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John Blow (baptised 23 February 1649 – 1 October 1708) was an English composer and organist of the Baroque music. Appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in late 1668, John Blow Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 30 December 2019. his pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis (ca. 1680–1687), is thought to have influenced Henry Purcell's later opera Dido and Aeneas. In 1687, he became choirmaster at St Paul's Cathedral, where many of his pieces were performed. In 1699 he was appointed to the newly created post of Composer to the Chapel Royal.
Blow composed several at an unusually early age, including Lord, Thou hast been our refuge, Lord, rebuke me not and the so-called "club anthem", I will always give thanks, the last in collaboration with Pelham Humfrey and William Turner, either in honour of a victory over the Dutch in 1665, or more probably simply to commemorate the friendly intercourse of the three choristers.
Blow, who by 1678 was a doctor of music, was named in 1685 one of the private musicians of James II. Between 1680 and 1687, he wrote his only stage composition of which any record survives, the Masque for the entertainment of the King, Venus and Adonis. In this, Moll Davis played the part of Venus. Lady Mary Tudor, her daughter by Charles II, appeared as Cupid.
In 1687, Blow became choirmaster (or Master of the Choristers) at St Paul's Cathedral. In 1690 he built a house for himself in Hampton. (Blow also owned eight other houses in the vicinity of Westminster Abbey). The Hampton house was demolished in 1799. It was on the site of the present-day house known as Beveree in the High Street. 'John Blow', Twickenham Museum
In 1695 he was elected organist of St Margaret's, Westminster, and is said to have resumed his post as organist of Westminster Abbey, from which in 1679 he had retired or been dismissed to make way for Purcell. In 1700, he was appointed to the newly created post of Composer to the Chapel Royal.
In addition to purely ecclesiastical music and his relatively well-known masque Venus and Adonis, Blow's works include Great sir, the joy of all our hearts, an ode for New Year's Day 1682, similar compositions for 1683, 1686, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1693 (?), 1694 and 1700; odes, and the like, for the celebration of St Cecilia's Day for 1684, 1691, 1695 and 1700; for the coronation of James II, two anthems, Behold, O God, our Defender and God spake sometime in visions; some harpsichord pieces for the second part of Henry Playford's Musick's handmaid (1689); Epicedium for Queen Mary (1695) and Ode on the Death of Purcell (1696).
In 1700 he published his Amphion Anglicus, a collection of pieces of music for one, two, three and four voices, with a figured bass accompaniment. This includes a setting for voice and continuo of the poem The Self Banished by Edmund Waller.John Blow Amphion Anglicus, 1700
Blow died on 1 October 1708 aged 59 at his house in Broad Sanctuary. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Music
Blow wrote fourteen services and 30 odes for royal celebrations, 50 secular song-like pieces and more than a hundred anthems.
Personal life
In September 1673, Blow married Elizabeth Braddock. She died in childbirth ten years later. Two of his sons died, but there were also three daughters, who survived him.
Legacy and honours
External links
Categories: 1649 Births, 1708 Deaths, People From Newark-on-trent, 17th-century English Composers, 17th-century English Male Musicians, 18th-century English Keyboardists, 18th-century English Composers, English Classical Composers Of Church Music, English Male Classical Composers, English Baroque Composers, English Classical Organists, English Male Classical Organists, English Cathedral Organists, Children Of The Chapel Royal, Gentlemen Of The Chapel Royal, Masters Of The Children Of The Chapel Royal, Master Of The Choristers At Westminster Abbey, Burials At Westminster Abbey
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