Pelham Humfrey (London 1647 – Windsor 14 July 1674) was the first to prominence of the new generation of English composers at the beginning of the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

.

He died at the age of 27, but along with Matthew Locke

Matthew Locke (composer)

Matthew Locke was an English Baroque composer and music theorist.-Biography:As a boy, Locke was trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral, under Edward Gibbons, the brother of Orlando Gibbons...

 exerted a strong influence on his peers even at his young age, including William Turner

William Turner (composer)

William Turner was a composer and countertenor of the Baroque era. A contemporary of John Blow and Henry Purcell, he is best remembered for his verse anthems, of which over forty survive...

, Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

 and John Blow

John Blow

John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...

. His early death is considered one of the greatest tragedies in the history of English music; at his death he had already produced several works of great poignancy and expressive power including the Verse Anthem 'O Lord my God'.

By the age of seventeen his anthems were evidently in use and he was sent by the King to study in Paris, probably in January 1665 where he was greatly influenced music at the French Court. He later succeeded Henry Cooke

Henry Cooke

Henry Cooke was an English composer, actor and singer. At the outbreak of the English Civil War he was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and joined the Royalist cause, in the service of which he rose to the rank of Captain...

 (his father-in-law) as Master of the Children

Master of the Children

Master of the Children is a title awarded to an adult musician who is put in charge of the musical training, and in some cases the general education of choir boy , as was common in major church choirs, often attached to a cathedral,...

 of the Chapel Royal

Chapel Royal

A Chapel Royal is a body of priests and singers who serve the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they are called upon to do so.-Austria:...

 and also became composer to the Court.

Pelham Humfrey's dress sense and general demeanour is mentioned unfavourably in the diary of Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

. He writes:

"Little Pelham Humphreys is an absolute monsieur as full of form and confidence and vanity, and disparages everybody's skill but his own. The truth is, every body says he is very able, but to hear how he laughs at all the King's musick here, as Blagrave and others, that they cannot keep time nor tune, nor understand anything; and that Grebus, the Frenchman, the King's master of the musick, how he understands nothing, nor can play on any instrument, and so cannot compose: and that he will give him a lift out of his place; and that he and the King are mighty great! and that he hath already spoke to the King of Grebus would make a man piss."(15 November 1667)

External links

• composers-classical-music.com