Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/52

40 He detests the music of Charles II.'s French master, Grebus (Grabu):

And, generally speaking, all instrumental music wearies him :

What a list of qualities eliminated ! What is left him ? He has just told us; one voice, or two at most, accompanied or not with the lute, the theorbo or the viol. And what are these voices to sing?

Simple melodies, intelligently declaimed: such as those of Lawes, the fashionable idol of the moment, the composer whose name occurs most frequently in the Diary. As regards the theatre, Pepys appears to have a special liking for the music of Lock, with whom he was personally acquainted, and that of the composer who wrote the musical score for Massinger's Virgin Martyr in 1668—the music that made him sick for pleasure. In church he is still an admirer of Lock, and he approves of Ravenscroft's Psalms for four voices, although he finds them very monotonous.

But at heart he prefers above everything the good old English melodies: