John Taverner
John Taverner ( – 18 October 1545) was an English composer and organist, regarded as one of the most important English composers of his era. He is best-known for ''Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas'' and ''The Western Wynde Mass'', and ''Missa Corona Spinea'' is also often viewed as a masterwork. Career Nothing is known of Taverner's activities before 1524. He appears to have come from the East Midlands, possibly being born in Tattershall, Lincolnshire, but there is no indication of his parentage. According to one of his own letters, he was related to the Yerburghs, a well-to-do Lincolnshire family. The earliest information is that in 1524, Taverner travelled from Tattershall to the Church of St Botolph in nearby Boston, as a guest singer. Two years later, in 1526, Taverner became the first Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christ Church, Oxford, appointed by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. The college had been founded in 1525, by Cardinal Wolsey, and was then known as Cardina ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
In Nomine
In Nomine is a title given to a large number of pieces of English polyphonic, predominantly instrumental music, first composed during the 16th century. History This "most conspicuous single form in the early development of English consort music" originated in the early 16th century from a six-voice mass composed before 1530 by John Taverner on the plainchant ''Gloria Tibi Trinitas''. In the '' Benedictus'' section of this mass, the Latin phrase "in nomine Domini" was sung in a reduced, four-part counterpoint, with the plainchant melody in the meane part. At an early point, this attractive passage became popular as a short instrumental piece, though there is no evidence that Taverner himself was responsible for any of these arrangements. Over the next 150 years, English composers worked this melody into "In Nomine" pieces of ever greater stylistic range. ''In Nomine''s are typically consort pieces for four or five instruments, especially consorts of viols. One instrument pl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Speech Scroll
In art history, a speech scroll (also called a banderole or phylactery). is an illustrative device denoting speech, song, or other types of sound. Developed independently on two continents, the device was in use by artists within Mesoamerican cultures from as early as 650 BC until after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, and 13th and 14th century European painters. While European speech scrolls were drawn as if they were an actual unfurled scroll or strip of parchment, Mesoamerican speech scrolls are scroll-''shaped'', looking much like a question mark. It is used in heraldry for mottos or slogans and war-cries. Mesoamerica Speech scrolls are found throughout the Mesoamerica area. An early example is a Olmec ceramic cylinder seal dated to , where two lines emit from a bird's mouth followed by glyphs proposed to be "''3 Ajaw''," a ruler's name. The murals of the Classic era site at Teotihuacan are filled with speech scrolls, in particular tableaus in the Tepantitla co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Mass (music)
The Mass () is a form of sacred musical composition that sets the invariable portions of the Christian Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism), known as the Mass. Most Masses are settings of the liturgy in Latin, the sacred language of the Catholic Church's Roman Rite, but there are a significant number written in the languages of non-Catholic countries where vernacular worship has long been the norm. For example, there have been many Masses written in English for a United States context since the Second Vatican Council, and others (often called "communion services") for the Church of England. Masses can be ''a cappella'', that is, without an independent accompaniment, or they can be accompanied by instrumental '' obbligatos'' up to and including a full orchestra. Many masses, especially later ones, were never intended to be performed during the celebration of an actual mass. History Middle Ages The earliest ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music, Davies formed a group dedicated to contemporary music called the New Music Manchester with fellow students Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Davies's compositions include eight works for the stage—from the monodrama '' Eight Songs for a Mad King'', which shocked the audience in 1969, to ''Kommilitonen!'', first performed in 2011—and ten symphonies, written between 1973 and 2013. As a conductor, Davies was artistic director of the Dartington International Summer School from 1979 to 1984 and associate conductor/composer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1992 to 2002, holding the latter position with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as well. Early life and education Davies was born in Holl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Taverner (opera)
''Taverner'' is an opera with music and libretto by Peter Maxwell Davies. It is based on the life of the 16th-century English composer John Taverner, but in what Davies himself acknowledged was a non-realistic treatment. The gestation for the opera dated as far back as 1956 during Davies's years in Manchester, and continued when he went to Princeton University in 1962. Davies produced several instrumental works related to the opera during this gestation period, including the ''Points and Dances from 'Taverner and the ''Second Fantasia on John Taverner's "In Nomine"''. Davies had completed the opera in 1968, but lost parts of the score in a fire at his Dorset cottage in 1969, which necessitated recomposition. Davies completed the opera in 1970. Davies employs a theme from the 'Benedictus' of Taverner's Mass ''Gloria Tibi Trinitas'' as a recurring motif throughout the work. This theme, taken from the section beginning 'in nomine omini, gained popularity among later composers of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Viol Consort
The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings. Although treble, tenor and bass were most commonly used, viols came in different sizes, including (high treble, developed in 18th century), treble, alto, small tenor, tenor, bass and contrabass (called ). These members of the viol family are distinguished from later bowed string instruments, such as the violin family, by both appearance and orientation when played—as typically the neck is oriented upwards and the rounded bottom downwards to settle on the lap or between the knees. The viola da gamba uses the alto clef. Seven and occasionally eight frets made of "stretched ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Plainchant
Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ; ) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive form of the Western Christian church music until the ninth century, and the introduction of polyphony. The monophonic chants of plainsong have a non-metric rhythm, which is generally considered freer than the metered rhythms of later Western music. They are also traditionally sung without musical accompaniment, though recent scholarship has unearthed a widespread custom of accompanied chant that transcended religious and geographical borders. There are three types of chant melodies that plainsongs fall into: syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic. The free flowing melismatic melody form of plainsong is still heard in Middle Eastern music being performed today. Although the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches did not split u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can also be about a real-life person (e.g. a politician), event, or movement (e.g. the French Revolution or Counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture). Literary scholar Professor Simon Dentith defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice". The literary theorist Linda Hutcheon said "parody ... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, parody music, music, Theatre, theater, television and film, animation, and Video game, gaming. The writer and critic John Gross observes in his ''Oxford Book of Parodies'', that parody seems to flourish on te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Cantus Firmus
In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect treatment of ''cantus'' as a second- rather than a fourth-declension noun) can also be found. The Italian is often used instead: (and the plural in Italian is ). History The term first appears in theoretical writings early in the 13th century (e.g., Boncampagno da Signa, ''Rhetorica novissima'', 1235). The earliest polyphonic compositions almost always involved a cantus firmus, typically a Gregorian chant, although by convention the term is not applied to music written before the 14th century. The earliest surviving polyphonic compositions, in the '' Musica enchiriadis'' (around 900 AD), contain the chant in the top voice, and the newly composed part underneath; however, this usage changed around 1100, after which the cantus firmus typically ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Melisma
Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as ''melismatic'', as opposed to ''syllabic'', in which each syllable of text is matched to a single note. History General The term ''melisma'' may be used to describe music of any genre, including baroque singing, opera, and later gospel. Within the tradition of religious Jewish music, melisma is still commonly used in the chanting of Torah, readings from the Prophets, and in the body of a service. Melisma is prevalent in many forms of Gregorian chant (see e.g. Jubilus) as well as late-medieval sacred polyphony, notably in works by Guillaume de Machaut, John Dunstaple, and many early Tudor composers represented in the Eton, Caius, and Lambeth choirbooks. Today, melisma is commonly used in Middle Eastern, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Christopher Tye
Christopher Tye (before 1573) was an English Renaissance music, Renaissance composer and organist. Probably born in Cambridgeshire, he trained at the University of Cambridge and became the master of the choir at Ely Cathedral. He is noted as the music teacher of Edward VI and was held in high esteem for his choral music, as well as chamber works such as his 24 polyphonic ''In Nomine, In nomines''. It is likely that only a small percentage of his compositional output survives, often only as fragments; his ''Acts of the Apostles'' was the only work to be published in his lifetime. He ceased composing when he was ordained, returning to Ely Cathedral and later becoming rector of Doddington, Cambridgeshire. Today, he is perhaps best known for the hymn "Winchester Old", based on a theme from ''Acts of the Apostles'', which forms the basis of the most commonly performed version in the United Kingdom of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks". Beginnings Little is known about Tye's orig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
John Sheppard (composer)
John Sheppard (also ''Shepherd'', c. 1515 – December 1558) was an English composer of the Renaissance. Biography Sheppard was probably born around 1515, judging from his statement in 1554 that he had been composing music for twenty years. Nothing certain is known about his early life. The first sighting of him occurs at Thaxted in June 1541 when he married the recently widowed Jane Ewen or Evan. He was then probably in his mid twenties. It is not known whether he served in a musical position in the church of St John the Baptist, Thaxted. He then served as ''informator choristarum'' at Magdalen College, Oxford continuously from Michaelmas 1543 to sometime between March and Michaelmas 1548. Sheppard next appears in a list of the Gentleman of the Chapel Royal who sang at the funeral of King Edward VI in August 1553; he may have joined the chapel directly after his departure from Oxford, but, because of a gap in Chapel Royal records from 1547, this cannot be proved. He appe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |