John Tavener (1490 - 1545)

Born 1490 in Lincolnshire, England

Husband of Rose (Parrowe) Tavener — married 1536 in London, England

Died 18 Oct 1545 at about age 55 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England

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Biography

John Tavener is Notable.

John Taverner in 1490 possibly in Tattershall, Lincolnshire. Nothing is known of Taverner's activities before 1524. Nothing is known of his parentage, but according to one of his own letters, he was related to the Yerburghs, a well-to-do Lincolnshire family. In 1524 Taverner travelled from Tattershall to the Church of St Botolph in nearby Boston as a guest singer.^[1] Two years later, in 1526, he became the first Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christ Church, Oxford, appointed by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. The college had been founded in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey, and was then known as Cardinal College. Immediately before this, Taverner had been a clerk fellow at the Collegiate Church of Tattershall. In 1528 he was reprimanded for his (probably minor) involvement with Lutherans, but escaped punishment for being "but a musitian". Wolsey fell from favour in 1529, and in 1530 Taverner left the college. He married a widow, one Rose Parrowe, probably in 1536, and she outlived him until 1553. During the last five months of the composer's life, he was an alderman in the city council of Boston. For about three years, previously, he was the treasurer of the Corpus Christi Gild, there in Boston. Taverner had no further musical appointments, nor can any of his known works be dated to after that time, so he may have ceased composition. It is often said that after leaving Oxford, Taverner worked as an agent of Thomas Cromwell assisting in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, although the veracity of this is now thought to be highly questionable. He is known to have settled eventually in Boston, Lincolnshire, where he was a small landowner and reasonably well-off. He is buried with his wife under the belltower at Boston Parish Church. (In the few existing copies of his signature, the composer actually spelled his last name "Tavernor.") The 20th-century composer, Sir John Tavener claimed (even in his early teens), to be his direct descendant.^{[2] [3] [4][5]}

Compositions

Most of Taverner's music is vocal, and includes masses, Magnificats and motets. The bulk of his output is thought to date from the 1520s. ^[6]

Masses

• Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas
• Missa Corona Spinea
• Missa O Michael
• Missa Sancti Wilhelmi
• Missa Mater Christi
• The Mean Mass
• The Plainsong Mass
• The Western Wynde Mass

Mass fragments

• Christeleison
• Kyrie Le Roy

Votive antiphons

• Ave Dei Patris filia
• Gaude plurimum
• O splendor gloriae
• O Wilhelme, pastor bone

Office music

• Alleluya. Veni electa
• Alleluya
• Te Deum

Motets

• Audivi vocem de caelo
• Ave Maria
• Dum transisset sabbatum (I)
• Dum transisset sabbatum (II)
• Ecce carissimi
• Ex ejus tumba – Sospitati dedit aegro
• Fac nobis secundum hoc nomen
• Fecundata sine viro
• Hodie nobis caelorum rex
• In pace in idipsum
• Jesu spes poenitentibus
• Magnificat
• Magnificat
• Magnificat
• Mater Christi
• O Christe Jesu pastor bone
• Prudens virgo
• Sancte deus
• Sub tuum presidium
• Tam peccatum
• Traditur militibus
• Virgo pura

Other

• In trouble and adversity .

Secular works

• In women
• Quemadmodum (possibly for viols or recorders)

Note

The life of Taverner was the subject of Taverner, an opera by Peter Maxwell Davies.

Sources

1. ↑ John Taverner (c.1495–1545): article on "Here on a Sunday morning" website
2. ↑ Benham, H. (2003). John Taverner: His Life and Music. Aldershot: Ashgate.
3. ↑ Roger Bowers: "John Taverner", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 30 April 2007), (subscription access)
4. ↑ Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p30
5. ↑ Colin Hand: (1978). John Taverner: His Life and Music. Eulenburg Books, London.
6. ↑ Free scores by John Taverner in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki) Classical Net information

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taverner