Sir Edward Paston (1550–1630), second son of Sir Thomas Paston, was a Catholic gentleman of

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, a poet, and amateur musician living in the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

. He is an important figure in the musical history of England, his love of music driving him to acquire and copy musical

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s from some of the most important composers of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, resulting in a unique performing collection of 16th-century house music that included works by

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (; also Tallys or Talles; 23 November 1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one ...

, John Taverner, and

Orlando di Lasso Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlui ...

. He was especially interested in Byrd, and one of his books is the largest source of consort songs by that composer. Paston played the

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

, creating a wide range of vocal settings and accompanying tablatures in partbooks that are still obtainable. As a young man he travelled extensively in Spain, being influenced by the Spanish (and Italian) form of tablature, as seen in his partbooks, rather than the generally used French form. It is believed that the part-books were specially prepared for him, rather than being 'commercially' acquired, in order to suit the performing requirements of his household, thus becoming material tailored to his specific needs. The broad range of music includes

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

s, extracts from masses, and consort songs. In his will, Paston relates that there are various lute books intabulated in the Italian, French, and English styles, both for solo playing and as accompaniment for singing. He also mentions a chest containing sets of Latin, French, and Italian songs, from three- to eight-part versions, that are not yet printed and which he bequeaths to his son, William, until his grandson, Thomas reaches his eighteenth birthday, when they pass into his keeping. Many of these books are now housed in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

(formerly in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

), and the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

, London.

References

Sources

* Brett, Philip (2006). ''William Byrd and His Contemporaries: Essays and a Monograph.'' University of California Press. * Murray, Tessa (2014). ''Thomas Morley: Elizabethan Music Publisher.'' Boydella & Brewer Ltd.

References

Sources

Further reading