William Cornysh

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William Cornysh the Younger (1465 – October 1523) was an English composer, dramatist, actor, and poet, and much more. In his only surviving poem, which was written in Fleet Prison, he claims that he has been convicted by false information and thus wrongly accused, though it is not known what the accusation was. He may not be the composer of the music found in the Eton Choirbook, which may alternatively be by his father, also named William Cornysh, who died c 1502. The younger Cornysh had a prestigious employment at court, as Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal and placed in charge of the musical and dramatic entertainments at court and during important diplomatic events such as at the Field of the Cloth of Gold and visits to and from the courts of France and the Holy Roman Empire, which he fulfilled until his death. The Eton Choirbook (complied c 1490 - 1502) contains several works by Cornysh: Salve Regina (found in several other sources as well), Stabat mater, Ave Maria mater Dei, Gaude virgo mater Christi, and a lost Gaude flore virginali. The Caius Choirbook (c 1518-20) contains a Magnificat. Other sources refer to lost works: three Masses, another Stabat mater, another Magnificat, Altissimi potentia, and Ad te purissima virgo. He also produced secular vocal music and the notable English sacred anthem Woefully arrayed. There is also an extended and somewhat erudite three-part instrumental work based on steps of the hexachord and its mutations, Fa la sol, and anothe

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