John Gostling(1644–1733) was a 17th-centuryChurch of Englandclergymanandbass singerfamed for his range and power. He was a favourite singer ofCharles IIand is particularly associated with the music ofHenry Purcell.
Background
editJohn Gostling was the son of Isaac Gossling, aCanterburymercer,[1]orchandler.[2]He was educated inRochesterand atSt John's College, Cambridge,[3]where he sang in thechoir.He was a Gentleman and later Priest of theChapel Royaland was subsequently aMinor CanonofCanterbury,VicarofLittlebourneinKent,Subdean ofSt Paul'sandPrebendaryofLincoln.[1]He is buried in Canterbury Cathedral cloisters.[2]
In 1679 the young Henry Purcell wrote ananthem,the name of which is not known, for theChapel Royal.From a letter written by Thomas Purcell, and still extant, we learn that this anthem was composed for the exceptionally fine voice of Gostling, then atCanterbury,but afterwards a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel. Purcell wrote several anthems at different times for his extraordinary voice, abasso profondo,which is known to have had a range of at least two fulloctaves,from D below the bass staff to the D above it. The dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known; perhaps the most notable example is the anthem "They that go down to the sea in ships". In thankfulness for a providential escape of the King from shipwreck, Gostling, who had been of the royal party, put together some verses from thePsalmsin the form of an anthem, and requested Purcell to set them to music. The work is a very difficult one, including a passage which traverses the full extent of Gostling's voice, beginning on the upper D and descending two octaves to the lower.[4]
Gostling Manuscript
editOne of the important sources for Purcell's music is theGostling Manuscript,a collection made by Gostling in 1706, which contains sixty-four anthems: seventeen by Purcell, twenty-three byJohn Blow,three byMatthew Locke,four byPelham Humfrey,four by William Turner, and one byWilliam Child,one byHenry Aldrich,three byThomas Tudway,four byJeremiah Clarke,Isaac Blackwelland a few others.
See also
edit- William Gostling,his son
Notes
edit- ^ab"Goslting, John (1675–1689) (CCEd Person ID 16479)".The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835.Retrieved2 February2014.
- ^abOlive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson,‘Gostling, John (1649/50–1733)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press,2004,doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11124.Retrieved on 8 December 2008.
- ^"Gosling, John (GSLN668J)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
- ^"14 October 2017 - Choral Evensong | The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge".sjcchoir.co.uk.2 November 2017.Retrieved9 January2018.
Bibliography
edit- The Gostling Manuscript. Foreword byFranklin B. Zimmerman.Author: Gostling, John, comp. Purcell, Henry, 1659-1695 (Austin, Texas UP, 1977). "Reproduced in facsim. from a 17th-18th cent. ms. in the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin."ISBN0-292-72713-5.