Songs, Carols and Contrafacta in the Early History of the Tudor Anthem

Abstract

The Tudor anthem in its earliest stages of development has generally been considered in the light of the English Reformation, of which it is both a product and a characteristic form. Many of its most distinctive features result directly from the new theological attitudes of the Protestant reformers: the use of Biblical texts, in English rather than Latin; a less strictly prescribed function than that of the ritual music of the Sarum liturgy; and an emphasis both upon sobriety of musical language and clarity of text-declamation. There can be little doubt that the development of features such as these can be attributed more to the changing attitudes of theologians than of composers; but it is equally possible to view the early history of the anthem within the wider context of the evolution of English musical style, an evolution in which the Reformation, however important, acted only as a catalyst. To achieve a deeper understanding of the anthem as a musical phenomenon, it is necessary to set aside those useful but sometimes unrealistic distinctions generally adopted by historians between secular and sacred, Catholic and Protestant, Henrician, Edwardian and Marian: for composers of the period, the sense of connection and continuity was almost certainly as strong as that of distinction and change.

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