Men of letters

Eric Lewin Altschuler and William Jansen consider the attributions of some of Thomas Weelkes’s texts

Thomas Weelkes (c.1575—1623) is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most creative of the English madrigalists. Indeed, Gustav Holst said of him: ‘Weelkes [...] can do so many things, and do them all well. He is almost as many-sided as Shakespeare. He is the real musical embodiment of the English character in his fantastic unexpectedness.’ Curiously, Weelkes is also a rather enigmatic figure. There is ‘absolutely no concrete information about him before 1597, the year in which he published his first collection of music, Madrigals to 3, 4, 5 and 6 voices.’ Even the year of his birth is inferred. Furthermore, after successful madrigal sets published in 1597, 1598, 1600 and 1608, Weelkes abandoned the genre, causing one commentator, for example, to wonder ‘did the creative urge leave him?’ (And, in general, the 1608 set is regarded as being of inferior quality to the other three.) Here, we point out that the anonymous authors of Weelkes’s texts have been somewhat under-appreciated as great men or women of letters.

Thule, the period of cosmography/The Andalusian merchant, nos.7 and 8 of the six-part madrigals from Weelkes’s 1600 collection Madrigals of 5 and 6 parts, is among his finest compositions, renowned both for its beauty and innovative use of chromaticism. After presenting a brief review of previously noted aspects of Thule, we point out a number of features we have noticed in the anonymous text which are perhaps worthy of some discussion. Our findings further confirm Norman Ault’s title for the poem in his compendium of Elizabethan lyrics — Wonders — as most appropriate.

Thule, the period of cosmography
     Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphureous fire
Doth melt the frozen clime and thaw the sky;
     Trinacrian Etna’s flames ascend not higher;
These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.

The Andalusian merchant, that returns
     Laden with cochineal and china dishes,
Reports in Spain how strangely Fogo burns
     Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes:
These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.

Tovey (pictured left) noted that the ‘first word looms in semibreves at the top of the octave as large as Iceland (magnified by the exigencies of Mercator’s projection) straddling at the top of the cosmographies of Elizabethan and Jacobean days.’ ‘Trinacrian’ (Sicilian) is emphasised with the use of triple meter, with most of the rest of the piece in common time. The strange burning of Fogo is highlighted by chromaticism unusual for the day. The very notes which are sung to ‘flying fishes’ appear almost themselves to leap off the page. Clearly, the text and the music of Thule are most brilliantly intertwined. In general, Arnold has noted that Weelkes ‘always delights in finding poems where the music can portray literally the meaning of the words.’ But the madrigal has still more deep and intriguing features.