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WILLIAM JACKSON (1730-1803)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:JACKSON (1730-1803)  , See also:English musician, was See also:horn at See also:Exeter on the 29th of May 1730 . His See also:father, a See also:grocer, bestowed a liberal See also:education upon him, but, on See also:account of the lad's strong predilection for See also:music, was induced to See also:place him under the care of See also:John See also:Silvester, the organist of Exeter See also:Cathedral, with whom he remained about two years . In 1748 he went to See also:London, and studied under John Travers, organist of the See also:king's See also:chapel . Returning to Exeter, he settled there as a teacher and composer, and in 1777 was appointed subchanter, organist, See also:lay-See also:vicar and See also:master of the choristers of the cathedral . In 1755 he published his first See also:work, Twelve Songs, which became at once sichord, was a failure . His third work, Six Elegies for three voices, preceded by an Invocation, with an See also:Accompaniment, placed him among the first composers of his See also:day . His See also:fourth work was another set of Twelve Songs, now very scarce; and his fifth work was again a set of Twelve Songs, all of which are now forgotten . He next published Twelve See also:Hymns, with some See also:good remarks upon that See also:style of See also:composition, although his precepts were better than his practice . A set of Twelve Songs followed, containing some good compositions . Next came an See also:Ode to See also:Fancy, the words by Dr See also:Warton . Twelve Canzonets for two voices formed his ninth work; and one of them—" See also:Time has not thinned my Flowing See also:Hair "—See also:long held a place at public and private concerts . His tenth work was Eight Sonatas for the See also:Harpsichord, some of which were novel and pleasing .

He composed three dramatic pieces,—Lycidas (1767), The See also:

Lord of the See also:Manor, to See also:General See also:Burgoyne's words (1780), and The Metamorphoses, a comic See also:opera produced at See also:Drury See also:Lane in 1783, which did not succeed . In the second of these dramatic See also:works, two airs—" Encompassed in an See also:Angel's See also:Form " and " When first this Humble Roof I knew "—were See also:great favourites . His See also:church music was published after his See also:death by See also:James Paddon (182o); most of it is poor, but " See also:Jackson in F " was for many years popular . In 1782 he published See also:Thirty Letters on Various Subjects, in which he severely attacked canons, and described See also:William See also:Bird's Non nobis Domine as containing passages not to be endured . But his anger and contempt were most strongly expressed against catches of all kinds, which he denounced as barbarous . In 1791 he put forth a pamphlet, Observations on the See also:Present See also:State of Music in London, in which he found See also:fault with everything and everybody . He published in 1798 The Four Ages, together with Essays on Various Subjects,—a work which gives a favourable See also:idea of his See also:character and of his See also:literary acquirements . Jackson also cultivated a See also:taste for landscape See also:painting, and imitated, not unsuccessfully, the style of his friend See also:Gainsborough . He died on the 5th of See also:July 1803 .

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