William Cornyshe
This is the William Cornyshe who died in 1523 and was a master of festivities for Henry VII and the early part of Henry VIII’s reign. He has several pieces in the Eton Choirbook and many secular works in the Henry VIII Manuscript, which is the source for the two examples here. . He was a Gentleman of the Royal Chapel when in 1504 he was imprisoned in the Fleet Prison, apparently under false testimony. Finally completely exonerated by 1509 he became Master of Children of the Royal Chapel, and continued in that position at the ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’ in 1520, and until his death in 1523.
Blow thy horn, hunter
No doubt written for one of the revels at the royal court, this refrain song runs to 8 stanzas in John Stevens ‘Music at the Court of Henry VIII’. The double entendres about shooting the doe “that would not die” must have been a source of great hilarity for His Majesty and guests.
William Cornyshe "Blow thy horn, hunterl"
Blow thy horn, hunter, And blow thy horn
on high!
There is a doe in yonder wood, In faith
she will not die:
Now blow thy horn, hunter, Now blow
thy horn, jolly hunter!
Sore this deer stricken is, And yet she
bleeds no whit;
She lay so fair, I could not miss, Lord, I
was glad of it:
Now blow…
As I stood under a bank, The deer shoff
on the mead;
I struck her so that down she sank But
yet she was not dead.
Now blow…
There she go’th! See ye not, How she
go’th over the plain?
And if ye lust to gave a shot, I warrant her
barrain.
Now blow…
He to go and I to go, But he ran fast
afore;
I bade him shoot and strike the doe, For I
might shoot no more.
Now blow…
To the covert both they went, For I found
where she lay;
An arrow in her haunch she hent, For
faint she might not bray.
Now blow…
Fa la sol
Unattributed in the Henry VIII manuscript this exceptionally long and complex instrumental piece is ascribed to Cornyshe in a 1530 print. The title is problematical in that one assumes it refers to syllables of the hexachord, The opening notes of the tenor part of section #1 and #3 would sort of work if there were a hexachord starting on D . . . but there isn’t one. The 3 sections are assigned different instrumentations in this arrangement.