Interview, Lost Majesty - the Monteverdian music of George Jeffreys

The idea of an 'English Monteverdi' seems paradoxical; the broad sweep of music history tends to ignore English composers for certain periods, assuming that nothing was happening for decades on end while the country mutely waited for, say, a Henry Purcell to materialise from nowhere and reignite the fire. The period when Monteverdi and his Italian contemporaries were refining the stile nuovo is such a time - a period when the focus of musical novelty definitely lay elsewhere.

Yet one Northamptonshire-based composer was forging ahead - enthusiastically absorbing Monteverdian ideas, quickly and deftly adapting them to his own language and context and thereby creating an English form of Italianate Baroque music. All the more impressive as music wasn't even his 'real' job! George Jeffreys - inexplicably forgotten today - was employed as a kind of general factotum at an English stately home, but nevertheless found time to compose a considerable body of unique music that fuses the stile nuovo with English poetry and a distinctly adventurous harmonic taste. 

Organist William Whitehead describes having come across Jeffreys' music in the 2000s and being instantly captivated by it; in due course Jonny Sells of Solomon's Knot came on board to give a selection of Jeffreys' works the recording they needed, and the result was a 2-CD recording that came out earlier in the year, featuring works for four and five voices. Whitehead and musicologist Jonathan Wainwright take up the story, explaining more about who Jeffreys was and why his music is so striking.

The pieces recorded here really are unique - the impression one gets is of an English Monteverdi. How did you first come across this incredible music?

WW: I heard a recording of it by a couple of amateur groups from the 70s, 80s and 90s, and I was struck by the incredible quality of the music. Really deserving of a closer look.

For Jeffreys to have developed this distinctive Italianate style, he must have been exposed to the music of the stile nuovo. How readily available and widely performed was this music in England in his time?

JW: Italian music was particularly prized in England in Court circles and many noblemen, including Jeffreys’ own patron Sir Christopher Hatton (who was Comptroller of the King’s Household when the court was based in Oxford 1642–6), had collections of Italian music. Hatton’s immense library of printed music by cotemporaries of Monteverdi (which survives today in the library of Christ Church, Oxford) was available to Jeffreys and he copied many Italian madrigals and motets for performance at Court or in Hatton’s houses and, in so doing, learned the ‘Italian way’.

Most of the texts set here are original - not Bible passages but paraphrases and meditations (some of them very effective) by contemporary authors, mostly anonymous. Is that unusual for Jeffreys’ time?

JW: This probably is rather unusual. Most church anthems used Prayer Book or biblical texts at the time, but much of Jeffreys’ English music is devotional in context (i.e. music for the chamber) and therefore Jeffreys had a wider range of texts available to him and was able to choose colourful poetry to which he could respond musically.

Unlike some other composers, Jeffreys was employed as the Steward of Kirby Hall, the stately home of the Hatton family - do we know anything about how he juggled his everyday management duties with performance and composition?

WW: Who knows whether his steward’s duties were light, or quite onerous. I think more work would need to be done on that, but he is clearly on the borderlines of being an amateur composer and a professional composer. His moment of glory is being Charles I’s organist for a few years at the court in Oxford.

One thing that makes the album extra special is that it was itself recorded at Kirby Hall - presumably the first place much of Jeffreys’ music was heard. How does the Hall fit into the story?

WW: Kirby Hall had been in the Hatton family for a number of years. Christopher Hatton III, Jeffreys’ patron, took it over and adapted and remodelled the Elizabethan manor house, adding his own personal stamp to it by bringing in the Italian style of architecture. Though Jeffreys didn’t live there but down the road in Weldon, he would have spent many hours of his life there. Perhaps out in the estates or on the roof checking it didn’t leak or checking whether the right amount of chicken had been delivered and these kinds of daily tasks.

The prevailing narrative is that between Byrd and Purcell, music in England simply stopped for a generation - which could only be true if Jeffreys’ music had somehow become forgotten and invisible. How do you think such an inventive composer fell into such obscurity?

WW: The times that Jeffreys lived in were not conducive to professional music making or music making of any sort. Yet, music did still go on: Cromwell’s favourite instrument was the organ. Music did happen, just not in churches which was forbidden apart from a few enclaves where they got away with it. The great restrictions on music making and choirs existing at all ironically forced music into a kind of painful beauty and I think that is where Jeffreys’ music sits. There’s lots of regret, sadness and nostalgia in the music. It is similar to the music of Richard Dering, Henry and William Lawes that existed against all the odds.

Jeffreys’ career brings to mind that of William Lawes, a fellow Royalist composer with a great body of consort music, who endured the Siege of York and was killed at the battle of Rowston Heath. Could these two men have met and perhaps exchanged musical ideas?

WW: Lawes was moving in pretty high circles and when Jeffreys entered these, it is entirely possible they met, who can say.

This double-CD recording of Jeffreys’ works for four and five voices is certainly an impressive calling-card for his music; is there more out there waiting to be recorded?

WW: Jonathan Wainwright who with great synchronicity was editing and producing his Music Britannica volume of George Jeffreys’ English music, is working on a second volume – actually two volumes all together – of his Latin works. There is lots of ravishing music waiting there. So yes, if listeners have a deep desire to hear more of it on record, then please, do get in touch with Solomon’s Knot.