John Sheppard (composer)

John Sheppard (* 1515, † December 1558 ) was an English composer and organist.

Life

From Sheppard's life only few data are backed up: At Michaelmas 1543, the 29th of September, he was appointed " Informator Choristarum " at Magdalen College, Oxford. Around 1552, he was appointed " Gentleman of the Chapel Royal ." In 1554 he made ​​an application for the award of the academic title of " Director of Music" at the University of Oxford. From this it can be seen that he had devoted himself to the time of application for 20 years studying music. Accordingly, his birth year is established in about 1515.

Sheppard's works are missing from the manuscript collection of Peterhouse, Cambridge, which was copied about 1540-1547. It follows that Sheppard was a few years younger than John Taverner and Christopher Tye.

His name appears in the attendance list for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I in January 1559 in fact he is already on December 21, 1558 buried in Westminster in St. Margaret 's Church.

Works

Sheppard's creative period fell into the stormy years of the Anglican Reformation. He thus experienced the height of the Catholic polyphony and their subsequent downfall in England. Apart from a few works for the Anglican Church to be musical legacy, therefore, consists exclusively of sacred music for the Roman Catholic Church and the Latin liturgy of Salisbury. His music is highly contrapuntal.

His works include:

• Five fairs, including the " The Western Wynde Mass" and the " Cantate Mass". " The Western Wynde Mass" is based - as well as the comparable settings by Taverner and Tye - on the eponymous song "The Western Wynde ".
• Two settings of the " Magnificat ".
• Media vita, six -part composition for Lent.
• The responses and the hymns; the texts for this are taken from the Uffizi, the most important celebrations of the liturgical year.

CD

• 2009: John Sheppard, " Media Vita " and other liturgical works, "stile antico " harmonia mundi HMU 807 509