William Horwood (composer)

William Horwood, also Horewud, was an English polyphonic vocal composer in the late-medieval period (c. 1430 – 1484). In 1470, he was a singer at Lincoln Cathedral, in 1476, he was a vicar choral at Lincoln, and from 1477 until 1484, he was the Cathedral choirmaster. He is one of the earliest composers represented in the Eton Choirbook, with three complete pieces and one incomplete piece. There is also one incomplete piece in the fragmentary York mass manuscript, Borthwick Institute MS Mus.1;[1][2] however, Theodor Dumitrescu in his edition of the mass manuscript suggests this may be a different composer with the same surname.[3]

The survival of these large-scale pieces makes Horwood the most important representative we have of the period between Dunstaple and early Tudor composers such as Fayrfax and William Cornysh.[4]

Horwood's "Magnificat secundi toni a 5" bears a strong resemblance to compositions of his near contemporary Josquin des Prez (c. 1440–1521), so much so that he might easily be mistaken for Josquin upon first audition. No mention is made of Horwood among the listing of Josquin's contemporaries in Grout;[5] neither is the Eton Choirbook mentioned in Grout.

A very scanty on-line article – only a thumbnail description of the composer – is present on (FM 99.5, New York) WBAI producer Chris Whent's Here of a Sunday Morning site. (The link Partial William Horwood Discography has no content.) Virtually no other information is available on the internet.

  1. ^ Hugh Benham Latin church music in England, c. 1460–1575 – Page 76 – 1980 "We know of five works by Horwood, four of them in Eton, one in the York manuscript. Two of these are incomplete, a Kyrie (York) and Gaude virgo mater Christi, whose text on five corporal Joys of the Virgin, the Annunciation, Nativity, ..."
  2. ^ "GB-Ybi Mus. 1 (York Masses) - DIAMM". www.diamm.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  3. ^ Dumitrescu, Theodor (2010). Fifteenth-Century Liturgical Music: VII: The York Masses. Stainer & Bell. ISBN 9780852499016.
  4. ^ "Edition of Horwood's "Gaude flore virginali" by Prof. Nick Sandon". Antico Editions. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  5. ^ Grout, Donald Jay, "A History of Western Music" (New York: Norton, 1960). pp 130–184