John Hilton the elder
{{Short description|English countertenor, organist and composer}}
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John Hilton (the elder) (1565{{spaced ndash}}1609(?)) was an English countertenor, organist and composer of mainly sacred works.
Works
Hilton is best known for his anthems "Lord, for Thy Tender Mercy's Sake" (which may actually be by one of the Farrants)Peter Le Huray: Music and the Reformation in England, Cambridge University Press, 1978, p. 269 and "Call to Remembrance".
Life
Hilton was born in 1565. By 1584 he was a countertenor at Lincoln Cathedral. At the start of 1594 he became organist at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He was the father of John Hilton the younger, also a composer, which makes definitive assignation of their combined sacred works problematic; whereas his only secular work appears to have been the madrigal Fair Oriana, beauty's Queen, which he wrote for The Triumphs of Oriana.Peter Le Huray; Ian Payne: Hilton, John (i), New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1980
He died, probably in Cambridge, prior to 20 March 1609.
References
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Category:English Renaissance composers
Category:16th-century English composers
Category:17th-century English composers