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For Elizabethan and Jacobean writers on music, Robert Fayrfax (1464–1521) was the fountainhead of a musical tradition that culminated in the work of composers of their own day such as Tallis and Byrd. A contemporary of William Cornysh, John Browne and Richard Davy, and like them a contributor to the Eton choirbook, he was the only composer of his generation whose music was still being copied a hundred years later. His achievement was extraordinary: he was a gentleman of the Royal Household Chapels of Henry VII and Henry VIII for quarter of a century and its doyen for the last dozen years of his life; he held three degrees in music, including doctorates from both English universities, at a time when very few musicians had any formal academic qualifications; his music is less colourful and showy than many English works of his time, and its economy, lucidity and sense of textual motivation seem likely to have influenced composers of Taverner’s generation. His Christmas mass Tecum principium is for five voices: SATBarB. xxiv + 60 pages. ISMN 979-0-57039-206-3.
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