Thomas Preston

(? -c.1563)

English organist and composer. Choirmaster of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1543, and organist at Trinity College, Cambridge(1548-59), and St George's, Windsor (1559-63). He composed 12 Offertory settings for keyboard, including the popular Felix namque, and an alternatim organ Mass for Easter, containing the only known sequence setting of the time. His keyboard writing is extremely virtuosic for the period, anticipating that of Farnaby, and genuinely instrumental in style. He eploits the instrument's full compass, and makes much use of complex syncoptaed rhythms and of canon.



A Partial Thomas Preston Discography |  IV M: England Through 1635