Twelve Good Musicians: From John Bull to Henry Purcell

DR. JOHN BULL. From the painting in the Music School, University of Oxford.
SIR FREDERICK BRIDGE
C.V.O., M.A., Mus.D.
King Edward Professor of Music in the University of London, Gresham Professor, Emeritus-Organist of Westminster Abbey
LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1920

In the Preface of his admirable contribution to the Oxford History of Music (Vol. III.) the late Sir Hubert Parry writes: The seventeenth century is musically almost a blank, even to those who take more than the average interest in the Art; and barely a score of composers' names during the whole time suggest anything more than a mere reputation to modern ears. Of course the distinguished author is speaking of the musical world in general, not of our own country's music only. I am inclined to think it is a little severe on us. I have always found that great interest is taken in the 17th century music and musicians of England.
Surely the century which began with the great Madrigal school at its highest point, which saw the Masque at its best in Milton's Comus , which witnessed the supersession of the viol by the violin, and which, at the close, had to its credit the complete works of our greatest composer, Henry Purcell, ought not to be in any sense almost a blank, to English students at least.
But if our musical students will only read Volume III of the Oxford History —so full of the author's admirable criticisms and so amply illustrated by selections from the great composers of the period—they will certainly form a high opinion of what was accomplished then, and, having finished the volume, their minds will assuredly not be a blank.
To help to a useful view of what was done in our own country in the 17th century I took that period for my University Course in this session 1919-1920, and for my subject Twelve Good Musicians from John Bull to Henry Purcell. The substance of these lectures is given in the following chapters.