Thomas Morley (1557 – early October 1602) was an English composer,

theorist A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

, singer and organist of late

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

. He was one of the foremost members of the

English Madrigal School The English Madrigal School was the intense flowering of the musical madrigal in England, mostly from 1588 to 1627, along with the composers who produced them. The English madrigals were a cappella, predominantly light in style, and generally bega ...

. Referring to the strong Italian influence on the English

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 ...

, ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'' states that Morley was "chiefly responsible for grafting the Italian shoot on to the native stock and initiating the curiously brief but brilliant flowering of the madrigal that constitutes one of the most colourful episodes in the history of English music." Living in London at the same time as

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Morley was the most famous composer of secular music in

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

England. He and

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...

are the composers of the only surviving contemporary settings of verse by Shakespeare. Morley was active in church music as a singer, composer and organist at

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. He was also involved in music publishing. From 1598 up to his death he held a

printing patent The printing patent or printing privilege was a precursor of modern copyright. It was an exclusive right to print a work or a class of works. History Origins The earliest recorded printing privilege dates from 1469, giving John of Speyer a fi ...

(a type of monopoly). He used the monopoly in partnership with professional music printers such as Thomas East.

Life and career

Morley was born in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, the son of a brewer. Most likely he was a singer in the local cathedral from his boyhood, and he became master of choristers there in 1583. He may have been a Roman Catholic, but he was able to avoid prosecution as a

recusant Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

, and there is evidence that he may have been an informer on the activities of Roman Catholics. It is believed that Morley moved from Norwich to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

sometime before 1574 to be a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral. Around this time,Foster, Michael W.. "Morley, Thomas (b. 1556/7, d. in or after 1602)." Michael W. Foster in

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19292 (accessed 18 November 2014) Subscription or UK public library membership required. he studied with

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 ...

, whom he named as his mentor in his 1597 publication ''A Plain and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke''. Byrd also taught Morley's contemporary, Peter Philips. In 1588 he received his bachelor's degree from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and shortly thereafter was employed as organist at St. Paul's in London. His young son died the following year in 1589. He and his wife Susan had three more children between 1596 and 1600. In 1588 Nicholas Yonge published his '' Musica transalpina'', the collection of Italian

s fitted with English texts, which touched off the explosive and colourful vogue for madrigal composition in England. Morley found his compositional direction at this time, and shortly afterwards began publishing his own collections of madrigals (11 in all). Morley lived for a time in the same parish as Shakespeare, and a connection between the two has been long speculated, but never proven. His famous setting of "It was a lover and his lass" from ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

'' has never been established as having been used in a performance of Shakespeare's play during the playwright's lifetime. However, given that the song was published in 1600, there is evidently a possibility that it was used in stage performances. Morley-Christes crosse

While Morley attempted to imitate the spirit of Byrd in some of his early sacred works, it was in the form of the madrigal that he made his principal contribution to music history. His work in the genre has remained in the repertory to the present day, and shows a wider variety of emotional colour, form and technique than anything by other composers of the period. Usually his madrigals are light, quick-moving and easily singable, like his well-known " Now Is the Month of Maying" (which is actually a ballett); he took the aspects of Italian style that suited his personality and anglicised them. Other composers of the English Madrigal School, for instance Thomas Weelkes and John Wilbye, were to write madrigals in a more serious or sombre vein. In addition to his madrigals, Morley wrote instrumental music, including keyboard music (some of which has been preserved in the ''

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book The ''Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'' is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequ ...

''), and music for the broken consort, a uniquely English ensemble of two

viol 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 family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

s, flute,

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 ...

, cittern and bandora, notably as published by William Barley in 1599 in ''The First Booke of Consort Lessons, made by diuers exquisite Authors, for six Instruments to play together, the Treble Lute, the Bandora, the Cittern, the Base-Violl, the Flute & Treble-Violl''. Morley's ''Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke'' (published 1597) remained popular for almost two hundred years after its author's death, and is still an important reference for information about sixteenth century composition and performance. Thomas Morley was buried in the graveyard of the church of St Botolph Billingsgate, which was destroyed in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

of 1666, and not rebuilt. Thus his grave is lost.

Compositions

Thomas Morley's compositions include (in alphabetical order): * April is in my mistress' face * Arise, get up my deere * Cease mine eyes * Come, lovers, follow me * Come, Sorrow, come * Crewell you pull away to soone * Christes crosse * Do you not know? * Fair in a morn * Fantasia for keyboard,

CXXIV * Fantasie: Il Doloroso * Fantasie: Il Grillo * Fantasie: Il Lamento * Fantasie: La Caccia * Fantasie: La Rondinella * Fantasie: La Sampogna * Fantasie: La Sirena * Fantasie: La Tortorella * Fire Fire My Heart * Flora wilt thou torment mee * Fyre and Lightning * Goe yee my canzonets * Good morrow, Fayre Ladies of the May * Harke Alleluia! * Hould out my hart * I goe before my darling * I saw my Lady weeping * I should for griefe and anguish * In nets of golden wyers * It was a lover and his lass * Joy, joy doth so arise * Joyne hands * La Caccia "The Chase" * La Girandola * Ladie, those eies * Lady if I through griefe * Leave now mine eyes *Lirum, Lirum * Lo hear another love * Love learns by laughing * Miraculous loves wounding * Mistress mine * My bonny lass she smileth * Nolo mortem peccatoris * Now is the month of maying * O Mistresse mine * O thou that art so cruell * A painted tale * Say deere, will you not have me? * See, see, my own sweet jewel * Shepard's Rejoice * Sing we and chant it * Sleep, slumb'ring eyes * Sweet nymph * Thirsis and Milla * Those dainty daffadillies * Though Philomela lost her love Oxford Book of English Madrigals * 'Tis the time of Yuletide Glee * What is it that this dark night * What ayles my darling? * When loe by break of morning * Where art thou wanton? * Will you buy a fine dog? * With my love my life was nestled

Sacred music

* The Burial Service * De profundis clamavi * Domine, dominus noster * Domine, non est exultarem cor meum * Eheu sustulerunt domine * The First Service * How long wilt thou forget me? * O amica mea

References

Citations

Sources

External links

* * * * * More information, including full text, of Morley'
Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke
at the University of North Texas Music Library's Virtual Rare Book Room * HTML transcription, with numbered page divisions, of ''Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke'': pp

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(at the Jacobs School of Music, Jacobs (Indiana University) School of Music Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature) {{DEFAULTSORT:Morley, Thomas English classical composers of church music Composers from Norwich Musicians from Norwich English madrigal composers English Renaissance composers English music theorists English cathedral organists 16th-century English composers 1550s births 1602 deaths English male classical composers English Roman Catholics English male classical organists