John Bull (1562 or 1563–March 15, 1628) was an Welsh composer, musician, and organ builder. He was a renowned keyboard performer and most of his compositions were written for this medium. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Year 1562 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... Events February 1 - Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia February 18 - The Duke of Guise is assassinated while besieging Orléans March - Peace of Amboise. ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1628 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Welsh are, according to Hastings (1997), an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language, which is a Celtic language. ... Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany The organ is a keyboard instrument played using one or more manuals and a pedalboard. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ...

Life

John Bull was probably born in Old Radnor in Wales^[1]. In 1573 he joined the choir at Hereford cathedral, and the next year joined the Children of the Chapel Royal in London, where he studied with John Blitheman and William Hunnis; in addition to singing he learned to play the organ at this time. This article is about the country. ... Year 1573 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... The Chapel Royal did not originally refer to a building but an establishment in the Royal Household. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... John Blitheman (c 1525– 1591) was an English composer and organist. ... William Hunnis (died 1597), poet, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Edward VI., imprisoned during the reign of Mary, but after the accession of Elizabeth was released, and in 1566 made master of the children of the Chapel Royal. ...

In 1586 he received his degree from Oxford, and he became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal that same year. In 1591 he became organist at the Chapel Royal; in 1592 he received his doctorate from Oxford, and in 1596 he became the first professor of music at Gresham College on the recommendation of Queen Elizabeth who admired him greatly. There is some evidence that she sent Bull on espionage missions. ^[2][3] On the death of Elizabeth, he entered into the service of King James. Throughout this time he was establishing a reputation for himself as a skilled composer, keyboard performer and improviser. He married Elizabeth Walter in 1607, by whom he had a daughter. The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Year 1591 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1592 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Events February 5 - 26 catholics crucified in Nagasaki, Japan. ... Sir Thomas Greshams grasshopper crest is used as a symbol of the College Gresham College is an unusual institution of higher learning off Holborn in central London. ... Elizabeth I redirects here. ... James Stuart (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old. ...

However, in addition to his virtuosity as a keyboard performer and composer, he was also skilled at getting into trouble. He was forced to leave his post at Gresham College when he impregnated a woman pre-maritally; even though he filed a marriage license two days after he lost his job, he never returned to the college. He was also charged with breaking and entering in a bizarre case which involved his attempt to evict the previous tenant of the rooms he was assigned, and an action was filed against Bull in Star Chamber but the outcome of this case is not known. The Star Chamber (Latin Camera stellata) was an English court of law at the royal Palace of Westminster that sat between 1487 and 1641, when the court itself was abolished. ...

Just after publishing seven keyboard pieces in Parthenia, Bull left England for good, secretly and with great haste in 1613, fleeing the wrath of the Archbishop of Canterbury and King James I himself; the charge this time was adultery. William Trumbull, the English envoy in the Low Countries, after first attempting to cover for him--but later fearing for his own position if he continued to do so--wrote to the King in early 1614, Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls was, as the title states, the first printed collection of music for keyboard in England. ... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ... Archbishop George Abbot by an unknown artist, in the collection of Balliol College. ... James Stuart (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old. ... Events April 5 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe. ...

...Bull did not leave your Majesties service for any wrong done unto him, or for matter of religion, under which fained pretext he now sought to wrong the reputation of your Majesties justice, but did in that dishonest matter steal out of England through the guilt of a corrupt conscience, to escape the punishment, which notoriously he had deserved, and was designed to have been inflicted on him by the hand of justice, for his incontinence, fornication, adultery, and other grievious crimes.

The Archbishop of Canterbury had said of him the previous year: "the man hath more music than honesty and is as famous for marring of virginity as he is for fingering of organs and virginals." Harpsichord in the Flemish style A harpsichord is any of a family of European keyboard instruments, including the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, but also the smaller virginals, the muselar virginals and the spinet. ...

Bull remained in the Netherlands, where it seems he stayed out of trouble. In 1615 Antwerp Cathedral appointed him as assistant organist, and as principal organist in 1617. Bull wrote a series of letters while in the Netherlands, including one to the mayor of Antwerp, claiming that the reason he left England was to escape religious persecution, since he was a Catholic; he seems to have been believed, for he was never extradited back to England. While in Antwerp he most probably met Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the most influential keyboard composer of the age. Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ... Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, was started in 1351 and completed in 1521. ... Events Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed I (1603-1617) to Mustafa I (1617-1623). ... One of the two surviving portraits of Sweelinck, this one dates from 1606. ...

In the 1620s he continued his career as an organist, organ builder and consultant. He died in Antwerp on 15 March 1628 and was buried in the cemetery next to the cathedral. Events and Trends Permanent Dutch settlement of New York Bay and the Hudson River. ... Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, was started in 1351 and completed in 1521. ...

Works

Bull was one of the most famous composers of keyboard music of the early 17th century, exceeded only by Sweelinck in the Netherlands, Frescobaldi in Italy, and, some would say, by his countryman and elder, the celebrated William Byrd. He left many compositions for virginals, some of which were collected in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Girolamo Frescobaldi. ... William Byrd William Byrd (c. ... The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i. ...

His first (and only) publication, in 1612 or 1613, was a contribution of seven pieces forming part of a collection of virginal music entitled Parthenia, or the Maydenhead of the First Musicke That Ever Was Printed for the Virginalls, dedicated to the 15-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who was his student, on the occasion of her betrothal to Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine. The other contributors to Parthenia were Bull's contemporaries William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, among the most famous composers of the age. Bull also wrote an anthem, God the father, God the son, for the wedding in 1613 of the Princess to Prince Friedrich, the Elector Palatinate. Events January 20 - Mathias becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ... Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls was, as the title states, the first printed collection of music for keyboard in England. ... Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls was, as the title states, the first printed collection of music for keyboard in England. ... William Byrd William Byrd (c. ... Orlando Gibbons Orlando Gibbons (baptised December 25, 1583 – June 5, 1625) was an English composer and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods. ... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ...

In addition to his keyboard compositions, he wrote verse anthems, canons and other works. His 5 part anthem Almighty God, Which By The Leading of a Star, known colloquially as the Star Anthem was the most popular Jacobean verse anthem occurring in more contemporary sources than any other. An anthem is a composition to an English religious text sung in the context of an Anglican service. ... In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e. ... Verse Anthem The verse anthem is a species of religious choral music distinct from the motet or full anthem (i. ...

Much of his music was lost when he fled England; some was destroyed, and some was stolen by other composers, though occasionally such misattributions can be corrected today based on stylistic grounds. One of the most unusual collections of music from the period is his book of 120 canons, an astonishing display of contrapuntal skill worthy of Ockeghem or J.S. Bach. 116 of the 120 are based on the Miserere. Techniques employed to transform the simple theme include diminution, augmentation, retrograde and mixed time signatures. Some of his music in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is of a lighter character and uses whimsical titles: "A Battle and No Battle," "Bonny Peg of Ramsey," "The King's Hunt," "Bull's Good-Night." Ockeghem (with glasses) and his singers Johannes Ockeghem (also Jean de; surname Okeghem, Ogkegum, Okchem, Hocquegam, Ockegham; other variant spellings are also encountered) (c. ... Bach in a 1748 portrait by Haussmann Places in which Bach resided throughout his life Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced ) (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the... Diminution, from Italian diminuimento, is a musical term used to mean different things in the context of melodies and intervals or chords. ... In music and music theory augmentation is the lengthening or widening of rhythms, melodies, intervals, chords. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Stub ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i. ...

He is sometimes attributed with the composition of God Save the Queen, the British national anthem. Publication of an early version in The Gentlemans Magazine, 15 October 1745. ...

References and further reading

Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about:

Bull, John

• Article "John Bull," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN 0-02-872416-X
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
• Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5
• Leigh Henry, Dr John Bull. Herbert Joseph Ltd, in association with the Globe-Mermaid Association. No place, 1937.
• Walker Cunningham, The Keyboard Music of John Bull. UMI Research Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8357-1466-7
• John Bull: Keyboard Music. Edited by John Steele & Francis Cameron, with additional material by Thurston Dart. Stainer & Bell, London 1967. 2 vols.

Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... Gustave Reese (November 29, 1899 – September 7, 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. ... Manfred Bukofzer (March 27, 1910–December 7, 1955) was a German-American musicologist and humanist. ... Thurston Dart (September 3, 1921 - March 6, 1971), was an eminent British musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. ...

Notes

Thurston Dart (September 3, 1921 - March 6, 1971), was an eminent British musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. ...

See also

• list of Gresham Professors of Music