TYE, CHRISTOPHER

born c. 1500 died 1573 composer and organist who was an innovator in the style of English cathedral music perfected by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons. Possibly a chorister at King's College, Cambridge, in 1511, Tye took the bachelor of music degree there in 1536 and the doctor of music in 1545. In 1548 he was incorporated as doctor of music at the University of Oxford. From 1541 or 1542 until 1561 he was choirmaster at Ely Cathedral. He was ordained in 1560. Tye, like Tallis, bridged the mid-16th-century change of musical style and of liturgy (from Roman to Anglican) in England. Much of his Latin church music is incomplete, but two masses survive. Also surviving are 14 English anthems, psalm settings, and music for instrumental ensembles, including 19 works based on the plainsong fragment In nomine.