Scan 104
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.5 L-m, 1900
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1Ch. before both their Majestys, 1636', 'Come from the Dungeon, sung in … ye Royal Slave — written by Mr. Wm. Cartwright presented by the scollers of Ch. Ch. in Oxford before their Majestys 1636', 'The five songs in Comus … presented … Oct. 1634', etc., and 'Cupid to ye Knights Templars in a Maske at ye Middle Temple'. A portrait of Henry Lawes is in the Music School, Oxford. Another, painted in 1622, is in the 'bishop's palace at Salisbury.'
3See also Accentuation (of words). Cifra ('Tavola'). Coleman (1, collab. in 'Siege of Rhodes'). Comus. Ives (S., collab. in 'Triumph of Peace'). Song, p. 931 (mus. ex.).
5(3) John Lawes (b. ? Salisbury, c. 1599; d. London, Jan. 1655), brother of the preceding. He was a lay-vicar of Westminster Abbey and was buried in the Abbey cloisters.
7(4) William Lawes (b. Salisbury, [bapt. 1 May] 1602; d. Chester, 1645), composer, brother of the preceding. He received musical instruction from Coperario at the expense of the Earl of Hertford.2 He became one of the musicians in ordinary to Charles I. In 1633 he joined Simon Ives in the composition of the music for Shirley's 'Triumph of Peace'. In 1635 he wrote the music for Davenant's masque 'The Triumph of the Prince d'Amour'.3 An anthem by him is printed in Boyce's 'Cathedral Music'; songs and other vocal compositions in 'Select Musicall Ayres and Dialogues', 1653 and 1659, 'Catch that catch can', 1652, 'The Treasury of Musick', 1669, 'Choice Psalms', 1648; and some of his instrumental music in 'Courtly Masquing Ayres', 1662. On the breaking out of the Civil War he joined the Royalist army and was made a commissary by Lord Gerrard, to exempt him from danger, but his active spirit disdaining that security, he was killed by a stray shot during the siege of Chester in 1645. His portrait is in the Music School, Oxford. 'The Royal Consort' for viols, consisting of sixty-six short pieces, and some 'Airs' for violin and bass are in the B.M. (Add. MSS 10,445, 31,431-32); the latter manuscript contains also a canon, 'Tis joy to hear', and fifty-five vocal compositions. The B.M. (Add. MSS 29,410-14, and 17,798) has more of his pieces, and in the Christ Church Library, Oxford, are his 'Great Consorte' (I. 5, 1-6)
91 This is said in a note to the Cooper Smith MS mentioned above to have been picked up at a stall at Salisbury by Elderton, a chapter clerk, and left by Bishop Barrington in 1791 as an heirloom to the palace with a portrait of Bishop Jewel, "the Musical Bishop".
102 There has been confusion between him and a certain William Lawes who was a lay-clerk of Chichester Cathedral at the beginning of the 17th century, certain details of whose career were formerly recounted here. Since the Chichester Lawes was of an older generation, an earlier marriage was inferred for Thomas, and William was described as Henry's elder half-brother. These misunderstandings have been removed by the researches of Mrs. Dora Robertson (op. cit.).
113 Preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Music Sch. MSS B, 2, 3, and D, 229).
13and other works (I. 4, 79-82, 91-93, K. 3, 32, and H. I. 12 and 18). Canons and manuscript songs are contained in B.M. (Eg. MS 2013, Add. MSS 29,396-97, 30,273, 31,423, 31,433, 31,462). His best-known vocal work is the partsong 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may'.
15William Lawes certainly equalled his brother Henry in the estimation of his contemporaries, and he may be judged a decidedly greater composer by the present generation. Some of his scoring for unusual combinations of chamber instruments is strikingly successful, and his music for various forms of "broken consort" is of the greatest interest. His most remarkable work, however, is for the consort of viols, including three very arresting pavans for four viols, an experimental set of five-part fantasies of uneven merit but extraordinary boldness, and a magnificently mature six-part set in which the experimentation is much more consistently successful. His harmony is of a greater discordance and warmth of feeling than that of any of his English contemporaries, and he was not approached in these respects by any of his successors in the 17th century until the school of Purcell. Some of Purcell's greatness as a harmonist may be attributed to his probable familiarity with William Lawes's celebrated fantasies, to which his own early fantasies (1680) bear at times a more than coincidental resemblance. William Lawes is mentioned by name in Thomas Mace's list of eminent composers of fantasies ('Musick's Monument', 1676, p. 234), and received an extremely favourable notice in Fuller's 'Worthies of England' (1662).4
17W. H. H., adds., H. C. C., R. D. & W. B. S.
18BIBL.—ERLEBACH, RUPERT, 'William Lawes and his String Music' (Proc. Mus. Ass., Vol. LIX, 1923). EVANS, WILLA McCCLUNG, 'Henry Lawes: Musician and Friend of Poets' (New York & Oxford, 1941). HART, E. F., 'Introduction to Henry Lawes' (M. & L., XXXII, 1951, pp. 217 & 328).
20See also Cobb (elegy on death of L.). Hilton (2, Elegy on death of L.). Ives (S., collab. in 'Triumph of Peace', Elegy on death of L.). Jenkins (do.). Wilson (J. i, Elegy on death of L.; L.'s poem on W.).
21Lawler, D. See Corri (1, 'In and Out of Town', incid. m.).
22Lawrence, D. H. [David Herbert]. See Easdale (songs). Heseltine (P., friendship & enmity). Williams (Grace, song).
24LAWRENCE, Marjorie (b. Dean's March nr. Melbourne, 17 Feb. 1909).
26Australian soprano singer. She first had music lessons at Melbourne and then went to Paris in 1929 and studied singing with Cécile Gilly. In 1932 she made her début at Monte Carlo with such success that she was immediately engaged by the Paris Opéra for a period of three years. There she sang principally Wagnerian parts, also Strauss's Salome, and created the principal woman's part in Canteloube de Malaret's 'Vercingétorix'. In 1935 she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera-
281 See FANTASY.
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