William Cranford

Life

Born: Late 1500s

Died: ca. 1645

Biography

Little is known about the life of William Cranford. We know that he was a vicar-choral at St. Paul’s Cathedral in at least 1624, and likely worked there earlier than that. He worked at St. Paul’s until the beginning of the Civil War. As he is no longer mentioned as one of the singers in 1645, it is possible he may have died by this time, possibly as a casualty of the Civil War itself. Notably, a ‘William Cranford’ appears on lists of royalist supporters in 1643.

Cranford’s music appears in a number of publications and manuscripts that suggest he was active in London earlier that the 1620s. For instance, he contributed to Thomas Ravenscroft’s 1621 psalter, a publication which primarily included music by composers with London connections. He also wrote an elegy on the death of Prince Henry in 1612, which is now found in manuscripts held at Christ Church, Oxford.

It is possible that Cranford was born in East Anglia. He is mentioned in a document written by Dudley North in Kirtling, Cambridgeshire, in 1658, who describes how he once knew Cranford. In addition, the name of his psalm tune in Ravenscroft’s psalter is ‘Ely’, which might suggest some knowledge of or connection to the city. Much music of his also survives in a source that can be traced back to Hunstanton, in Norfolk. However, no concrete evidence about Cranford’s childhood has yet emerged.

A fair amount of Cranford’s music survives. This includes music for instrumental consorts, keyboard music, catches, madrigals, an elegy, verse anthems, and an evening service. His most widely distributed work was his verse anthem ‘O Lord, make thy Servant Charles’. This seems to been sung some time after it was written, as evidenced by alterations that remove the name ‘Charles’, replacing the opening line with the text ‘The King shall rejoice’.

List of choral works

• O Lord, make thy Servant Charles

 
Click here to search for this composer on CPDL

Publications

External websites:

• [<url> Description]