Composing career The treble line of “Parsley’s Clock” (BM Add. MSS 30480, British Library) English composers of the late 15th century and early 16th century set a limited number of types of sacred music, each with a clear place in the liturgy.[24] Until the Reformation of 1534, when Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church, English composers based their works on the Sarum rite, abolished in […]

Osbert Parsley was born in 1510 or 1511;[note 2] the identity of his parents and place of birth are unknown.[5] Like many of his contemporary English composers, he began his musical career as a choirboy.[6] During the time Parsley was a chorister, William Inglott and his son William were in turn Master of the Choristers; the works written by the younger William […]

Osbert Parsley[note 1] (1510/1511 – 1585) was an English Renaissance composer and chorister. Few details of his life are known, but he evidently married in 1558 and lived for a period in the parish of St Saviour’s Church, Norwich. A boy chorister at Norwich Cathedral, Parsley worked there throughout his musical career. He was first mentioned as a lay clerk, was appointed a “singing man” […]