John Redford

Jonathan Alfred Clawson Redford is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor. He is also the author of Welcome All Wonders: A Composer’s Journey.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on J. A. C. Redford.

From the period sources

John Redford, an English organist and composer of the sixteenth century, held the prominent positions of organist, almoner, and master of the choristers at St. Paul’s Cathedral during the latter part of Henry VIII’s reign, dying around 1546-7, according to the Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886). He is credited by Famous Composers and Their Works (1891) as the founder of the “Fifth English School” of music, around 1520, and was considered the “typical English composer of the first half of the 16th century.” Among his pupils was Thomas Tusser, author of the Hundred good Points of Husbandrie, who recorded his time at St. Paul’s, noting that he found “grace a certain space / Still to remaine / With Redford there, the like no where / For cunning such and vertue much, / By whom some part of musicke art / So did I gaine” (A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Vol. 2, 1875).

Redford’s most celebrated work is the anthem “Rejoice in the Lorde alway,” which Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1908) describes as “remarkable for its melody and expression.” This anthem, also mentioned in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1904) as an early example of instrumental accompaniment, was first printed by Hawkins and republished by the Motett Society, a body formed in 1841 for the revival of sacred music (A History of English Cathedral Music, Vol. 2, 1908). Famous Composers and Their Works (1891) praises it for “breadth of conception, purity of effect, and masterly contrapuntal treatment,” asserting it is “exceeded by no other production of the period, either English or Continental.” While much of his work has been lost, some anthems, organ pieces, a motet, fancies, and a voluntary are preserved in manuscript collections, including one gathered by Thomas Mulliner, master of St. Paul’s School, and at Christ Church, Oxford. His name was also included by Morley in the list of composers whose works he consulted for his Introduction (Grove’s Dictionary, 1908).