Four Centuries of Great Music May 24, 2026 Lesser Known English Baroque Composers

Welcome to today’s Four enturies of Great Music. If you ask a frequent classical music audience member to name an English composer of the Baroque era, they will probably reply Handel.  Who was actually German but did contribute a lot to the English music scene.  If you ask for another, perhaps you will get the name of Henry Purcell.  But ask even a classical music musician to name 5 English baroque cyou might just get some hemming and hawing.  So after a chat with conductor  and musicologist John Andrews on a recent episode of Evening Eclectic about a totally different topic, he mentioned his championing of lesser known English baroque composers, so I decided to do the same on this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music.  Because they are likely to be named by people familiar with classical music, I will be skipping over Handel and Purcell and do a deep dive.

Let’s open today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring lesser known English composers of the Baroque era with John Blow, composer and organist.  Blow was probably born in the village of Collingham in Nottinghamshire in February of 1649.  He was baptized on February 23, 1649.  . As a boy, he was selected as a chorister of the Chapel Royal, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in music.  He was given additional instruction in music at university in composition and organ performance and was appointed the organist of Westminster Abbey.  He composed works at the request of Charles II.  Blow, who by 1678 was a doctor of music, was named in 1685 one of the private musicians of James II.  In 1687, Blow became choirmaster (or Master of the Choristers) at St Paul's Cathedral.  Blow wrote fourteen services and 30 odes for royal celebrations, 50 secular song-like pieces and more than a hundred anthems.  Blow died on  October 1, 1708 aged 59 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

We open with one of his anthems “O Sing unto the Lord a New Song” here performed by Alexander Chance, Tom Kelly, Brian McAlea, Choir of New College Oxford, St. James Baroque Players conducted by Robert Quinney from the album Blow: Symphony Anthems  Novum Records

Yo have been listening to one of John Blow’s more than 100 anthems “O Sing unto the Lord a New Song” here performed by Alexander Chance, Tom Kelly, Brian McAlea, Choir of New College Oxford, St. James Baroque Players conducted by Robert Quinney from the album Blow: Symphony Anthems  Novum Records

Let’s also listen to one of John Blow’s organ works,  his Suite in C.   It is in three movements  I. Prelude, II. Courante and III. Fugue. It is here performed by Joseph Payne, organ from the album Early English Organ Music, Vol. 1 Naxos

You have been listening to John Blow’s Suite in C for organ performed by Joseph Payne, organ from the album Early English Organ Music, Vol. 1 Naxos


Today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music is featuring lesser known English composers of the Baroque era.

As organist of Westminster Abbey John Blow taught young organists and among his pupils was William Croft.  Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire on December 30, 1678 . 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 and he later became an organist and 'Gentleman extraordinary' at the Chapel Royal.  In 1707, he took over the role of Choir Master of the Chapel Royal, and the following year, Croft succeeded Blow on his death as the organist of Westminster Abbey.  He composed both sacred and secular works including music for the funeral of Queen Anne in 1714 and for the coronation of King George I in 1715.  Today we will be listening to 4 works from Croft’s 1724, published Musica Sacra, a collection of church music, the first such collection to be printed in the form of a score.   The songs played today from this source are:
Hear My Prayer, O Lord, and Let My Crying
O Lord God of My Salvation
O Lord, Rebuke Me Not

Here performed by the Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge  conducted by David Skinner from the album Croft: Burial Service & Anthems. Obsidian Records

Also part of his published Musica Sacra, were Croft’s Burial Service works which were probably the ones composed for either the funeral of Queen Anne  or for the Duke of Marlborough.    Let’s listen to three of these works “I am the resurrection”,  
“Man that is born of a woman” and “I heard a voice from heaven” all again  performed by the Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge  conducted by David Skinner from the album Croft: Burial Service & Anthems

Shortly after the publication of his Musica Sacra, Croft’s health began to decline and he died on August 14, 1727.  Bt his legacy lives on.  Croft's funeral  music was sung at George Frederic Handel's funeral in 1759, and have been included in every British state funeral since their publication. Most recently it was used at the funerals of Winston Churchill in 1965, Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002, Baroness Thatcher in 2013, Prince Philip in 2021, and Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

Let’s open this second hour of today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring lesser known English composers of the Baroque era with Thomas Arne who is most famous for writing the patriotic tune Rule Britannia

Rule Britannia as performed by Barry Wordsworth conducting the  BBC Concert Orchestra, with Della Jones & Royal Choral Society from  the album The Last Night of the Proms Universal international Music

Thomas Arne was born on 12 March 1710 in Covent Garden.   Arne educated at Eton College.  Arne was so keen on music that he smuggled a spinet into his room and, damping the sounds with his handkerchief, would secretly practice during the night while the rest of the family slept. He was so taken with music that he gave up his law practice to follow a career in music.  Arne is considered one of 18th-century Britain's greatest theatrical composers.  His opera Artaxerxes was one of the most successful and influential English operas of the 18th century and is the only known attempt to write an Italianate opera seria, in the English language, using recitative instead of spoken dialogue.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart saw it in 1764 when he visited London and said that it influenced his operas.  In addition to his theatrical works, he was also a writer of symphonies and today that is the part of his musical life that we will be listening to.

Symphony No. 2 in F Major_ I. Presto
Symphony No. 2 in F Major_ II. Andantino
Symphony No. 2 in F Major_ III. Moderato allegro
Cantilena conducted by Adrian Shepherd
Arne: Symphonies Nos. 1-4
Chandos Records

Symphony No. 4 in C Minor_ I. Moderato
Symphony No. 4 in C Minor_ II. Larghetto
Symphony No. 4 in C Minor_ III. Vivace
Cantilena conducted by Adrian Shepherd
Arne: Symphonies Nos. 1-4
Chandos Records

I would like to close this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring the music of lesser known English baroque  composers with William Boyce.   Boyce was born in London, at Joiners' Hall, then in Lower Thames Street.  He was baptized on September 11, 1711.  He became a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral in 1719. After his voice broke in 1727, he studied music with Maurice Greene. His first professional appointment came in 1734 when he was employed as an organist at the Oxford Chapel in central London. He went on to take a number of similar posts before being appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1757 follow the death of his composition teacher, Maurice Greene. As Master of the King's Musick Boyce had the responsibility of writing music for royal occasions including funerals, weddings and coronations. He, however, refused to make a new setting of Zadok the Priest for the coronation of George III and Charlotte in 1761 on the grounds that Handel's setting of the anthem was unsurpassable – as a consequence of which Handel's setting has been performed at every subsequent British coronation.  


However, that coronation is the only one recorded where a single musician wrote nearly all the music, Boyce having composed a total of eight anthems specifically for the event  One of these anthems was The King Shall Rejoice, which was also performed at the coronation of Charles III in 2023.


Both coronation anthems  were performed by Choir of New College Oxford, Matthew Halls, conductor and the Academy of Ancient Music,  Edward Higginbottom, conductor from the album Coronation Anthems  Decca Classics

Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 2 -  I. Allegro
Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 2 -  II. Moderato e dolce
Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 2 -  III. Allegro

Here performed by Aradia Ensemble conducted by Kevin Mallon from the album Boyce: Eight Symphonies, Op. 2  Naxos

The first movement (Allegro) of Boyce's Symphony No. 1 in B-flat was the first piece of music played during the procession of the bride and bridegroom at the conclusion of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.

Let’s end with one more work by William Boyce, his hymn “Praise the Lord O Jerusalem” as performed by Choir of New College Oxford, Matthew Halls, conductor and the Academy of Ancient Music,  Edward Higginbottom, conductor from the album Coronation Anthems  Decca Classics


On February 7, 1779 Boyce died from an attack of gout, aged 67. He was buried under the dome of St Paul's Cathedral


Thank you for joining me on today’s Four Centuries of Great Music, join me again next Sunday at 3pm.