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John Marbeck and The Booke of Common Praier Noted
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The liturgical section of The New English Hymnal contains musical settings for both eucharistie orders of the Church of England’s Alternative Service Book 1980. The modern-language service, Rite A, is provided with a newly-composed congregational setting in speech rhythm. The texts of Rite B use the traditional language of the Book of Common Prayer, and are given a musical setting taken from The Booke of Common Praier Noted by John Marbeck, published in 1550. An accompaniment is added, and the text is adapted where the original is no longer accurate. Its inclusion in this new hymn-book is evidence of the popularity which Marbeck’s setting has enjoyed for more than a hundred years. Its rediscovery took place in the nineteenth century through the influence of the Tractarians and their successors, who sought to revive traditional liturgical practices such as the singing of plainsong during worship. The Booke of Common Praier Noted is a musical setting of parts of the first English Prayer Book, which had been promulgated in 1549. The appearance of a second Prayer Book in 1552 rendered Marbeck’s work obsolete, as the new book expresses a different attitude towards music in worship. The 1549 Prayer Book encourages singing in many of the services, not least the Office of Holy Communion. The clerks, singing-men usually in minor orders, are expected to take a full part, and the normal eucharistie celebration is one which is sung virtually throughout. The Offices in the 1552 Book contain very few references to singing, and the clerks are nowhere mentioned. The only direction for singing any part of the order for Holy Communion is found at the end, when ‘Glory be to God on high’ may be said or sung. A rubric at Morning Prayer allows for the singing of the lessons in that service and at Evening Prayer, as well as the Epistle and Gospel at Holy Communion, so that the people may hear them more clearly. It is possible that the retention of this reference to singing from the first Prayer Book may have been an oversight, as the rubric is situated away from the main body of the service.
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1992
References
1 Matheson, P., ed., Collected Letters and Writings of Thomas Müntzer (Edinburgh, 1988) [hereafter Matheson], p. 166 Google Scholar.
2 Matheson gives All Souls’ Day; the reading in the German original is allerheilgentag, and the editor’s footnote reads ‘1 November’. See Franz, G., ed., Thomas Müntzers Schriften und Briefe (Gütersloh, 1968), p. 162 Google Scholar.
3 2 February.
4 Matheson, p. 168.
5 Luther’s Works, American edition 55 vols (Philadelphia, 1958-67) [hereafter LW], 53, Liturgy and Hymns, ed. U. S. Leupold (1065), p. 26.
6 LW, 40, Church and Ministry, 11, ed. C. Bergendoff (1958), p. 141.
7 Ibid., p. 300.
8 LW, 53, p. 82.
9 His name is variously spelt Marbeck(e), Merbeck(e), etc.; the form adopted here is that which was most commonly found in his later publications, though in The Booke of Common Praier Noted, it is found in the form ‘John Merbecke’.
10 Leaver, R. A., John Marbeck = Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics, 9 (Oxford, 1978), p. 25 Google Scholar.
11 Ibid., p. 34. Also see Wood, A., Fasti Oxonienses, 1 (London, 1815), col. 130 Google Scholar.
12 Marbeck, John, A Concordance, that is to saie, a worke wherein by the ordre of the letters of the A.B.C, ye maie redely ftnde any worde conteigned in the whole Bible, so often as it is there expressed or mencioned (London, 1550 Google Scholar) [hereafter Concordance].
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14 Concordance, preface.
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16 Marbeck, John, The Holie Historie of King Dauid (London, 1579 Google Scholar).
17 Marbeck, John, A Booke of Notes and Common Places (London, 1581), pp. 754–6 Google Scholar.
18 Ibid., pp. 1015-20.
19 Marbeck, John, The Booke of Common Praier Noted (London, 1550 Google Scholar), Sig. A.ii.
20 Ibid., in this booke … are vsed only these iiij sortes of notes, … The first note is a strene note and is a breue. The second a square note, and is a semy breue. The iii. a pycke and is a mynymme. And when there is a prycke by the square note, that prycke is halfe as muche as the note that goeth before it. The iiii is a close, and is only vsed at the end of a verse.’