Matthew Locke

ANTHEMS, MOTETS
AND CEREMONIAL
MUSIC
Choir of New College, Oxford
The Parley of Instruments
Edward Higginbottom
 CONTENTS

TRACK LISTING
page 3

ENGLISH
page 4

Sung texts and translation
page 6

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 MATTHEW LOCKE (c1621–1677)
1 Descende caelo cincta sororibus ‘The Oxford Ode’ ............... [10'15]
treble (OJ), alto (WM), tenor (PA), bass (JB), choir, orchestra, organ (PH)

2 How doth the city sit solitary ...................................... [8'35]

treble (OJ, CN), tenor (RCC, TS), bass (TW), choir, organ (GC)

3 Super flumina Babylonis .......................................... [12'58]

treble (OJ), tenor (RCC, PC), bass (JB), choir, violin (PN, TC), bass viol (MC), spinet (PH), organ (GC)

4 O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands ............................... [5'24]

treble (TC), alto (WM), tenor (PC), bass (JB), violins (PN, TC), viola (JT), bass violin (MC), theorbo (PC), organ (GC)

5 Audi, Domine, clamantes ad te .................................... [9'44]

treble (OJ, CN), alto (WM), tenor (PC), bass (HW), violin (PN, TC), bass viol (MC), theorbo (TF), organ (PH)

6 Lord, let me know mine end ....................................... [8'02]

treble (OJ, CN), tenor (RCC, PC), bass (RH), organ (GC)

7 Jesu, auctor clementie ............................................. [2'11]

treble (OJ), tenor (PC), bass (HW), violin (PN, TC), viola (JT), bass violin (MC), theorbo (PC), organ (PH)

8 Be thou exalted, Lord .............................................. [9'47]

Choir I: treble (OJ), alto (WM), tenor (PC), bass (JB); Choir II: treble (TC), alto (RB); Choir III: treble (HF), alto (GC)
Consort: violin (PN, TC), bass viol (SC, WH), theorbo (PC, TC); Orchestra: organ (PH, GC)

CHOIR OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD EDWARD HIGGINBOTTOM Director of Music

treble Oliver Johnston (OJ), Lewis Wilson, Charles Jolly, Thomas Carey (TC), Howard Ferguson (HF), Christopher Neale (CN), Jerome Finnis,
Jonathan Belcher, Benedict Rowe, Guy Head, Timothy Bowes, Alexander Hunt
alto Roger Barron (RB), Jeremy Burrows, Geoffrey Cryer (GC), William Missin (WM)
tenor Paul Agnew (PA), Mark Anderson, Philip Cave (PC), Rogers Covey-Crump (RCC), Toby Spence (TS)
bass John Bernays (JB), Colin Gordon, Paul Grier, Robert Hollingworth (RH), Michael Morton, Timothy West (TW), Henry Wickham (HW)

THE PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS PETER HOLMAN Director

violin Pauline Nobes (PN), Theresa Caudle (TC), Helen Orsler, Ellen O’Dell
bass viol Sarah Cunningham (SC), William Hunt (WH) bass viol, bass violin Mark Caudle (MC)
violin & viola Judy Tarling (JT), Nicola Cleminson, Stephen Jones, Paul Denley bass violin Jane Coe, Angela East
theorbo Paula Chateauneuf (PC), Tom Finucane (TF), Tim Crawford (TC) organ & spinet Gary Cooper (GC), Peter Holman (PH)

EDWARD HIGGINBOTTOM conductor

Organ 1: Goetze and Gwynn after early 18th-century English models: Stopped diapason, metal principal, fifteenth, sesquialtera II-III
Organ 2: Goetze and Gwynn after 17th-century English models: stopped diapason, wood principal, fifteenth
3 Spinet: Thomas Hancock (London, 1730); Pitch: A = 465Hz; Temperament: Vallotti, set by JoAnne Edwards
 ATTHEW LOCKE WAS BORN IN 1621 or 1622, in Devon,

M
be that all of them were written for Lowe and his Oxford
and received his musical training at Exeter cathedral, performers rather than for Catholic services at court. The com-
where he was a chorister. Not much is known of his poser seems to have been living in Oxford at the time in order
career during the Civil War. He was certainly in the Netherlands to escape from the Great Plague, which was raging in London.
in 1648, when he copied a collection of Italian motets, and he Super flumina Babylonis 3 , a setting of Psalm 136, opens
had probably returned to England by 1651, when he composed with a two-section ‘simphonia’ – the Air and the Saraband of
his earliest collection of consort music, The Little Consort, the D minor ‘Broken Consort’ transposed to the sombre key of
for a friend in Exeter. He evidently spent most of the 1650s C minor. Thereafter, the work is a kaleidoscopic patchwork of
in London, where he wrote music for several of William short sections, contrasting passages of recitative, dance-like
Davenant’s dramatic entertainments, including The Siege of triple time and ritornelli in a manner that harks back to the late
Rhodes of 1656, often thought of as the first English opera. In church music of Monteverdi. Audi, Domine, clamantes ad
1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne and the court te 5, a setting of an unidentified devotional text, has a similar
was reassembled, Matthew Locke effectively assumed the design, though it opens with just a single-section allemande-
position of England’s leading composer, for most of his senior like sinfonia, and is an even more remarkable marriage of
colleagues, such as Henry Lawes, Nicholas Lanier and John sensuous Italianate textures and angular, surprising English
Jenkins, were too old to take an active part in the court’s harmonies. Responding to some repeated phrases in the text,
musical affairs. For the next quarter of a century Locke divided Locke uses a triple-time passage as a kind of refrain. Jesu,
his time between writing music for the royal orchestra, the auctor clementie 7 , a setting of a hymn related to Jesu, dulcis
Twenty-four Violins, supervising chamber music in the private memoria, uses the idiom of the Italian canzonetta, in which the
royal apartments, playing the organ in the Catholic chapel of verses are interspersed by a recurring string ritornello. The
Charles II’s Portuguese queen, Catherine of Braganza (Locke piece is awkward in places, and may date from the 1640s
was himself a Catholic), and writing music for Davenant’s when Locke was coming to terms with the Italian style.
London theatre company. He died in the summer of 1677, and Locke’s connection with Oxford and Edward Lowe was
was commemorated in an eloquent elegy by his young friend maintained over a long period, for in 1672/3 he was paid £5 for
and probable pupil, Henry Purcell. ‘composing the ode’ for the Encaenia or Act, the annual degree
At first sight it is not easy to see why or how Locke wrote ceremony held in the Sheldonian Theatre; on that occasion, 5
concerted Latin works such as Super flumina Babylonis July 1672, ‘Mr Lowe and the Musick’ were paid £3 19s 4d for
(track 3 ) and Audi, Domine, clamantes ad te 5 . Latin ‘their service at the Act’ and the Oxford writer Anthony Wood
motets were sung in Catherine of Braganza’s Catholic chapel wrote ‘Encaenia; excellent musick’ in his diary. The work in
by Italian singers, though there is no sign that violins were question was almost certainly the ode Descende caelo cincta
employed there, and most of Locke’s Latin works survive in sororibus 1 , which survives in a score in Edward Lowe’s
sources connected with the Oxford university music school and hand and sets a quaint Latin text that is clearly intended for an
Edward Lowe, its energetic professor. Locke wrote at least one academic occasion in the summer; the ‘Oxford Ode’ only
of his Latin motets for the Oxford music school – Lowe wrote developed as a discrete genre after the Sheldonian was opened
on one of the parts of Ad te levavi oculos meos that it was in 1669. The music, too, suggests a date in the 1670s. The
‘made by Mr Matthew Locke to carry on the Meetinge at ye work opens with a two-section prelude that effectively forms a
musick school. Thursday ye 16th Novem: 1665’ – and it may French-style overture, an idiom that Locke and other English
4
 composers only took up in the 1670s. And the rushing scales Clifford’s The Divine Services and Anthems usually Sung in his
near the opening relate to the overture to his incidental music Majesties Chappell of 1664. But once again the music survives
for The Tempest of 1674 as well as to Purcell’s early ‘Staircase only in an Oxford source, an autograph score with parts in the
Overture’. The second part of the overture (a saraband in hand of Edward Lowe, which was presumably prepared for a
two sections, each repeated with a variation), also returns performance at the university music school. How doth the city
repeatedly as a ritornello between the vocal sections, an sit solitary 2 , a setting of verses from the Lamentations of
unusual and effective device. As far as is known, this recorded Jeremiah, is one of the finest examples of Locke’s marriage
performance is the first since 1672. of the Italian and English styles. The organ part, which
It is also hard to see why Locke wrote so much Anglican contributes not a little to the work’s rich dissonances, was
church music, since he seems to have converted to written out in full by the composer, and is a valuable guide to
Catholicism early in life, and never had any formal connection his style of continuo playing; Roger North wrote that the Italian
with the Chapel Royal. Nevertheless, he was apparently called musicians in the queen’s Catholic chapel objected to ‘his manner
upon to write for it in the 1660s when new repertory was of play’, and insisted that their singing be attended ‘by more
needed after the hiatus of the Interregnum. This is certainly so polite hands’. Lord, let me know mine end 6 became Locke’s
in the case of the great polychoral anthem Be thou exalted, most popular work after his lifetime, though it was usually
Lord 8 , a setting of verses from Psalm 21, for it was performed in a version that ruined the remarkable effect of the
performed in Whitehall Chapel on 14 August 1666 to celebrate end, conceived for solo voices and marked successively ‘soft’
Albemarle’s naval victory over the Dutch earlier that summer; and ‘softest of all’, by allocating it to the choir.
Samuel Pepys, who was present, called it a ‘special good In this recording we have tried to reproduce the effect of
anthem’. The piece is designed to exploit the geography of the performances in Oxford and London under the direction of the
Chapel Royal. It opens and closes with a ‘grand chorus’ for all composer. We chose the relatively dry acoustic of Rosslyn Hill
the performers – that is, two antiphonal vocal choirs in the Chapel in Hampstead because Whitehall chapel was only
decani and cantoris choir stalls on the floor of the chapel, a about 75' by 30', and the music school at Oxford was even
third vocal choir of soloists in a gallery above, and two smaller. Male voices are used throughout; women began to
instrumental groups: a consort of two violins, two bass viols sing in English choirs only in the 1770s. The normal practice in
and two theorbos in a gallery, and a string orchestra in the the Chapel Royal and at Oxford was to use one-to-a-part
chapel below. Inspired perhaps by Louis Grabu, the follower of strings, but we have used orchestras in Be thou exalted,
Lully who had recently arrived at court to train the Twenty-four Lord 8 and Descende caelo cincta sororibus 1 because
Violins, Locke uses the French five-part orchestral scoring in they were written for special occasions; the score of the former
this piece, with a single violin part, three viola lines and bass specifies a ‘band of violins’, and the surviving performing
violins – tuned a tone below the modern cello. material of Oxford academic odes have duplicate string parts.
O be joyful in the Lord 4 , a setting of Psalm 100, is a These Oxford parts also reveal that bass stringed instruments
more conventional example of the sort of Restoration verse played with the violins, leaving the solo vocal sections just to
anthem familiar to us from the works of Blow and Purcell, with continuo instruments. A variety of continuo instruments were
its four-part string writing with two violins, and its dance-like used on occasion at Oxford, including theorbos and plucked
string passages. It was evidently written for the Chapel Royal keyboards in addition to the music school organ, a four-stop
soon after the Restoration, for its text appears in James Dallam instrument. PETER HOLMAN © 1990
5
 1 Descende caelo cincta sororibus Queen of song, descend here from heaven,
Regina cantus – nil sine te mei ringed by your sisters – honours I confer
Possunt honores – huc curuli have no power without you – riding on the cloud,
Nube super Zephyroque vecta. your chariot, and with the west wind.
Gratum parenti sit tibi Cinthio May it be pleasing to your father Apollo,
Cantus patrono quod datur annuo patron of song, that it is granted to us to delight
Gaudere festo barbitoque in our annual festival, and in the lyre,
Et solito celebrare plausu. and celebrate it with our customary applause.
O grate nostro Julie numini Hail July, delightful to our god
Musisque, salve, quem proprio petit and to the Muses; the god comes to you
Curru deus, quo teste risus in his own chariot, and in your presence he is accustomed
Explicuisse solet quotannes. to give full scope to his yearly laughter.
Cuius calendis Cinthius aureo On your Calends (July 1) Apollo joyfully
Laetus comarum cingitur ordine, assumes his golden coiffure,
Indutus et vultus nitentes, and, donning likewise his shining face,
Te cythara fidibusque sacrat. he consecrates you with the lyre and strings.
Sed ponit aurum flebilibus modis But he lays aside his gold, bewailing
Plangis ademptum, tristia lugubris its casting-off in mournful music, when about to undergo
Tormenta passurus Decembris the grim torments of sad December
Et miserae mala longa noctis. and the long troubles of unhappy darkness.
Translated by David Miller and Christopher Francis
2 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, how
is she become as a widow? The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandments. Woe now unto us, that we have
sinned. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled, my heart is turned within me for I have greviously rebelled:
abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. Woe now unto us, that we have sinned. What thing shall I take to witness for
thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter
of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea; who can heal thee?
LAMENTATIONS 1: 1, 18; 2: 5, 16
3 Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
et flevimus dum recordaremur Sion: yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
in salicibus in medio eius, suspendimus organa nostra. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Quia illic interrogaverunt nos, For there they that carried
qui captivos duxerunt nos, verba cantionum: us away captive required of us a song;
et qui abduxerunt nos hymnum and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
cantate nobis de canticis Sion. Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena? How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
Si oblitus fuero tui Jerusalem, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
oblivioni detur dextera mea. let my right hand forget her cunning.
Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
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 si non meminero tui: if I do not remember thee;
si non proposuero Jerusalem, in principio laetitiae meae. if I prefer not Jesusalem above my chief joy.
Memor esto Domine filiorum Edom, in die Jerusalem: Remember, O lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem;
qui dicunt, exinanite, exinanite, who said, Rase it, rase it,
usque ad fundamentum in ea. even to the foundation thereof.
Filia Babylonis, misera! Beatus qui retribuet O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he
tibi retributionem tuam quam retribuisti nobis. be, that rewardeth thee as thou hath served us.
Beatus qui tenebit et allidet Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth
parvulos tuos ad petram. thy little ones against the stones.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto; Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. world without end. Amen.
PSALM 136
4 O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song. Be sure that the Lord
he is God: it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. O go your way into his
gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and speak good of his name. For the Lord is gracious,
his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth from generation to generation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
PSALM 100
5 Audi Domine, clamantes ad te, Hear us O Lord as we cry to thee,
Audi suspirantes. hear our sighing.
Domine, quando habitabimus O Lord, when will we
In tabernaculo tuo? dwell in thy tabernacle?
Quando exultabimus in salutari tuo? When will we rejoice in your salvation?
Quando Domine, o quando? When, Lord, O when?
Eia pectore missa dolenti, Ah go, sighs, up to heaven,
Ite in coelum, ite suspiria, sent from our sorrowing breast.
Cordis nuncii, eia languenti Weary messengers of the heart,
Murmure, dicite nostra martiria, murmuring, tell of our sufferings.
Ite in coelum, ite suspiria. Go, sighs, up into heaven.
Iactatae procellis in umbris, in undis, Tossed and afflicted by stormy waves in the darkness,
Afflictae gementi non quies est menti, there is no rest, no peace
Non, non est ulla pax. for our groaning minds.
Eia in coelum, ite suspiria, Ah go, sighs, up into heaven,
Ite dicite nostra martiria. go tell of our sufferings.
Solve nexum pertinacem, O Jesus, solace of our hearts,
Solve corporis ligamen, untie the stubborn knot,
Jesu cordium levamen dissolve the ties of the body,
Trahe me post te sequacem. draw me away, following after thee.
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 Sat spinas calcavi, nunc rosas exquiro, I have trodden enough on thorns, now I seek the roses.
Per umbras erravi, ad lucem aspiro. I have wandered through the shadows, now I desire the light.
Rosa post spinas pullulet decora, The rose blooms, beautiful after the thorns,
Clara post noctem rutilet aurora. the clear dawn glows red after the night.
Ite ergo nulla mora. Therefore with no delay,
Ite in coelum, ite suspiria. go, sighs, up into heaven,
Ite dicite nostra martiria. go tell of our suffering.
Translated by Christopher Francis
6 Lord, let me know mine end and the number of my days that I may be certified how long I have to live. Behold, thou hast made
my days as it were a span long, and mine age is ev’n as nothing in respect of thee, and verily, every man living is altogether vanity.
For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquiets himself in vain. He heaps up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is ev’n in thee. When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin thou mak’st his
beauty to consume away like as it were a moth fretting a garment. Every man therefore is but vanity. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and with
thine ears consider my calling; hold not thy peace at my tears. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner as all my fathers were.
O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen.
PSALM 39: 5–8, 12–15
7 Jesu, auctor clementie, Jesus, source of mercy,
Totius spes letitie, our hope of all joy,
Dulcoris fons et gratie, spring of sweetness and grace,
Vere cordis delitie. true delight of the heart.
Jesu decus angelicum, Jesus, glory of the angels,
In aure dulce canticum, sweet song in the ear,
In ore mel mirificum, wonderful honey in the mouth,
In corde nectar celicum. heavenly nectar in the heart.
Jesu, flos matris virginis, Jesus, flower of a virgin mother,
Favus mire dulcedinis, honeycomb of marvellous sweetness,
Decus humane generis, ornament of the human race,
Da lucem veri luminis. bestow the brightness of the true light.
Translated by Christopher Francis
8 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength, so will we sing and praise thy power. The king shall rejoice in thy strength, O Lord,
exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation. Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not denied him the request of his lips.
For thou shalt prevent him with the blessings of goodness and set a crown of pure gold upon his head. He asked life of thee, and thou
gav’st him a long life, even for ever and ever. His honour is great in thy salvation, glory and great worship thou shalt lay upon him.
And why? Because the king putteth trust in the Lord, and in the mercy of the most highest, no he shall not miscarry.
PSALM 21: 1–4, 7

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 Recorded in Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, on 11–13 May 1989
Recording Engineer TONY FAULKNER
Recording Producer CHRIS SAYERS
Front Design TERRY SHANNON
Executive Producers CECILE KELLY, EDWARD PERRY
P Hyperion Records Limited, London, 1990
C Hyperion Records Limited, London, 2005
Front illustration: Ely Cathedral by J M W Turner (1775–1851)
Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Aberdeen City Arts Department

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