Tye, Christopher (c. 1505–c. 1572)

English composer and poet. His music shows considerable acquaintance with contemporary continental composers, for example, the Mass for six voices Euge bone. He wrote a good deal of verse in his later years.

He became a lay clerk at King's College, Cambridge, in 1537. In 1543 he was appointed choirmaster at Ely Cathedral; he received a PhD in music from Cambridge University in 1545, and from Oxford in 1548. In 1561 he resigned his post at Ely and was succeeded by Robert White. Having been ordained, he accepted the living at Doddington-cum-Marche in the Isle of Ely, and for some time later held two other livings in the neighbourhood; but he had to resign them because of carelessness in the matter of payments due.

Works Sacred and secular music Masses, including Euge bone and Western Wind; motets, services, anthems, The Actes of the Apostles for four voices in English (metrical versions dedicated to Edward VI; 1533), In Nomines for instruments.