Norwich.
City
in England. Traces of human habitation from 2000 bce have been found at
Norwich, nearby Caistor St Edmund was an important British settlement in the
early Roman period, and the Danes sacked the Saxon burgh early in the 11th
century; but the only remaining evidence of the practice of music in early
times has been found at Bergh Apton, 11 km south-east of the city; it is a
7th-century lyre unearthed from a grave, and a reconstruction is displayed in
the Castle Museum. Norwich rose to become one of the kingdom's major cities,
but since Elizabethan times has been only a provincial centre.
1. Sacred music.
2. Bells.
3. Waits.
4. Orchestral
concerts.
5. Choral and operatic
societies.
6. Festivals.
7. The University of
East Anglia.
NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY (with DAVID CHARLTON
and TREVOR FAWCETT)/CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Norwich
1. Sacred music.
The
East Anglian see was transferred in 1095 from Thetford to Norwich, where a
Benedictine priory with 60 monks was established a year later, the cathedral
being consecrated as its church in 1101. The Norwich Customary, dating from the
mid-12th century but reflecting earlier liturgical and ritual practice derived
from Fιcamp and developed over the years, makes many references to singing. It
was regulated by a precentor, and boys took part in services on certain feasts.
Documents
record payments to an organist, one Adam, in 1333, and to lay singers from that
period onwards. From the 14th century there is also evidence of the existence
of capable organ builders and menders in Norwich. For a special function in
1381 both the great and the choir organs were placed in the Lady Chapel, and a
screen was erected between 1446 and 1472 with a rood-loft and organ. Organs
damaged by fire in 1469 and 1510 were repaired or replaced. A new organ
installed for Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1578 was damaged when lightning struck
the cathedral in 1601, and its 1607 replacement was destroyed when the
cathedral was looted in 1643. At the Restoration Richard Plumm of Bury,
possibly re-using parts of the earlier instrument, constructed an organ that
was replaced by a new three-manual one by Harris in 1689. Byfield built the
next organ in 1759. It was renovated by Bishop in 1833, and then replaced in
1899 with a Norman & Beard instrument. After its partial destruction by
fire in 1938, Norman & Beard rebuilt it in 194041; the case, designed by
Stephen Dykes, was constructed in 1950. In 1969 significant tonal changes were
made to the organ, and a cymbalstern was added to the west side of the case.
The cathedral also possesses a Sneztler organ; it was restored in 1955, but has
not been maintained in playing condition.
At
the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538 Norwich was refounded as a secular
cathedral; its establishment included eight minor canons, six lay clerks and
eight choirboys. The latter were to be trained by a master of the choristers
who was originally required to serve as organist too. Osbert Parsley (151185),
a composer of church music and instrumental pieces, appears to have served as a
chorister before the dissolution and as a lay clerk afterwards. Thomas Morley,
who had probably been a cathedral choirboy, was master of the choristers from
1583 to 1587 before leaving to further his career in London. William Cobbold
(15601639), who harmonized five tunes in Thomas East's Whole Book of Psalms
(1592) and composed With wreathes of rose and laurel for The
Triumphes of Oriana, became cathedral organist in 1595. Richard Carlton,
who wrote some church music, of which only fragments remain, and a collection
of consciously backward-looking madrigals as well as also contributing to The
Triumphes of Oriana, was a minor canon and master of the choristers in the
late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods. The more significant cathedral
organists in the 17th century were Richard Gibbs, Richard Ayleward, formerly a
chorister at Winchester, Thomas Pleasants and James Cooper, who had been a lay
clerk since 1679.
Signs
of change may be seen when in 1720 Humphrey Cotton (16931749) became organist,
for he was less exclusively concerned with cathedral music than his
predecessors, and more interested in music in the city of Norwich. Thomas
Garland (17311808), who had been born in the cathedral close and studied under
Maurice Greene, showed signs of continuing in the same direction, particularly
in the earlier part of his 59-year tenure at the cathedral (from 1749 to 1808).
Garland arranged a number of charity services and other events, mainly with
performances of Handel's music, in the last quarter of the 18th century.
By
then the fine Perpendicular church of St Peter Mancroft, near the commercial
and civic centre, had also started playing an important role in Norwich music.
In 1707 an earlier organ was replaced by one built by Renatus Harris. Though
repaired and enlarged by G.P. England in 1802, it was replaced by a
three-manual organ by W. Hedgeland in 1875. As this proved unsatisfactory, a
four-manual instrument by Hele of Plymouth was installed in 1912. In 1984 Peter
Collins provided St Peter Mancroft with a handsome instrument, especially
suited to Baroque music, that is placed on a cantilevered gallery at the west
end of the church.
It
was at St Peter Mancroft that Humphry Cotton gained his initial experience, as
did both Edward Miller (17351807), composer and organist and antiquarian of
Doncaster, and John Christmas Beckwith. The son and grandson of cathedral lay
clerks, Beckwith continued his studies of music in Oxford under William Hayes,
who appears to have widened his horizons. Ozias Linley, sixth son of the
composer of stage works, came to Norwich for a minor canonry in 1790 and wrote
a number of anthems. Beckwith became a major influence in the growth of the
charity concert movement in Norwich while serving in succession to his father
after 1794 as organist at St Peter Mancroft. In 1808 he moved on to the
cathedral, but died barely a year later. He was succeeded first by his son,
then by Zechariah Buck (17981879).
Organist
from 1819 to 1877, Buck had to respond to the halving of the number of minor
canons under the 1840 Cathedrals Act; the number of lay clerks gradually fell
too, which probably accounts for the decision to use two boy altos from 1863 to
the end of the century. Though Buck was a poor performer and a negligible
composer, he had several pupils, such as A.H. Mann and A.R. Gaul, who went on
to distinguished careers. He gained a reputation as a trainer of boy
choristers, whom he taught to sing in a florid style.
On
Buck's retirement, a new policy seems to have been initiated at the cathedral.
Despite local protests the claims of Edward Bunnett were passed over, though
this former chorister was a prolific composer of undemanding church music and an
accomplished performer, who combined his duties at St Peter Mancroft with the
post of city organist. The chapter, after making two unsatisfactory
appointments, found a suitable candidate in Dr Frank Bates (18561936). As well
as maintaining high standards at the cathedral and overseeing the rebuilding of
the organ in 1899, Bates recognized that his mission extended beyond the
cathedral close to include the encouragement of choral and orchestral
music-making in the city and county. Heathcote Statham, organist from 1928 to
1966 and the composer of much well-crafted church and organ music, followed
Bates's example in the interpretation of his role. Brian Runnett, a brilliant
recitalist, combined his duties at the cathedral with teaching at the
University of East Anglia for three years until his death in a road accident in
1970. Michael Nicholas, organist from 1971 to 1988, founded the Norwich
Festival of Contemporary Church Music in 1981.
Sarah
Glover, born in Norwich in 1786, attracted attention through her work with the
choir of St Laurence's church, of which her father was rector, and devoted her
life to elaborating and teaching a sol-fa system, later developed by others
into Tonic Sol-fa, in order to encourage the congregational singing of metrical
psalms in parts. The deconsecrated city-centre church of St Peter Hungate,
which became a museum of ecclesiastical art in 1936, houses a collection of
instruments used in church bands and an instrument developed to help teach
Sarah Glover's sol-fa system.
From
the Reformation onwards Norwich was a leading centre of Puritanism and Dissent.
It was the first home of the Separatists under Robert Browne, who was
imprisoned by the bishop in 1583. The earliest collection of Baptist church
music, Edward Trivett's Hymns and Spiritual Songs, was published there
in about 1772. John Taylor, minister of the Victorian Octagon Chapel, published
A Collection of Tunes for use there in about 1750.
Norwich
2. Bells.
Bellringing
(and in the late medieval period bell-casting) has flourished in Norwich, a
cathedral city with some 50 churches. The Norman Clocher, in the western part
of the close, survived the dissolution by less than half a century, but the
cathedral retains five bells apparently dating from 1469 and possibly made from
metal salvaged after the fire six years earlier. Most of the parish churches
also possess bells, of which the oldest is the 14th-century bell at St
Laurence's. St Peter Mancroft's ring of 12 bells is particularly admired. Hung
at the top of the tower of the 1938 City Hall, the Gillett & Johnston bell
is a civic tribute to Norwich traditions in campanology.
Norwich
3. Waits.
For
some centuries the town waits provided musical entertainment in Norwich, taking
a prominent part in civic ceremonies. The earliest document referring to the
waits is dated 1288, and collars and badges (now displayed in the Guildhall)
testify to their corporate existence in 1535. Until 1570 the waits took part in
mystery plays and regularly played outside the Guildhall on Sunday evenings. In
1572 their stock of instruments comprised two trumpets, four sackbuts, three
hautboys and five recorders. In 1589 five or six of the Norwich waits
accompanied Drake on his Lisbon expedition, and only two survived. In 1599
William Kemp, after praising the waits for their skill on viols and violins, as
well as wind instruments, remarked that every one of them could serve as a
singer in any cathedral, and some of them probably were lay clerks, or at least
assisted as music copyists. In the 18th century, when they are said to have
lived in the Old Music House in King Street, they continued to give public
concerts and played at assemblies and on civic occasions until disbanded in
1789. Samuel Cooke, the blind organist of St Peter Mancroft from 1748 to 1780,
was a city wait for 40 years.
Norwich
4. Orchestral concerts.
In
the early 18th century instrumental concerts were given for a time in the
Guildhall and, for a longer period, in the great rooms of various inns. In the
second half of the 18th century the architect and entrepreneur Thomas Ivory
built the centrally located Assembly House (1754) and Theatre Royal (1758),
which were occasionally used for recitals and concerts. There was also the
room held by Bosoly (or Bosoley), Francis Christian senior and his son (who
were fashionable dancing-masters). The younger Christian opened a new room near
St Michael-at-Plea in 1770, sometimes called the music room. Concerts were
held too in several of the city's pleasure gardens in the 18th and 19th
centuries. In 17767 James Bunn built a structure called the Pantheon (holding
about 1000 people) in which concerts were held. In 1800, after Bunn's death,
the Ranelagh gardens put up a building sometimes used for concerts which was
also called the Pantheon and may have incorporated materials from Bunn's
building. There were subscription concerts through much of this period, and
they reached a zenith of activity around 1789.
Exactly
how the precociously gifted William Crotch (17751847) was influenced by the
musical life of Norwich during his early years remains unclear. His environment
offered music for him to absorb, and Norwich was the scene of his childhood
triumphs. His future lay, however, in Cambridge and London.
The
Hall Concerts (c17891834) were an annual series of amateur music
meetings probably held at first in St Andrew's Hall and later in a room above
St Ethelbert's Gateway, hence the alternative name of Gateway or Gatehouse
Concerts. In 1816 the Hall Concert organizers purchased and fitted up a music
room in St Andrew's Bridge Street; Chambers (1829) said that there were about
40 performers, both amateur and professional. They were superseded by the
Norwich Philharmonic Society, founded by Frank Noverre in 1839. The new society
was partly professional. The first concert was given on 5 March 1841 in
Noverre's rooms, with 15 strings, wind and piano. From 1901, when Princess
Victoria became patroness, the concerts were given in St Andrew's Hall. In 1929
the Choral Society became part of the Philharmonic. At the beginning of World
War II the chorus numbered 180, and the orchestra about 75, including 12 to 20
London professionals engaged for the concerts. Commissioned works included
Moeran's Nocturne (1935) and Hadley's La belle dame sans merci
(1936) and Mariana (1938). After the war concerts were resumed.
A
small group of string players brought together by Cyril Pearce in 1925 grew into
the Norwich Chamber Orchestra, so named in 1928; emphasis was on the works of
Bach. Later organizations include the Norwich String Orchestra (which gave the
first performance of Britten's Simple Symphony, under the composer, in
1934), the Norwich Mozart Orchestra (founded 1962) and the Academy of St Thomas
(founded 1973).
The
Norfolk and Norwich Music Club, founded in 1950, promotes chamber concerts.
These are usually given in the Assembly House, which reopened as an arts centre
in 1950 and was restored again after fire damage in 1995. The club has a
tradition of commissioning new works. Since 1990 the King of Hearts, in a
restored 16th-century merchant's house in Fye Bridge Street, has become a
favourite venue for small-scale concerts, especially of early music.
Norwich
5. Choral and operatic societies.
Music
on the water was a particular feature of 18th-century Norwich (see Chambers,
1829, pp.12734). From about 1795 an Anacreontic Society was active, performing
glees, catches etc; this lasted into the 19th century. A choral society was
founded in 1824, with Edward Taylor (son of John) as its first conductor, to
form a local nucleus for the festival and also to give regular concerts. It was
dissolved and re-formed in 1837 and again in 1844: the numbers had risen from
149 in 1824 to 256 in 1845. The concerts, however, became more and more
unrewarding financially, and in 1875 the society was disbanded. A smaller
group, the Gatehouse Choir, remained in existence as a descendant of the
earlier Hall Concerts, and in 1902 this became the nucleus of a new Norwich
Choral Society, founded by Frank Bates who was its conductor for 26 years. In
1929 it merged with the Norwich Philharmonic Society.
Other
choral societies include the Norwich Madrigal Society (founded 1838, disbanded
about 1860), the Glee and Catch Club (in existence in the mid-19th century),
the Anglia Singers, the St Cecilia Society, the Norwich Singers, the Broadland
Singers (founded in 1958) and the Keswick Hall Choir.
Earlier
musical theatre performances in Norwich include what seems to have been the
first provincial performance of Purcell's Dioclesian (January 1700) and
the first ever performance in English of Die Zauberflφte (1829). An
amateur operatic union gave concert performances of Italian operas in early
Victorian times. The Norfolk and Norwich Amateur Operatic Society maintains a
tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan performances; the Norfolk Opera Players
(founded 1963) have a wider repertory, including operas by Nicolai, Offenbach
and Martinů. The Theatre Royal, a 1935 replacement for the 1826 theatre on
the site of Ivory's original playhouse, regularly hosts productions by
Glyndebourne Touring Opera, the ENO and other companies. In 1997 Norske Opera's
staging of Wagner's Ring was given in the theatre.
Norwich
6. Festivals.
Soon
after the new Norfolk and Norwich hospital opened in 1772 an annual service and
concert for its benefit were inaugurated at the cathedral; the music was
usually by Handel. In 1788 and 1790 three-day music festivals were given with
morning concerts in St Peter Mancroft and evening concerts in St Andrew's Hall;
Gertrud Mara and Michael Kelly were among the singers (Kelly's Memoirs
give the wrong date). At least six further festivals were held early in the
19th century. In 1824 the grander Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Musical
Festival was founded, chiefly on the initiative of R.M. Bacon, music critic and
the editor of the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, with assistance
from Edward Taylor, originally a Norwich ironmonger who later pursued a
successful career as a bass singer, teacher and music journalist in London and
returned to Norwich for later festivals. In 1837 he became professor of music
at Gresham College. Festivals were given (triennially except as stated) in
182448, 1852, 18541911, 192430, 1936, 1947 and 195876; the principal
conductors were George Smart (182436), Julius Benedict (184578), Alberto
Randegger (18811905) and Henry Wood (190830). The festival was almost
invariably a financial success, but never more so than the first time (1824)
when it produced a sum of £2411.
Almost
from the start the Norwich Triennial Festival was notably progressive in its
choice of works, and it was responsible for a whole series of premiθres and
commissioned works, both British and foreign. Hummel's Mass in E
had its first English performance
there in 1827, as did Spohr's Last Judgment in 1830 (one of several
works translated and adapted to Protestant tastes by Taylor) and his Calvary
in 1839. Feelings ran high at the 1852 festival, when two new English oratorios
were heard: Israel Restored by William Bexfield, a local man and a pupil
of Buck, and Jerusalem, a work in revolutionary style by Henry Hugo
Pierson. Each work had its partisans, and the rivalry was intense. Another
Pierson work, the unfinished oratorio Hezekiah, was performed in 1869.
The
festival, which became annual in 1989 and now also promotes other concerts by
visiting orchestras, has maintained a reputation for presenting new works.
Among them have been Goring Thomas's The Sun Worshippers (1881), Parry's
L'allegro (1890), Stanford's Phaudrig Crohoore (1896), Elgar's Sea
Pictures (1899), Bridge's Enter Spring (1927), Bliss's Morning
Heroes (1930), Vaughan Williams's Job (concert version, 1930) and Five
Tudor Portraits (1936), Britten's Our Hunting Fathers (also 1936),
Thea Musgrave's The Five Ages of Man (1964) and Tavener's Let's begin
again (1995). In 1994 the first peformance was given of the Viola Concerto
by Diana Burrell, one of the most significant composers to have emerged from
Norwich.
Norwich
7. The University of East Anglia.
The
university, which was founded in Norwich in 1964, has offered since 1965 a BA
in music, the course including both practical and academic study. There is also
a wide range of opportunities for postgraduate work in music and musicology.
The Music Centre (opened in 1973) has a recording studio with synthesizers and
computers for the composition and performance of electro-acoustic music.
Britten acted as honorary musical adviser when the courses were originally
devised. The first director of music, Philip Ledger, was succeeded in 1974 by
Peter Aston, who was himself succeeded by David Chadd in 1998. There is a large
University Choir and a University Orchestra; both regularly give concerts in
the city, as well as an array of student choirs, groups and ensembles. A number
of students sing as choral scholars at the cathedral, where an organ
scholarship has also been created.
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HarrisonMMB
MGG2 (C. Cudworth)
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