Morley, Thomas

(?1557/58-1602)

   Where he was born is uncertain, but he was one of England's great organists and composer of madrigals. He was a pupil of William Byrd (1540-1623) and possibly a chorister of St. Paul's Cathedral. He graduated bachelor of music from Oxford in 1588 and was organist at St. Giles, Cripplegate, then at St. Paul's in London. He was also master of the children at Norwich Cathedral and one of the gentleman of the Chapel Royal. In 1598 he was granted a patent, similar to that previously held by Byrd, by which he enjoyed the exclusive right of printing books of music and selling ruled paper. That he was an outstanding musician is not in doubt, but at the time he was accused of plagiarizing the works of other composers. Between 1593 and 1600 he published six major volumes of song or madrigals and edited many more. Some of his poems: "In Nets of Golden Wires," "Ladies, You See time Flieth," "No, No, Nigella!" "On a Fair Morning," "Sing We and Chant It," "You Black Bright Stars," "See, See, Mine Own Sweet Jewel."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). English Renaissance Poetry: A Collection of Shorter Poems from Skelton to Jonson. John Williams, ed. University of Arkansas, 1990. Love in Verse. Kathleen Blease, ed. Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.