Nicholas Yonge (also spelled ''Young'', ''Younge''; c. 1560 in

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of t ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

– buried 23 October 1619 in

St Michael, Cornhill St Michael, Cornhill, is a medieval parish church in the City of London with pre- Norman Conquest parochial foundation. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. The medieval structure was lost in the Great Fire of London, and replaced by the present ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

singer and publisher. He is most famous for publishing the '' Musica transalpina'' (1588), a collection of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

madrigals A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number ...

with their words translated into English. This proved to be explosively popular, beginning (or fueling) a vogue for madrigal composing and singing in England which lasted into the first two decades of the 17th century. Indeed,

William Heather William Heather (c. 1563 – 1627) was a musician, and founder of the position of the Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. Life and career William Heather was born in Harmondsworth,DNB and sang in the choir of Westminster Abbey ...

, founder of the music chair at Oxford University, included the book in his portrait, painted c. 1627, confirming the longevity of ''Musica transalpina's'' influence and popularity. ''Musica transalpina'' contains 57 separate pieces by 18 composers, with

Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder Alfonso Ferrabosco (baptized 18 January 154312 August 1588) was an Italian composer. While mostly famous as the solitary Italian madrigalist working in England, and the one mainly responsible for the growth of the madrigal there, he also compo ...

having the most, and

Luca Marenzio Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the fo ...

second most. Ferrabosco was living in England until 1578, which could explain the large number of his compositions in the book; he was relatively unknown in Italy. In 1597, Yonge published a second book (''Musica transalpina: the Second Booke of Madrigalles, ... translated out of Sundrie Italian Authors'').Reese, p. 822 Composers such as

John Wilbye John Wilbye (baptized 7 March 1574September 1638) was an English madrigal composer. Early life and education The son of a tanner, he was born at Brome, Suffolk, England. (Brome is near Diss.) Career Wilbye received the patronage of the Cornwa ...

and

Thomas Weelkes Thomas Weelkes (baptised 25 October 1576 – 30 November 1623) was an English composer and organist. He became organist of Winchester College in 1598, moving to Chichester Cathedral. His works are chiefly vocal, and include madrigals, anth ...

used the pieces in both collections as models for their work.

Notes

References

*David Brown, "Nicholas Yonge". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. * Gustave Reese, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yonge, Nicholas 1560s births 1619 deaths English male singers 16th-century English singers 17th-century English singers