Martin Peerson

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For the rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s for Wales, see Martin Pearson.

Martin Peerson
(or Pearson, Pierson)
BornBetween 1571 and 1573
probably
Classical music
Occupation(s)Composer, organist and virginalist
Years activeBeginning of the 17th century

Martin Peerson (or Pearson, Pierson, Peereson) (between 1571 and 1573 – December 1650 or January 1651 and buried 16 January 1651) was an English

madrigals and motets
.

Life and career

From Peerson's

will and the March marriage registers, it appears that he was the son of Thomas and Margaret Peerson of March, Cambridgeshire, in England. It is believed that Martin Peerson was born in the town of March between 1571 and 1573, as records show that his parents married in 1570, but a "Margaret Peersonn" was married in 1573.[1]
It therefore seems that Thomas Peerson died a few years after 1570 and that Martin's mother remarried.

A drawing of Old St. Paul's Cathedral from the south, as it appeared between 1630 and 1666

In the 1580s, Peerson was a

madrigal See, O See, Who is Heere Come a Maying was performed as part of Ben Jonson's Private Entertainment of the King and Queene at the house of Sir William Cornwallis at Highgate (now in London). A letter dated 7 December 1609 states that at the time Peerson was living at Newington (now Stoke Newington, London) and had composed several lessons for the virginals, which was his principal instrument. It appears that he had Roman Catholic sympathies, for that year, on the same occasion as Jonson, he was convicted of recusancy – the statutory offence of not complying with the established Church of England.[1]

Peerson then took up musical studies at the

vicars choral, had special financial provision made for him. Peerson is known to have been buried on 16 January 1651 in St. Faith's Chapel under St. Paul's.[1][3]
He therefore died in either December 1650 or, more likely, January 1651.

In spite of his Roman Catholic leanings, evidenced by the use of pre-

Reformation Latin texts for his motets and his 1606 conviction for recusancy, Peerson's position at the heart of the Anglican establishment confirms the overall esteem in which he was held.[4]

Music

A virginal, probably English, c. 1750, from Frederick Litchfield's Illustrated History of Furniture from the Earliest to the Present Time (1892?). Peerson's keyboard music would probably have been played on such an instrument.

Peerson's powerful patrons enabled him to print and publish a considerable quantity of his music, although little remains today.

prison for debt. Together with works by other composers, these were published as The Teares and Lamentatacions of a Sorrowfull Soule in 1614. This was followed two years later by Tristiae Remedium, with texts assembled by the Reverend Thomas Myriell mainly using psalm texts in the English language.[6]

In 1620 Peerson's collection Private Musicke was published.

consort songs, for one or two voices accompanied by viols or virginals. He published some metrical psalter tunes in Thomas Ravenscroft's 1621 work The Whole Booke of Psalmes with the Hymnes Evangelicall and Songs Spirituall, and then a group of Motets or Grave Chamber Musique in 1630 with English texts and the then-fashionable keyboard continuo;[8] the latter work contains two very fine songs of mourning.[2][6]

Thereafter, despite changing musical trends, Peerson's music showed significant roots in Renaissance polyphony. However, he was adept in the use of then-modern compositional procedures; this is evident in his often daring use of chromaticism, especially seen in word painting.[6] Some of his finest music is contained in his set of 15 Latin motets, which was probably composed around the turn of the century.[1] Existing only in a single copy, it originally consisted of five part-books but the Cantus book is lost. Richard Rastall, professor of historical musicology at the University of Leeds, spent 12 years reconstructing the missing part. The complete Latin motets have been published by Antico Edition, and a recording of their performance by Ex Cathedra entitled Peerson: Latin Motets was produced by Hyperion Records in 2005.[4][9]

Selected works

  • Private Musicke. Or the First Booke of Ayres and Dialogues: Contayning Songs of 4. 5. and 6. Parts, of Seuerall Sorts, and being Verse and Chorus, is Fit for Voyces and Viols. And for Want of Viols, they may be Performed to either the Virginall or Lute, where the Proficient can Play vpon the Ground, or for a Shift to the Base Viol alone. All Made and Composed According to the Rules of Art. By M. P. Batchelar of Musicke, London: Printed by Thomas Snodham, 1620,
    OCLC 606486968
    .
  • Mottects or Grave Chamber Mvsiqve: Containing Songs of Fiue Parts of Seuerall Sorts, some ful, and some Verse and Chorus. But all Fit for Voyces and Vials, with an Organ Part; which for want of Organs, may be Performed on Virginals, Base-Lute, Bandora, or Irish Harpe. Also, A Mourning Song of Sixe Parts for the Death of the late Right Honorable Sir Fvlke Grevil ... Composed According to the Rules of Art by M.P., London: Printed by William Stansby, 1630,
    OCLC 496804311
    .

Notes

  1. ^
    Grove Music Online
    , retrieved 8 April 2007.
  2. ^ a b c Martin Peerson (1572–1650) (fl. end 15th Century), Here of a Sunday Morning, archived from the original on 7 May 2013, retrieved 11 May 2008.
  3. ^ There is no extant memorial to Peerson in St. Paul's Cathedral. The Cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666 and subsequent demolition effaced most evidence on the ground of pre-Fire burials; Peerson's is not among the few remaining fragments of monuments: personal e-mail communication on 11 May 2007 with Joseph Wisdom, Librarian of St. Paul's Cathedral Library.
  4. ^ a b Recordings: Peerson: Latin Motets, Ex Cathedra, 2005, archived from the original on 7 October 2007.
  5. ^ MARTIN PEERSON (c. 1572–1651): Latin Motets, Hyperion Records, 2005, archived from the original on 2 November 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Gary Higginson (March 2005), Review of Ex Cathedra's recording Peerson: Latin Motets (2005), Musicweb International, archived from the original on 12 October 2008.
  7. OCLC 606486968
    .
  8. OCLC 496804311
    .
  9. ^ "Settling an Old Score", The Reporter: The University of Leeds Newsletter (509), 4 July 2005, archived from the original on 27 September 2011.

References

Further reading

External links

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