William Child

David Quidnunc on 29 Oct 2003   Link to this

Pepys's acquaintance

Child and Pepys have two big things in common -- an interest in music and, apparently, the favor of Jemima Mountagu. So Pepys sometimes meets him at the Mountagu lodgings, but also socializes with him independently.

Child is an organist who also plays the lute and viol.

Born about 1606, he is roughly 54 years old on 30 August 1660 when Pepys first mentions him as a companion (with Shepley) in the evening at an unnamed tavern. (See last sentence of that entry.)

Child, a widower, takes Mrs. Pepys to Whitehall Chapel on Sunday, 23 September 1660, when Pepys and James Pearse go to church elsewhere to catch a sermon Pepys wants to hear. On 28 October, Child is eating with Jemima Mountagu and two of her sons when Pepys drops by for dinner.

-- Sources: L&M companion and index volumes, Vol. 1 (1660)

David Quidnunc on 29 Oct 2003   Link to this

Child's career

An organist and "a composer of anthems, catches and ayres whose works were studied by [composer John] Blow and Henry Purcell."

Born: circa 1606

(His approximate age in parentheses below)

1630 (24) lay clerk, St. George's Chapel, Windsor

1632 (26) organist

1660 (54) appointed to King's Private Musick; becomes organist of the Chapel Royal

1663 (57) receives doctorate in music from Oxford

1697 (91) dies

-- L&M Companion volume

David Quidnunc on 29 Oct 2003   Link to this

Pepys also knows these "Chapel Royalists":

Thomas Blagrave
clerk of the cheque, Chapel Royal, as of 1662
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/539/

Roger Hill
Chapel Royal musician in 1660; "Gentleman" as of 1661
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1508/

David Quidnunc on 29 Oct 2003   Link to this

Chapel Royal, St. James Palace

"There are two historic chapels in St. James Palace -- the Chapel Royal and the Queen's Chapel. . . . In origin and still in principle, the Chapel Royal is not a building but an establishment; a body of priests and singers to serve the spiritual needs of the Sovereign. It was Henry VIII who constructed the present Chapel within St. James's Palace. . . . The Chapel Royal has always been considered to be the cradle of English church music. . ."
-- source: "The Monarchy Today" website
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page589.asp

David Quidnunc on 29 Oct 2003   Link to this

More "Chapel Royalists": Purcell, Cooke

HENRY COOKE
Chorister of the Chapel Royal
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1192/

HENRY PURCELL
"Gentleman" of the Chapel Royal, father of the celebrated composer
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/404/

David Quidnunc on 9 Nov 2003   Link to this

Child taught music to Mountagu,
Pepys's patron (according to L&M), which may be the main reason Pepys would find him in the Mountagu household, even though he can also be found in the company of Mountagu's wife, Jemima.

Of course, having musicians around was one great way to have good music around the house before recordings. Would he have practiced there?

-- L&M Volume 1, footnote 1 , p 285, for 7 November 1660.

David Quidnunc on 13 Nov 2003   Link to this

More career information

This from a note (3) for 15 November 1660 in L&M Volume 1: Child was "later organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and one of the organists at Whitehall Chapel." Why this information wasn't included in the L&M Companion volume is beyond me.

David Quidnunc on 18 Jan 2004   Link to this

Job Description: Organist of the Chapel Royal

From a record book -- the "Cheque Book" of the Chapel Royal for 19 December 1663 (p. 83):

"Of the three Organistes two shall ever attend, one at the organ, the other in his surplice in the quire [choir], to beare a parte in the Psalmodie and service. At solemne times they shall all three attend. The auncientest ["ancientest"? most senior?] organist shall serve and play the service on the eve and daye of the solemne feastes, viz: Christmas, Easter, St. George, and Whitsontide. The second organist shall serve the second day, and the third the third day. Other dayes they shall waite according to their monthes."

So these three were members of the choir who would also take turns playing the organ.

The quotation is from J.A. Westrup's biography, "Purcell" (1947; revised 1960), a biography of the composer Henry Purcell (1659-95). (Chapter 4: "Abbey, Court and Stage," Page 56, Collier Books paperback edition, 1962)

David Quidnunc on 18 Jan 2004   Link to this

The Chapel Royal page:

http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1553/

Paul Smith on 20 Feb 2004   Link to this

Child's musical style, as can be gathered from his age at the time of Pepys, is rather antiquated, even "simple", compared to that of Locke or Blow. It is often reminiscent of Thomas Morley. There is a recentish recording of his music on the ASV Gaudeamus label.