66 DR. JOHN BULL Was chiefly celebrated as a composer for, and performer on the Organ and Virginals; indeed, says Anthony Wood, "he was so much admired for his dexterous hand, that many thought there was more than man in him;" no doubt alluding to the absurd story of his having, in the course of a few hours, added forty parts to a composition already consisting of that number, which feat induced a foreign organist to exclaim, "that the man who could do "that must either be the devil or Dr. Bull." Being possessed, however, with crotchets, as many musicians are, he went beyond the seas, and died, as some say, at Hamburgh. He was the first Gresham Professor of music, and appointed at the express desire of Queen Elizabeth. I have extracted the following stanza, the music to which is by him, from an old manuscript set of part books with an engraved title page, entitled “Tristitia Remedium,” the handywork of one Thomas Myrtell, A.D. 1616. CCCLXIX. Frail man, despise the treasures of this life; * Vide the Book of Jonah, last chapter. MISCELLANEOUS COMPOSERS. CCCLXX. Ah me! when to the air I breathe my plaining, When to rude rocks and pleasant groves I tell all my unhappy loves; They hear me whilst I thus condole, But with their echos call me fool. From a set of twenty Madrigals in five parts, "apt both "for viols and voices," composed by Henry Lichfield, 1613. CCCLXXI. Sweet are the thoughts that harbour full content; Such those sweet thoughts that on heaven's joys are bent, These joys delight, these thoughts content do send; From a set of sacred hymns of three, four, five and six parts, for voices and viols, by John Amner, Bachelor of Music, Master of the Choristers and Organist of the Cathedral Church of Ely. Printed in 1615. CCCLXXII. Then sayd the Chief Priest, is it so? There dyd appeare to Abraham And sayd to him, come out of hande Make hast, and come into the lande Out of the land then of Caldey The Lord's commaundment to obey, The above is given as a specimen of Dr. Christopher Tye's celebrated metrical version of the first fourteen chapters of The Acts of the Apostles, published A.D. 1553, under the following title: "The Actes of the Apostles trans"lated into Englyshe metre, and dedicated to the Kynge's "moste excellent Maiestye, by Christofer Tye, Doctor in "Musyke, and one of the Gentylmen of hys Graces most "honourable Chappell, with notes to eche chapter to synge "and also to play upon the lute, very necessarye for stu"dents after theyr studye, to fyle theyr wyttes; and also "for all Chrystians that cannot synge, to reade the good and "godlye storyes of the lyves of Christ his Apostles." Having myself just reprinted the Doctor's musical "notes to eche chapter" adapted to modern paraphrases of scripture; it may be thought the puff direct to say that I consider them unrivalled as models for counterpoint. To this I can but answer-I printed them because I thought them so I do not think them so because I printed them. CCCLXXIII. Ev'ry bush new springing, Till her he had espyed On whom his hopes relyed; She pull'd him down. Music by Michael Cavendish, the composer of one of the Madrigals in the Triumphs of Oriana. CCCLXXIV. Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content, The poor estate scorns fortune's angry frown: I have adapted these lines, which are from Greene's "Farewell to Follie," 1590, to a Madrigal by G. Pizzoni. CCCLXXV. In these delightful pleasant groves Let's pipe and dance, let 's laugh and sing; Thus ev'ry happy living thing Revels in the cheerful spring. Music by Henry Purcell, being a chorus from the Masque of "The Libertine destroyed." CCCLXXVI. Ah me! quoth Venus; young, and so unkind! I'll make a shadow for thee of my hair From Shakspeare's Poem of Venus and Adonis. The Music composed in 1827, by William Linley, a member of the Madrigal Society, and youngest son of the celebrated Thomas Linley. He died much regretted in 1835. CCCLXXVII. Sweet Philomela, breathe thy plaintive lay; |