The Music of Thomas Tomkins – workshop for voices with Carys Lane on 15th February 2025

Thomas Tomkins

Perhaps less well known than predecessor William Byrd or his contemporary
Orlando Gibbons, Tomkins is nevertheless a composer of wonderful invention and skill. His work,
like that of Gibbons, forms a bridge between the music of the renaissance and the baroque and
comprises consort music in the form of madrigals, and liturgical music including both full anthems
and the more modern verse anthems. Born in Wales, he was a chorister at St Davids cathedral.
He held post as organist at Worcester cathedral for some 50 years from 1596 until the cathedral’s
closure in 1646 due to the civil war, but was also a Gentleman Ordinary of the famous Chapel
Royal in London, travelling frequently between the two jobs. In this workshop we will visit both his
madrigal output, looking at works from his 1622 publication – Songs of 3,4,5 and 6 Parts- and
music from his sacred output. Repertory will include, possibly his most famous piece, the great
lament – ‘When David Heard’ and also it’s companion piece the lesser known ‘Then David
Mourned’. We will investigate his huge invention in the madrigalian fa-la-la in madrigals such as
‘Too much I once Lamented’ and ‘O Let me Die for True Love. And also enjoy some forgotten
gems, such as an expansive 6 part setting of the psalm 120 ‘Woe is Me’, and possibly one of the
greatest madrigals ever written, ‘Music Divine Thomas Tomkins –