Morley, Thomas
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[[Image:Elizabeth_succession_allegory.jpg|right|250px|thumb|''' Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty.''' Detail from the Family of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]]: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession'', [[Circa|c.]]1572, attributed to [[Lucas de Heere]].]] | [[Image:Elizabeth_succession_allegory.jpg|right|250px|thumb|''' Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty.''' Detail from the Family of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]]: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession'', [[Circa|c.]]1572, attributed to [[Lucas de Heere]].]] | ||
| − | '''Thomas Morley''' (1557 or 1558 – October 1602) was an [[England|English]] [[composer]], [[music theory|theorist]], editor and [[organ (music)|organist]] of the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]], and the foremost member of the [[English Madrigal School]]. | + | '''Thomas Morley''' (1557 or 1558 – October 1602) was an [[England|English]] [[composer]], [[music theory|theorist]], editor and [[organ (music)|organist]] of the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]], and the foremost member of the [[English Madrigal School]]. He was the most famous composer of secular music in [[Elizabethan]] England, and the composer of the only surviving contemporary settings of verse by [[Shakespeare]]. Morley's [[madrigal]]s, which were loosely based on the Italian madrigal form, became an important secular vocal music in [[England]] due to his ease of [[melodic]] writing, which he generously taught to others in a treatise on singing and composing. |
| − | Morley was one of the first [[composer]]s of madrigals to utilize the practice of musical imitation to express the poetic narrative of a given text. This practice would eventually influence [[composer]]s of the Baroque era in their use of musical components such as melody and harmony to express specific meanings or affectations in their works. | + | Morley was one of the first [[composer]]s of madrigals to utilize the practice of musical imitation to express the poetic narrative of a given text. This practice would eventually influence [[composer]]s of the [[Baroque era]] in their use of musical components such as [[melody]] and [[harmony]] to express specific meanings or affectations in their works. |
==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| − | Morley was born in [[Norwich]], in [[East Anglia]], the son of a brewer. | + | Morley was born in [[Norwich]], in [[East Anglia]], the son of a brewer. Most likely he was a singer in [[Norwich Cathedral|the local cathedral]] from his boyhood, and he became master of [[choir|choristers]] there in 1583. However, Morley evidently spent some time away from East Anglia, for he later referred to the great Elizabethan composer of sacred music, [[William Byrd]], as his teacher. While the dates he studied with Byrd are not known, they were most likely in the early 1570s. In 1588 he received his bachelor's degree from [[Oxford]], and shortly thereafter was employed as organist at [[St. Paul's Cathedral|St. Paul's]] in [[London]]. |
| − | It has been speculated that in his youth Morley converted to Roman Catholicism while under the | + | It has been speculated that in his youth Morley converted to [[Roman Catholicism]] while under the tutelage of his mentor, Byrd. However, by 1591 he had defected from the church, and acted as an espionage agent agent among English Roman Catholics in the Netherlands. |
===Publishing career=== | ===Publishing career=== | ||
| − | Chronologically Morley's compositions can be divided in two distinct styles. While a pupil of William Byrd his early works reflect the English style of polyphonic writing. From the 1590s his music began to exhibit a mastery of the Italian madrigal style that is characterized by a more direct expressiveness, lighter, jaunty rhythms, and textural clarity. | + | Chronologically, Morley's compositions can be divided in two distinct styles. While still a pupil of William Byrd, his early works reflect the English style of polyphonic writing. From the 1590s his music began to exhibit a mastery of the Italian madrigal style that is characterized by a more direct expressiveness, lighter, jaunty rhythms, and textural clarity. |
| − | In 1588 [[Nicholas Yonge]] published his ''Musica transalpina'', the collection of Italian [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]]s fitted with English texts, which touched off the explosive and colorful vogue for madrigal composition in England. | + | In 1588 [[Nicholas Yonge]] published his ''Musica transalpina'', the collection of Italian [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]]s fitted with English texts, which touched off the explosive and colorful vogue for madrigal composition in England. Morley evidently 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, though never proven. | + | Morley lived for a time in the same parish as [[Shakespeare]], and a connection between the two has been long speculated, though never proven. His famous setting of "It was a lover and his lass" from ''[[As You Like It]]'' has never been established as having been used in a contemporary performance of a Shakespeare's play, though the possibility, even the probability, that it was is obvious. Morley was highly placed by the mid-1590s and would have had easy access to the theatrical community. At this time there was, as there is now, a close connection between prominent actors and musicians; and the artistic community was much smaller in those days than it is today. |
===Madrigals=== | ===Madrigals=== | ||
| + | A defining characteristic of [[music]] of the [[Baroque]] era was that composers became increasingly concerned with human emotions (passions and affections), and created music to "imitate" these emotions through tonal organization. Looking to the writings of [[Descartes]] and [[Sauveur]] who, in their investigation of man's psychological makeup, began to "objectify" certain emotions, Baroque composers developed the practice of consciously expressing specific emotions through musical means in significant ways. | ||
| − | + | The practice of emotional "imitation" can be found in the early madrigals of the [[Renaissance]]. As [[music]] historian [[Richard Taruskin]] observes, the madrigals of the middle part of the sixteenth century "were hotbeds of musical radicalism and experimentation" as musical devices such as dissonance and chromaticism were often utilized to express the poetics of a particular text. | |
| − | + | Morley himself paraphrased the [[Italian]] music theorist Geoseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) in his treatise, ''Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke'', published in 1597. Here, Morley puts forth the following assertion regarding assigning musical imitation to a text or libretto: | |
| − | + | should this be "now followeth"? | |
| + | :"It not followeth to show how to dispose your music according to the nature of the words which you are therein to express, as whatsoever matter it be which you have in hand such a kind of music must you frame to it. You must therefore, if you have any grave matter, apply a grave kind of music to it, if a merry subject you must make your music also merry, for it will be a great absurdity to use a sad harmony to a merry matter or a merry harmony to to a sad, lamentable, or tragic (text)." | ||
| − | This attitude would lead to a the | + | This attitude would lead to a the predominant attitude of the Baroque era, in which music was increasingly becoming a mode of emotional expression. |
| − | Morley's madrigals are predominately light, quick-moving and easily singable, like his well-known "Now is the Month of Maying" | + | Morley's madrigals are predominately light, quick-moving and easily singable, like his well-known "Now is the Month of Maying." 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. |
===Instrumental and keyboard works=== | ===Instrumental and keyboard works=== | ||
| − | In addition to his madrigals, Morley wrote instrumental music, including keyboard music | + | In addition to his madrigals, Morley wrote instrumental music, including keyboard music, some of which has been preserved in the ''[[Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]]''. He also composed music for the uniquely English ensemble of two [[viol]]s, [[flute]], [[lute]], [[cittern]] and [[bandora (instrument)|bandora]], notably as published in 1599 in ''The First Booke of Consort Lessons, made by diuers exquisite Authors, for six Instruments to play together, the Treble Lute, the Pandora, the Cittern, the Base-Violl, the Flute & Treble-Violl''. |
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||
| − | 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. | + | 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 color, form and technique than anything by other composers of the period. |
| − | Morley's ''Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke'' remained popular for almost | + | Morley's ''Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke'' remained popular for almost 200 years after its author's death, and remains an important reference for information about sixteenth century composition and performance. |
==References== | ==References== | ||
| − | * Morley, Thomas; Morehen, John, ''Thomas Morley'', London: Stainer & Bell, 1998. ISBN | + | * Morley, Thomas; Morehen, John, ''Thomas Morley'', London: Stainer & Bell, 1998. ISBN 0852498004 |
| − | * Reese, Gustave, ''Music in the Renaissance'', New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN | + | * Reese, Gustave, ''Music in the Renaissance'', New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304 |
| − | * Sadie, Stanley, ed., "Thomas Morley" in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN | + | * Sadie, Stanley, ed., "Thomas Morley" in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742 |
* Slaughter, James, ''Music of Thomas Morley'', Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Foundation, 1987. OCLC 18203538 | * Slaughter, James, ''Music of Thomas Morley'', Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Foundation, 1987. OCLC 18203538 | ||
| − | * Taruskin, Richard/Piero Weiss, "Music in the Western World-A History in Documents," Wadsworth Group, Belmont, CA, 1984, | + | * Taruskin, Richard/Piero Weiss, "Music in the Western World-A History in Documents," Wadsworth Group, Belmont, CA, 1984, ISBN 0028729005 |
| − | |||
| − | |||
* Philip Ledger (ed) [[The Oxford Book of English Madrigals]] OUP 1978 | * Philip Ledger (ed) [[The Oxford Book of English Madrigals]] OUP 1978 | ||
Revision as of 13:47, 10 July 2008
Thomas Morley (1557 or 1558 – October 1602) was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the foremost member of the English Madrigal School. He was the most famous composer of secular music in Elizabethan England, and the composer of the only surviving contemporary settings of verse by Shakespeare. Morley's madrigals, which were loosely based on the Italian madrigal form, became an important secular vocal music in England due to his ease of melodic writing, which he generously taught to others in a treatise on singing and composing.
Morley was one of the first composers of madrigals to utilize the practice of musical imitation to express the poetic narrative of a given text. This practice would eventually influence composers of the Baroque era in their use of musical components such as melody and harmony to express specific meanings or affectations in their works.
Biography
Morley was born in Norwich, in East Anglia, 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. However, Morley evidently spent some time away from East Anglia, for he later referred to the great Elizabethan composer of sacred music, William Byrd, as his teacher. While the dates he studied with Byrd are not known, they were most likely in the early 1570s. In 1588 he received his bachelor's degree from Oxford, and shortly thereafter was employed as organist at St. Paul's in London.
It has been speculated that in his youth Morley converted to Roman Catholicism while under the tutelage of his mentor, Byrd. However, by 1591 he had defected from the church, and acted as an espionage agent agent among English Roman Catholics in the Netherlands.
Publishing career
Chronologically, Morley's compositions can be divided in two distinct styles. While still a pupil of William Byrd, his early works reflect the English style of polyphonic writing. From the 1590s his music began to exhibit a mastery of the Italian madrigal style that is characterized by a more direct expressiveness, lighter, jaunty rhythms, and textural clarity.
In 1588 Nicholas Yonge published his Musica transalpina, the collection of Italian madrigals fitted with English texts, which touched off the explosive and colorful vogue for madrigal composition in England. Morley evidently 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, though never proven. His famous setting of "It was a lover and his lass" from As You Like It has never been established as having been used in a contemporary performance of a Shakespeare's play, though the possibility, even the probability, that it was is obvious. Morley was highly placed by the mid-1590s and would have had easy access to the theatrical community. At this time there was, as there is now, a close connection between prominent actors and musicians; and the artistic community was much smaller in those days than it is today.
Madrigals
A defining characteristic of music of the Baroque era was that composers became increasingly concerned with human emotions (passions and affections), and created music to "imitate" these emotions through tonal organization. Looking to the writings of Descartes and Sauveur who, in their investigation of man's psychological makeup, began to "objectify" certain emotions, Baroque composers developed the practice of consciously expressing specific emotions through musical means in significant ways.
The practice of emotional "imitation" can be found in the early madrigals of the Renaissance. As music historian Richard Taruskin observes, the madrigals of the middle part of the sixteenth century "were hotbeds of musical radicalism and experimentation" as musical devices such as dissonance and chromaticism were often utilized to express the poetics of a particular text.
Morley himself paraphrased the Italian music theorist Geoseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) in his treatise, Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, published in 1597. Here, Morley puts forth the following assertion regarding assigning musical imitation to a text or libretto:
should this be "now followeth"?
- "It not followeth to show how to dispose your music according to the nature of the words which you are therein to express, as whatsoever matter it be which you have in hand such a kind of music must you frame to it. You must therefore, if you have any grave matter, apply a grave kind of music to it, if a merry subject you must make your music also merry, for it will be a great absurdity to use a sad harmony to a merry matter or a merry harmony to to a sad, lamentable, or tragic (text)."
This attitude would lead to a the predominant attitude of the Baroque era, in which music was increasingly becoming a mode of emotional expression.
Morley's madrigals are predominately light, quick-moving and easily singable, like his well-known "Now is the Month of Maying." 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.
Instrumental and keyboard works
In addition to his madrigals, Morley wrote instrumental music, including keyboard music, some of which has been preserved in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. He also composed music for the uniquely English ensemble of two viols, flute, lute, cittern and bandora, notably as published in 1599 in The First Booke of Consort Lessons, made by diuers exquisite Authors, for six Instruments to play together, the Treble Lute, the Pandora, the Cittern, the Base-Violl, the Flute & Treble-Violl.
Legacy
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 color, form and technique than anything by other composers of the period.
Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke remained popular for almost 200 years after its author's death, and remains an important reference for information about sixteenth century composition and performance.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Morley, Thomas; Morehen, John, Thomas Morley, London: Stainer & Bell, 1998. ISBN 0852498004
- Reese, Gustave, Music in the Renaissance, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304
- Sadie, Stanley, ed., "Thomas Morley" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
- Slaughter, James, Music of Thomas Morley, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Foundation, 1987. OCLC 18203538
- Taruskin, Richard/Piero Weiss, "Music in the Western World-A History in Documents," Wadsworth Group, Belmont, CA, 1984, ISBN 0028729005
- Philip Ledger (ed) The Oxford Book of English Madrigals OUP 1978
External links
- Free scores by Thomas Morley in the Werner Icking Music Archive Retrieved August 16, 2007.
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