Thomas Ashwell facts for kids

Thomas Ashwell was an English composer who lived during the Renaissance period. This was a time of great new ideas in art, music, and science. Ashwell was very good at writing polyphony, which is music with many different voice parts singing at the same time. Some people think he might have taught another famous composer, John Taverner.

Ashwell's Early Life and Career

Thomas Ashwell was born around 1478. We know this because he joined St. George's Chapel as a chorister in 1491. A chorister is a young singer in a church choir. He stayed at St. George's until 1493.

Later, in 1502 and 1503, records show he was a singer at Tattershall College in Lincolnshire. By 1508, he had an important role at Lincoln Cathedral. In 1513, he worked at Durham Cathedral. There, he was the Cantor, or Master of the singing boys. This meant he was in charge of the choir and wrote music for the Lady Chapel.

We don't have many records after 1513. However, the next person to take over his job at Durham Cathedral started in 1527. This might mean Ashwell passed away sometime before that year.

What Music by Ashwell Still Exists?

Not much of Ashwell's music has survived over time. This is common for music from before the Reformation in England. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII, many music books and manuscripts were destroyed.

Two of Ashwell's masses are still complete. A mass is a type of long musical piece for a church service. Both of his surviving masses are written for six voices. They are found in a collection called the Forrest-Heyther Partbooks. These books were copied for John Taverner around 1526-1530.

• One mass is called Missa Jesu Christe.
• The other is Missa Ave Maria. Many people think this one is even better and quite amazing!

These masses were likely written much earlier than when they were copied into the partbooks. Their style suggests they might have been composed even before Ashwell worked at Durham.

A few other small pieces of his music exist, but most are just tiny parts. One fragment is from a mass for St. Cuthbert, which he probably wrote while at Durham. He also wrote one song that was not for church, called "She may be callyd a sovrant lady." This song was printed in a collection in 1530.

Was Ashwell John Taverner's Teacher?

People have long wondered if Thomas Ashwell was the teacher of John Taverner, another famous English composer. We don't have proof, but there are some interesting clues.

One idea is that Taverner might have been a young singer at Tattershall College at the same time as Ashwell. If this is true, Ashwell could have taught him there.

Taverner certainly knew Ashwell's two masses very well. It seems he might have used them as examples for his own music. The fact that Ashwell's masses were included in the Forrest-Heyther Partbooks also suggests a close connection. These books were copied for Taverner when he became the head of music at Cardinal College in Oxford in 1526.

The first part of these books starts with Taverner's own mass, Gloria tibi Trinitas. The only other mass for six voices in this section is Ashwell's Jesu Christe. This could mean that Ashwell's music was important to Taverner, perhaps because he was his teacher.

However, there's another reason why Ashwell's music might be in the books. The books were put together for Cardinal Wolsey's new college. Cardinal Wolsey was also a bishop of Durham earlier in his life. Many composers in the books had connections to places that Wolsey was involved with. So, the books might have been a way to show off the most important composers from different areas Wolsey had connections to.

Ashwell's music was still remembered even at the end of the 1500s. The famous composer Thomas Morley mentioned Ashwell in his music book from 1597, calling him an important expert.