Frye, Walter

views updated

Frye, Walter

Frye, Walter, English composer who flourished in the 15th century. Nothing is known regarding his life, but from indirect indications, it appears that he was attached to the court of Burgundy. Of his 3 masses (in MS at the Royal Library in Brussels), 2 are without a Kyrie, a lack characteristic of the English school; his Ave Regina is an early example of the “song motet” His works have been ed. by S. Kenney in Walter Frye: Collected Works, in Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, XIX (I960).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire