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Matthew Locke (composer)

 

 
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Matthew Locke (ca. 1621 – 1677) was an English baroque
Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
 composer and music theorist.

As a boy he was trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, full name Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in the city status in the United Kingdom of Exeter, Devon, in the South West England of England and the seat of the bishop of Exeter....
, under Edward Gibbons, the brother of Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons was an England composer and organist of the late Tudor period and early Jacobean era. He was a leading composer in the England of his day....
. At the age of eighteen Locke travelled in the Netherlands, and possibly converted to Roman Catholicism at the time.

Locke, with Christopher Gibbons
Christopher Gibbons

Christopher Gibbons was an English composer and organist. He is the second son of composer Orlando Gibbons.As a child, Gibbons sang in the Chapel Royal under the direction of Giles....
 (the son of Orlando), composed the score for Cupid and Death
Cupid and Death

Cupid and Death is a mid-seventeenth-century masque, written by the Literature in English#Caroline and Cromwellian literature era dramatist James Shirley, and performed on March 26, 1653 in literature before the Portuguese ambassador to Great Britain....
, the 1653 masque
Masque

The masque was a form of festive Noble court entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio....
 by Caroline era playwright James Shirley
James Shirley

James Shirley , was an England dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of...
.






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Matthew Locke (ca. 1621 – 1677) was an English baroque
Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
 composer and music theorist.

As a boy he was trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, full name Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in the city status in the United Kingdom of Exeter, Devon, in the South West England of England and the seat of the bishop of Exeter....
, under Edward Gibbons, the brother of Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons was an England composer and organist of the late Tudor period and early Jacobean era. He was a leading composer in the England of his day....
. At the age of eighteen Locke travelled in the Netherlands, and possibly converted to Roman Catholicism at the time.

Locke, with Christopher Gibbons
Christopher Gibbons

Christopher Gibbons was an English composer and organist. He is the second son of composer Orlando Gibbons.As a child, Gibbons sang in the Chapel Royal under the direction of Giles....
 (the son of Orlando), composed the score for Cupid and Death
Cupid and Death

Cupid and Death is a mid-seventeenth-century masque, written by the Literature in English#Caroline and Cromwellian literature era dramatist James Shirley, and performed on March 26, 1653 in literature before the Portuguese ambassador to Great Britain....
, the 1653 masque
Masque

The masque was a form of festive Noble court entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio....
 by Caroline era playwright James Shirley
James Shirley

James Shirley , was an England dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of...
. Their score for that work is the sole surviving score for a dramatic work from that era. Locke was one of the quintet of composers who provided music for The Siege of Rhodes
The Siege of Rhodes

The Siege of Rhodes is an opera written to a text by the impresario William Davenant. The score is by five composers, the vocal music by Henry Lawes, Matthew Locke , and Captain Henry Cooke, and instrumental music by Charles Coleman and George Hudson....
 (1656), the breakthrough early opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 by Sir William Davenant
William Davenant

Sir William Davenant , also spelled D'Avenant, was an England poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Literature in English#Caroline and Cromwellian literature and Literature in English#Restoration literature eras, and who was a...
. Locke wrote music for subsequent Davenant operas, The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru
The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru

The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru was an innovative 1658 in literature theatrical presentation, a hybrid entertainment or masque or "operatic show", written and produced by Sir William Davenant....
 (1658) and The History of Sir Francis Drake
The History of Sir Francis Drake

The History of Sir Francis Drake was a hybrid theatrical entertainment, a masque or "operatic tableau" with an English libretto written by Sir William Davenant and music by Matthew Locke ....
 (1659). He wrote the music for the processional march for the coronation of Charles II.

In 1673 Locke's treatise on music theory, Melothesia, was published. The title page describes him as "Composer in Ordinary to His Majesty, and organist of her Majesty's chapel"—those monarchs being Charles II
Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
 and Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza

Catherine of Braganza was a Portugal Infanta and the queen consort of Charles II of England of England, Scotland and Ireland....
. Locke also served King Charles as Composer of the Wind Music ("music for the King's sackbutts and cornets"), and Composer for the Violins. (His successor in the latter office was Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell...
; Locke has been described as Purcell's mentor). In 1675 he composed the music for the score of Thomas Shadwell's
Thomas Shadwell

Thomas Shadwell was an England poet and playwright who was appointed poet laureate in 1689....
 Psyche.

See List of Baroque composers
List of Baroque composers

Composers of the Baroque music era, ordered by date of birth:...


Sources

  • Baker, Christopher Paul, ed. Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600–1720: A Biographical Dictionary. London, Greenwood Press, 2002.
  • Caldwell, John. The Oxford History of Music: From the Beginnings to C. 1715. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • Harding, Rosamund E. M. A Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Matthew Locke with a Calendar of the Main Events of his Life. Oxford, Alden Press, 1971.