Robert White (1538 – 1574) probably born in Holborn,
a district of London, was an English composer whose
liturgical music to Latin texts is considered
particularly fine. His surviving works include a
setting of verses from Lamentations, and instrumental
music for viols. Thomas Morley, in his A Plaine and
Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597) extols
him as one of the greatest English composers, equal to
Orlando di Lasso. He notes White's bold harmonies, and
includes him in a list of s...(+)
Robert White (1538 – 1574) probably born in Holborn,
a district of London, was an English composer whose
liturgical music to Latin texts is considered
particularly fine. His surviving works include a
setting of verses from Lamentations, and instrumental
music for viols. Thomas Morley, in his A Plaine and
Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597) extols
him as one of the greatest English composers, equal to
Orlando di Lasso. He notes White's bold harmonies, and
includes him in a list of seven eminent Tudor composers
that includes "Fayrfax, Taverner, Sheppard, Whyte,
Parsons and Mr Byrd." Some MS partbooks now at Christ
Church, Oxford dated about 1581 contain the tribute
"Maxima musarum nostrarum gloria White' Tu peris,
actemum sed tua musa manet" ("Thou, O White, greatest
glory of our muses, dost perish, but thy muse endureth
for ever").
Fortunately quite a large number of White's
compositions have survived, several of which were
included in the Dow Partbooks. His surviving 17 Latin
motets, one Latin Magnificat, two sets of the
Lamentations, and eight anthems are all sufficient to
place him in the front rank of English composers of the
Elizabethan age. His surviving non-choral works include
In nomine for viols and his hexachord fantasia for
keyboard. Many of the motets are settings of the
Psalms, characterized by continuous points of
imitation, with the beginnings of each phrase set
syllabically. His Lamentations, set for five voices,
has a flavour in advance of his period, as also his
motet Peccatum peccavit Jerusalem and Regina Coeli.
White's works fall into two main groups: those that
could have been used in Sarum services and devotions
under Mary, and those (psalm-motets and Lamentations)
that were probably written in Elizabeth's reign.
The Sarum works comprise antiphons, hymns and a
respond, all on equal-note cantus firmi, and a
large-scale six-part Magnificat that, like two of
Taverner's settings, has a psalm tone as the tenor of
the full-choir sections. The Magnificat bears the date
1570 in the fragmentary source in the Bodleian Library,
but the style makes it very much easier to take this as
the year of copying than as the year of composition.
For example, at Sicut locutus, a four-part section with
the plainsong in the mean, mostly in longs and breves,
the accompanying parts have numerous crotchet runs,
which, although considerably more numerous and more
hectic, give something of the same effect as the
similarly scored Et incarnatus of Taverner's Gloria
tibi Trinitas. But there are also traces of the
repetitive techniques characteristic of White in his
full-choir motets. The key point here is the exchanging
of material between pairs of voices of equal range
throughout a four-part or six-part texture. Tallis and
Sheppard reversed a single pair of (countertenor) parts
when the music for one verse of a hymn was re-used, or
very occasionally when a set of entries was
re-stated.
The Compline hymn Christe qui lux es et dies follows
the established pattern of alternating plainchant
verses with polyphonic ones that incorporate the chant,
in this instance in the tenor part. Its text, an
evening prayer for peaceful rest, full of imagery of
light and darkness, seems to have held special appeal
for White, who made four separate settings of it.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_White_(composer))
.
Although originally written for Mixed Chorus (SATBarB),
I created this Interpretation of the "Christe, qui lux
es et dies" (O Christ who art the light and day) for
Wind Quintet (Flute, Oboe, English Horn, French Horn &
Bassoon).
PARTITION