William Cornish
William Cornish refers to two historical figures who were both involved in music and ecclesiastical roles in England during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The elder William Cornish was a prominent singer at Westminster Abbey in the 1480s, known for his contributions to the choir and his work as a composer. He married Joan around 1490 and passed away in 1502. While it is probable that the younger William Cornish, who emerged in historical records in 1493 as a member of the Chapel Royal, was related to the elder Cornish, the exact nature of their relationship remains unclear.
The younger Cornish gained recognition for his role as master of the choristers and for his involvement in significant royal events, such as the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. He faced challenges in his career, including a brief imprisonment in 1504, during which he wrote a poem asserting his innocence. His contributions to English literature, particularly in the realm of theatrical performances and choral interludes, are noteworthy, although much of his work has not survived. Cornish's impact on the development of English theater and music during this period is acknowledged, despite the uncertainty surrounding the specifics of his contributions. He likely passed away around 1523.
On this Page
Subject Terms
William Cornish
Composer
- Born: c. 1465
- Died: c. 1523
Biography
There is sufficient documentary evidence to assure us that there were two William Cornishes (the name is also spelled Cornysh or Cornysshe), who followed careers sufficiently similar to generate confusion among historians; although there is no definite evidence that they were father and son, it seems reasonably probable that they were related in some respect.
The elder William Cornish became visible to history as a member of a group of four adult singers at Westminster Abbey in the 1480’s, renting a house in Sanctuary Yard from 1485. He trained boys for the abbey choir and also composed music. He married a wife named Joan in 1490 or thereabouts, and died in 1502, although Joan continued to live in the house until 1519.
There is nothing to connect William Cornish the younger with the elder, nor with the first William Cornish’s wife, which would be puzzling, if he were in fact their son, and suggests that he might have been a nephew. At any rate, he becomes visible to history in 1493 as a lay gentleman of the Chapel Royal, England’s foremost ecclesiastical choir, which consisted of thirty adult singers and ten boys. They were based in Salisbury but traveled widely. After becoming master of the choristers in 1509, Cornish accompanied English King Henry VIII to France in 1513 and again to the enormously important Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. The younger Cornish also married a wife named Joan some time before 1513. His career did not run entirely smoothly; he was in the Fleet prison in 1504, where he wrote a poem, “A Treatise Between Truth and Information,” protesting his innocence of the charges laid against him.
Cornish’s duties, like that of his similarly-named predecessor, would have included a good deal of composition for ecclesiastical purposes, written in Latin. However, his importance to the development of English literature is largely based upon the secular work he produced for pageants and other theatrical performances, particularly with reference to choral interludes, which he seems to have pioneered. He is known to have participated in the construction of Troilus and Pandarus in 1516, presumably supplying choral parts in English, but the extent of his work remains purely conjectural as not a word or note survives. English printing, then in its infancy, had not yet come to terms with musical scores. Although he undoubtedly played a role in the evolution of theatrical performances in the English court, therefore, there is no way to judge the merit of his work or even estimate its formal qualities. He died in 1523 or thereabouts.