John Camidge: fifty double chants from York Minster

About John Camidge

Camidge was born at York in 1790, into a family that supplied the Minster with organists for four generations. His grandfather, another John, held the post from 1756 until 1799; his father, Matthew, held it until he resigned in October 1842, and John had deputised for him for years before taking over. He graduated Mus.B. at Cambridge in 1812 and Mus.D. in 1819.

His Cathedral Music, published around 1830, is the source of much of this repertoire: a Te Deum, Jubilate, Cantate, Deus misereatur, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, six arrangements of the Sanctus and Miserere, four anthems and fifty double chants, all in score with an organ part. A chant sets one verse of a psalm to a short harmonic formula repeated for each verse; a double chant spans two verses before the reciting note returns, and a quadruple chant four, which is why the quadruple setting in A major stands out in a list of doubles.

The Minster organ was destroyed in the fire of 1829, and the instrument that replaced it was built largely under his supervision. He was paralysed while playing an evening service in November 1848 and never resumed regular duty; he resigned early in 1859 and died on 21 September that year. The 49 entries here, all chants and service music, are the working library of that career rather than concert pieces.

Listening and playing notes

A chant is accompaniment as much as music: the choir holds the reciting note on one chord, then the formula carries the verse to its close, and the organist must breathe with the words rather than the bar-lines. Keep the harmony plain and the registration steady, and do not slow the final cadence, because the next verse begins at once. With a double chant, mark where the second half starts: that is where choirs and congregations lose each other.

Selected scores

1. Praise the Lord, O My Soul

   The most-viewed score here, an anthem on the opening of Psalm 103.

2. Te Deum Laudamus

   The great thanksgiving of matins, sung after the first lesson in the Book of Common Prayer.

3. Double Chant in D Minor

   A double chant covers two verses of a psalm before the reciting note returns.

4. Double Chant in F Major

   One of a group of chants in the brighter keys, useful where a psalm needs lift rather than weight.

5. Double Chant in C Minor

   Minor-key chants suit penitential psalms; the catalogue holds more than one in C minor.

6. Double Chant in C Minor III

   The Roman numeral is the catalogue's, distinguishing this setting from the other C minor chants.

7. Quadruple Chant in A Major

   A quadruple chant extends the formula over four verses instead of two, the rarest form in the collection.

8. Double Chant in A Minor

   One of the few minor-key settings outside C minor.

9. Jubilate Deo

   Psalm 100, the alternative canticle to the Benedictus at morning prayer.

10. Double Chant in E Flat Major

    The catalogue writes 'E flat' rather than a flat sign, as chant lists usually do.