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Scan 108
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
20 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 62. See the scan on archive.org.
1compositions (villancicos), for 3 and 4 voices, are found in several collections of the 16th century. The 'Cancionero,' printed by Barbieri (q.v.), contains three, two of which are also included in the so-called 'Cancionero de Uppsala' (Villancicos de diversos autores … a 2, 3, 4 and 5 v. … Venice, 1556). 'Ha Pelayo, que desmayo' (Barbieri, No. 348; Uppsala, No. 34) refers to the capture of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. Another villancico exists in MS. in the Biblioteca de la Diputació, Barcelona.
3J. B. T.
5ALDRICH, HENRY (b. Westminster, 1647; d. Oxford, Dec. 14, 1710), was son of Henry Aldrich (or Aldridge) of the city of Westminster, Gent. The spelling of the name varies in Wood's Life and Times, but Aldrich's own signatures in the Disbursement Books at Christ Church are always in the well-known form.
7Aldrich was educated at Westminster School under Dr. Busby. In 1662, at the age of fifteen, he was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, that is, to one of the places on the foundation of the House which Queen Elizabeth had annexed to the scholars of Westminster School. He proceeded to the degree of B.A., 1666, and M.A., 1669. In 1681 he became Canon of Christ Church, and in 1689 he was appointed Dean, in succession to Massey, the Roman Catholic Dean appointed by James II. Before he became Canon he held the office of Tutor, in which he showed himself kindly and assiduous. From 1692-95 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University, and in 1710 he died. His grave is in the Cathedral.
9Aldrich was a man of extraordinarily varied gifts, and though he was known to his contemporaries for his skill and interest in music, it is probable that he was most famous in his day for achievements of another kind. He was a theologian and a prominent member of the Lower House of the Canterbury Convocation. For a short time in 1702 he held the office of prolocutor. He wrote for the benefit of his pupils an Epitome of Heraldry, and a handbook of logic which was in use in Oxford within living memory. He was skilled in architecture, and besides writing a treatise on this subject, he himself designed Peckwater Quadrangle and the Church of All Saints in High Street, Oxford. He was one of the first members of the Philosophical Society, out of which the Royal Society developed. He encouraged the young men of the House to edit classical works, which he had bound, and then distributed to the members of the House by way of a New Year's gift. An ill-starred effort of this kind was Charles Boyle's edition of the Letters of Phalaris—a work which brought the editor into disastrous conflict with Bentley, the great Cambridge scholar. Besides all these excellences there is his music. He must have had a considerable reputation as a musician, but this aspect of him is greatly in the background in the two contemporary writers, Wood and Hearne. Wood tells us that he composed the music for the Act¹ in several years.
11On the Saturday before the Encænia there was a music-lecture or music-speech and a composition was performed. Hearne tells us that Playford dedicated the Second Part of his 'Harmonia Sacra' to Aldrich—a work 'authoriz'd to be printed by our sneaking Vice-Chanc. Wm. Lanicester' (Coll. vol. iii. p. 34). He also mentions dining with the Dean, when
13'that Great Man was pleased to make very honourable mention of Dr. Olearius, and to give a great Character of his late Edition of Philostratus … amongst other things he observ'd that the Publisher had shewed in some of [the notes] good Skill in ancient Musick, of wch no man is a better Judge than this Excellent Dean, as may partly appear from the Excellent Remarks of his in the Marmora Oxoniensia published by Dr. Prideaux'
15(Coll. vol. ii. p. 361). In his note upon the Dean's death he speaks of his energy and zeal, his excellent scholarship, and his charming character. 'He was a severe student himself yet always free, open, and facetious … humble and modest even to a Fault'—yet he does not mention the Dean's music in the catalogue of admirable qualities.
17When we turn to the works actually remaining, it becomes, perhaps, easy to understand this. In the music library at Christ Church among the books under his own name there is a large bundle of notes for a treatise on harmony, as well as a collection of compositions mainly for church use. This treatise was conceived on a large scale: it would have contained a history of music, an account of the physical side of it, and probably also a discussion of the more usual kind upon harmony. He discusses ancient music of various kinds and cites recondite authors. He deals with the length of strings and such subjects, and gives an account of a number of instruments. His devotion to the art came under the range of his scholarly interests, and it looks as if this part of the work would have reduced the technical part of the discussion to somewhat narrow limits. Among the compositions the well-known Catches on Tobacco and the Christ Church bells bear out Hearne's comment on his 'free, open, and facetious' manner. A large number of the anthems are arrangements and adaptations of the works of earlier composers. His Services (of which that in G is still constantly heard in cathedrals), his Anthems, and his Act-Songs are, it must be confessed, not strikingly original. They are in the style of the period, but they show considerable musical feeling; if they
19¹ The performance of the final exercises for the degree of M.A. and the doctorates of the several faculties.
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