Thomas Campion (sometimes Campian; 12 February 1567 –
1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and
physician. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques
for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on
music.
Campion was born in London, the son of John Campion, a
clerk of the Court of Chancery, and Lucy (née Searle
– daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the Queen's
serjeants-at-arms). Upon the death of Campion's father
in 1576, his mother married Augustine Steward, dying...(+)
Thomas Campion (sometimes Campian; 12 February 1567 –
1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and
physician. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques
for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on
music.
Campion was born in London, the son of John Campion, a
clerk of the Court of Chancery, and Lucy (née Searle
– daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the Queen's
serjeants-at-arms). Upon the death of Campion's father
in 1576, his mother married Augustine Steward, dying
soon afterwards. His stepfather assumed charge of the
boy and sent him, in 1581, to study at Peterhouse,
Cambridge as a "gentleman pensioner"; he left the
university after four years without taking a degree. He
later entered Gray's Inn to study law in 1586. However,
he left in 1595 without having been called to the bar.
On 10 February 1605, he received his medical degree
from the University of Caen.
Campion is thought to have lived in London, practising
as a physician, until his death in March 1620 –
possibly of the plague. He was apparently unmarried and
had no children. He was buried the same day at St
Dunstan-in-the-West in Fleet Street. The body of his
works is considerable, the earliest known being a group
of five anonymous poems included in the "Songs of
Divers Noblemen and Gentlemen," appended to Newman's
edition of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella,
which appeared in 1591. In 1595, Poemata, a collection
of Latin panegyrics, elegies and epigrams was
published, winning him a considerable reputation. This
was followed, in 1601, by a songbook, A Booke of Ayres,
with words by himself and music composed by himself and
Philip Rosseter. The following year he published his
Observations in the Art of English Poesie, "against the
vulgar and unartificial custom of riming," in favour of
rhymeless verse on the model of classical quantitative
verse. Campion's theories on poetry were criticized by
Samuel Daniel in "Defence of Rhyme" (1603).
In 1607, he wrote and published a masque for the
occasion of the marriage of Lord Hayes, and, in 1613,
issued a volume of Songs of Mourning: Bewailing the
Untimely Death of Prince Henry, set to music by John
Cooper (also known as Coperario). The same year he
wrote and arranged three masques: The Lords' Masque for
the marriage of Princess Elizabeth; an entertainment
for the amusement of Queen Anne at Caversham House; and
a third for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset to the
infamous Frances Howard, Countess of Essex. If,
moreover, as appears quite likely, his Two Bookes of
Ayres (both words and music written by himself) belongs
also to this year, it was indeed his annus mirabilis.
In 1615, he published a book on counterpoint, A New Way
of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint By a Most
Familiar and Infallible Rule, a technical treatise
which was for many years the standard textbook on the
subject. It was included, with annotations by
Christopher Sympson, in Playford's Brief Introduction
to the Skill of Musick, and two editions appear to have
been published by 1660.
Some time in or after 1617 appeared his Third and
Fourth Booke of Ayres. In 1618 appeared the airs that
were sung and played at Brougham Castle on the occasion
of the King's entertainment there, the music by George
Mason and John Earsden, while the words were almost
certainly by Campion. In 1619, he published his
Epigrammatum Libri II. Umbra Elegiarum liber unus, a
reprint of his 1595 collection with considerable
omissions, additions (in the form of another book of
epigrams) and corrections.
He was implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury,
but was eventually exonerated, as it was found that he
had unwittingly delivered the bribe that had procured
Overbury's death.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Campion)
Although originally written for Voice & Lute, I created
this Interpretation of "My Love Hath Wov'd" from "A
Book of Ayres" for Oboe & Piano.
