Overview

John Blow (baptised 23 February 1649 – 1 October 1708) was a leading English composer and organist of the Restoration and early Baroque era. Born in Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, he trained at the Chapel Royal and went on to hold senior posts at Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral. His music for church and court ceremonies and his long tenure as a teacher left a durable influence on English sacred music; his most famous pupil was Henry Purcell.

Early life and Chapel Royal

As a boy Blow sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal, where he worked with contemporaries who later became important musicians. While still young he contributed to group works such as the informal "Club Anthem," an early collaborative piece often cited in accounts of the Chapel Royal (sometimes identified as a youthful anthem). The diarist Samuel Pepys recorded hearing Blow sing during his adolescence; Pepys’s brief note reflects the routine experience of a choirboy whose voice was changing and the exacting standards of court music at the time (Pepys is a frequent contemporary source for Restoration musical life).

Professional career and court service

Blow's early adult appointments placed him at the centre of English ceremonial music. In 1668 he was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey. He became a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1674 and served as Master of the Children, a post in which he trained successive generations of boy choristers. After the death of Pelham Humfrey he assumed several of Humfrey’s duties and was described as "composer-in-ordinary" to the court. He received the degree of Doctor of Music in 1677.

Blow accepted positions that connected liturgical responsibilities with royal occasions. He is associated with ceremonial music for the court of James II, including a lengthy anthem written for the king’s coronation. In 1680 he resigned the organist's post at Westminster so that his former pupil Henry Purcell might succeed him. Later, after the rebuilding of London following the Great Fire, he became choirmaster at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1687 and helped to re-establish that cathedral’s musical foundation.

Teaching, pupils and personal life

Blow's reputation as a teacher rests on his long service as Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal. His pupils included composers who became prominent in the next generation: Henry Purcell, William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Daniel Purcell. He worked alongside and in succession to figures such as Pelham Humfrey, Michael Wise and William Turner, forming a network of teachers and composers active in court and cathedral circles.

In September 1673 Blow married Elizabeth Braddock. Contemporary records indicate that she later died in childbirth about ten years after their marriage. Later in life Blow resumed duties at Westminster and in 1695 became organist of St Margaret's, Westminster, while also retaking his old responsibilities at the Abbey when Purcell died.

Titles, later years and death

In 1699 Blow was appointed Composer to the Chapel Royal, the first to hold that formal title. Although he continued in senior musical offices, his surviving output suggests he composed less after about 1700. He died in Westminster, London, on 1 October 1708 and was buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Henry Purcell.

Works, musical style and sources

Blow's surviving music is largely liturgical: services, verse and full anthems, and occasional odes and anthems for court ceremonies. His writing illustrates the Restoration preference for expressive solo writing combined with richly scored choral textures suited to English cathedral and court settings. Ceremonial pieces, including the coronation anthem, show an attention to dramatic declamation and grand vocal scoring appropriate to public and royal occasions.

Sources for Blow's music survive in cathedral and royal archives. Manuscript copies and part-books associated with the Westminster and St Paul’s establishments and other church libraries preserve much of his music, and modern editions have made a portion of his oeuvre available to performers and scholars. Because Blow was active in teaching and in court musical life, his influence is preserved not only in manuscripts but also in the work of his pupils, who carried elements of his practice into the eighteenth century.

Assessment and legacy

Blow is remembered for shaping the musical training of a generation and for consolidating repertory used in English worship and state ceremony. While his music is not as widely performed today as that of his most celebrated pupil, study and revival of his anthems and services continue to inform understanding of Restoration and early Baroque English style. Through his pupils and the institutions he served, Blow played a formative role in the continuity and evolution of English sacred music in the decades after the Restoration.

Summary of principal posts and connections