Robert Fayrfax (23 April 1464 – 24 October 1521) was an English

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

composer, considered the most prominent and influential of the reigns of Kings Henry VII and

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

Biography

He was born in

Deeping Gate Deeping Gate is a village and civil parish, lying on the River Welland in Cambridgeshire. Traditionally, the area was part of the Soke of Peterborough, geographically considered a part of Northamptonshire; it now falls within the City of Peter ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

.D. M. Randel, ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'' (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 262. He had the patronage of the leading cultural figure of Henry VII's court, the king's mother

Lady Margaret Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort (usually pronounced: or ; 31 May 1441/43 – 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late fifteenth century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch. A descendant of ...

(1443-1509). He became a Gentleman of the

Chapel Royal The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the British Royal Family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also applie ...

by 6 December 1497.J. Caldwell, ''The Oxford History of English Music'' vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 210. He was granted a chaplaincy of the Free Chapel at Snodhill Castle near

Dorstone Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a thriving community with a church and public house with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers excellent hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is no ...

, a post which was given away a year later to Robert Cowper, another Gentleman. Fayrfax was at court at

Richmond Palace Richmond Palace was a royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster, which w ...

on 28 May 1502 when

Elizabeth of York Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which ma ...

, the wife of Henry VII, gave him 20 shillings for "setting an Anthem of oure lady and Saint Elizabeth". Fayrfax is reported as being the organist of

St Albans Abbey St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Norman times. It ceased to be ...

responsible for the

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

there from 1498 to 1502. Fayrfax gained a Mus.B. from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1501, and a Mus.D. in 1504; he later acquired a D.Mus. from

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(by incorporation) in 1511. He became a member of the Fraternity of St Nicholas in 1502. At the beginning of his reign in 1509, Henry VIII granted Fayrfax the annuity of a farm in Hampshire and later made him a ' Poor Knight of Windsor' (with a life-time award of twelve pennies a day) on 10 September 1514. He also possessed, and surrendered, two ecclesiastical livings.D. M. Greene, ''Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers'' (Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd., 1985), p. 25. He received payments for clothes for state occasions and for tutoring choirboys. From 1516, for four consecutive years, he presented the king with collections of his compositions and received financial rewards. In 1520 he led the Chapel Royal in the state visit to France of the

Field of the Cloth of Gold The Field of the Cloth of Gold (french: Camp du Drap d'Or, ) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English P ...

. He died in 1521, possibly at St. Albans, where he was buried.

Work and influence

His surviving works are six masses, two

Magnificats The Magnificat (Latin for "y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical services ...

, thirteen

motets In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margare ...

, nine

part-songs A part song, part-song or partsong is a form of choral music that consists of a song to a secular or non-liturgical sacred text, written or arranged for several vocal parts. Part songs are commonly sung by an SATB choir, but sometimes for an all ...

and two instrumental pieces. His masses include the 'exercise' for his doctorate, the mass ''O quam glorifica''. One of his masses, ''Regali ex progenie'', was copied at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

and three other pieces (''Salve regina'', ''Regali Magnificat'', and the incomplete ''Ave lumen gratiae'') are in the ''

Eton Choirbook The Eton Choirbook (Eton College MS. 178) is a richly illuminated manuscript collection of England, English sacred music composed during the late 15th century. It was one of very few collections of Latin liturgical music to survive the English R ...

.'' One of his masses, ''O bone Jesu'', commissioned by

, is considered the first

Parody mass A parody mass is a musical setting of the mass, typically from the 16th century, that uses multiple voices of another pre-existing piece of music, such as a fragment of a motet or a secular ''chanson'', as part of its melodic material. It is dist ...

. He has been described as 'the leading figure in the musical establishment of his day' and 'the most admired composer of his generation'.H. Benham, ''John Taverner: His Life and Music'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), p. 66. His work was a major influence on later composers, including

John Taverner John Taverner ( – 18 October 1545) was an English composer and organist, regarded as one of the most important English composers of his era. He is best-known for ''Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas'' and ''The Western Wynde Mass'', and ''Missa Coro ...

(1490–1545) and

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (23 November 1585; also Tallys or Talles) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one o ...

(1505–85).

Recordings

* The Masses (''Missa O Quam Glorifica'', ''Missa Tecum Principium'', ''Missa Albanus'', ''Missa O Bone Jhesu'', ''Missa Regali Ex Progenie'').

Andrew Carwood Andrew Carwood (born 30 April 1965) is the Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral in London and director of his own group, The Cardinall's Musick. Biography He was educated at The John Lyon School, Harrow and was a choral scholar in the Choir ...

/ David Skinner:

The Cardinall's Musick The Cardinall's Musick is a United Kingdom-based vocal ensemble specialising in music of the 16th and 17th centuries and contemporary music.Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton - The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music - 2008 Page 28 ...

. ASV's Gaudeamus label: 3 CDs CDGAX353.

Notes

External links

Robert Fayrfax biography on hoasm.orgRobert Fayrfax biography on Answers.com
*
Scores by Fayrfax at Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fayrfax, Robert 1464 births 1521 deaths Renaissance composers Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal Burials at St Albans Cathedral People from the Deepings 15th-century English people 16th-century English composers English male classical composers English classical composers People from Northamptonshire (before 1974)