Thomas Ravenscroft ( – 1635) was an English musician, theorist and editor, notable as a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of rounds and catches, and especially for compiling collections of English

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

Biography

Little is known of Ravenscroft's early life. He probably sang in the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

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 ...

from 1594, when a ''Thomas Raniscroft'' was listed on the choir rolls and remained there until 1600 under the directorship of Thomas Giles. He received his bachelor's degree in 1605 from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. Ravenscroft's principal contributions are his collections of

, including catches, rounds,

street cries A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like streetlights or benches. A stre ...

, vendor songs, "freeman's songs" and other anonymous music, in three collections: '' Pammelia'' (1609), ''Deuteromelia'' or ''The Second Part of Musicks Melodie'' (1609) and ''Melismata'' (1611), which contains one of the best-known works in his collections,

The Three Ravens "The Three Ravens" () is an English folk ballad, printed in the songbook ''Melismata'' compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611, but the song is possibly older than that. Newer versions (with different music) were recorded up throu ...

. Some of the music he compiled has acquired extraordinary fame, though his name is rarely associated with the music; for example "

Three Blind Mice "Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery rhyme and musical round.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 306. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753. ...

" first appears in ''Deuteromelia.'' He moved to Bristol where he published a

metrical psalter A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisa ...

(''The Whole Booke of Psalmes'') in 1621. As a composer, his works are mostly forgotten but include 11

anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...

s, 3

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 ...

s for five voices and 4 fantasias for

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. As a writer, he wrote two treatises on music theory. ''The Briefe Discourse of the True (but Neglected) Use of Charact'ring the Degrees'' (London, 1614) includes 20 songs as examples: seven by John Bennet, two by Edward Pearce and the rest by Ravenscroft himself. Of these, the group of dialect songs 'Hodge und Malkyn' from the fifth a final section was nominated by Jeffrey Mark as the earliest example of a song-cycle in English music history.Mark, Jeffrey
'Thomas Ravenscroft, B. Mus. (c. 1583-c. 1633)'
in ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 65, No. 980 (Oct. 1, 1924), pp. 883-4 There is also ''A Treatise of Musick'', which remains in manuscript (unpublished).

Hymns

* Hark the glad sound! the Saviour comes (to the words of

Philip Doddridge Philip Doddridge D.D. (26 June 1702 – 26 October 1751) was an English Nonconformist (specifically, Congregationalist) minister, educator, and hymnwriter. Early life Philip Doddridge was born in London, the last of the twenty children ...

) * The Alternative version of 'Dundee' hymn tune, 1615: Melody in the tenor part, harmonised, 1621. * 'Lord, in thy name thy servants plead', tune 'Lincoln' from Ravenscroft's Psalter, words by

John Keble John Keble (25 April 1792 – 29 March 1866) was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, is named after him. Early life Keble was born on 25 April 1792 in Fairford, Glouces ...

, New English Hymnal 126

References

External links

* * *
''The Significance of Thomas Ravenscroft'' Z. D. M. Bidgood ''Folk Music Journal'', Vol. 4, No. 1 (1980), pp. 24-34''Thomas Ravenscroft: Musical Chronicler of an Elizabethan Theater Company'' Linda Phyllis Austern ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'', Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), pp.238-263 Article DOI: 10.2307/831565''The Sacred Music of Thomas Ravenscroft'' Ian Payne ''Early Music'', Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jul., 1982), pp.309-315"The Music of Thomas Ravenscroft"
site by Greg Lindahl containing modern editions, commentary, bibliography and facsimiles, including:
Pammelia

Deuteromelia

Melismata

Brief

Psalter
at

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ravenscroft, Thomas 1580s births 1635 deaths English classical composers of church music Year of birth uncertain English Baroque composers English music theorists English Renaissance composers 17th-century English classical composers English male classical composers

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

17th-century English male musicians