Monastic music that survived Henry VIII's dissolution brought back to life

The Guardian

14 hours ago

Almost five centuries ago a community of monks in the West Country of England gathered to sing, imploring their God to help them endure the challenges of medieval life.
Thanks to an extraordinary discovery of music that survived Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the early 16th century, the songs created by the Buckland Abbey monks were ringing out again across the hills and woods of the Tavy valley in Devon this weekend.
The themes are heavy – the threats from disease and crop failures, not to mention powerful rulers – but the polyphonic style is bright and joyful, a contrast to the sort of mournful chants most associated with monks.
'It's an extraordinary rich, textured sound,' said Prof James Clark, a University of Exeter historian, as the university's chapel choir rehearsed at Buckland. 'They're all singing together but following different melodies. It's a sort of melodious cacophony of sound.'
Clark found the music while researching Buckland Abbey for the National Trust. Only one book – rather boringly setting out the customs the monks followed – was known to exist, held in the British Library.
'I didn't hold out a great deal of hope it would suddenly open up the lost world of Buckland Abbey,' said Clark. But in the back of the Buckland Book, he came across some leaves of parchment.
'Those leaves contained pieces of chant – text and notation. Though there were 800-plus monasteries in medieval England, you can count almost on one hand pieces of music that survived.
'The Tudor state scrapped Latin worship and the lyrics and music that went with it were largely discarded. Most of this stuff is lost. But there it was, shoved into the back of the book.'
The bulk of the book was written in the 15th century but Clark was able to date the music to the early 16th century. 'That made it especially exciting because it transports us to that last generation of monks of the medieval English tradition that had been there for a millennium,' he said.
It chimed with another Buckland document from the same era. 'By extraordinary serendipity, it turned out to be the contract for the employment of an organist and choirmaster.' His name was Robert Derkeham, and he would have been hired to improve the singing of the dozen monks who lived at Buckland and the local boys brought in to sing the treble parts.
Clark said it was clear that, as well as worshipping God, the monastery was trying to impress patrons by creating wonderful music. 'Monasteries were competing in a very crowded marketplace for investment from patrons,' he said.
'One of the strategies was to upgrade the music. Buckland bought in expertise to turn what may have been a rather ragged choir into something more professional. They were being responsive to cultural change, keeping up with the times and impress their audience.'
Derkeham remained at the monastery for more than 15 years, until it was closed and he was pensioned off.
Clark said the text was dark. 'It is calling out to what we might call an Old Testament God. One calls out to God to defend his people; one says, 'stay the hand of the avenging angel'; one talks about being in despair.
'I like that sense that it carries us back to a moment in time. In our world, medieval religion is becoming ever more difficult for us to grasp. I think this helps us return to an understanding that it was a sensory experience,' said Clark.
'If we're going to do these people who died 500 years ago some sort of justice as historians, we've got to understand the world as they saw it and as experienced it.'
The book has been loaned to Buckland by the British Library and can be viewed at the abbey.
The University of Exeter Chapel Choir will perform the music live in Buckland Abbey's medieval Great Barn on 16 and 17 August.