"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
Lent V - March 17, 2002
Adrian Batten (1591-1637) belongs to an important period in the history of English church music. Among his contemporaries are Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656), Thomas Morley (1557-1602), Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623) and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), composers whose works form a kind of magnum opus of post-Reformation English liturgical music. These composers set the church music of England on a highly distinctive path from its continental counterpart, a path that is much more forward-looking, sophisticated and innovative than is often thought. The path ended in the precipe of the Civil War (c.1642-c.1647), which gravely disrupted the evolution of English church music.
Batten was born in Salisbury, and was a chorister and later an organ scholar at nearby Winchester Cathedral. He remained with the cathedral choir after his voice had broken, as evidenced by graffiti carved into the wall of Bishop Gardiner's chantry that reads "Adrian Batten: 1608". In 1614, Batten moved to London to become a Vicar Choral of Westminster Abbey. To augment his income, he became a music copyist, and the Abbey's account books record payments to Batten for copying works of Weelkes, Tallis and Tomkins. His name also appears as one of the paid singers for the funeral of King James I in 1625, at which Orlando Gibbons was organist and master of the music. A year later he moved on to St. Paul's Cathedral as a Vicar Choral of the cathedral choir, the last position he is known to have held before his untimely death at age 46.
Batten is credited with the preservation of much Tudor church music, having been the copyist of the Batten Organbook (now in possession of St. Michael's College, Tenbury), the only extant source for many pieces within this important collection. Paradoxically, much of Batten's own music has been lost. He was a prolific composer, and many of his pieces stand comfortably aside those of his better-known contemporaries. Out of the Deep, today's anthem at the offertory, is a fine example of a verse anthem, one of the most remarkable genres developed during this period. Batten had a keen interest in the verse anthem, in which music scored for the full choir alternates with sections for solo voice, the whole supported and unified by an independent organ accompaniment.
It is instructive to compare the style of Batten's verse anthem to the style of the Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd (1543-1623). Though there is some overlap in the dates of these composers, it is doubtful that Batten would have had much, if any, exposure to Byrd's Latin church music, for such compositions were by Batten's time heard only at private Catholic services in recusant households. The juxtaposition of the music of Batten and Byrd shows the far-reaching changes in liturgical music in 16th-century England, and the fortitude of the first generations of Anglicans as they absorbed these changes into their patterns of worship.
— David Henry
Batten was born in Salisbury, and was a chorister and later an organ scholar at nearby Winchester Cathedral. He remained with the cathedral choir after his voice had broken, as evidenced by graffiti carved into the wall of Bishop Gardiner's chantry that reads "Adrian Batten: 1608". In 1614, Batten moved to London to become a Vicar Choral of Westminster Abbey. To augment his income, he became a music copyist, and the Abbey's account books record payments to Batten for copying works of Weelkes, Tallis and Tomkins. His name also appears as one of the paid singers for the funeral of King James I in 1625, at which Orlando Gibbons was organist and master of the music. A year later he moved on to St. Paul's Cathedral as a Vicar Choral of the cathedral choir, the last position he is known to have held before his untimely death at age 46.
Batten is credited with the preservation of much Tudor church music, having been the copyist of the Batten Organbook (now in possession of St. Michael's College, Tenbury), the only extant source for many pieces within this important collection. Paradoxically, much of Batten's own music has been lost. He was a prolific composer, and many of his pieces stand comfortably aside those of his better-known contemporaries. Out of the Deep, today's anthem at the offertory, is a fine example of a verse anthem, one of the most remarkable genres developed during this period. Batten had a keen interest in the verse anthem, in which music scored for the full choir alternates with sections for solo voice, the whole supported and unified by an independent organ accompaniment.
It is instructive to compare the style of Batten's verse anthem to the style of the Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd (1543-1623). Though there is some overlap in the dates of these composers, it is doubtful that Batten would have had much, if any, exposure to Byrd's Latin church music, for such compositions were by Batten's time heard only at private Catholic services in recusant households. The juxtaposition of the music of Batten and Byrd shows the far-reaching changes in liturgical music in 16th-century England, and the fortitude of the first generations of Anglicans as they absorbed these changes into their patterns of worship.
