Trinity College London (18). John Broadwood & Sons'

June 20 is the last day of entry for the Higher Examinations taking and Double-Bass; all Wind and other Orchestral Instruments; Choir place at the College on July 20 and following days.

THE MUSICAL TIMES

AND SINGING-CLASS CIRCULAR.

MAY 1, 1903.

YORK MINSTER.

forgotten. The organ stands on a screen, not remarkable for beauty, at the entrance to the Choir.

If, in comparison with other English cathedrals, York strikes one as being somewhat cold, ample atonement is made by its exquisite glass. There are no less than 25,531 superficial feet of mediæval stained glass in the church-at least twice as much as in any other English cathedral, and probably more than in any other church in the world.

Moreover, it is almost all of a very high quality and of remarkable variety of effect. It ranges from the simplest and most beautiful designs to those of definite forms of glittering colours. The

If architecture is 'frozen music,' York Minster is a pæan in stone. It is the largest English Cathedral in regard to area and height of roof, in length only is it exceeded by Winchester. Though not occupying so splendid a position as Durham, the ancient walls of the city of York enable the visitor to go round about the towers of the stately Cathedral and gaze upon a scene that is pleasant to behold and rich in historical association. In this Eboracum, once the capital of the North, one recalls such events as the death of the Roman Emperor Severus in 211; the burning of the city by the Danes in 1069 (York has an unenviable notoriety for its conflagrations); the Parliament of Charles I. at which that unfortunate monarch professed his intention to govern legally; the siege of York during the Civil War, when the Corporation presented Fairfax with a butt of sack and a tun of French wine in gratitude for the good treatment he had meted out to the besieged citizens; and, coming to later and more peaceful times, the organization of the British Association in 1831. And then is not York the most ancient metropolitan See in England? Its Archbishop is allowed to style himself Primate of England, but his brother of Canterbury takes precedence in that he is Primate of all England. And who can fail to be impressed with the city's fine old gateways that happily have been preserved through all the long years of troublous times-for instance, Micklegate Bar and Monk Bar? These oldworld entrances may appropriately lead us to the chief glory of York-its magnificent Minster. It is difficult to imagine the architectural features of Edwin's Wooden Chapel, erected in 627 on the site of the present sanctuary, but they would doubtless furnish a strong study in contrasts were it possible to compare them with those of the Minster as we now know it. Buildings and rebuildings of successive churches cover a period of 847 years, the last addition having been the north-west tower, erected 1470-74. The beautiful Early English transepts, dating from early in the 13th century, form the oldest part of the Minster. The Nave was built between 1291-1345, and the graceful East window is a poem-an In Memoriam in Chapter House is of the same period. The Choir glass, glowing with colours of fascinating hue. -originally Norman, now Perpendicular-dates To sit in front of it in the solitude of the from 1373 to 1400. The stately lantern tower, Lady Chapel, while some old unaccompanied the largest in England, belongs to the beginning anthem is being sung, is in the nature of of the 15th century. Its great height- a dream of loveliness and indescribable charm.

MICKLEGATE BAR. THE CHIEF GATE OF YORK,

(Photo by Messrs. Duncan and Lewin, York.)

216 feet-is better judged from the interior of This great East window, seventy-eight feet the edifice, especially when the sun shines through high and thirty-two feet wide, was glazed by one its large windows. Loftiness is a general John Thornton, of Coventry, in the year 1405. characteristic of the Minster, and the noble The contract, still extant, provides that he Gothic arches of the transepts once seen are never is to 'complete it in three years, pourtray with

his own hands the histories, images, and other things to be painted on the same. He is to provide glass and lead, and workmen, and receive four shillings per week, five pounds at the end of each year, and after the work is completed, ten pounds for his reward.' The Five Sisters window in the North Transept is, in the words of the Dean, an almost complete specimen of Early English glass, with an elaborate geometrical pattern formed by the conventional foliage of the planta benedicta; but at the foot of the central light there is a panel consisting of distinctly Norman glass, portraying Jacob's dream or Daniel in the lion's den--for it is indistinct, and critics differ.' No account of the Minster would be complete without mention of the Chapter House, with its elegant vestibule, unique in the Cloisters of Europe. It is no wonder that the Dean regards this stately hall as the flower of our flowers.'

miraculous quire, recorded in the scriptures at the dedication of the temple, of which you may read in the 2 Chron. ch. 5, to the end; but more particularly eminent in the two last verses of that chapter, where king Solomon, the wisest of men, had congregated the most glorious quire that ever was known of in all the world and at their singing of psalms, praises, or thanksgivings, the glory of the Lord came down amongst them, as there you may read.

And here is one thing most eminently remarkable, and well worth noting, which was, that in all the whole time of the siege there was not any one person, that I could hear of, did in the church receive the least harm by any of their devilish cannon shot; and I verily believe that there were constantly many more than a thousand persons at that service every Sunday during the whole time of that siege.

The York Musical Festivals deserve notice in connection with the history of the Minster. The first, held in 1791, lasted three days, when the sacred music, all by Handel, was performed in the Choir of the Minster. Ashley and Matthew Camidge, the latter a son of the then organist May we not now leave the 'frozen music' and conducted. It has been stated that these refer to that music which melts the soul by the Festivals were held annually until 1803, but warm breath of its divine attribute? Let us take this statement is not borne out by the facts, an old-world peep into the Minster at a time far as the Minster is concerned. The next grea when the siege of York by the Parliamentary Festival, held in September, 1823, resulted in Army disturbed the even tenor-and for the the publication of John Crosse's elaborat matter of that, the soprano, alto and bass-of Account' of the same, issued in 1825. O the ways of the inhabitants of the city for that occasion the performers-180 instrumen 'eleven weeks space.' There chanced to be in York during that bellicose period of the 17th century, worthy Thomas Mace, clerk of Trinity College, Cambridge, the author of Musick's Monument; or, A Remembrancer of the best Practical Musick, both Divine and Civil, that has ever been known to have been in the world.' In this work he records his experiences of congregational singing in York Minster during the aforesaid siege in the year 1644. Here are his words :

By this occasion there were shut up within that city abundance of people of the best rank and quality, viz., lords, knights, and gentlemen of the countries round about, besides the soldiers and citizens, who all or most of them came constantly every Sunday to hear publick prayers and sermon in that spacious

church.

And indeed their number was so exceeding great, that the church was, I may say, even cramming or squeezing full.

Now here you must take notice, that they had then a custom in that church, which I hear not in any other cathedral, which was, that always before the sermon the whole congregation sang a psalm, together with the quire and the organ: and you must also know, that there was then a most excellent, large, plump, lusty, full-speaking organ, which cost, as I am credibly informed, a thousand pounds.

This organ I say, when the psalm was set before the sermon, being let out into all its fullness of stops, together with the quire began the psalm.

But when that vast concording unity of the whole congregational-chorus, came, as I may say, thundering in, even so as it made the very ground shake under us; Oh the unutterable ravishing soul's delight! in the which I was so transported and wrapt up in high contemplations, that there was no room left in my whole man, viz., body, soul and spirit, for any thing below divine and heavenly raptures: nor could there possibly be any thing on earth to which that very singing might be truly compared, except the right apprehensions or conceivings of that glorious and

talists and 285 vocalists-occupied a platfor specially erected under the central tower. Th scheme consisted of four sacred concerts in the Minster, and three secular concerts and two balls given in the Assembly Rooms. The receipts amounted to the substantial sum

16,174 16s. 8d., and the profits (£7,200) were divided between the hospitals of York, Leeds Sheffield, and Hull. Two incidents of thi great music-making call for notice. Madam Čatalani, the prima donna of the meeting, no only appropriated Comfort ye' and 'Ev'ry valley,' but sang them in D! Such a practice cannot be sufficiently reprobated,' said the Harmonicon, for if that distinguished singel could not perform it as Handel wrote it, some other person ought to have been selected for the purpose; Mr. Vaughan was present, and be would have done it justice.' At the second evening concert (September 25, 1823), Beethoven's C Minor Symphony headed the programme Owing to the non-arrival from London of some additional string parts it was proposed to omit the Symphony and to proceed to the next number on the programme-Charley is my darling.' When Miss Travis began to sing the Scotch ballad a general murmur of disapproval manifested itself among the audience, and, according to the late John Ella (a member of the band), one of the stewards, a grave looking, bald-headed gentleman with a sten torian voice, lustily exclaimed: "Symphony. None of your darlings, we can hear them any day in Yorkshire; I insist upon the Symphony being played." It was thereupon performed, although the players had to crowd around the desks in order to read their music. All honour to that

6

protesting steward-Mr. F. Maude, Recorder of We may now pass on to Thomas Wanless Doncaster. It is satisfactory to learn that every (1691), the composer of the 'York Litany' and the movement was listened to with attention and compiler of a collection of words of anthems hailed with prolonged applause. The remaining sung in the Cathedral. He is described in the Chapter books as 'in musicis expertum.' Dr. James Nares, appointed in 1734 at the age of nineteen, was the next organist of note. He being an excellent trainer of boys' voices, some of his anthems were written to display the vocal attainments of his juvenile pupils. Nares, who subsequently became organist of the Chapel Royal, published some Harpsichord Lessons, in the preface to which he attacked the fashionable passages which, though adopted by some of the ablest masters, he cannot help considering as Instances of false Taste which seems advancing too fast in all sorts of Music.' What would Dr. Nares have said to Wagner and Richard Strauss ? He objected to the wanton and improper successions of half-notes-in other words, the chromatic scale!

JOHN CAMIDGE.

ORGANIST OF YORK MINSTER FROM 1756 TO 1799. (Reproduced and enlarged from a miniature painted on a snuff-box in the possession of his great-grandson, Mr. T. S. Camidge, and by his kind permission.)

Festivals were held in 1825, 1828 and 1835; on the last-named occasion the audiences included the Princess Victoria, who began her glorious reign two years later. For sixty-eight years the York Festivals have been in abeyance. Has not the time come for their revival? With so able a chief-musician as Mr. T. Tertius Noble, the present organist-and, may we add, a capable organizer-there should be every encouragement to promote a Festival that would redound to the honour of the Minster and the city of York.

The organists. As on former occasions, Mr. John E. West's handy volume Cathedral Organists' must be consulted in this connection. Three of the earliest recorded organists were named respectively John Thorne (died 1573), John Wyrnal, and Kirby (or Kirkby), and they all attained to the posthumous dignity of epitaphs. Here are the trio of monumental inscriptions:

Here lyeth Thorne, musitian most perfitt in his art, In Logick's Lore who did excell; all vice who did apart: Whose Lief and Conversation did all men's Love allure, and now doth reign above the Skies in joys most firm and pure.

Musician and Logician both,

John Wyrnal lieth here;

Who made the organs erst to speak

As if, or as it were.

Here lie the ashes of Kirby, an excellent Chanter and incomparable Organist. He sang extraordinary songs to charming tunes. He was the boast, glory, and honour of this Church. Great were his probity, wisdom, and virtue; and his understanding, morality, and genius remarkable.

ORGANIST OF YORK MINSTER FROM 1799 TO 1842.
(From a painting in the possession of Mr. T. S. Camidge, and
reproduced by his kind permission.)

John Camidge, who had been a chorister in the
Minster, became organist. He held the post for
forty-three years, and was the first to introduce
Handel's choruses as anthems; they had hitherto
been considered too secular for performance in
churches. To John Camidge succeeded-on
November 11, 1799-his son Matthew, said to
have been the first cathedral organist to teach
the choristers to sing from notes instead of by
ear!
Curiously enough, Matthew Camidge
reigned for the same period as his father-