John Eccles (composer)

John Eccles, more rarely Eagles (* probably around 1668 in London, † January 12, 1735 in Hampton Wick) was an English composer.

Life

John Eccles was the only son of Henry Eccles (around 1640-1711 ), not to be confused with the violinist and composer Henry Eccles. His training is not documented. In 1695 he became a musician at the court of the English king. 1700 appointed him to the king Master of the King's Musick. Thus Eccles held the highest honor at the English court point for musicians until his death in 1735. In 1700, he finished second in a competition for the setting of William Congreve's The Judgement of Paris, the John Weldon won.

Eccles composed many works for the theater, including incidental music and " Masques " (not as a form of opera ). In 1693 he became a composer at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. When in 1695 some of the actors left this theater and founded his own company in the Lincoln 's Inn Fields, he also composed for this theater. Eccles also wrote music for the coronation of Queen Anne, as well as some songs.

His life at Eccles spent mainly in Kingston upon Thames, where he composed very little and most of his time devoted to fishing.

Works

• Incidental music Love for Love by William Congreve
• The Spanish Friar by John Dryden
• Don Quixote by Thomas d' Urfey ( Henry Purcell )

• Masques Macbeth by William Shakespeare ( London 1694 )
• The Rape of Europa Masque (London 1694 )
• The Loves of Mars and Venus ( with Gottfried Finger, London 1696 )
• Hercules (London 1697 )
• A Musical Entertainment ( London 1697 )
• Ixion (London 1697 )
• Europe's Revels for the Peace ( London 1697 )
• Rinaldo and Armida (London 1698 )
• The Judgment of Paris or The Prize of Music ( London 1701)
• The British Enchanters or No Magic like Love (London 1706)
• Semele (1707 )