240 and the musicians who played them were often the most highly-skilled 392 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:41,720 and highly-paid virtuosi, including the lutenists. 393 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:45,800 This is music for royal love-making, 394 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,120 or to entice the King to repose. 395 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,000 The King played the lute himself, 396 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,680 along with the harp, recorder and keyboard. 397 00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,520 But he also loved to listen to his favourite performers, 398 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:01,720 for hours at a time. 399 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:10,080 Music was more than a personal passion, however. 400 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,520 Henry's ambition was to have the grandest, 401 00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,560 the most magnificent court in Europe. 402 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,760 A court to cow his enemies, to impress his rivals, 403 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,680 and to convey to everyone that England and the English monarchy 404 00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:25,480 was glorious once more. 405 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:30,160 Henry was a master of the politics of splendour, 406 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:33,840 and the brightest jewel and the most effective instrument 407 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:35,760 was his Chapel Royal. 408 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:40,920 # Henrico Octavo... # 409 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:45,920 This is a prayer for Henry VIII, rendered, in Latin, Henrico Octavo. 410 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:51,840 # Henrico Octavo... # 411 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,640 It was composed by a prominent gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 412 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,240 early in Henry's reign, Robert Fairfax, 413 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,680 and it's the kind of showpiece that was intended to give 414 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,400 visiting diplomats something to write home about, literally. 415 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,640 "His Majesty invited the Ambassador to hear Mass 416 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,560 "sung by his Majesty's choristers, 417 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,720 "whose voices were really rather divine than human. 418 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,600 "They did not chant, but sang like angels, 419 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,880 "and as for the counter-bass voices, 420 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,080 "I don't think they have their equals in the world." 421 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,400 One can only imagine Henry's displeasure when, 422 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:47,000 during the Christmas celebrations of 1517, he learned of a choir 423 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,200 that could sing even better than the Chapel Royal. 424 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,920 What was worse, it served the King's own Chief Minister, 425 00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:57,920 Cardinal Wolsey. 426 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,640 To even the field, Henry took a gift from Wolsey - 427 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:12,520 the best treble from the Cardinal's choir, a young lad named Robin, 428 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:16,520 praised in letters for his "sure and cleanly singing", 429 00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,720 and also "his good and crafty descant". 430 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,920 Descant was a very noble art form, which is now sadly lost, 431 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,560 and that's the idea of improvisation. 432 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,120 # Gloria tibi... # 433 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,920 The master would sing a chant melody that was well known... 434 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:45,000 # Gloria... # 435 00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:49,800 And the boy would know which notes he could actually sing 436 00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:51,800 against the plainchant notes. 437 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:08,720 And what is created is, hopefully a beautiful, seamless melody. 438 00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:19,000 The extraordinary thing here, I think, 439 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,160 is that we're dealing with a 13/14-year old and the level 440 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:23,680 of training that you must achieve 441 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,600 in order to be able to do this is extremely high, 442 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,560 so Robin must have been at the top of his trade. 443 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,400 Henry went on to take more than a chorister off Wolsey. 444 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:46,800 He'd go on to confiscate the Cardinal's palace, Hampton Court, 445 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,600 and then all his possessions, and all his power. 446 00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,800 All because of the Cardinal's failure to persuade the Pope 447 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:59,360 to allow Henry to marry Anne Boleyn. 448 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,200 # O, My Heart 449 00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:08,280 # And O, my heart... # 450 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,360 Anne was highly musical. She played the lute and harp, 451 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,520 and sang and danced well, which must surely have been 452 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:22,280 part of her attraction to a man as musical as Henry. 453 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,360 It was the love story that led to English Reformation. 454 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,840 To make Anne his Queen, Henry had to break with the Roman Church 455 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:33,680 and set England on a path 456 00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:36,480 that would lead it to become a Protestant nation. 457 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:52,680 Henry made himself Head of the Church of England, 458 00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:56,840 for the narrowest and most self-interested of motives. 459 00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:59,520 But there was a powerful sting in the tail 460 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,200 of the new approaches to religion he'd decided to embrace. 461 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,400 In the old faith, especially as we've seen it practiced 462 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:13,320 by the English kings, music was inseparable from religion. 463 00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:18,680 Mass was rarely said, it was sung, with every variety of skill, 464 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,200 elaboration and instrumental accompaniment. 465 00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:27,720 But, for the new faith, the word was there to be spoken, 466 00:34:27,720 --> 00:34:30,440 clearly, simply, directly. 467 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:32,800 Words were to be understood, 468 00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,200 and anything that got in the way of understanding, 469 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:40,840 like a foreign language or ritual or music, was wrong. 470 00:34:42,240 --> 00:34:44,840 It did not matter if it moved the emotions 471 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:48,800 or plucked the heart strings, those were the wiles of the devil, 472 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:53,200 to be swept aside by the pure redeeming word of God. 473 00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:02,600 It was the start of a war 474 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:06,600 that would change the sound of England for ever. 475 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,000 Music was a central battleground 476 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,280 in the religious conflict which took centuries to be settled. 477 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,160 The case against music was mockingly put 478 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:24,920 by the scholar Erasmus. 479 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,080 "The English think God is pleased 480 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:32,240 "with ornamental neighings and agile throats. 481 00:35:32,240 --> 00:35:35,680 "The whole day is now spent in endless singing. 482 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:39,560 "Yet one worthwhile sermon exciting true piety 483 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,560 "is hardly heard in six months." 484 00:35:46,720 --> 00:35:51,200 Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, agreed. 485 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:56,160 Traditional music was too "full of notes", he complained. 486 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,840 He wanted English music to be more like the spoken word, 487 00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:05,400 "Sung distinctly and devoutly. For every syllable, one note". 488 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:11,600 Music still had one very powerful defender - 489 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:15,120 the head of the Church of England himself. 490 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:22,640 This is Henry VIII's Psalter or book of psalms. 491 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,760 It's specially written and illuminated for him, and it's 492 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:31,520 annotated in Henry's own bold and unmistakeable handwriting. 493 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:37,520 It's a profoundly personal book that reflects the ageing Henry's vision 494 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:43,200 of himself and his kingship, and both of them focus on music. 495 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:49,720 As here, in the illumination to Psalm 52, which shows Henry 496 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:53,840 playing on his harp, just like the old testament to King David. 497 00:36:53,840 --> 00:37:00,760 Or here, with musicians making "a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob", 498 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:05,040 just as Henry VIII's Chapel Royal continued to do. 499 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,840 Again and again, Henry's personal annotations 500 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,880 approve of the central role of music in this Biblical text. 501 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:17,080 "NB, praise on the psaltery", he writes at one point - 502 00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:18,920 that's the instrument pictured here. 503 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:24,000 And when the psalmist says, "Praise the Lord upon the harp", 504 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:27,160 Henry writes simply "of worship". 505 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:31,000 Music is worship and worship is music, 506 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:33,720 just as it had been for Henry V and Henry VI. 507 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:41,440 Henry fervently believed that he, too, was leading his people 508 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:44,000 in the true, melodious worship of God. 509 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:49,480 CHOIR SINGS 510 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,240 And so, in spite of the suspicions of zealous Reformers, 511 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:02,240 Henry's Chapel Royal remained as musically magnificent as ever. 512 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:21,560 In 1543, the King's choir was made even more glorious still, 513 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:25,360 when one of the greatest English composers of all was admitted 514 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,280 to its ranks - Thomas Tallis. 515 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:34,720 Like so many musicians of this period, 516 00:38:34,720 --> 00:38:38,440 we know next to nothing about his character. We can't even be sure 517 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:42,360 exactly when he was born, though we think it was around 1505. 518 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:47,080 What we do know about Tallis, however, is that during 519 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:51,200 his extraordinarily long life - he lived some 80 years - 520 00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,040 he served four successive monarchs 521 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,120 of wildly different religious opinions. 522 00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:01,040 The great changes prompted by Henry's assumption of the headship 523 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,520 of the church not only affected Tallis's professional career. 524 00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:10,960 More importantly, they shaped and reshaped the very style and form 525 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:12,480 of the notes he wrote. 526 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,920 Tallis began his career as organist and singing man in monasteries, 527 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,160 until Henry abolished them. 528 00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:32,160 This luxurious piece is typical of the music he composed 529 00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:34,920 in his younger, monastic years. 530 00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:38,960 CHOIR SINGS 531 00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:59,600 So that's what Latin church music sounds like under Henry VIII. 532 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:02,280 In other words, Latin, polyphony, 533 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,480 the voluptuousness of the English sound. 534 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,040 Absolutely so, and it's important to remember than music served 535 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:11,800 no other purpose than, say, a stained glass window or a tapestry. 536 00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:13,000 It was meant as a... 537 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:14,480 Incense. Exactly. Meditation. 538 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:15,880 It was aural incense. Yes. 539 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,920 Meditation. A backdrop for a prayer. 540 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:20,560 Then, the change. 541 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:29,040 The "change" was Henry's death in 1547. 542 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:34,520 He was succeeded by his son, Edward VI, who, even at the age of nine, 543 00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:36,920 burned with Protestant zeal. 544 00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:42,080 To him, the sacred music loved by his father 545 00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:46,000 was a Popeish corruption that should be rooted out. 546 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,640 With Edward's enthusiastic approval, 547 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:53,480 Cranmer issued the first version of the English Book of Common Prayer. 548 00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,440 Latin was no longer to be the language of the church, 549 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:00,000 nor of its music. 550 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:07,600 Thomas Tallis would now have to change his tune. 551 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,440 The introduction of the English prayer book changed everything. 552 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,560 The walls are whitewashed, the stained glass is removed, 553 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:17,080 no longer is the Latin polyphony appropriate. 554 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,720 What is appropriate is a text that can be clear, 555 00:41:19,720 --> 00:41:21,880 transparent, and heard. 556 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:26,000 It's in English, and it makes completely new demands on music, 557 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:27,760 and could we have an example? 558 00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:31,000 With the closure of choir schools and the new prayer book, 559 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,440 there was no need for a boys' line, 560 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:36,080 so, boys, you can go, you're no longer needed. 561 00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:43,360 All that remains, the bass, baritone and tenors - 562 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:44,720 the clerks, the men of the choir. 563 00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:03,880 Practically every note is imprinted with reform, 564 00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:05,880 and Tallis uses certain devices 565 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,920 to ensure that the listener can understand the words. 566 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,840 He gets the voices to sing together in what's called homophony, 567 00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,360 or chordal writing, and then you'll find the upper voices 568 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,800 singing together, the lower voices singing together. 569 00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,480 So what they're doing is, if you like, 570 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:25,080 a kind of sermon in music, and the word dominates everything. 571 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,800 Tallis proved as gifted writing in this new style 572 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:36,000 as in the one he'd grown up with. 573 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:39,720 Almost overnight, he had reinvented English sacred music. 574 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,080 Even this was not enough to satisfy the radical reformers. 575 00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:50,080 Henry had dissolved the monasteries, 576 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,120 which employed large numbers of musicians. 577 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:58,200 Now Edward oversaw the closure of many other religious institutions, 578 00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:01,600 including most of the colleges which had, for so long, 579 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:03,280 been central to English music. 580 00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:12,600 By 1551, even the choir at King's, Cambridge, had been silenced. 581 00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:14,680 And still worse was to come. 582 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:20,880 In 1552, Edward's council published a second 583 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,080 and much more radical prayer book here. 584 00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:29,640 In this, references to music are few and dismissive. 585 00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:32,880 "There shall be lessons sung in a plain tune, 586 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,560 "after the manner of distinct reading." 587 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,080 In other words, don't bother. 588 00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:41,880 Music is a hindrance, not a help, to devotion. 589 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:47,440 Only five years before, the great tradition of English music had been 590 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:52,440 central to Henry VIII's vision of his kingship and his church. 591 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:56,080 Now, under his son, it hung by a thread. 592 00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:01,560 The choirs and the organs had gone, and even the memory of the music 593 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:06,320 risked disappearing entirely, as thousands of choir books 594 00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:11,920 were burned or cut up for scrap, 595 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:17,720 like these few stained, chopped fragments here, 596 00:45:17,720 --> 00:45:21,520 leaving only a hundred or two intact pages 597 00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:26,720 to preserve the memory of the entire body of medieval English music. 598 00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:39,440 CHOIR SINGS 599 00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:44,800 And yet, within a couple of generations, 600 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:48,520 this was the kind of music being produced for the Church of England. 601 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:09,240 It's by a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 602 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:11,720 and the only man who rivalled Thomas Tallis 603 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:16,360 for the title of the greatest English composer of the 16th century 604 00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:18,360 - Tallis's pupil, William Byrd.' 605 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:27,040 Musically, it displays clear links to the rich, sweet polyphony 606 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:28,160 of the Catholic past. 607 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,640 And yet, this verse anthem is definitely Protestant music, 608 00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:37,040 and it's in English. 609 00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:50,160 So how did music like this take root 610 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,080 in the Protestant Church of England? 611 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,400 Just as English music had been on the point of total annihilation, 612 00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:03,080 in 1553, Edward had died, at the age of just 15. 613 00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:11,720 His sister, "Bloody" Mary, had then returned England 614 00:47:11,720 --> 00:47:15,680 back to the worship, and music, of Catholicism. 615 00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:19,120 Her reign, like her brother's, lasted barely five years. 616 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:26,440 So the musical future of England came down to the power 617 00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:29,360 and preference, and exceptionally long reign, 618 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:32,320 of Henry's last surviving child. 619 00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:48,280 Elizabeth was Henry VIII's daughter by his second wife, Anne Boleyn. 620 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:54,040 In spite, or perhaps because of, her mother's disgrace and execution, 621 00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:58,200 Elizabeth was wholly her father's daughter, 622 00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:01,080 in her love of music, of which she was a connoisseur, 623 00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:04,960 and was herself a very skilful keyboard player, 624 00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:09,280 and in her idiosyncratic approach to religion. 625 00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:14,320 Elizabeth rejected both the austere Protestantism of her brother Edward, 626 00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,360 and the fervent Catholicism of her sister Mary. 627 00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:23,120 Instead, like Henry VIII, Elizabeth, too, wanted a middle way. 628 00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:27,440 Most of her subjects however, did not, 629 00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:30,600 and were soon set on the road to radical reform. 630 00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:38,240 # All people that on earth Do dwell... # 631 00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:43,840 In the majority of churches, their colourful walls 632 00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:47,160 were whitewashed over, as in this Gloucestershire chapel. 633 00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,880 Instead of an altar at the east end of the church, 634 00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:55,360 there was now a communion table, surrounded by seats. 635 00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,480 The only music likely to have been heard 636 00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,040 was the unaccompanied singing of psalms. 637 00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:06,120 # ..and rejoice 638 00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:14,680 # The Lord, he knowest God indeed... # 639 00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:21,360 This is a translation of Psalm 100, by a Scot - William Kethe. 640 00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:24,600 It was published early in Elizabeth's reign, 641 00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:28,480 along with English language versions of the other psalms, 642 00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:33,320 and a handful of standard tunes that the words could be sung to. 643 00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:37,680 This one has been sung with Kethe's words, ever since, 644 00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:41,400 which is why it's now known as the "Old Hundredth". 645 00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:46,600 This is as good as it got in most Elizabethan churches, 646 00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:50,920 and after decades of reformation and counter-reformation, 647 00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,600 all the music that most aspired to. 648 00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:59,080 And yet, there was one notable exception. Very elaborate works by 649 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:03,440 Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were regularly and magnificently sung. 650 00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:09,120 The royal household. 651 00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:19,640 At Hampton Court, we can still see where Elizabeth would have heard 652 00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,200 her beloved music - the space known, 653 00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:25,960 like the choir that sung there, as the Chapel Royal. 654 00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:42,960 This was the Queen's personal religious space, and she treated it 655 00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:47,880 with all the possessiveness worthy of the greatest of her ancestors. 656 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:51,440 The result was that the Reformation had less impact here 657 00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:53,720 than anywhere else in England. 658 00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:58,960 Here, the clergy still wore rich vestments, the organs played, 659 00:50:58,960 --> 00:51:01,720 and the choir still sung, often in Latin, 660 00:51:01,720 --> 00:51:04,160 music by the great William Byrd. 661 00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:13,920 Outside, it was the cold winter of Protestant austerity. 662 00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:17,360 Inside, it was indeed the warm summer 663 00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:20,880 of the golden age of English church music. 664 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:28,160 Elizabeth was too astute to attempt to impose her preferred style 665 00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:32,840 of worship on a country still riven by religious division. 666 00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:36,080 William Byrd was a case in point. 667 00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:40,160 Openly, flamboyantly Catholic, he was frequently fined 668 00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:43,920 for refusing to attend his parish church. By the 1580s, 669 00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:48,840 he was even writing protest songs about religious persecution. 670 00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,520 It says much about Elizabeth's powers of patronage that a recusant 671 00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:55,880 like him could remain a gentleman of her Chapel Royal. 672 00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:02,080 I think there's no doubt whatever 673 00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,480 that Elizabeth was driven by personal taste, 674 00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:08,280 but that, after all, is what a personal monarch should be. 675 00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:12,760 Their wishes are what drive it. 676 00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,960 Nowadays, it's what we talk about if we talk about somebody 677 00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:20,040 as a conviction politician - it is their wish, their will. 678 00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:29,600 Elizabeth's personal taste for the music also reflected 679 00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:34,560 the fact that she understood the nature of royal ceremony. 680 00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:41,800 Almost all royal ceremony before the Reformation was religious. 681 00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:46,720 What Elizabeth does is to stop that disappearing. 682 00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:50,280 And this means, then, 683 00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:54,400 that you have a fully ceremonialised Protestant monarchy. 684 00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:03,040 She composed a kind of personal oratorio of monarchy, 685 00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:08,440 in which she supplied the words, she supplied the performance 686 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:14,680 and then others took what she'd begun and carried it to further and 687 00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:18,440 fresh heights, and this, I think, is why she is such an inspiration. 688 00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:23,720 # Say, love, if ever thou dids't find 689 00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:26,560 # A woman with a constant mind? 690 00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:28,040 # None but one 691 00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:32,760 # And what should That rare mirror be? 692 00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:36,360 # Some goddess or some queen is she 693 00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:39,720 # She, she, she, she, she 694 00:53:39,720 --> 00:53:43,160 # She and only she 695 00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:48,240 # She only queen Of love and beauty... # 696 00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:51,880 Though this is not a sacred song, 697 00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,480 it too celebrates Elizabeth and her reign. 698 00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:59,720 It's by John Dowland, who composed the greatest secular music 699 00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:04,840 of the era. His love songs were popular across the whole of Europe. 700 00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:08,160 This song, however, he's paying an elaborate compliment 701 00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:10,280 to his monarch. 702 00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,720 Like much of the art of Elizabeth's reign, 703 00:54:12,720 --> 00:54:15,320 Dowland's song mythologises the Queen, 704 00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:18,880 and presents her to the listener as the embodiment of virtue. 705 00:55:10,440 --> 00:55:16,040 Elizabeth died in 1603, after a reign of nearly 45 years. 706 00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:33,320 There's a 17th century account of her death which, though medically 707 00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:38,520 implausible, tells us how much her reign was associated with music. 708 00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:41,320 The story goes that, in her last days, 709 00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:45,720 she called for the royal musicians to gather round her deathbed. 710 00:55:45,720 --> 00:55:50,960 "..so that, she said, she might die as gaily as she had lived, 711 00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,840 "and that the horrors of death might be lessened." 712 00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:03,120 "She heard the music tranquilly until her last breath." 713 00:56:08,240 --> 00:56:14,040 And music, more than anything else, was to be her personal legacy. 714 00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:20,120 # O Lord, make thy servant 715 00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:27,840 # Elizabeth our Queen... # 716 00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:38,240 Elizabeth stands at the crossroads of English music. 717 00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:44,400 Not only did she save the musical traditions of the English monarchy 718 00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:46,280 and the English church, 719 00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:49,760 she also offered a model to succeeding generations. 720 00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:59,160 The kind of worship she preferred and patronised, in English, 721 00:56:59,160 --> 00:57:02,720 but accompanied with rich ceremony and richer music, 722 00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:06,960 became the ideal which her Stuart successors tried to impose 723 00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:09,360 on the whole of the English church. 724 00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:21,560 It was rediscovered in the 19th century, 725 00:57:21,560 --> 00:57:23,640 and it triumphed in the early 20th. 726 00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:34,560 No-one today would question that music was central 727 00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:36,120 to the Church of England. 728 00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:40,120 No-one today could imagine royal ceremony without music. 729 00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:44,240 We are all Elizabethans now. 730 00:57:57,240 --> 00:58:01,120 'Before Elizabeth's vision could triumph, however, 731 00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:04,640 'Protestant hostility to church music had to be overcome.' 732 00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:12,880 Next time, I'll explore just how much of a struggle 733 00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:15,840 that was to be in the 17th century. 734 00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:20,080 It was the era of civil war, regicide and revolution, 735 00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:24,040 but it also produced the greatest musical genius 736 00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:27,760 to have been born on British soil - Henry Purcell. 737 00:58:52,840 --> 00:58:27,760 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd