Talk:William Cornysh

possibly a few more details on William Cornysh

Hi, "Harmonia", the Indiana University public radio early music program had a recent show all about Willam Cornysh. The host, Angela Mariani, had a few more details about him than are currently in this article.

If someone would like to read the details (a transcript is available to the hour long radio show on NPR) of that show and put them into this article, and/or first fact check them (or contact her for her sources), here is the URL to that particular show's page:

     <https://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/william-cornysh-prisoner-and-choirmaster.php>

I will copy/paste the content that I thought could possibly be relevant here. Not sure of its veracity, but Angela is an early music scholar at IU, so I would initially have pretty good trust in her. Turns out the writer for this episode was *not* Angela but Sarah Schilling.

sincerely,

brant hinrichs bhinrichs @ drury dot edu

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Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani. While incarcerated at Fleet Prison, English composer William Cornysh wrote a long poem, A Treatise between Information and Truth. In it, he drew upon many musical metaphors to explain how and why he was falsely imprisoned, invoking minstrels, singers, trumpeters, harpists, and others. Cornysh’s music was witty, also, and his secular works were heard in the courts of Henry VII and his son Henry VIII. This hour, we’ll explore the life and music of William Cornysh II 500 years after his death in 1523. Plus, our featured release is The Cello According to Dall’Abaco. Cellist Elinor Frey leads sonatas and duets by an eighteenth-century virtuoso.

Inmates at Fleet Prison on the east bank of the River Fleet in London were usually imprisoned for civil rather than criminal cases. By fifteenth-century standards, it was a relatively comfortable prison, and inmates were required to pay for their own room and board as well as pay for prison fees. William Cornysh, a composer, dramatist, and actor, claimed he was wrongfully imprisoned at the Fleet, writing a poem called [A Treatise bitwene Trouth and Enformacion] (A Treatise between Truth and Information). In the poem, Cornysh tells us that he worked for the “most famous” King Henry VII, and uses a number of musical metaphors to argue his case. In one verse, he writes (quote):

“A harpe well played on shewyth swete melody A harper with his wrest maye tune the harpe wrong Mys tunyng of an instrument shal hurt a true songe”

Just as we may unfairly misjudge a song or instrument because the instrument was mistuned, a man might be unfairly imprisoned through the malice of others. Here is an anonymous setting of “Blame not my lute” and “Whilles lyve [While life] or breth is in my brest” by William Cornysh.

Cornysh’s imprisonment isn’t the only event in his life shrouded in mystery. William Cornysh II may have been the son of the William Cornysh I who also worked in the royal court of England, for Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. And they’re both connected to the Eton Choir Book, an important collection of pre-Reformation English sacred music. It includes richly illuminated manuscripts with black and red ink and artwork at the opening of many works. As a physical object, it’s stunning. But even greater are its contents: pieces by over 24 composers written between 1500-1505 for use by Eton College. Next up, a sacred work by someone named Cornysh from the Eton Choir Book: “Ave Maria mater Dei.”

Whether or not the younger Cornysh was involved in compositions in the Eton Choirbook, he was associated with religious music and education as Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal. Cornysh’s predecessor in that position was William Newark. We’ll hear “Catholicon b” by Cornysh, but first here is “The farther I go, the more behind” by William Newark.

For much of his professional career, Cornysh worked as a top entertainer—playwright, musician, actor, and more—for Henry VII and Henry VIII. The younger Henry was a composer and music-lover himself, and his collection included crumhorns, cornetti, flutes, recorders, viols, and more.

Cornysh claimed he was imprisoned at the Fleet due to false information. Legend has it that he was incarcerated for making fun of Sir William Empson, who was Speaker of the House of Commons and a minister to Henry VII. Empson was especially unpopular since he was part of the unfair taxation system. Whether or not the satire occurred, Cornysh was surely a witty character. Poet Alexander Barclay wrote about Cornysh and his colleagues that they were, [quote] “Warblying their tunes at pleasour and at will, Though some be busy that therin have no skill.” Let’s hear courtly entertainment music by Cornysh: “Blow thy horn, hunter” and “Hoyda, jolly rutterkin.”

Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University. Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.

Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.

The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Sarah Schilling.

Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia. 64.22.249.253 (talk) 15:31, 2 October 2023 (UTC)