Thomas Morley and the business of music in Elizabethan England

Thomas Morley’s family background in Norwich and his later life in London placed him amongst the educated, urban, middle classes. Rising literacy and improving standards of living in English cities helped to develop a society in which amateur music-making became a significant leisure activity, providing a market of consumers for printed recreational music. His visit to the Low Countries in 1591 allowed him to see at first hand a thriving music printing business. Two years later he set out to achieve an income from his own music, initially by publishing collections of light, English-texted, madrigalian vocal works. He broadened his activities by obtaining a monopoly for printed music in 1598 and then by entering into a partnership with William Barley to print music. Unfortunately Morley died too soon to reap the full financial benefit of what appears to have been a profitable business. Whilst Morley’s personal ambitions were curtailed by his early death, his publishing activities and the model he provided for contemporary composers led to the creation of a substantial body of nearly one hundred and seventy editions and reprints of music suitable for domestic performance, many of which continued to be used for many years.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

d_ph

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

d_ph

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Birmingham

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Murray, Teresa Ann

• M Music
• Z004 Books. Writing. Paleography