Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1588 – 1635) was anEnglish musician, theorist and editor, notable as acomposer ofrounds andcatches, and especially for compiling collections of Englishfolk music.[1]
Little is known of Ravenscroft's early life. He probably sang in thechoir ofSt. Paul's Cathedral from 1594, when aThomas Raniscroft was listed on the choir rolls and remained there until 1600 under the directorship of Thomas Giles. He received his bachelor's degree in 1605 fromCambridge.[2]
Ravenscroft's principal contributions are his collections offolk music, including catches, rounds,street cries, vendor songs, "freeman's songs" and other anonymous music, in three collections:Pammelia (1609),Deuteromelia orThe Second Part of Musicks Melodie (1609) andMelismata (1611), which contains one of the best-known works in his collections,The Three Ravens. Some of the music he compiled has acquired extraordinary fame, though his name is rarely associated with the music; for example "Three Blind Mice" first appears inDeuteromelia.[3] He moved to Bristol where he published ametrical psalter (The Whole Booke of Psalmes) in 1621.
As a composer, his works are mostly forgotten but include 11anthems, 3motets for five voices and 4fantasias forviols.
As a writer, he wrote two treatises on music theory.The Briefe Discourse of the True (but Neglected) Use of Charact'ring the Degrees (London, 1614) includes 20 songs as examples: seven byJohn Bennet, two by Edward Pearce and the rest by Ravenscroft himself. Of these, the group of dialect songs 'Hodge und Malkyn' from the fifth a final section was nominated byJeffrey Mark as the earliest example of asong-cycle in English music history.[4] There is alsoA Treatise of Musick, which remains in manuscript (unpublished).
