His Music
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Old
Church Psalmody Op. 43, A Hundred Psalm and Hymn Tunes Op. 48 |
The Role Played by Music in His Life
Music played a significant role in WHH's life from an early age as his father played the organ and sang, which may have been his inspiration for starting to play the instrument. The first record of WHH being involved in music comes from his school holidays, which he would spend practising the piano and the flute, and from when he was fourteen, playing the organ in his parish church of High Wycombe. He later considered going into music as a profession, but it was agreed with his father that medicine would be a better career, a subject that he had also enjoyed at school.
WHH also played the Royal Seraphine, which was a small keyboard instrument that was a predecessor of the harmonium. The advantage of this instrument was that it was portable, which WHH took advantage of, and played it in the church yard on Queen Victoria's coronation-day in June 1838. Crane (1882) describes her father's instrument as being 'one of the first ever made, and certainly the first imported into Worcestershire,' a claim that is supported by the fact that the instrument was only invented in London about eight years earlier.
While he was at school WHH composed several hymns, but none of his work was available to the public. His setting of Heber's Hymn 'From Greenland's icy mountains' was published (date unknown). From this, £180 was raised, which WHH chose to donate to the Church Missionary Society as he did not want to make any money from his music; he saw it more of a pleasant pastime. This is reflected in his letters to his friend Dr. Lowell Mason, in Boston, when, on sending him some music he has written he wrote; ' Do not send me money, for though I am taxed enough, yet I never mean to make money by my music except for some good purpose. Send me, if you like, a Buffaloe tongue [or] any little article [of] American produce, so that my family may have a taste & something to amuse them and talk of. But, only be it no trouble.'
Despite his success in the area, music does not appear to have been one of WHH's priorities. In his letters there are several references to how he had increasingly limited time for music and how he often did 'not touch an instrument for weeks together' and the only time he appears to have devoted large amounts of time music was when he was ill, and this is re-enforced through his daughter Maria's description of how her 'dear father at this time was still suffering from the effects of an accident, and music was his alleviation.' However, a lack of time did not prevent WHH from composing because he used rail or coach journeys for this purpose, as he did not need to use an instrument to write music, or, as he said, 'musical ideas will, now and then, pop into my head, and then in a trice I have composed some curious things…'
All of the works published by WHH were sacred; hence the reason why he is best remembered for this, but he also wrote songs, rounds and catches for children, which were 'full of childlike life and bird-like glee.' He was also excellent at improvising, which, was greatly enjoyed by listeners, as can be seen through one anonymous listener's very animated account, which is on page 21 of the appendix. His published musical works were in several different forms, which included chants, anthems, hymn and psalm settings and carols. Many of these were written for his church services and were very popular amongst his parishioners.
The Success Of William Henry Havergal's Music
WHH's works were very successful and were widely used throughout the country, a fact that is illustrated through Frances Ridley's account of when she was in London saying that she '...Heard Dr. T. the Sunday before at Westminster Abbey… Papa's chant to the psalms was grandly chanted at the Abbey.' An anonymous evaluator of WHH's music described how 'Mr. Havergal's… music is often to be heard in our cathedrals; and in Scotland and America no psalm tune is oftener sung than 'Evan' (which was set to the words of Bishop Heber and was initially called 'O thou dread Power,' by WHH ). This tune was WHH's most famous work and was one of many of Bishop Heber's words that he set to music. Others of which were also very popular, and requests for his work were received from people including Bishop Heber's widow, Amelia Valsamachi who said 'Should your health permit your setting of any more hymns to music, will you allow me and my children to partake in the pleasure you will then give to the world…'
Several of WHH's works still appear in hymn books today, including The English Hymnal with Tunes, (1933), Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised (1922 and 1950), Hymns of Western Europe (1927) and Hymns for Prayer and Praise (1996). The most frequently occurring of his tunes in these volumes is Franconia: 'Blest are the pure in heart' with words by John Keble (1792-1866) (see page 25) with a tune that was originally composed by J.B. König, which WHH adapted. The only hymn books from those listed above that do not include this work are both editions of Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised which only includes one work by WHH, Consecration: 'Take my life, and let it be'. This is the only piece for which the tune was written by WHH, and the words were written by his youngest daughter Frances Ridley, who went on to become more famous than her father for her religious poetry and hymns, which were often printed as leaflets.
The high standard of WHH's musical works gained him a lot of respect and was once described as 'one of the best modern composers.' His friend Dr. Lowell Mason was particularly enthusiastic towards his work and regularly sent to WHH copies of his chants for him to evaluate and provide helpful suggestions.
WHH had very fixed ideas about music and how it should be arranged and written, which can be seen in all his writings on the subject. He was to extent a traditionalist, and greatly respected the 'great English composers - Handel, Greene, Arne, Boyce, Crotch, &c. [as] with them all is natural, simple, beautiful' and also liked the work Palestrina and Gibbons . He was extremely knowledgeable on the styles these composers used and what chord progressions etc. they would have avoided. This is especially apparent in his letter to anon where he makes suggestions based on his knowledge of what Palestrina would have written. He is also very aware of what was 'standard practice' at the time, and was able to suggest what was too modern for chants and what was too old fashioned.
WHH was very critical of his contemporaries (who generally remain unnamed in his work). In his opinion, the dignity of worship in a cathedral was being mocked by the oratorio, as it caused listeners to mistake the 'pleasurable feeling' that they obtained from it to be 'reverential worship' and believed that 'not even the "Messiah"' by Handel was written 'with an eye to worship.' He also felt strongly that when composers other than church musicians wrote for the church they were frequently unsuccessful, as they were attempting ''a style they really do not understand' resulting in 'things in the style of the tavern or the concert-room - things which would have horrified the worthies of Queen Elizabeth's days.' It was also felt by WHH that writers did not show much common sense in the way that they mixed different styles of composition, and regularly complained about the fact, including the way that starting 'a strain as the last one in the tune begins, with a 6.4, is the veriest modernism of the day. The great Beethoven, I believe in one of his half-mad and self-willed freaks, was the first to start it.'
Old Church Psalmody Op. 43, A Hundred Psalm and Hymn Tunes Op. 48 and Havergal's Psalmody & Century of Chants from the Old Church Psalmody: Hundred Tunes and Unpublished Manuscripts
It was this irritation with what was being created around him that initiated the creation of his own books, the first of which was the Old Church Psalmody Op. 43 (1847), that he compiled the with the intention of providing a contrast with the other collections of the time which he felt 'tended to discard the good, and introduce what was new and bad…' and caused '…the plague of sing-song, glee like productions.' This work which was later described by WHH as being 'the only publication which fully and consistently adheres to that style and melody and harmony which is as classical as it is ecclesiastical, namely, the style of the Reformation age.' It passed through five editions and was used by many editors of later collections as a guide to tune-sources and resulted in WHH being described as 'a pioneer in resuscitating our ecclesiastical music from the degrading and meaningless flippancy of the last and beginning of the resent century.'
The works within A Hundred Psalm and Hymn Tunes Op. 48 (1859) were all WHH's own compositions, in which he avoided the pretty and the novel, believing them to be 'out of place in a psalmody.' He aimed to write in the same style as those in his Old Church Psalmody and this work was very successful, with many people finding that they could be easily learnt. This was a consequence of the fact that WHH believed that a piece was improved if 'melodious progression' of the parts was used, and if the piece would sound better if it was based 'on a subject' rather than a tune. Following his death in 1870, his family published Havergal's Psalmody & Century of Chants from the Old Church Psalmody: Hundred Tunes and Unpublished Manuscripts (1871) which contained selected pieces from his previous collections, some pieces that had previously been unpublished and a few works by his daughter and editor of the book, Frances Ridley. It was published in order to do justice to the memory of WHH, while providing tunes 'varied in character and measure, as shall best serve for congregational edification and general use.'
