Robert Carver CRSA (also ''Carvor'', ''Arnot''; c. 1485 – c. 1570) was a Scottish

Canon regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

and composer of

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

sacred music during the

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 ide ...

. Carver is regarded as Scotland's greatest composer of the 16th century. He is best known for his polyphonic

choral A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

music, of which there are five surviving masses and two surviving

motet 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 Ma ...

s. The works that can definitely be attributed to him can be found in the ''Carver Choirbook''National Library of Scotland
/ref> held in the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in t ...

. Carver's work, noted for the gradual build-up of ideas towards a resolution in the final passages, is still performed and recorded today. Carver was influenced by composers in continental Europe, and his surviving music differs greatly from that produced by many of his contemporaries in Scotland or England at the time. Highly ornate in style, it resembles most closely the richly decorated music of the '' Eton Choirbook''. Carver was the subject of the 1991 BBC radio play '' Carver'' by

John Purser John Purser (born 1942) is a Scottish composer, musicologist, and music historian. He is also a playwright.cover notes from ''Scotland's Music'' CD Purser was born in Glasgow. He initiated the reconstruction that commenced in 1991 of the Iron ...

, which won one of the Giles Cooper Awards for that year.

Biography

Carver spent much of his life at

Scone Abbey Scone Abbey (originally Scone Priory) was a house of Augustinian canons located in Scone, Perthshire (Gowrie), Scotland. Dates given for the establishment of Scone Priory have ranged from 1114 A.D. to 1122 A.D. However, historians have long be ...

. A recently rediscovered charter book for the abbey, with upwards of 50 examples of Carver's signature, suggests that he spent the whole of his long life as a canon there, having entered the community in 1508 and living there until the establishment was destroyed by Protestant reformers in 1559. Several works in ''The Carver Choirbook'' refer to the composer as ''Robert Carver alias arnat''. Nothing is known of his life after this event. A man by the name of Robert Arnott was recorded in the same period as a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

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 appl ...

Stirling Castle Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological ...

. However, as this Robert Arnott's presence in the Chapel Royal and Carver's use of the alias Arnot do not coincide, and furthermore the Chapel Royal Robert Arnott signed a document for a Margaret Arnott who is clearly a blood relative, it seems likely that Robert Carver and Robert Arnott are two distinct personages.

Known compositions

The following works are attributed to Robert Carver in the ''Carver Choirbook'': *''Dum sacrum mysterium''. A mass for ten voices. *''L'homme armé''. A mass for four voices. *''Pater Creator omnium''. A mass for four voices. *''Fera pessima''. A mass for five voices. * An unnamed mass for six voices. *''O bone Jesu''. A motet for nineteen voices. *''Gaude flore virginali''. A motet for five voices. An unnamed Mass for three voices in the Carver Choirbook as well as a Mass ''Cantate Domino'' for six voices in the Dowglas/ Fischar partbooks are generally attributed to Carver. Some authorities also credit Carver with the composition of the Mass ''Felix namque'' for six voices, also in the Dowglas/ Fischar Partbooks. For the complete works of Carver see Musica Scotica I: The Complete Works of Robert Carver and Two Anonymous Masses: Editions of Early Scottish Music, edited by Kenneth Elliott, University of Glasgow Music Department Publication, 31 October 1996.

References

External links

* * * Digitised scores can be viewed through th
Five Centuries of Scottish Music
collection hosted b

The Carver Choirbook (registration needed)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carver, Robert 1485 births 1570 deaths People from Perth and Kinross Augustinian canons 16th-century Scottish Roman Catholic priests Scottish composers Renaissance composers Court of James IV of Scotland Court of James V of Scotland Court of Mary, Queen of Scots 16th-century Scottish musicians 16th-century composers