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| Thomas Myriell | |
|---|---|
| Name | Thomas Myriell |
| Birth date | c. 1600 |
| Death date | 1670s |
| Occupation | Composer, musician, copyist |
| Nationality | English |
| Era | Baroque |
Thomas Myriell
Thomas Myriell (c. 1600–1670s) was an English composer, musician, and manuscript compiler active in the first half of the 17th century. He is mainly known for a substantial collection of sacred and secular music compiled in manuscript sources that preserve works by contemporaries such as William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tallis, John Dowland, and Thomas Tomkins. Myriell’s compilations provide a significant window into the transmission of Tudor and early Stuart musical repertory across the courts, cathedrals, and academic institutions of England and reflect connections with figures associated with the English Civil War, the Court of James I, and the musical circles of Oxford and Cambridge.
The details of Myriell’s birth and upbringing remain obscure, but surviving evidence situates him within the musical networks of early 17th‑century London and southern England. His work displays familiarity with music associated with St Paul's Cathedral, the Chapel Royal, and collegiate foundations such as Christ Church, Oxford and King's College, Cambridge. Myriell’s manuscripts show knowledge of repertory circulated by figures linked to the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, and his annotations suggest training comparable to that of choirmen and copyists connected to Eton College, Winchester College, and parish churches in counties like Hertfordshire and Surrey.
Myriell is not widely recorded as a salaried composer in surviving account books, but his name is attached to a substantial autograph miscellany compiling motets, anthems, madrigals, consort songs, and lute works. The contents include pieces by Thomas Morley, John Taverner, Alfonso Ferrabosco, Claudio Monteverdi, and lesser-known practitioners such as Robert Parsons and John Sheppard. His manuscripts demonstrate curatorial choices that highlight contrapuntal works for voices, consort settings for viols, and solo lute arrangements that connect to the repertories of John Dowland and Anthony Holborne. Several items within his books are anonymous; musicologists have proposed attributions to composers in the circles of Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Weelkes based on stylistic comparison.
Although Myriell lacks definitive employment records like those of contemporaries in the Chapel Royal or cathedral establishments, his preserved volumes indicate dealings with patrons and institutions across ecclesiastical and aristocratic spheres. His collections contain works linked to noble households associated with families such as the Howards, the Somersets, and the Cecil family, and to court musicians who served James I and Charles I. The circulation of pieces by composers connected to Oxford University and Cambridge University suggests access to collegiate libraries and to musicians attached to institutions such as Magdalen College, Oxford and St John's College, Cambridge. Myriell’s copyist hand has been compared to hands active at Christ Church, Oxford and in the service of provincial cathedrals, implying collaborative ties with organists, choirmasters, and lutenists whose names include John Farrant, William Lawes, and John Jenkins.
Myriell’s taste as a compiler reflects a synthesis of late Tudor contrapuntal heritage and emergent early Baroque textures. His selection privileges polyphonic motets in the manner of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, contrapuntal anthems related to Orlando Gibbons, and pastoral consort music associated with John Dowland and Alfonso Ferrabosco II. The presence of Italianate pieces by Claudio Monteverdi and continental composers such as Giovanni Gabrieli indicates cosmopolitan awareness influenced by the importation of Venetian and Roman styles into English circles through diplomats, visiting musicians, and printed anthologies. Myriell’s notation, voice‑leading preferences, and figured bass realizations in some continuo‑style pieces reveal assimilation of performance practices connected to Matthew Locke and the household music traditions patronized by the Plantagenet legacy’s successors in the Stuart court.
Myriell’s principal legacy consists of one or more autograph and near‑autograph manuscripts preserved in major collections and university libraries, which have been mined by scholars studying repertory transmission, attribution, and performance practice. These manuscripts hold works otherwise lost in print and provide concordances that aid in reconstructing the oeuvres of composers like Robert White and Thomas Tomkins. The volumes have been cited in catalogues and editions produced by institutions such as the British Library, Bodleian Library, and the Royal College of Music. Modern editors and performers, including those associated with ensembles and scholars focusing on early music, draw on Myriell’s compilations to recreate liturgical and domestic music-making from the Tudor and early Stuart periods. His books also inform research on the impact of the English Civil War and the Interregnum on musical institutions and on the survival of polyphonic repertory into the Restoration era.
Category:17th-century English composers Category:English Baroque composers