Thomas Whythorne
Thomas Whythorne (1528-1595) was an English composer from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, whose work was rediscovered until the twentieth century.
Whythorne was born in the county of Somerset. From a good family he went to the prestigious Magdalen College in Oxford. After his school time, he tried to go to a wealthy nobleman to support him financially and he would have all the time to compose. At the end of his life, Thomas Hastings was such a nobleman. Whether it succeeded him before that time, or if Hastings supported him early in his career, is not known.
At least, he had enough money to travel around Europe. Whythorne stayed for six months in Italy; long enough to learn Italian and to also make the musical time of the country. After returning in his own country, he wrote a book about his travels through Italy, which was lost. With his book, he wanted to wake up the knowledge of Italian culture and especially the music. He also did that as a (music) teacher in Cambridge and London. Here he made an epidemic of bile fever (1568). In 1571 he was named Master of the Musicke of Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-1574). During that period, he published a bundle of songs: Songes for Three, Fower, and Five Voyces, the only English worldly music that appeared since 1533. Around 1576 Whythorne bundled his songs, poetry and some autobiographical data into his Booke or songs and sonetts with longe discourses set with them. The book is considered to be the first English autobiography.
After his death Whythorne was soon forgotten. Not until 1925, Philip Heseltine, also known as Peter Warlock, wrote a book about this Tudor composer, oblivious to the oblivion: Thomas Whythorne, an unknown Elizabethan composer. His autobiography was rediscovered in 1955 and has since been published in the original spelling and in a modern "translation". Literature
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