John Ward (composer)

John Ward ( * 1571 in Canterbury, † 1638 in Ilford, Essex, now the London Borough of Redbridge ) was an English composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque.

John Ward, a contemporary of John Dowland and Orlando Gibbons, began his training as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. After that, he went to London as secretary and musicians in the service of Sir Henry Fanshawe, a music patron and collector of the Treasury. Ward was married and had three children. 1636 pulled Ward in the County of Essex, where he died two years later.

John Ward wrote madrigals, music for Gambenkonsort, Anthems and fairs, mainly in the Italian style. His madrigals are characterized by profound texts and broad leadership of the melodic line. The composers of the period under consideration Ward rather than a " gentleman musician ", still it was a recognition of the musicians main occupation that Thomas Tomkins 1622 a madrigal dedicated to him.

The only printed to Ward's lifetime works were a collection of "English Madrigals " ( 1613 ) dedicated to the service of Sir Sir Henry Fanshawe and the 1614 published "The Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule ".

Works (selection)

• Come, sable night
• Hope of my heart
• My breast I'll set upon a silver stream
• Out from the Vale of Deep Despair
• Satyr once did run away