Thomas Morley (1557 – early October 1602) was an English composer, music theorist, singer, and organist who lived during the late Renaissance period. He was one of the most important members of the English Madrigal School. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Morley helped blend Italian musical styles with English music. This effort led to a short but notable period of madrigal music, which is considered one of the most interesting times in English music history.
Morley lived in London during the same time as William Shakespeare. He was the most well-known composer of non-religious music in Elizabethan England. He and Robert Johnson created the only surviving versions of Shakespeare’s poems set to music.
Morley worked in church music as a singer, composer, and organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral. He also helped publish music. From 1598 until his death, he held a special right to print music, which he used in partnership with professional printers like Thomas East.
Life and career
Thomas Morley was born in Norwich, England, to a man who brewed beer. He likely sang in the local cathedral choir as a child and became the leader of the choir's young singers in 1583. He may have been a Roman Catholic, but he avoided being punished for not attending church services. There is evidence he may have reported the activities of other Roman Catholics.
Morley moved from Norwich to London before 1574 to join the choir at St. Paul's Cathedral. Around this time, he studied with William Byrd, who he called his teacher in a book he published in 1597. Byrd also taught Peter Philips, who was Morley’s contemporary. In 1588, Morley earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oxford and later became the organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. His young son died in 1589. Morley and his wife, Susan, had three more children between 1596 and 1600.
In 1588, Nicholas Yonge published a book called Musica transalpina, which included Italian songs with English words. This book started a popular trend for writing madrigals in England. Morley found his musical style during this time and began publishing his own collections of madrigals, totaling 11.
Morley lived in the same area as William Shakespeare for a time, and some people have guessed they might have known each other, but this has never been proven. Morley’s famous version of the song “It was a lover and his lass” from As You Like It was published in 1600, but it is not known if it was used in a performance of the play during Shakespeare’s lifetime.
While Morley tried to copy the style of William Byrd in some of his early religious music, he made his most important contributions through madrigals. His madrigals are still performed today and show more variety in emotion, form, and technique than other composers of the time. His madrigals are usually light and easy to sing, like his well-known piece “Now Is the Month of Maying,” which is actually a ballet. He adapted Italian musical styles to fit his own personality and English traditions. Other composers, such as Thomas Weelkes and John Wilbye, wrote more serious madrigals.
In addition to madrigals, Morley composed instrumental music, including keyboard pieces (some of which are in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book) and music for the broken consort, a special English group of instruments. This group included two violins, a flute, a lute, a cittern, and a bandora. Morley’s music for this ensemble was published in 1599 by William Barley in a book titled The First Booke of Consort Lessons.
Morley’s book, Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, published in 1597, remained popular for nearly 200 years after his death and is still an important source for information about 16th-century music.
Thomas Morley was buried in the graveyard of St. Botolph Billingsgate Church, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and never rebuilt. His grave is now lost.
Compositions
Thomas Morley's compositions include the following, listed in alphabetical order:
- 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