George Jeffreys (composer)

Last updated April 03, 2019

George Jeffreys (ca. 1610 –4 or 5 July 1685) was an English composer during the period that saw the introduction of the Italian seconda pratica to northern Europe.

Seconda pratica, Italian for "second practice", is the counterpart to prima pratica and is sometimes referred to as Stile moderno. The term "Seconda pratica" first appeared in 1603 in Giovanni Artusi's book Seconda Parte dell'Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica, where it is attributed to a certain L'Ottuso Accademico. In the first part of The Artusi (1600), Artusi had severely criticized several unpublished madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi. In the second part of this work, L'Ottuso Accademico, whose identity is unknown, defends Monteverdi and others "who have embraced this new second practice". Monteverdi adopted the term to distance some of his music from that of e.g. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Gioseffo Zarlino and to describe early music of the Baroque period which encouraged more freedom from the rigorous limitations of dissonances and counterpoint characteristic of the prima pratica.

Life

Jeffreys was organist to Charles I at Oxford in 1643. From about 1648 till his death he held the post of steward to the Hattons of Kirby, Northamptonshire. Many of Jeffreys's letters are preserved in the Hatton-Finch correspondence; they cover a period of nearly forty years. From 1648 Jeffreys resided at Little Weldon. He died before 12 July 1685.^[1]

Work

Jeffreys's anthem "Erit gloria Domini" is printed in the Cantica Sacra of 1672. He composed numerous anthems and motets, many of which are in manuscript in the Aldrich collection, Christ Church, Oxford. The library of the Royal College of Music also has music by this composer, as does British Library Addit. MS. 10338.^[1]

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Art including performance, composition, conducting, music theory and history. The RCM also undertakes research, with particular strengths in performance practice and performance science. The college is one of the four conservatories of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and a member of Conservatoires UK. Its buildings are directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall on Prince Consort Road, next to Imperial College and among the museums and cultural centres of Albertopolis.

Family

Jeffreys's son, Christopher Jeffreys (d. 1693) was also a musician. He was elected as a king's scholar of Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1659, proceeded B.A. in 1663 and M.A. in 1666. Christopher and his wife Anna continued to live in his father's house at Little Weldon, Northamptonshire, up to the latter's death in July 1685. Christopher died in 1693. His son George Jeffreys was known for verse. A sister was privately married in 1669 to Henry Goode, rector of Weldon in 1684.^[1]

Westminster School is an independent day and boarding school in London, England, located within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. With origins before the 12th century, the educational tradition of Westminster probably dates back as far as 960, in line with the Abbey's history. Boys are admitted to the Under School at age seven and to the senior school at age thirteen; girls are admitted at age sixteen into the Sixth Form. The school has around 750 pupils; around a quarter are boarders, most of whom go home at weekends, after Saturday morning school. The school motto, Dat Deus Incrementum, is taken from the New Testament, specifically 1 Corinthians 3:6.

Christ Church is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Christ Church is a joint foundation of the college and the cathedral of the Oxford diocese, which serves as the college chapel and whose dean is ex officio the college head.

Related Research Articles

William Wake was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737.

John Eccles was an English composer.

William Boyce was an English composer and organist.

Christopher Hatton, 1st Baron Hatton KB PC FRS was a distant relation of the Elizabethan politician, Sir Christopher Hatton and a prominent Royalist during the reign of King Charles I of England.

Thomas Ford was an English composer, lutenist, viol player and poet.

Admiral of the Fleet George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth PC was an English naval commander who gave distinguished service to both Charles II and James II.

John Travers was an English composer who held the office of Organist to the Chapel Royal from 1737 to 1758. Before filling several parochial posts in London he had been a choir boy at St. George's Chapel, Windsor and a pupil of Johann Christoph Pepusch.

Richard John Samuel Stevens was an English composer and organist.

Daniel Cawdry (Cawdrey) (1588–1664) was an English clergyman, member of the Westminster Assembly, and ejected minister of 1662.

Thomas Greaves (1612–1676) was an English orientalist, a contributor to the London Polyglot of Brian Walton.

William Jackson, referred to as Jackson of Exeter, was an English organist and composer.

Scrope Howe, 1st Viscount Howe was an English politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottinghamshire from 1673 to 1685 and January 1689 to 1691, and from 1710 to 1713.

Lewis Atterbury D.D., the elder was an English clergyman and writer.

John Bridges (1666–1724) was an English lawyer, antiquarian and topographer.

Sir Edward Ward (1638–1714) was an English lawyer and judge. He became chief baron of the exchequer, and is best known as the judge in the state trial for piracy of Captain Kidd.

John Villiers was an English courtier from the Villiers family. The eldest son of Sir George Villiers and Mary Beaumont, later Countess of Buckingham, he was the brother of King James I's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

John Isham (1680?–1726) was an English composer and organist.

Zacheus Isham, D.D. (1651–1705) was a Church of England clergyman and religious author.

Martin Lluelyn (1616–1682) was a poet and physician of probable Welsh ancestry.

Samuel Akeroyde was a popular and prolific composer of songs in the latter part of the 17th century. He was born in Yorkshire. He wrote more than 100 songs.

References

Peter Aston, Jeffeys, George in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is one of the largest reference works on western music. Originally published under the title A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and later as Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, it has gone through several editions since the 19th century and is widely used. In recent years it has been made available as an electronic resource called Grove Music Online, which is now an important part of Oxford Music Online.

Notes

1 2 3 "Jeffreys, George (d.1685)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

External links

The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based project for the creation of a virtual library of public-domain music scores. Since its launch on February 16, 2006, over 370,000 scores and 42,000 recordings for over 110,000 works by over 14,000 composers have been uploaded. Based on the wiki principle, the project uses MediaWiki software. Since June 6, 2010, the IMSLP has also included public domain and licensed recordings in its scope, to allow for study by ear.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Jeffreys, George (d.1685)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

This article about a British composer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[DNB-1] 1 2 3 "Jeffreys, George (d.1685)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.