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According to The Oxford Companion to Music, Thomas Tomkins was born in St David's, Pembrokeshire and died in Martin Hussingtree, Worcestershire. His father (also Thomas) was Precentor of Gloucester Cathedral, and his brother (also Thomas - which is confusing) was a lay clerk of that cathedral. He himself was organist of the Chapel Royal, London, and, for half a century, of Worcester cathedral - until the discontinuing of organ and choir music with the coming into power of the Puritans deprived him of his position. He wrote instrumental music, church music, and, especially, wonderful madrigals, which are much relished today by lovers of the superb musical art of the late 16th- and early 17th-centuries.
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