Henry Lawes

English musician

• Born: December 5, 1595
• Birthplace: Dinton, Wiltshire, England
• Died: October 21, 1662
• Place of death: London, England

Henry Lawes was arguably the most prolific composer of songs in seventeenth century England, and his musical output helped to establish the declamatory song as the principal style for solo music in the period. He composed music for several court masques, and he was among the favorite musicians of the Cavalier poets for his talent at setting texts to music.

Early Life

Thomas Lawes, the father of Henry Lawes (LAWZ), was appointed to the position of lay vicar at Salisbury Cathedral in 1602, a post that he kept until 1632. In addition to its famous cathedral, Salisbury boasted a rich cultural and musical environment, and it is likely that in this respect Henry benefited from his family’s move to Salisbury: All of the Lawes children eventually pursued careers as musicians or composers.

Although records of Henry Lawes’s early education are unavailable, he would most likely have received musical training as a boy chorister in the cathedral. At some point he received training on the lute, an instrument on which he later excelled both as a performer and a composer. John Dowland’s lute works were at the peak of their popularity during Henry’s childhood, and his later works show that he had been deeply influenced by Dowland’s style. By the time he was twenty years old, Lawes moved to London, where his brothers John and William were already establishing themselves as prominent musicians. Possibly, he received instruction there from Giovanni Coperario, the English musician who had studied in Italy and was responsible for bringing many continental methods to the English musical scene.

Life’s Work

Although Henry’s brother William was the first of the two to distinguish himself as a composer (he had already composed a number of court masques by 1632), Henry did manage to procure a number of royal appointments, largely on the basis of his performing talents, by the time he was thirty-five years old. In 1625, Henry Lawes was admitted to the Chapel Royal as an epistoler, or reader. In 1626, he was effectively promoted to gentleman of the Chapel Royal, a position that would have given him some musical duties in the Anglican service. In 1630 or 1631, Lawes was named a member of the King’s Private Musick, a prestigious position that he held throughout his lifetime, except during the rule of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth , when the Chapel Royal and King’s Musick were temporarily dissolved.

As was typical for an aspiring musician in seventeenth century England, Lawes sought patronage from influential figures at court, a sphere to which he had greater access following his appointment to the Chapel Royal. Sometime before 1630, Lawes had set to music certain poems written by the earl of Pembroke, a nobleman who was well known for his patronage of writers, artists, and musicians. Although it is unclear how much support Lawes received from Pembroke, his courtly connections were well established by 1630, when he was hired by the Egerton family to contribute music for an entertainment held in honor of the countess of Derby, the Egerton matriarch.

Lawes’s association with the Egerton family directly led to one of the most important artistic collaborations of his career, his composition of the music for John Milton’s Comus (pr. 1634, pb. 1637 as A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle ). The masque had been commissioned as part of the entertainment surrounding the ceremonial installment of the earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle, and both Lawes and Milton were directly involved in the preparation and presentation of the masque (in fact, Lawes appeared as one of the singer-actors in the work).

Court masques in seventeenth century England were typically loosely structured presentations of verse, song, and dance, all contributing to a simple, usually mythological, plot that served as a thinly veiled compliment to a royal figure. As might have been expected from a poet of Milton’s stature, Comus far exceeded previous masques in its complexity and dramatic design, and the music Lawes composed for the masque was more integral to its dramatic structure than would have been expected from a simple entertainment. For this reason, Comus has occasionally been designated as a precursor to English opera.

Although little record of Lawes’s involvement with other masques survives, he is generally recognized as the musical contributor to Sir William Davenant’s The Triumphs of the Prince d’Amour (pr., pb. 1636), a project to which his brother also contributed. Lawes provided the music for a number of plays performed at Oxford in 1636. During this time, he was gaining a remarkable reputation for his ability to set poems to music. Milton immortalized Lawes in one his later poems, citing the composer’s talent for making words and music “agree.” Moreover, Lawes’s acquaintance with Oxford playwright William Cartwright led to their collaboration on “Ariadne’s Lament” (pb. 1651), a long solo recitative on the myth of Ariadne and Theseus. Over the next several years, Lawes became a favorite among poets who wished to see their work set to music, including Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace , John Suckling , John Harington, Edmund Waller, and Aurelian Townshend.

Lawes was very active in the publication of his music, a fact that most likely helped sustain his popularity during his lifetime. In addition to collaborating with Milton on the publication of Comus, Lawes worked with the prominent music publisher Humphrey Mosley to publish an edition of his own lyrics in 1645. This edition was followed by Lawes’s Choice Psalms Put into Music (1648), which posthumously included settings by his brother William, and multiple volumes of the Ayres and Dialogues (1653-1658). The publication of his music also invariably helped Lawes remain productive during England’s rule by the Commonwealth, when Lawes’s royal associations effectively became defunct. Although Lawes lived to see the Restoration of Charles II , he did not enjoy the level of court patronage under the restored monarch that he had under Charles I . Lawes died in London on October 21, 1662, and was buried in Westminster Cathedral.

Significance

Although Henry Lawes was deeply admired and respected during his lifetime, most twentieth century critics dismissed his musical contributions as insipid or simplistic. However, twenty-first century scholars and musicians have recognized this negative attitude as reflective of modern preferences for music that is structurally complex and that places less value on the accompanying text. Lawes often composed music with the opposite goals in mind, and in terms of the solo music of his time, his compositions are unrivaled in their melodic lyricism and in their unique ability to join words with music. Moreover, the fact that Lawes was directly active in having much of his later music published, including many of his contributions to masques and plays, ensured that a great body of seventeenth century solo music is available for performance today. For this reason (as well as for the inherent beauty of his works), much of Lawes’s music is recorded and available to modern listeners.

Bibliography

Buhler, Stephen M. “Counterpoint and Controversy: Milton and the Critiques of Polyphonic Music.” Milton Studies 36 (1998). An excellent article, which cogently discusses the debates over music in seventeenth century England in which Henry Lawes was directly implicated. The essay offers a corrective view on Lawes’s reputation as a composer of mainly homophonic music. Illustrations, musical examples.

Evans, Willa McClung. Henry Lawes: Musician and Friend of Poets. London: Oxford University Press, 1941. This is the only available book-length biography of Lawes. Because of the paucity of records of Lawes’s personal life (particularly concerning the early years), this study often relies heavily on speculation, although it offers interesting details about musical life in seventeenth century England. Illustrations, bibliographical note.

Ortiz, Joseph M. “’The Reforming of Reformation’: Theatrical, Ovidian, and Musical Figuration in Milton’s Maske.” Milton Studies 44 (2004). This essay reconsiders Henry Lawes’s most well-known contribution to the English masque tradition, in light of seventeenth century Reformist ideas about music. The article particularly considers Lawes’s reputation as a composer who “married” poetry and music better than any of his contemporaries.

Shawcross, John T. “Henry Lawes’s Settings of Songs for Milton’s Comus.” The Journal of the Rutgers University Library 28 (1964): 22-28. A brief article that traces the manuscript evidence for Lawes’s collaboration with Milton on the masque. This is a bibliographic rather than interpretive study and therefore not likely to be as useful for purely critical study of Lawes’s music.

Spink, Ian. Henry Lawes: Cavalier Songwriter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. This is a well-argued and lucid analysis of Lawes’s musical achievement throughout his career, paying particular attention to the musical settings of Cavalier poetry. The discussion is interspersed throughout with biographical details. Several musical examples, bibliography.