6 - Cooke’s Part Songs and Orchestral Anthems

Summary

Given that the early academicians’ boast of ‘great Things in Design’ was largely motivated by an aspiration to advance composition, it is natural that this study should culminate with a consideration of works by the Academy’s most frequently performed composer-member, Cooke. After all that has been said thus far concerning Cooke’s enthusiasm for theory and history, an element of academic pedantry might seem inevitable in his music. This, however, was never the case: on the contrary, throughout his long composing career Cooke exuded a distinctive musical personality born of a genuine creative talent. A winning characteristic permeating much of Cooke’s music is an unassuming directness, aptly termed by one contemporary ‘a happy boldness of effect’. Allied to his intellectual interests, this disposition frequently imbues Cooke’s music with a distinct sense of artistic ambition, conveyed via an imaginative and individual approach to form, orchestration, harmonic language and style.

For the purposes of this study we must focus upon the way in which Cooke’s style was conditioned by his life as an academician and, in particular, one who sought through learning to view and create musical style anew. We have already observed (in Chapter 2) that the gentlemanly status and affluence Cooke achieved through his wife’s financial windfall in 1762 appears to have influenced his development as a composer. Free perhaps from the necessity to undertake the more laborious tasks associated with his profession Cooke channelled much of his energy into extended Academy projects. Although, like most composers of his period, Cooke left no manifesto or explanation of his artistic aims, these can be, to some extent, inferred from his music. Rejecting the pleasant but undemanding styles prevalent in later eighteenth-century England, Cooke clearly sought to orient his musical style in a distinctive direction, a primary objective being to produce statements of grandeur and substance. Whilst such aims are evident throughout Cooke’s career, it was during the 1760s and 70s that they were so effectively and imaginatively realised. During this period Cooke used his learning not just to emulate the past, but as a means to respond anew to musical issues of his day. It is, therefore, upon this period of Cooke’s life that we will concentrate.

A recurring characteristic in Cooke’s approach to composition is his awareness of and fascination with musical styles of diverse periods.