John Coprario (c. 1570 – 1626), also known as Giovanni Coprario or Coperario, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

composer and

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

player. According to later commentators such as

John Playford John Playford (1623–1686/7) was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churc ...

and Roger North, he changed his name from either Cowper or Cooper to Coperario in the early 17th century (at least as early as February 1601), though he himself spelled his name "John Coprario". Anthony Wood said he changed his name after an extended visit to Italy, and though he is documented as having visited the Low Countries in 1603, evidence confirming his presence in Italy has not been found. From 1622 he served and may have taught the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

, for whom he continued to work upon his succession as

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. His longtime

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

was Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, for whom, according to

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

's ''The History of the Worthies of England'' (1662), he taught

William Lawes William Lawes (April 160224 September 1645) was an English composer and musician. Life and career Lawes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and was baptised on 1 May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, ...

. Among Coprario's works are fantasias, suites and other works for

s and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

s, and two collections of

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

s, ''Funeral Teares'' (1606) and ''Songs of Mourning: Bewailing the Untimely Death of Prince Henry'' (1613). He also penned a treatise on composition, ''Rules how to Compose''. According to Ernst Meyer, Coprario was a Londoner who Italianized his name as Italian music and musicians became more fashionable, and spent much of his life as a musician in the royal court. Ninety-six fantasias for three up to six voices, most of them in two Oxford and Royal College of Music collections, were known to exist by Coprario (as of 1946). Meyer also notes that most of Coprario's five- and six-part fantasias are mainly transcriptions, or imitations, of his

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...

s, but that his fantasias for three or four instrumental parts are, formally especially, independently interesting.

References

External links

* * https://web.archive.org/web/20180106212629/http://www.geocities.jp/lyrischesuite/Coprario.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Coprario, John English classical composers English viol players English Baroque composers Renaissance composers 1570s births 1626 deaths People of the Elizabethan era English music theorists 16th-century English composers 16th-century English musicians 17th-century English musicians 17th-century English composers 17th-century classical composers English male classical composers