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HENRY LAWES (1595-1662)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 300 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:LAWES (1595-1662)  , See also:English musician, was See also:born at Dinton in See also:Wiltshire in See also:December 1595, and received his musical See also:education from See also:John See also:Cooper, better known under his See also:Italian See also:pseudonym Giovanni Coperario (d . 1627), a famous composer of the See also:day . In 1626 he was received as one of the gentlemen of the See also:chapel royal, which See also:place he held till the See also:Commonwealth put a stop to See also:church See also:music . But even during that songless See also:time See also:Lawes continued his See also:work as a composer, and the famous collection of his vocal pieces, A yres and Dialogues for One, Two and Three Voyces, was published in 1653, being followed by two other books under the same See also:title in 1655 and 1658 respectively . When in 166o the See also:king returned, Lawes once more entered the royal chapel, and composed an See also:anthem for the See also:coronation of See also:Charles II . He died on the 21st of See also:October 1662, and was buried in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey . Lawes's name has become known beyond musical circles by his friendship with See also:Milton, whose See also:Comus he supplied with incidental music for the performance of the masque in 1634 . The poet in return immortalized his friend in the famous See also:sonnet in which Milton, with a musical See also:perception not See also:common amongst poets, exactly indicates the See also:great merit of Lawes . His careful See also:attention to the words of the poet, the manner in which his music seems to grow from those words, the perfect coincidence of the musical with the metrical See also:accent, all put Lawes's songs on a level with those of See also:Schumann or See also:Liszt or any See also:modern composer . At the same time he is by no means wanting in genuine melodic invention, and his concerted music shows the learned contrapuntist .

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