Excerpt from English Church ComposersEnglish church music began to assume a definite shape and character soon after the Reformation. The encouragement given to the practice of music by the successive sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty, both by their precept and example, laid the foundation of a school of music distinctly national, which would pro bably have had its due influence over other schools had it been suffered to develop itself Without interruption. Beginning With the humblest and most simple forms, the Church Composers from time to time, at no very great intervals, expanded these germs into growths of such unexpected beauty that, though arrested in their full progress, they remain the admiration and wonder of posterity. The English school has the merit, if such it be, of having outlived, in point of relative duration, the majority of the other schools Which have been founded.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.