Talk:Robert Fayrfax

'Regal' titles

I havn't formed an unalterable opinion on what to do with the identical pages Magnificat 'Regale' (Robert Fayrfax) and Magnificat 'Regali ex progenie' (Robert Fayrfax), but New Grove lists only Missa ‘Regali ex progenie’ and Magnificat regale. Richard Mix (talk) 20:37, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

H. B. Collins article Latin Church Music by Early English Composers (Proceedings of the Musical Association , 1916 - 1917, 43rd Sess. (1916 - 1917), pp. 97-121) is followed by a "DISCUSSION" beginning thus:

DR. TERRY [later Sir Richard]: I do not know that I have a great deal to to the Paper we have just heard; but perhaps a few ru comments may not be out of place. I was a little surpr hear the lecturer speak of a certain Mass of Fayrfax as "Regalis". I am aware that this is the erroneous title given to it in Grove's Dictionary; but, as a matter of fact, its title has nothing with royalty. The Mass derives it name (which is " RegalI", not "'Regalis") from the Antiphon, " Regali ex progenie," the Plainsong melody of which forms the Canto fermo. The Mass is in the Caius, Lambeth, and Bodleian MSS., with a tenor part at St. John's, Cambridge. In none of them is it called " Regalis" indeed, the Bodleian MS. is so definite on the point as to call it " Regaly." I am hardly inclined to agree with the lecturer as to the 'fatiguing " nature of Fayrfax's five-part counterpoint, if it is sung in a sufficiently resonant building by singers sufficiently trained to produce a good blend, and whose reading of the music is sufficiently broad. The lecturer touched on another point …

With regard to the Lambeth MS.,--in which so many items are anonymous-I can perhaps supplement the information given by the lecturer (if you will forgive my quoting from notes made a long time ago) …' the Mass on folio 78B is Fayrfax's " Regali," as found in the same MSS. There is also a Magnificat (fol. 66B) entitled "Regali," but without composer's name. It is the Fayrfax "Regali" Magnificat of the Caius, Peterhouse, and Eton MSS., where the author's name is given. The music is missing from the Eton MS., but the title and the composer's name are given in the index. The Caius MS. of it has two pages missing, so I was unable to make a complete score until I discovered the work in the Lambeth MS. and supplied the hiatus from it. (I am at a loss to know whence the " Regali " Magnificat derives its title, as it is not (like the Mass of the same name) founded on the melody of " Regali ex progenie." Moreover, the Mass is in the sixth mode, and the Magnificat is not.)

Anselm Hughes (1952) has since advanced a theory that "Regale" sobriquet (also applied in one source to the motet O bone Jesu) is linked to King's College's Collegium Regale. Richard Mix (talk) 23:53, 14 February 2021 (UTC)