Thomas Morley was an organist, composer, editor, and music printer who lived and worked during the sixteenth century. It is believed that he was a student of composer William Byrd. He is most known for his work with the madrigal. At this point in history, a madrigal was a short secular piece for any number of equally important voices that used free form poetry as its text. It came to prominence in Italy but Morley is remembered as the composer who first brought it to England.