William Croft#Funeral sentences

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 and he became an organist and 'Gentleman extraordinary' at the Chapel Royal. He shared that post with his friend Jeremiah Clarke.John Calvert {{google books|1osrAAAAYAAJ|A Collection of Anthems Used in Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, the Temple ...|page=15}}Dennis Shrock {{google books|-SVnDAAAQBAJ|Choral Repertoire|page=325}}

In 1700, Croft, in collaboration with "an Italian Master", probably Gottfried Finger, published six sonatas for violin, flute, harpsichord and viol, in the newly fashionable Italian style.{{cite book |last=Holman |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Holman |date=2013 |title=Life After Death: The Viola Da Gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RUzBfC_NRAIC&pg=PA47 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=47 |isbn=978-1843835745}}

In 1707, he took over the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal post, which had been left vacant by the suicide of Jeremiah Clarke. The following year, Croft succeeded Blow (who had lately died) as organist of Westminster Abbey. He composed works for the funeral of Queen Anne (1714) and for the coronation of King George I (1715).

In 1724, Croft published Musica Sacra, a collection of church music, the first such collection to be printed in the form of a score. It contains a Burial Service, which may have been written for Queen Anne or for the Duke of Marlborough.Spink (1995), p. 183 Shortly afterwards his health deteriorated, and he died while visiting Bath aged 48.

A fragment of music attributed to Croft, Ground in C minor (D221), has been used by contemporary composer Michael Nyman as the source of his piece An Eye for an Optical Theory.[http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/11494 An Eye for Optical Theory] Chester Music{{Google books|lTMrDwAAQBAJ|The Music of Michael Nyman: Texts, Contexts and Intertexts|page=96|keywords=|text=|}}

One of Croft's most enduring pieces is the hymn tune "St Anne" written to the poem Our God, Our Help in Ages Past by Isaac Watts. Other composers subsequently incorporated the tune in their own works. Handel used it, for instance, in an anthem entitled O Praise the Lord and also Hubert Parry in his 1911 Coronation Te Deum.Range, Matthias (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_rIgAwAAQBAJ&dq=Parry+Coronation+%22Te+Deum%22+1911&pg=PA241 Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations: From James I to Elizabeth II] Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-1-107-02344-4}} (p. 241) Bach's Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552, is often called the "St. Anne", due to the similarity (coincidental in this case) of its subject to the hymn melody's first phrase. A further tune attributed to William Croft is 'Binchester' (a village in County Durham) for the hymn 'Happy are they, they that love God'. His tune 'Eatington', for the hymn 'The Church triumphant in thy love' takes its title from Croft's birthplace of Lower Ettington.

Perhaps Croft's most notable legacy is the suite of Funeral Sentences which have been described as a "glorious work of near genius".{{Cite book|title = The Music of the English Church|last = Long|first = Kenneth R.|publisher = Hodder and Stoughton|year = 1972|location = London|pages = 291}} First published as part of the Burial Service in Musica Sacra, the date and purpose of their composition is uncertain.{{cite journal |title=William Croft's Burial Service and Purcell's "Thou knowest, Lord" |last1=Range |first1=Matthias |year=2009 |journal=The Musical Times |volume=150 |issue = 1906|pages=54–68 |jstor = 25597602}} The seven sentences themselves are from the Book of Common Prayer and are verses from various books of the Bible, intended to be said or sung during an Anglican funeral.{{cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Book of Common Prayer – The Order for the Burial of the Dead|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/burial-dead|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=22 December 2020|website=churchofengland.org|publisher=The Archbishops' Council}} One of the sentences, Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, was not composed by Croft, but by Henry Purcell, part of his 1695 Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary. Croft wrote:

{{blockquote|"...there is one verse composed by my predecessor, the famous Mr Henry Purcell, to which, in justice to his memory, his name is applied. The reason why I did not compose that verse anew (so as to render the whole service entirely of my own composition) is obvious to every Artist; in the rest of that service composed by me, I have endeavoured as near as I could, to imitate that great master and celebrated composer, whose name will for ever stand high in the rank of those who have laboured to improve the English style..."{{cite web |url=http://chorus.ucdavis.edu/Notes/04-05/December04ChamberSingers.pdf |title=Music by Henry Purcell (1659–1695) |website=chorus.ucdavis.edu |date=28 June 2013 |publisher=University Chorus, University of California at Davis |access-date=24 September 2014}}}}

Croft's Funeral Sentences were sung at George Frederic Handel's funeral in 1759,Burrows, Donald (2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=5QywKxrY2aQC&dq=Croft+Funeral+sentences&pg=PA327 Handel], Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-973736-9}} (p. 327) and have been included in every British state funeral since their publication. They were used at the funerals of Winston Churchill in 1965,{{cite book |last=Range |first=Matthias |date=2016 |title=British Royal and State Funerals: Music and Ceremonial since Elizabeth I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kn1FDAAAQBAJ |location=Martlesham, Suffolk |publisher=Boydell Press |page=297 |isbn=978-1783270927}} Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002,Starkey, David and Greening, Katie (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=YB8xsFjUzTkC&dq=%22Queen+Mother%22+Croft+Funeral+sentences&pg=PA350 Music and Monarchy], BBC Books, {{ISBN|978-1-849-90586-2}} (p. 350) Baroness Thatcher in 2013,{{Cite web|title=The order of service for the funeral of Baroness Thatcher - St Paul's Cathedral|url=https://www.stpauls.co.uk/news-press/latest-news/the-order-of-service-for-the-funeral-of-baroness-thatcher|access-date=2021-04-30|website=www.stpauls.co.uk}} Prince Philip in 2021,{{Cite web|url=https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/prince-philip-funeral-music-hymns-what-time-st-georges-chapel/|title = What music and hymns will we hear at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral?}}{{Cite news|date=2021-04-17|title=Prince Philip's funeral: The order of service|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56783425|access-date=2021-04-30}}{{Cite web|title=The Order of Service for the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in full|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/17/uk/prince-philip-funeral-order-of-the-service-intl-gbr/index.html|access-date=2021-04-30|website=CNN|date=17 April 2021 }} and Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.{{Cite news |title=Queen Elizabeth's funeral: Order of service at Westminster Abbey|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62948934|access-date=2022-09-19|date=2022-09-19|website=BBC news}}

{{Reflist}}

• Spink (1995) Ian. Oxford Restoration Cathedral Music, 1660–1714 Oxford University Press

{{Commons category|William Croft (composer)}}

{{wikisource|works=or}}

• [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=CroftW Free scores] at the Mutopia Project
• {{ChoralWiki}}
• [http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/croft_w.htm Music by William Croft]
• {{IMSLP|id=Croft, William}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Croft}}

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Category:1678 births

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Category:18th-century English classical composers

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Category:18th-century English male musicians

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Category:English Anglicans

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Category:Members of the Academy of Ancient Music

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Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey

Category:Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey