Christopher Tye, The Actes of the Apostles
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Christopher Tye was the music tutor of King Edward VI and also probably of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. He was later Organist of the Chapel Royal under Queen Elizabeth. He was a convinced Protestant and was lucky not to be imprisoned - or worse - in the reign of Queen Mary. Two or three years after the accession of Queen Elizabeth his piety led him to take holy orders, and he became Rector of Doddington in Cambridgeshire, where he is said to have been a dreadful preacher. Unlike John Taverner, however, whose Protestant beliefs led him to abandon music, Christopher Tye believed that music helped to reinforce the message of Scripture to the individual, and this led him, essentially, to invent the English Anthem. In pursuit of this object Tye had the idea of setting the whole of the Acts of the Apostles to music. He only ever got as far as Chapter 14. While the music he wrote was excellent, it is most unfortunate that he decided to versify the Book of Acts himself, rather than getting someone more competent to do it: though the finest musician of his day, he was the world's worst poet. According to Rimbault, even Tye himself was discerning enough to describe his words as "full base." The first fourteen chapters of Acts, set to music, were published in The Actes of the Apostles, translated into Englyshe Metre, and dedicated to the Kynges most excellent Maiestye, by Christofer Tye, Doctor in Musyke and One of the Gentylmen of his grace's most honourable Chapel. With notes to eche Chapter, to synge and also to play upon the Lute, very necessarye for students after their studye, to fyle theyr wyttes, and also for all Christian men that cannot synge, to read the good and Godlye storyes of the lyves of Christ hys Apostles. Imprynted at London by Nicolas Hyll for William Serres [1553]. The whole of Tye's translation may be found here. Sir John Hawkins, in his General History of the Science and Practice of Music reprinted the beginning of Chapter 14, and, having changed the C-clefs to G-clefs for the benefit of modern choirs, I have reprinted this below. While Tye's words are appalling, the music is extremely fine and a number of musicians, including the well-known Victorian musician and book thief 1 Dr. Edward F. Rimbault, have set some of the music to more suitable words. Anthems based on the music from Tye's Actes of the Apostles include: Hark the Glad Sound! The Savior Comes O Lord my God, I will Exalt Thee The Lord will Come and not be Slow O Holy Spirit, Lord of Grace When Christ was Born in Bethlehem The Winter's Sleep was Long and Deep 1 See Percy Young, "The Notorious Dr. Rimbault," Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, vol. 22 (1998). |
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