TAVERNER, JOHN

born c. 1490 died Oct. 15, 1545, Boston, Lincolnshire, Eng. English composer whose music represents the culmination of early 16th-century English polyphony. In 1526 Taverner went to Oxford to become master of the choir in the chapel of Cardinal's College (later Christ Church). In 1528 he was imprisoned for concealing heretical books, but John Foxe recorded that Cardinal Wolsey for his musick excused him, saying, that he was but a musitian, so he escaped. Foxe added that Taverner repented of having composed music for Popish Ditties. Taverner left Oxford in 1530 and ended his musical career to become a paid agent of Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII's suppression of English monasteries. Taverner's church music, which is printed in Tudor Church Music, vol. I and III (192324), shows a variety and skill, range and power that represent the climax of pre-Reformation English music. It includes eight masses (e.g., The Western Wind), a few mass movements, three Magnificats, a Te Deum, and 28 motets. In instrumental music, his adaptation of the musical setting of the words In nomine Domini from the Benedictus of his mass Gloria tibi trinitas became the prototype for a large number of instrumental compositions known as In nomine, or Gloria tibi trinitas.