Biography
After earning a Doctorate in Music from Cambridge during 1504, Fayrfax later secured the same distinction at Oxford in 1511. Throughout his career he ranked as England’s leading lay clerk, with his name heading the roster for that post at Henry VII’s funeral, Henry VIII’s coronation, the interment of the young Prince Henry, and the rituals of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Works credited to him encompass masses, magnificats, motets, secular songs, and instrumental compositions, the last group consisting chiefly of puzzle canons. He stands out for shaping the mass cycle at an early stage. Diversity across his output arose chiefly from structural and metrical adjustments. In the doctoral mass “O quam glorifica,” for instance, he set the tenor and treble against the bass and contratenor in contrasting meters, assigning duple time to the first pair and triple time to the second. Although counterpoint and melody held little appeal for him, his advances rested on robust cadential harmonies.