Title:
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The cathedral, the city and the crown:a study of the music and musicians of St Paul's Cathedral
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The years between 1660 and 1697 were possibly the most decisive in
the history of St Paul's Cathedral. Even the dates themselves are significant -
markers for what had been and what would follow. For it was during this time
that St Paul's was transformed, outwardly and inwardly -a process that pulled in
its wake the music and musicians whilst many of the changes can be
understood without reference to the music and musicians, they themselves
cannot be understood in isolation.
In 1660 the Cathedral stood alone. Its singers and much of its music
were heard only there, and it had little contact with the other main choirs in
London - of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal. But the destruction of the
building, and its replacement by a new, specifically Anglican cathedral brought
about a change in its position. This is reflected in its music and musicians, which
gradually lose their Cathedral flavour, and, by 1697, have begun to acquire a
London, and indeed a national identity.
This thesis offers an investigation in to the process of change, as seen
through contemporary writings, records and music sources. Such documents
are examined and compared with their counterparts from other establishments,
in order to define the relationships and assess the process of change.
Study of the music sources includes an extensive examination of the two
most important from this period, that is the first edition of James Clifford's Divine
Services and Anthems (1663), and the seventeenth-century artbooks in the
Cathedral (MSS 259-60 and 261 a-263). Their significance as Cathedral sources
is examined; and the dating of the partbooks - with its implications for choral
services - is evaluated, and current thinking ultimately challenged. It is also
suggested that LbI Add. MS 29289 was in use at the Cathedral during the early
Restoration and that it provided a model for John Barnard's The First Book of
Selected Church Musick (1641). Two other related manuscripts, Mp MS 340 Cr
71 and Lbl Add. MS 29430 are examined and considered as possible Cathedral
sources.
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