There was one Thomas
Milborne, clerk of Eastham, who was guilty of several enormities;
amongst others, "for that he singeth the psalms in the church with such
a jesticulous tone and altisonant voice, viz: squeaking like a gelded
pig, which doth not only interrupt the other voices, but is altogether
dissonant and disagreeing unto any musical harmony, and he hath been
requested by the minister to leave it, but he doth obstinately persist
and continue therein." Verily Master Milborne must have been a sore
trial to his vicar, almost as great as the clerk of Buxted, Sussex, was
to his rector, who records in the parish register with a sigh of relief
his death, "whose melody warbled forth as if he had been thumped on the
back with a stone."
The Puritan regime was not conducive to this improvement of the status
or education of the clerk or the cultivation of his musical abilities.
The Protectorate was a period of musical darkness. The organs of the
cathedrals and colleges were taken down; the choirs were dispersed,
musical publications ceased, and the gradual twilight of the art, which
commenced with the accession of the Stuarts, faded into darkness. Many
clerks, especially in the City of London, deserve the highest honour for
having endeavoured to preserve the true taste for musical services in a
dark age.
Pages:
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84