Scan 51
The New Grove Dictionary Of Music And Musicians 5 Ed. 2nd, 1904
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1Crane, William (d. 1545) English musician, actor and businessman. Some time before 1509 he was appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and in 1523 succeeded Cornish as Master of the Children of the Chapel, a post he held for 22 years. There is no evidence that he composed. While he was a member of the chapel he was much concerned with theatrical presentations. During the early years of Henry VIII's reign he was one of the chief actors in many pageants and disguisings, including The Goldyn Arber (1511), Le fortresse dan gerus (1512) and the Pavillon un the plus parlos (1514). Later, after his appointment as Master of the Children, Crane and his charges were regularly rewarded for playing before the king each Christmas season. Whether Crane, like Cornish, composed any of the material performed by the children is not known.
3Crane was also an active businessman, holding such posts as comptroller of the petty customs of the port of London from 1512 to 1530, when he became cellarer of wine for the king. In 1525 he was made a freeman of the Mercers' Company. His business dealings were on so grand a scale that in 1528 he was able to have furnished three ships and three galleys, and he had a house in Greenwich.
5His will (PCC F 7 Alen) is dated 6 July 1545 and was proved on 6 April 1546. He was buried in the chancel of St Helen's, Bishopsgate.
7BIBLIOGRAPHY
8C W Wallace The Evolution of the English Drama to Shakespeare (London 1912)
9H Bulle Les musiciens de la chapelle royale d'Henri VIII au Camp du Drap d'Or (Notes et ceremonies au temps de Charles Quint [L'etev de la Renaissance II]) (NRS Bruxelles Anvers Grand L'age 1957 147
10JOHN M WARD
12Cranesteyn, Gasparo. See Grua family
14Cranford, Thomas. English church musician, possibly related to William Cranford
16Cranford [Cranforth], William (b late 16th century, d c1650 75) English composer and singer. He was, according to Wood, a lay vicar at St Paul's Cathedral in the time of Charles I, and he may have been closely associated with the composer Simon Ives (1). For two three-voice catches Bov go down and Bov come back the one by Ives, the other by Cranford, are in several of Playford's anthologies, and also in the British Museum. A fly-leaf note, 'Cranford 6' in GB-Ob Mus Sch D 212-16 (c1615) possibly relates to copying that he had done in that manuscript. The six-voice elegy Weep, Brittaynes, weep (Och 56 60) was occasioned by the death of Prince Henry in 1612.
18He contributed two settings to Ravenscroft's 1621 psalter, and wrote the hymn tune 'Ely' (in Lbm Add 31421, dated 1633). The verse anthem O Lord, make thy servant Charles, also known as The King shall rejoice, must have been written in the early part of the reign of Charles I, and was apparently his most popular work of this kind. It is in a simple, semi-polyphonic style, rather in the manner of Adrian Batten. Most of his church music survives in imperfect or fragmentary form. Over 20 compositions for viols are known, many perhaps dating from the period of suppression of choral services. A total of nine three-voice catches are contained among Hilton's and Playford's publications. One, Let's live good honest lives, was later adapted by Purcell (zD102). Hawkins wrote that Purcell put the words to Cranford's music.
20It is not known whether the composer was related to Thomas Cranford, vicar-choral at St Paul's, or to the eccentric Presbyterian divine James Cranford (1592-1657). Some of his music, which is generally of good quality, reveals an individuality which would make such a relationship to the latter possible
22WORKS
23VOCAL
24Magnificat and Nunc dimittis 3vv GB-T
258 verse anthems, inc. Cp, DRC, GL, Lbm, Icm I.F, Llp, Oh, Och, Ojc, I (attrib (G Bath) ) (attrib (Cranford)
262 psalms. 162111
27Hymn Lbm
2811 catches 3vv, in 16510, 165210 16581 16630, 16676, 16724, 16734.
29Ibm (elsewhere attrib H Purcell). Icm
30Flepy, 6vv Och
31Madrigal 6vv Och
33INSTRUMENTAL
343 pieces, 2 lyra viols Oh
35Almain a 3. Och
3613 fantasias a 3 6 EIRF-Dm GB-Lbm, Oh, Och, T, US-W
37In Nomine a 5 LIRE Dm, GB-Lbm, Oh, Och, US-W
383 pavans a 6 LIRE-Dm GB-Lbm
40BIBLIOGRAPHY
41I H Fellowes English Cathedral Mus (London, 1949, rev 5/1969) NORMAN JOSFPHS
43Crang & Hancock. London firm of organ builders. It was formed when John Crang (b Devon or Germany, d May 1774) went into partnership with John Hancock (fl 1772, d nr Maidstone, Kent, Jan 1792) and James Hancock (fl 1772 1820), who appear to have succeeded to the business. John Crang was an organ builder based in Wych Street, London. He built organs at Stoneleigh Abbey (1761), and Fonthill House (transferred to Lowcester Church in 1817, where the case survives), and made additions to an organ at Maidstone in 1765. James Hancock built the organ at St Mary's Cray, Kent, and, in 1788, as 'Organ Builder to His Majesty', the chamber organ in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. A James Grange Hancock, whose chamber organ of 1783 survives in St Peter's, Pertenhall, near Kimbolton, may be the same person as James Hancock. As a firm they built organs at the following places: St John's, Horsleydown (1770), Barnstaple Parish Church (1772), Chelmsford Parish Church, Essex (1772), St George the Martyr, Queen Square, London (1773); St Vedast, Foster Lane, London (1774, cost £240, moved to St Jude, Bethnal Green, in 1853 where it survived until 1900), Brompton Chapel (1774), and St Mary's, Scarborough (1774). Crang Hancock (fl London, 1777-91) was a maker and inventor of pianos and violins. He built a piano in the form of a spinet (1777) and invented a violin in the form of a guitar (1791).
45BIBLIOGRAPHY
46F J Hopkins and F F Rimbault The Organ its History and Construction (London, 1855, enlarged 3/1877. R1971), 1451
47A Freeman 'The Organs of St James Palace', The Organ, iv (1924 5), 195
49GUY OLDHAM
51Cranko, John (1927-73). British choreographer, see DANCE, §VII, 1(iv).
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