John Blow
Encyclopedia
John Blow was an English Baroque
composer
and organist
, appointed to Westminster Abbey
in 1669. His pupils included William Croft
, Jeremiah Clarke
and Henry Purcell
. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II
. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis
(c. 1680-1687), was thought to influence Henry Purcell
's later opera Dido and Aeneas
. In 1687 he became choirmaster at St Paul's Cathedral, where many of his pieces were performed. In 1699 he was appointed to the newly created post of Composer to the Chapel Royal.
in Nottinghamshire
. The parish registers at Newark record the baptisms of Blow and of his brother and sister, the marriage of his parents, and the burial of his father. The register of Lambeth degrees notes that in 1677, on taking his doctorate, Blow said that his birthplace was ‘the faithful borough of Newark’. As he was baptised 23 February 1649, he was likely born only a short while before. As a boy, he was selected as a chorister of the Chapel Royal
, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in music.
Blow composed several anthem
s at an unusually early age, including Lord, Thou hast been our refuge, Lord, rebuke me not and the so-called "club anthem", I will always give thanks, the last in collaboration with Pelham Humfrey
and William Turner
, either in honour of a victory over the Dutch
in 1665, or more probably simply to commemorate the friendly intercourse of the three choristers.
's "Goe, perjur'd man", written at the request of Charles II
to imitate Giacomo Carissimi
's "Dite, o cieli". In 1669, at the age of 20, Blow became organist of Westminster Abbey
. In 1673 he was made a gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
. Between 1680 and 1687, he wrote his only stage composition of which any record survives, the Masque
for the entertainment of the King, Venus and Adonis
. In this Mary Davis
played the part of Venus
. Lady Mary Tudor, her daughter by Charles II, appeared as Cupid
.
In 1687 Blow became choirmaster at St Paul's Cathedral
; in 1695 he was elected organist of St Margaret's, Westminster
, and is said to have resumed his post as organist of Westminster Abbey, from which in 1680 he had retired or been dismissed to make way for Purcell. In 1699 he was appointed to the newly created post of Composer to the Chapel Royal.
Fourteen services
and more than a hundred anthems by Blow are known. In addition to his purely ecclesiastical music, Blow wrote Great sir, the joy of all our hearts, an ode
for New Year's Day 1682, similar compositions for 1683, 1686, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1693 (?), 1694 and 1700; odes, and the like, for the celebration of St Cecilia's Day for 1684, 1691, 1695 and 1700; for the coronation of James II, two anthems, Behold, O God, our Defender and God spake sometimes in visions; some harpsichord
pieces for the second part of Henry Playford
's Musick's handmaid (1689); Epicedium for Queen Mary (1695) and Ode on the Death of Purcell (1696). In 1700 he published his Amphion Anglicus, a collection of pieces of music for one, two, three and four voices, with a figured bass
accompaniment.
A famous page in Charles Burney
's History of Music is devoted to illustrations of Blow's "crudities". These show the immature efforts in expression characteristic of English music at the time. Some of them (where Burney says "Here we are lost") have since been judged to be excellent.
Blow died on 1 October 1708 at his house in Broad Sanctuary.
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
, appointed to Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
in 1669. His pupils included William Croft
William Croft
William Croft was an English composer and organist.Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal, under the instruction of John Blow, and remained there until 1698. Two years after this departure, he became organist of St. Anne's Church, Soho...
, Jeremiah Clarke
Jeremiah Clarke
Jeremiah Clarke was an English baroque composer and organist.Thought to have been born in London around 1674, Clarke was a pupil of John Blow at St Paul's Cathedral. He later became organist at the Chapel Royal...
and Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis, a classical myth, was a common subject for art during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Some works which have been titled Venus and Adonis are:-Literary works:...
(c. 1680-1687), was thought to influence Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
's later opera Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
. In 1687 he became choirmaster at St Paul's Cathedral, where many of his pieces were performed. In 1699 he was appointed to the newly created post of Composer to the Chapel Royal.
Early life and education
Blow was probably born at Newark-on-TrentNewark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1 , and the East Coast Main Line railway. The origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way...
in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
. The parish registers at Newark record the baptisms of Blow and of his brother and sister, the marriage of his parents, and the burial of his father. The register of Lambeth degrees notes that in 1677, on taking his doctorate, Blow said that his birthplace was ‘the faithful borough of Newark’. As he was baptised 23 February 1649, he was likely born only a short while before. As a boy, he was selected as a chorister of the Chapel Royal
Chapel Royal
A Chapel Royal is a body of priests and singers who serve the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they are called upon to do so.-Austria:...
, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in music.
Blow composed several anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
s at an unusually early age, including Lord, Thou hast been our refuge, Lord, rebuke me not and the so-called "club anthem", I will always give thanks, the last in collaboration with Pelham Humfrey
Pelham Humfrey
Pelham Humfrey was the first to prominence of the new generation of English composers at the beginning of the Restoration....
and William Turner
William Turner (composer)
William Turner was a composer and countertenor of the Baroque era. A contemporary of John Blow and Henry Purcell, he is best remembered for his verse anthems, of which over forty survive...
, either in honour of a victory over the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in 1665, or more probably simply to commemorate the friendly intercourse of the three choristers.
Early career
He composed a two-part setting of Robert HerrickRobert Herrick (poet)
Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English poet.-Early life:Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Stone and Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith....
's "Goe, perjur'd man", written at the request of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
to imitate Giacomo Carissimi
Giacomo Carissimi
Giacomo Carissimi was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music.-Biography:...
's "Dite, o cieli". In 1669, at the age of 20, Blow became organist of Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. In 1673 he was made a gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
Marriage and family
In September 1673, Blow married Elizabeth Braddock. They had children together, and she died in childbirth ten years later.Advance to court
Blow, who by 1678 was a doctor of music, was named in 1685 one of the private musicians of James IIJames II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
. Between 1680 and 1687, he wrote his only stage composition of which any record survives, the Masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
for the entertainment of the King, Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis (opera)
Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed in about 1683. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the...
. In this Mary Davis
Moll Davis
Mary "Moll" Davis was a seventeenth-century entertainer and courtesan, singer and actress who became one of the many mistresses of King Charles II of England.- Early life, theatre career:...
played the part of Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
. Lady Mary Tudor, her daughter by Charles II, appeared as Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
.
In 1687 Blow became choirmaster at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
; in 1695 he was elected organist of St Margaret's, Westminster
St. Margaret's, Westminster
The Anglican church of St. Margaret, Westminster Abbey is situated in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, and is the parish church of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London...
, and is said to have resumed his post as organist of Westminster Abbey, from which in 1680 he had retired or been dismissed to make way for Purcell. In 1699 he was appointed to the newly created post of Composer to the Chapel Royal.
Fourteen services
Service (music)
In Anglican church music, a service is a musical setting of certain parts of the liturgy, generally for choir with or without organ accompaniment.-Morning Prayer:*Venite *Te Deum or Benedicite...
and more than a hundred anthems by Blow are known. In addition to his purely ecclesiastical music, Blow wrote Great sir, the joy of all our hearts, an ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
for New Year's Day 1682, similar compositions for 1683, 1686, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1693 (?), 1694 and 1700; odes, and the like, for the celebration of St Cecilia's Day for 1684, 1691, 1695 and 1700; for the coronation of James II, two anthems, Behold, O God, our Defender and God spake sometimes in visions; some harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
pieces for the second part of Henry Playford
Henry Playford
Henry Playford was an English music publisher, the younger son and only known surviving child of John Playford, with whom he entered business. He lived in Arundel Street in London and had a shop near Temple Church 1685–1695 then in Temple Change 1695–1704 and finally in Middle Temple Gate in 1706...
's Musick's handmaid (1689); Epicedium for Queen Mary (1695) and Ode on the Death of Purcell (1696). In 1700 he published his Amphion Anglicus, a collection of pieces of music for one, two, three and four voices, with a figured bass
Figured bass
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
accompaniment.
A famous page in Charles Burney
Charles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
's History of Music is devoted to illustrations of Blow's "crudities". These show the immature efforts in expression characteristic of English music at the time. Some of them (where Burney says "Here we are lost") have since been judged to be excellent.
Blow died on 1 October 1708 at his house in Broad Sanctuary.
Legacy and honors
- He was buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey.
- The tercentenary of his death was marked by BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
and Westminster Abbey: the weekly broadcast of choral evensong was made by the choir of Westminster Abbey, live from the Abbey, and consisted of music mostly by him, and by his near contemporaries.
External links
- John Blow MIDI file "Fair Celia" Tony Catalano's Classical Guitar MIDI Page