Introduction

Biography

Tye earned a Ba­che­lor of Mu­sic de­gree at Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty in 1536. He worked as a clerk at King’s Col­lege there from around 1537–38.

In 1543, he was ap­point­ed choir­mas­ter at Ely Ca­thed­ral, where his friend Ri­chard Cox was arch­dea­con. Tye went on to get his doc­tor­ate of mu­sic at Cam­bridge in 1545, and re­ceived the same de­gree from Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty in 1548.

His mu­sic was po­pu­lar at the Cha­pel Roy­al in the late 1540’s. His mu­sic in­cludes mo­tets, mag­ni­fi­cats, mass­es, an­thems, and as­sort­ed works for wor­ship ser­vic­es.

In 1560, Tye be­came a dea­con, then priest, and served at Dod­ding­ton-cum-Marche, Isle of Ely.

Dr. Tye was a peev­ish and hu­mor­some man, es­pe­cial­ly in his lat­er days, and some­times play­ing on the or­gan in the Cha­pel of Queen Eli­za­beth, which con­tained much mu­sic, but lit­tle to de­light the ear, she would send the ver­ger to tell him that he played out of tune, where­up­on he sent word that her ears were out of tune.

Quoted in Light­wood, p. 40