Elizabethan England

Essay by BruceeeUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, March 2008

download word file, 6 pages 5.0

Music in Elizabethan England demonstrates and interesting blend of an independence from, and movement towards music on the European Continent.

- Some of the genres of the period were hypocritical. For example, if composers of the English Madrigal looked to Italy for inspiration, they filtered out certain musical aspects to fit their liking. - Solo keyboard composers learned what they could from their European counterparts, then outdid them at their own game.

- “High Class” music in England differed form European music in its high degree of centralization. Almost every great English musician was employed by the royal household, where as Spain’s greatest composers of the period were never employed by Philip II.

- Music was centered at the royal court and was therefore subject to the whims and tastes of the woman who presided over it, Elizabeth I.

THE LATE TUDORS: Mary and ElizabethMary Tudor-Mary Tudor, or Mary I (1516-1558) daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, came to the throne in 1553.

-devout Catholic, devoted to bringing England back to the papal fold, revoked Edward VI’s religious legislation. Church of England was now the Official Church of the state.

- revived charges of heresy against those who disagreed with the Catholic doctrine.

- Mary persucuted Protestants ruthlessly, many of the leading voices of Protestantism were burned at the stake, approximately 300 of them, or sought refuge in Europe.

- Married Philip II of archenemy Spain and joined his war against France.

- Was unlovingly nicknamed “Bloody Mary”Elizabeth I- (1533-1603) Queen of England (1558-1603), Queen of Ireland (1558-1603)- also known as “The Vigin Queen”, she never married. Was last of the Tudor monarchs.

- Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

- Restored Protestantism as the the official state religion.

- was not dogmatic, Catholics who could reconcile...