Robert Carver (composer) facts for kids
Robert Carver (born around 1485, died around 1570) was an important Scottish composer. He created beautiful Christian music during the Renaissance period. He was also a Canon regular, which means he was a type of priest living in a religious community.
Many people consider Carver to be Scotland's best composer from the 1500s. He is famous for his polyphonic choral music. This is music sung by a Choir where many different voice parts sing at the same time. We still have five of his long musical pieces called masses and two shorter pieces called motets. You can find his known works in a special book called the Carver Choirbook. This book is kept safe at the National Library of Scotland.
Carver's music is known for how it slowly builds up ideas, leading to a strong finish. Even today, his music is still performed and recorded. Carver was inspired by composers from other parts of Europe. His music sounds very different from most other Scottish or English music of his time. It has a very fancy and detailed style, similar to the music found in the Eton Choirbook.
In 1991, a BBC radio play called Carver was made about him by John Purser. This play even won an award!
Robert Carver's Life Story
Robert Carver spent most of his life at Scone Abbey in Scotland. A special book from the abbey was found recently. It has over 50 examples of Carver's signature! This suggests he lived his whole adult life as a canon there. He joined the community in 1508. He stayed there until 1559, when the abbey was destroyed by Protestant reformers.
Some of his works in The Carver Choirbook call him "Robert Carver alias Arnat." This means he might have also used the name Arnat. We don't know what happened to him after Scone Abbey was destroyed.
There was another person named Robert Arnott who was a canon at the Chapel Royal in Stirling Castle around the same time. However, it seems likely that Robert Carver and Robert Arnott were two different people. This is because their times at the abbeys didn't overlap, and the Robert Arnott from Stirling Castle signed a document for a relative, which doesn't connect him to Carver.
Robert Carver's Music
The Carver Choirbook lists several amazing musical pieces that are known to be by Robert Carver. These include:
- Dum sacrum mysterium: A mass written for ten different voices.
- L'homme armé: A mass written for four voices.
- Pater Creator omnium: Another mass for four voices.
- Fera pessima: A mass composed for five voices.
- An unnamed mass written for six voices.
- O bone Jesu: A motet, which is a shorter piece, for an amazing nineteen voices!
- Gaude flore virginali: A motet for five voices.
There is also an unnamed mass for three voices in the Carver Choirbook that is thought to be his. Another mass, Cantate Domino, for six voices, found in the Dowglas/Fischar partbooks, is also generally believed to be by Carver. Some experts also think Carver wrote the mass Felix namque for six voices, which is also in the Dowglas/Fischar Partbooks.
If you want to learn more about all of Carver's music, you can find a complete collection in a book called Musica Scotica I: The Complete Works of Robert Carver and Two Anonymous Masses. It was edited by Kenneth Elliott and published by the University of Glasgow Music Department in 1996.
