John Marsh

John Marsh was an English gentleman, composer, diarist and writer born in Netherseal, Derbyshire, England. A lawyer by training, he is known to have written more than 350 compositions, including at least 39 symphonies. While today known primarily for his music, he also had strong interest in other fields, including astronomy and philosophy, and wrote books about astronomy, music, religion, and geometry.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on John Marsh (composer).

From the period sources

John Marsh, born in Dorking in 1752, was a distinguished English amateur composer and performer, according to the Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886). He began his professional life articled to a solicitor at Romsey in 1768, and married in 1774. Marsh was active in local musical life, leading the band at subscription concerts in Salisbury (from 1780) and later residing in Canterbury (1781-86) and Chichester (1787-1828), where he also occasionally served as organist for cathedrals and churches, as noted in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1904). His compositions included two services, numerous anthems, chants, psalm tunes, glees, songs, symphonies, overtures, quartets, and organ and pianoforte music. Notably, an anthem he composed, “O praise God in His holiness,” was performed at the opening of Canterbury Cathedral’s new organ in 1784, expressly “calculated to display the various stops of the new instrument,” as recorded in A History of English Cathedral Music (1908). Marsh also authored theoretical works such as A Short Introduction to the Theory of Harmonics (1809) and Rudiments of Thorough-bass. He died in 1828.