Who Sang Simeon’s Song? Paying for Plainchant in the Chester Whitsun Plays

Bradley Hoover

ENG331: Drama to 1603

Professor M. Sergi

1 April 2014  

Keywords: Chester, liturgical music, singers, Smiths’ guild, Whitsun plays
  

 

The Chester mystery play, The Purification and Christ and the Doctors, requires the character of Simeon to sing a plainchant solo, Nunc dimittis, also known as Song of Simeon (Johnston 11.167+sd). Liturgical music was an important aspect of the Whitsun biblical plays, as Elizabeth Baldwin points out: “the cycle as a whole contains nineteen liturgical pieces in Latin which carry a ‘church-voice’ [...] and seem to require trained singers” (Piper 59). Whether a trained vocalist was hired to sing ‘Song of Simeon’ by the Smiths’ guild is not entirely clear. However, there is evidence in REED of the Painters’ guild hiring boy choristers from the cathedral, who were “paid for providing singing for the Whitsun plays” (Baldwin Cheshire 1002), so it is possible that the Smiths’ guild hired singers as well. Richard Rastall notes that boy choristers were hired to play angelic roles or shepherds, but states this was not the case for “historical mortal characters in general” (306, n.19), such as Apostles. The editors of REED Cheshire seem to confirm this, arguing that of the actors in Chester who can be identified, none were professional (xxxv). Yet, there is evidence that the Smiths’ guild hired someone from the cathedral to perform the role of the singing apostle Simeon. Rastall speculates that in 1567 and 1568 it was the well-known composer Robert White, who worked as choirmaster and organist in Chester Cathedral at that time, but I tend to believe it was White's predecessor, Randle (Thomas) Barnes.

Accounts belonging to the Smiths’ guild from 1568 show a payment “to mr wyte for singing 4 s.” (126), identified in an endnote as composer Robert White, “described as magister choristorum, a post combining the roles of organist and choirmaster” (Cheshire 1012). White’s name also appears in the Smiths’ guild accounts for the previous year, 1567, where he is paid the same amount: “to mr. white 4 s.” (118). It seems quite possible that White was hired twice to play the role of Simeon, as he was known to be a trained singer to some degree, and obviously capable of reading plainchant notation. However, listed alongside Robert White in the accounts are two other names of note: John Genson, listed as “mr chanter” (118), and Randle Barnes (126). John Genson was the “precantor at the cathedral” (Cheshire 1010), who apparently composed songs for the Smiths’ guild in 1560-61, his name appearing between payments to “Symyon” and “boyes for singing” (107). Also, the Painters’ guild accounts in 1567-68 shows a payment “spent at Thomas Iohnsons to speke with mr Chaunter for shepertes boyes” (122). This is most likely Genson as well, who seems to have worked as a liaison between the cathedral and the guilds for the hiring of boys for the Whitsun plays, if not hired as a composer for the Painters’ shepherds play as well.    

Randle Barnes was a “minor canon of Chester Cathedral” (Cheshire 1009) whose name first appears in the 1553-54 Smiths’ accounts, “to barnes & the syngers iij s. 4 d.” (96), in 1560-61, “to get singers iii d.” (107), and lastly in 1568, “to mr Rondle barnes 3 s. 4 d.” (126). It is interesting that Barnes is paid 3 shillings 4 pence in 1554 and 1568, the implication being that he performed the same service for the guild those years. Yet, aside from the ‘getting’ of singers in 1561, it is not clear what that service entailed. It had to be something different from what Genson was doing for the Smiths’ guild that year, as both men’s names are listed in the account, but paid different amounts. Genson’s payment appears to be for composing, listed alongside a payment “to the 5 boys for singing ij s. vj d.” and “to the Angell vj d.” (107), which would also have been played by a boy. However, there is another payment listed above this entry for 3 shillings and 4 pence to “Symyon” (107), the performer’s name being unknown. The amount suggests that perhaps it was Randle Barnes who performed the role of Simeon in The Purification from 1554-1568, this being his usual payout. Furthermore, the payment to Genson, when added to that of the boys’ and the angel’s, equals 4 shillings – the exact amount that Robert White was paid in 1567 and 1568 for his services.

If one reads the 1568 account listing in its entirety across the whole line, it could suggest that Barnes was paid as a soloist and White as choirmaster together with payment for the singing boys: “to mr Rondle barnes 3 s. 4 d. to mr wyte for singing 4 s.” (126). It is possible that the Smiths’ bookkeeper conflated the payment to the choirmaster and the choir, as there is no record of any payment to the boys choir in 1567 or 1568, although an ‘Angell’ is listed as receiving 8 pence in 1567. Moreover, the Smiths’ account in 1554, above the payment to Barnes, reads: “to the Angells vj d., to ould sermond iij s. 4 d.” (96). This amount is two pence shy of 4 shillings for a choirmaster and choir when taken together, but is the same single payment of  3 s. 4 d. seen before. One section is rather confounding; I am not sure as to what “ould sermond” refers. It could be either ‘sermoner’, as in someone who writes sermons or compositions, or as ‘old Simeon’ exchanging an ‘i’ for the ‘r’ and shifting it over one space, “Semion(d)”.        

Either way, the discrepancy in the payment for Simeon in 1561 (3 s. 4 d.) and White’s payment of 4 s. in 1568 (a raise of 8 d.) puts into question whether he performed the role, or whether he was hired in the role of composer, like John Genson at the same rate of pay. On the one hand, I think it is unlikely that White performed Simeon in 1567, seeing as he had only arrived in Chester that year, perhaps witnessing the Whitsun cycle for the first time. It seems more reasonable that he was hired as a composer or choirmaster first. On the other hand, White was “granted a B.Mus at Cambridge where he sang at Trinity College” (ODR), so there is evidence that he was a trained singer to some degree, and could have vocally handled Simeon’s Song quite well.

Randle Barnes, as far as the records can confirm, was a resident of Chester in 1553, fourteen years prior to White’s arrival. If not born in Chester, which is a possibility, he likely knew the play cycle and the guild members of the town very well at that point. Furthermore, Baldwin notes that there is a Thomas Barnes who was choirmaster in 1555-56 (Piper 56), but that Randle Barnes seems to have been in charge of the choristers in 1551 (Piper 61). It seems more than a little likely that these are actually the same two men, as Thomas is listed as the cathedral organist in 1551 by John E. West, noting that Thomas was “previously a Conduct, or singing man, in the Choir” (West 12). Furthermore, there is a licence in REED from 1517-18 which lists the duties of the organist and choirmaster for St. Werburgh’s abbey, before the new cathedral was established in 1541, when John Birchley was choirmaster:    

the said Iohn Byrcheley on his parte Couenauntethe and grauntithe to teche all suche bredren of the place as be or shalbe willyng heraftre to Lerne to synge thaire playnsonge fafurden prykksong descant to play on the Organs And to sett songes yf thay be disposed to gif theymsellffe thereunto. (67-68)

It is not likely that two men with the same last name held similar positions at the cathedral, with duties that overlapped. Randle and Thomas Barnes appear to be the same man. If this is true, there is solid evidence that Randle Barnes was a trained singer who could have performed Song of Simeon as a soloist. 
     

          An argument can be made from the existing Cheshire records for both Robert White and Randle Barnes playing the role of Simeon in The Purification and Christ and the Doctors for the Smiths’ guild at some point. However, Randle Barnes has not been a candidate for the role in recent scholarship. What the records do show is that musicians from Chester Cathedral were quite involved with the performance of liturgical music in the Whitsun plays, and compensated for their services. 

Works Cited

Baldwin, Elizabeth. Paying the Piper: Music in Pre-1642 Cheshire. 

     Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002. Print.

Baldwin, Elizabeth., Lawrence M. Clopper, and David Mills, eds.  

     Records of Early English Drama. Cheshire including Chester. 

     Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2007. Print.

Johnston, A. F., ed. Chester Play 11: The Purification and Christ 

     and the Doctors. 1572. Toronto, 2010. The Chester Plays, REED.  

     Web. 26 March 2014.     

Rastall, Richard. The Heaven Singing: Music in Early English 

     Religious Drama. v.1. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996. Print.   

West, John E. Cathedral Organists Past and Present. London: 

     Novello, c1899. The Princeton Theological Seminary Library.  

     Archive.org. Web. 27 March 2014.

“White, Robert.” Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. Ed. 

     Gordon Campbell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford 

     Reference. Web. 27 March 2014.