Though it began as an Italian genre, the madrigal held great interest in England toward the end of the sixteenth century. Who was the guiding force for the development of the English madrigal?

Thomas Morley

Explanation:

He was a singer, theorist, composer and organist during the Renaissance. Morley was majorly responsible for grafting the Italian shoot on to the native stock and initiating the curiously brief but awesome flowering stock that had a signigicant effect

Thomas Morley

Explanation:

English composer and organist born in Norwich in 1557 or 1558 and died in the same city in October 1602.

He learned music from William Byrd, to whom he dedicated his method A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, written in 1597. From 1583 he was the children's choir master at Norwich Cathedral, which he left in 1587, apparently because of his sympathies for the Catholic Church. The following year he graduated in music from Oxford University in the company of the also composer John Dowland. He later obtained several positions as organist, first at St. Giles Church in London (1589) and then at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (1591). After a brief stay in Holland, from 1592 until the date of his death, he was Gentleman of the Royal Chapel.

His work is divided into two different stages, the first influenced by his master Byrd and characterized by a very rigid use of polyphony. Later, the influence of the Italian madrigal, especially of the composers Felice Anerio and Giovanni Croce, led to an evolution in his work. Besides being the most important English madrigalist of the Renaissance and assimilating the Italian style and presenting it to his compatriots in a popularized way, Morley wrote a great deal of religious music with texts in both Latin and English. Among these works are his highly expressive Funeral anthems, as well as his motets for six voices such as Laboravi in gemitu meo or De profundis for solo voices and choir with instrumental accompaniment, and the four Services with text in English.