Hugh Aston

English Renaissance composer of the early Tudor period (c. 1480-1485; d. 1558, exact d.o.b. seems to be unknown).

Hugh Aston (also spelled Asseton, Assheton, Ashton, Ayston, Astyn, Austin, Awsten, Aysheton, Haston) took his Mus.B in Oxford in 1510. While little of his music survives, he is notable for his innovative keyboard writing, his Hornepype in particular is often cited as an example of early idiomatic keyboard writing. Some other famous early keyboard pieces have been attributed to him on stylistic grounds, including the often-recorded and anthologized My Lady Careys Dompe. Four sacred vocal compositions by Aston survive substantially complete: Missa Te Deum (five voices); Missa Videte manus meas (six voices); Gaude mater matris; Christe (five voices); Te Deum laudamus (five voices). Other compositions survive in fragments. Between 1510 and 1525 he may have lived in London, and may have had some association with the court of Henry VIII. Most likely he was chorus master at St. Mary Newarke Hospital and College in Leicester between 1525 and 1548. He was an applicant for the position of chorus master at Cardinal Wolsey's new Cardinal College in the 1530s, but Wolsey chose John Taverner instead.

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