Christopher Tye

(b c1505; d ?1572). English composer. In 1536 he took the MusB at Cambridge and in March 1537 became a lay clerk at King's College. He probably began his adult musical career after 1525 and there is no evidence to connect him with various other Tyes who were at King's College, 1508-45. By Michaelmas 1543 he was Magister choristarum at Ely Cathedral and in 1545 proceeded MusD at Cambridge. In 1548 he was awarded the Oxford DMus degree and was introduced to the court in the late 1540s. In 1561 he resigned his Ely post in favour of the rich living of Doddington-cum-Marche in the Isle of Ely.

Of his 22 extant Latin works (of which only 11 are complete) the Jesus-antiphon Ave caput Christi may date from c1530-35, and the five-voice mass in the Peterhouse Partbooks and the Mass ‘Western Wind’ may also date from before 1540. The Latin psalm settings Omnes gentes, plaudite and Cantate Domino and the fine six-voice Mass ‘Euge bone’, with their accomplished use of continental motet techniques, must date from Mary Tudor's reign. The 15 extant English anthems probably date from Edward VI's reign, while his The Actes of the Apostles (1553), for didactic and recreational use, features metrical texts and simple, four-square four-voice music. He composed much consort music, including over 20 individual, five-voice In Nomines. A composer of great talent who mastered the latest continental techniques in the 1530s, he used certain types of imitative procedures repeatedly, with the result that much of his music has a routine quality.

works:
Church music

• 3 masses, incl. Mass ‘Euge bone’ Mass ‘Western Wind’
• c18 Latin works
• 15 English anthems other English settings

Instrumental music

• c30 consort works

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• Period: Renaissance (1450-1599)
• Born: 1505
• Died: 1572
• Genres: Choral Music

Biography

Tye was an English organist and composer of choral and instrumental music. Apparently a native of East Anglia, Tye received a doctorate in Music from Cambridge in 1537 and was later associated with the Priory of Ely. Tye was a contemporary of Thomas Tallis, and contributed to the assimilation of continental structural principles into English music during the first half of the sixteenth century. Rather little survives of his sacred choral music, but what does remain represents an interesting personal synthesis of the older English florid style and the techniques of structural imitation and syllabic text setting. Tye's sparing use of imitation and the general absence of soloist passages gives his music a tighter cohesiveness than that of the previous generation -- his mass Euge Bone is perhaps the most impressive example of the period.

Today, Tye is at least as well known as a composer of instrumental ensemble music for viol consort. He left 31 such compositions, apparently composed late in his life. These include 21 settings of the "In Nomine" type -- based on Taverner's cantus firmus and incorporating all manner of instrumental ideas within a purely polyphonic context. Tye is credited as the first significant composer of instrumental chamber music, and his examples are of uniformly high quality. They represent a substantial legacy for Western music. ~ Todd McComb, All Music Guide

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