Somewhat strange : a study of the relationships between text and music in English song, 1588-1789

Abstract

This study is concerned with the ways in which linguistic texts combine with music to form song, essentially an art of relationship. It argues that the relationship has never been a very stable one outside folk song, and traces the development of the relationship in English song from the appearance of the first English madrigals in 1588 to the death of G F Handel in 1759. The different sorts of relationship during this period are discussed in detail, with particular attention being paid to the sort of lyric poetry that is most suitable for musical setting. The conclusion is reached that, in the art of setting a poem to music, the late Elizabethan masters, Thomas Campion and John Dowlland, were supreme in the period under discussion. After them, the aevelopment of a new system of tonality and of denser textures of accompaniment resulted in music's assumption of a more and more Dominant role in the relationship to the neglect and detriment of poetic text.