Scan 84
The New Grove Dictionary Of Music And Musicians 5 Ed. 2nd, 1904
65 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1and was buried close to Purcell in Westminster Abbey. Hawkins (History, ii, 797) described him as a 'grave and decent man', and the imposing format of his two chief publications together with the nature of his music indicates that he took his position seriously.
3Enough of Croft's songs and instrumental music is dated to justify the view that these branches of composition did not occupy him much after his third decade. His string pieces for the theatre are agreeable if not specially noteworthy, while his harpsichord music is smoother and more regularly turned than that of Blow, with whom Croft, together with others of Blow's scholars, combined in a publication of 1700. The 'Hymn on Divine Musick' from Harmonia sacra, ii (1714), is worthily in the line of Purcell's sacred songs but has less intensity of feeling, in the pleasing solo cantata with flute, By purling streams, one sees the movements becoming shaped by purely musical considerations, not simply in response to the words, without yet becoming aria. Three sonatas for solo violin and continuo, written before the publication of Corelli's op 5, are of an interesting quality and not merely because they adumbrate an understanding of the idiom of the late Baroque.
5Croft was indeed the first English composer of substance to grasp that idiom in a consistent way without earlier gropings or admixture of styles. This is shown in the rhythmic vocabulary, contour of phrase, clarity of tonality, application of fugato and broad concertante handling of chorus and instruments as displayed in his Te Deum in D and Musica apparatus academica. For that reason it was Croft who among composers of his generation most decisively turned a new page in the history of the verse anthem. At the same time as he applied this idiom he also organized the anthem into well-rounded movements of clearly delineated abstract character, instead of the shorter-breathed sections of his predecessors. Solos, duets and trios make up the greater part of these anthems, and he used the organ (on lines already foreshadowed, but more systematically) by allotting introductory passages to it, sometimes in the form of melody and bass but much more frequently a melodic type of stiffly unfolding bass, figured to carry a simple chordal right-hand part. This type of anthem, which Croft transmitted to Greene, is well exemplified in O praise the Lord, ye that fear him in Musica sacra, ii. Although he applied himself seriously to verse anthem composition and was entirely free from triviality, the general impression is somewhat dry. While in solo passages his melody is conventional, the sections for full choir are stolidly imitative. But like Blow and Purcell before him he was interested also in older polyphonic methods, and a small group of full anthems not only maintains this thread in English music but, as in Hear my prayer, O Lord, displays a sombre expressiveness.
7In his services Croft, like others, was hampered by the restrictions of the 'short' service style. Nevertheless, in his Service in Eb he achieved a broader feeling than his post-Restoration predecessors, and when reaching the Gloria to the Jubilate of the Service in A he launched into a rolling fugato of considerable effectiveness. The orchestral Te Deum and Jubilate is a dignified work, perhaps more spacious than Purcell's if less personal, which might well have established itself had it not been overshadowed by Handel's 'Utrecht' setting of some four years later. Croft's Burial Service is a noble classic of moving simplicity, into which, without any degree of incongruity, he overtly incorporated Purcell's setting of Thou knowest, Lord.
9Croft's hymn tunes in Playford's The Divine Companion include those now known as 'Eatington' and 'Croft's 148th'. What are now called 'St Matthew' and 'St Anne' first appeared in the sixth edition of the Supplement to the New Version (1708), a wholly anonymous collection, but the subsequent ascription of these to him is generally accepted as a probability. There is, however, much room for doubt about the ascription to him of 'Hanover' from the same collection (see article 'Saint Anne's Tune' in earlier editions of Grove).
11WORKS
12(printed works published in London unless otherwise stated)
14SERVICES
15Principal sources GB-Lbm, Lcm, LF, Och, T, specific sources given only for autograph MSS or those endorsed by Croft
16Morning and Communion Service with Sanctus Gloria, A
17Morning and Communion Service with Sanctus Gloria, b, ed S Arnold, Cathedral Music (London, 1790)
18Morning Service, D, with orch, thanksgiving for victories Feb 1709, GB-Lcm 840 [TcD only]
19Morning and Evening Service, F5, Lbm Add 38668 [19 March 1718/19]
20Burial Service incorporates Purcell's Thou knowest, Lord, pr in Musica sacra (see Anthems)
22ANTHIEMS
23(verse unless otherwise stated)
24Principal sources GB-DRe, LF, Lbm, Lcm, LF, Ob, T, specific sources given only for autograph MSS or those endorsed by Croft
25Musica sacra or Select Anthems in Score (London, 1724, ?c1780 as Cathedral Music or Select Anthems in Score) [1724]
26Behold, God is my salvation
27Behold, how good and joyful a thing, 'Union Anthem', 1707 collab Blow and Clarke, GB-Lbm Add 17847
28Behold now, praise the Lord, Lbm Add 17847
29Be merciful, ed S Arnold Cathedral Music (London, 1790)
30Blessed are all they 1724
31Blessed be the Lord my strength, thanksgiving, St Paul's Dec 1705, Lcm 839
32Blessed is the man
33Blessed is the people, ed J Page, Harmonia sacra (London, c1800)
34Cry aloud and shout
35Deliver us, O Lord ed Page
36Give the king thy judgements, 13 July 1727, intended for coronation of George II, Lbm Add 17861, ed W Boyce, Cathedral Music (London, 1760 73)
37God is gone up (full with verse), Ob Don c 19, ed Boyce
38Great and marvellous
39Hear my crying
40Hear my prayer, O Lord, 2vv, 1724
41Hear my prayer, O Lord, 8vv, Ob Don c 19 and in 1724
42Help us, O Lord God, Lbm Add 17847
43I cried unto the Lord with my voice, 1724
44I waited patiently
45I will alway give thanks, thanksgiving for the Battle of Oudenaarde, 19 Aug 1708, Lbm Add 17847 and in 1724
46I will give thanks, thanksgiving for the Battle of Blenheim, composed 1704, ed, adapted by Arnold
47I will lift up mine eyes, Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, composed 1713, Lcm 839
48I will magnify thee (with ATB verse)
49I will magnify thee (with S verse)
50I will magnify thee (with A verse)
51I will sing unto the Lord, 1724
52Laudate Dominum 4 in 1, Lbm Add 17841 and in 1724
53Let my complaint
54Like as the hart, inc
55Lord, what love have I, 1724
56My soul, be joyful
57O be joyful, 1724
58O clap your hands, thanksgiving for the Battle of Ramillies, composed 1706
59O come, let us sing
60Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, Lcm 839
61O give thanks unto the Lord and call, with orch, thanksgiving for suppression of rebellion at Preston, 1715, Lcm 838
62O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious, with orch, 1724
63O God of my salvation, music lost
64O how amiable
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.