Desert Island Discs with Richard III

For those outside of the range of BBC Radio 4, I should first explain that Desert Island Discs is a long-running programme in which a guest chooses 8 favourite pieces of music, which they would choose to have with them on a desert island.

A similar thing has been adapted for King Richard III, with the University of Leicester's concert of a selection of music it is supposed the King would have known. It is a curious conceit. I - for one - would not like a selection chosen for me in 500 years. Given the range of time used in the case of King Richard, the selection might be as diverse as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Manson - indicative of the time, but both irrelevant to my taste.

The problem is less pronounced in the case of King Richard III since there are less surviving examples of music from that period. But that is a problem in and of itself.

From the eleventh to the early fifteenth century ... we possess only three or four sizable English manuscripts in a nearly complete state.

Medieval Music by Richard H. Hoppin, 502

English identity in music was slow to develop:

Until the end of the fourteenth century, the language and culture of the court and the nobility remained primarily French ...

Medieval Music by Richard H. Hoppin, 503

By 1475, the English composers had come into their own, with Tinctoris describing their music as the "fount and origin" of a new art (p.502). But the distinctive English Medieval sound was not chiefly found in the courts, as suggested by the Leicester concert. While the music King Richard III heard in passing may have been continental, the music produced by his people was less frivolous:

Perhaps the most striking trait of English medieval polyphony is its almost exclusively liturgical function.

Medieval Music by Richard H. Hoppin, 503

One of the major sources of evidence for English Medieval music is called the Old Hall manuscripts and it contains: 121 Mass movements, 40 Glorias, 35 Credos, 27 Sanctus, 19 Agnus Dei, 11 Latin motets, 15 discant settings of sacred texts.

This does not mean that there were not lighter pieces of music produced by English musicians, works which have been lost forever through not being notated. But this is no great loss to the student of King Richard III. He was a man of the Church. His music was more likely to be found in the worship of God than in recreation at the court. We cannot merely recreate those "sacred" pieces without the surrounding context of worship, and that is archaic by all standards today. We cannot turn the clock back to recreate a scene of worship for novelty's sake, that would be tantamount to blasphemy. 

So - leaving aside the zeal of musicians - the totally authentic experience of hearing Richard III's music is lost to us. And yet it is not a great loss, because from the comments left on the concert in Leicester it does not appear that anyone has gained any insight into the man through the music. Some write of staring at the facial reconstruction whilst listening to the music, and so they betray the romantic dream of some Ricardians, the posture of the worshipper - worshipping a man, who would only have worshipped God.