William Croft

William Croft ( baptized December 30, 1678 on the estate of Nether Ettington in Warwickshire; † August 14, 1727 in Bath ) was an English organist and composer of the Baroque.

Life and work

He received his musical information at the Chapel Royal, among others as a choirboy. One of his teachers at this institution was John Blow. In 1698, he finished his training there.

In 1700, he got a job at St. Anne 's Church in Soho, London. In 1707 he took over the post of a music teacher at the Chapel Royal, in the following year in succession of his former teacher John Blow the place of organist at Westminster Abbey.

As a composer, he made himself a name primarily through his sonatas for violin, for recorder, harpsichord suites, as well as his major work, the Musica Sacra, a collection of pieces of music in church music. He is next to Henry Purcell as the composer of the 17th century, significant contributions to shaping the development of church music of his time and coined. He pays special attention he directed attention to the composition of polyphonic church music.

William Croft continued to compose works commissioned for official ceremonies, for example, for the funeral of Queen Anne in 1714 and for the coronation ceremony of George I. a year later.

He died during a spa stay in Bath in 1727.