The Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal was the choirmaster of the
Chapel Royal
The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the British Royal Family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also applie ...
of England. They were responsible for the musical direction of the choir, which consisted of the Gentlemen of the Chapel and
Children of the Chapel
The Children of the Chapel are the boys with unbroken voices, choristers, who form part of the Chapel Royal, the body of singers and priests serving the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they were called upon to do so. They were overseen ...
. In some periods regarded as the most prestigious choral directorship in the country, the holder was given power to take boys into service from the leading cathedral choirs.
Description
As well as singing in divine service in the chapel, in Tudor times the Masters of the Children were also involved in staging plays with the choristers. Initially these were for the entertainment of the Royal Court, but by Elizabethan times were taking place in theatres for the paying public. This culminated in the Clifton Star Chamber Case when the then Master of the Children,
Nathaniel Giles
Nathaniel Giles (1558 – 1633 or 1634) was an English Renaissance organist and composer. He was the organist for Worcester Cathedral and wrote Anglican anthems.
While Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal he took over Blackfriars Theatre in ...
, allowed his warrant for recruiting choir boys to be used for legal abduction of a nobleman's son to act in a theatre in which he had a financial stake. Following this case the practice declined.
Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Henry Cooke, commonly known as Captain Cooke, who had been a soldier in the Civil War, was appointed Master of the Children and reconstituted the choir. There followed a period of excellence in the choir of the Chapel Royal, with many of the boys under his tutelage in those years become famous musicians such as
Pelham Humfrey
Pelham Humfrey (''Humphrey, Humphrys'') (1647 in London – 14 July 1674 in Windsor) was an English composer. He was the first of the new generation of English composers at the beginning of the Restoration to rise to prominence.
Life and career
P ...
,
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
,
John Blow
John Blow (baptised 23 February 1649 – 1 October 1708) was an English composer and organist of the Baroque music, Baroque period. Appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in late 1668,Michael Wise.
Henry Abyngdon
Henry Abyngdon, Abingdon or Abington (c. 1418 – 1 September 1497) was an English ecclesiastic and musician, perhaps the first to receive a university degree in music.
Biography
He may have been connected with the village of Abington in Cambridg ...
William Newark
William Newark (c. 1450–1509, sometimes spelt Newerk) was an English choirmaster and composer. He served at the Chapel Royal under five English kings.
Rank and income
Newark was born in Newark-on-Trent about 1450. He was admitted in 1476 into ...
* 1509
William Cornysh
William Cornysh the Younger (also spelled Cornyshe or Cornish) (1465 – October 1523) was an English composer, dramatist, actor, and poet.
Life
In his only surviving poem, which was written in Fleet Prison, he claims that he has been conv ...
Richard Edwardes
Richard Edwardes (also Edwards, 25 March 1525 – 31 October 1566) was an English poet, playwright, and composer; he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and was master of the singing boys. He was known for his comedies and interludes. H ...
* 1566
William Hunnis
William Hunnis (died 6 June 1597) was an English Protestant poet, dramatist, and composer.
Biography
Hunnis was as early as 1549 in the service of William Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke. His friend Thomas Newton, in a poem prefixed to ''T ...
* 1569
Richard Farrant
Richard Farrant (c. 1525 – 30 November 1580) was an English composer, musical dramatist, theater founder, and Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal. The first acknowledgment of him is in a list of the Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal in ...
* 1597
Nathaniel Giles
Nathaniel Giles (1558 – 1633 or 1634) was an English Renaissance organist and composer. He was the organist for Worcester Cathedral and wrote Anglican anthems.
While Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal he took over Blackfriars Theatre in ...
* 1633
Thomas Day Thomas Day may refer to:
Sports
* Tom Day (rugby union) (1907–1980), Welsh rugby union player
* Tom Day (American football) (1935–2000), American football player
* Tom Day (footballer) (born 1997), English footballer
Others
* Thomas Day (wri ...
Pelham Humfrey
Pelham Humfrey (''Humphrey, Humphrys'') (1647 in London – 14 July 1674 in Windsor) was an English composer. He was the first of the new generation of English composers at the beginning of the Restoration to rise to prominence.
Life and career
P ...
* 1674
John Blow
John Blow (baptised 23 February 1649 – 1 October 1708) was an English composer and organist of the Baroque music, Baroque period. Appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in late 1668,William Croft
William Croft (baptised 30 December 1678 – 14 August 1727) was an English composer and organist.
Life
Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal under the instruction of John Blow ...
* 1727
Bernard Gates
Bernard Gates (The Hague, 23 April 1686 - North Aston, 15 November 1773, aged 87) was an English composer, and a bass singer employed by Handel in his oratorios. He was director of the choir at Westminster Abbey from 1740 to 1757. Surviving musi ...
Edmund Ayrton
Dr. Edmund Ayrton (1734 – 22 May 1808) was an English organist who was Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal.
Early life
Edmund Ayrton was born in Ripon and baptised on 19 November 1734. His father was Edward Ayrton (1698-1774), a 'bar ...
* 1805
John Stafford Smith
John Stafford Smith (bapt. 30 March 175021 September 1836) was a British composer, church organist, and early musicologist. He was one of the first serious collectors of manuscripts of works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Smith is best known for w ...
* 1817
William Hawes
William Hawes (178518 February 1846) was an English musician and composer. He was the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal and musical director of the Lyceum Theatre bringing several notable works to the public's attention.
Life
Hawes was ...
* 1846
Thomas Helmore
Thomas Helmore (7 May 1811, in Kidderminster – 6 July 1890, in Westminster) was a choirmaster, writer about singing and author and editor of hymns and carols.
Helmore's father was a congregationalist minister (also called Thomas). During th ...