“Many of us musicians think it as much praise to be somewhat more than…” — Thomas Weelkes | V2Melody

“Many of us musicians think it as much praise to be somewhat more than musicians, as it is for gold to be somewhat more than gold.”

Defends musicians who aspire beyond their craft alone · Dedication to Henry Lord Windsor, Madrigals of 5 and 6 Parts, 1600

About Thomas Weelkes

Thomas Weelkes

25 October 1576–November 1623

In the golden twilight of the English Renaissance, when the echoes of Shakespeare's verse still rang through London's theaters and the madrigal reached its most exquisite flowering, Thomas Weelkes emerged as one of the most distinctive and emotionally powerful composers of his generation. Born around 1576 and dying in…

More by Thomas Weelkes

Poems by Thomas Weelkes

More remarks by Thomas Weelkes

“I see not, if souls do not partly consist of music, how it should come to pass that so noble a spirit as yours, so perfectly tuned to so perpetual a tenor of excellencies as it is, should descend to the notice of a quality lying single in so low a personage as myself.”

Links the soul itself to musical harmony in a dedicatory conceit · Dedication to Henry Lord Windsor, Madrigals of 5 and 6 Parts, 1600

“It were needless to commend the worth of music to a noble and understanding disposition: for in the natures of arts and generous spirits there is a sympathy.”

Asserts a natural affinity between music and noble minds · Dedication to Edward Lord Denny, Ayres or Phantasticke Spirites, 1608

“These six dishes full of divers madrigals, the first fruits of my barren ground, unripe in regard of time, unsavoury in respect of others. Therefore taste, and again I pray you: if they like your appetite, spare not my orchard; if they offend your stomach, lay them by to ripen, and you shall prove of my latter vintage.”

Modest self-appraisal of early work as unripe fruit awaiting fuller harvest · Dedication to George Phillpot, Madrigals to 3, 4, 5 and 6 Voices, 1597