View source for Matthew Locke (composer)

{{short description|English Baroque composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name             = Matthew Locke
| image            = Matthew Locke.jpg
| caption          = 
| birth_date       = c. 1621
| birth_place      = [[Exeter]], England
| death_date       = August 1677
| death_place      = 
| education        = [[Royal College of Music]]
| occupation       = {{ubl| Court composer | Music theorist }}
| organizations    = 
}}
[[File:Up and Down This World Goes Round Matthew Locke three voice round.png|thumb|"Up and Down This World Goes Round", three voice round by Matthew Locke.<ref>Margaret Read MacDonald & Winifred Jaeger (2006). ''The Round Book: Rounds Kids Love to Sing'', p.15. August House. {{ISBN|9780874837865}}.</ref> {{audio|Up and Down This World Goes Round Matthew Locke three voice round.mid|Play}}]]

'''Matthew Locke''' (c. 1621 &ndash; August 1677) was an English [[Baroque music|Baroque]] composer and [[music theorist]].

==Biography==
[[File:Drexel 5611 Saraband by Locke.jpg|thumb|Saraband by Matthew Locke, one of his earliest known keyboard works, found in the manuscript [[Drexel 5611]], a 17th-century manuscript in the Music Division of the [[New York Public Library]]]]
Locke was born in [[Exeter]] and was a chorister in the choir of [[Exeter Cathedral]], under [[Edward Gibbons]], the brother of [[Orlando Gibbons]]. At the age of eighteen Locke travelled to the Netherlands, possibly converting to [[Roman Catholicism]] at the time.

Locke, with [[Christopher Gibbons]] (the son of Orlando), composed the score for ''[[Cupid and Death]],'' the 1653 [[masque]] by Caroline-era playwright [[James Shirley]].<ref>Music In The Baroque Era (From Monteverdi to Bach) - Manfred F Bukofzer - Published by J.M Dent & Sons (First UK Edition 1948) - p186 ''"When the masque as a regular court institution fell with Cromwell's rise to power, it was an overripe and doomed form. The Commonwealth did not interrupt the musical life as severely as Burney and others have claimed. Although stage plays  were forbidden, musical shows passed the censorship and music in the homes of the urban middle classes flourished more than ever. Shirley's masque Cupid and Death (1653) was privately performed with music by Christopher Gibbons and Locke."''</ref> Their score for that work is the sole surviving score for a dramatic work from that era.<ref>Caldwell, p. 555.</ref> Locke was one of the quintet of composers who provided music for ''[[The Siege of Rhodes]]'' (1656), the breakthrough early [[opera]] by Sir [[William Davenant]].<ref>The other four were [[Henry Lawes]], [[George Hudson (composer)|George Hudson]], [[Henry Cooke (composer)|Henry Cooke]], and [[Charles Coleman (composer)|Charles Coleman]]</ref> Locke wrote music for subsequent Davenant operas, ''[[The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru]]'' (1658) and ''[[The History of Sir Francis Drake]]'' (1659).<ref>Susan Treacy, in Baker, p. 237.</ref> He wrote the music for the processional march for the coronation of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]].<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Matthew Locke}}</ref>

In 1673 Locke's treatise on music theory, ''Melothesia,'' was published. The title page describes him as "Composer in Ordinary to His Majesty, and organist of her Majesty's chapel"&mdash;those monarchs being [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] and [[Catherine of Braganza]]. Locke also served King Charles as Composer of the Wind Music ("music for the King's sackbutts and cornets"), and Composer for the Violins. (His successor in the latter office was [[Henry Purcell]],<ref>Henry Purcell (Glory Of His Age) by Margaret Campbell (Oxford University Press Paperback 1995) ({{ISBN|0-19-282368-X}}) p46 ''"...his appointment on 10 September 1677 as 'composer in ordinary with fee for the violin to his Majesty, in the place of Matthew Lock(e), deceased'...."''</ref> who composed an ode on the death of Locke entitled ''What hope for us remains now he is gone?'', Z. 472;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W3137_GBAJY9471005|title=What hope for us remains now he is gone?, Z472 (Purcell) - from CDA66710 - Hyperion Records - MP3 and Lossless downloads}}</ref> Locke was a family friend and may have had a musical influence on the young Purcell<ref>Henry Purcell (Glory Of His Age) by Margaret Campbell (Oxford University Press Paperback 1995) ({{ISBN|0-19-282368-X}}) p44 ''"The first mention is in Pepys diary: After dinner I back to Westminster-hall...Here I met with Mr Lock(e) and Pursell, Maisters of Musique; and with them to the Coffee-house into a room next the Water by ourselfs...Here we had a variety of brave Italian and Spanish songs and a Canon for 8 Voc:, which Mr Lock(e) had newly made on these words: "Domine salvum fac Regem", an admirable thing."''</ref>). In 1675 Locke composed the music for the score of [[Thomas Shadwell|Thomas Shadwell's]] ''[[Psyche (Locke)|Psyche]]''.

==See also==
* [[Drexel 3976]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Baker, Christopher Paul, ed. ''Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600&ndash;1720: A Biographical Dictionary.'' London, Greenwood Press, 2002.
* Caldwell, John. ''The Oxford History of Music: From the Beginnings to C. 1715.''  Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.
* Harding, Rosamund E. M. ''A Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Matthew Locke with a Calendar of the Main Events of his Life.'' Oxford, Alden Press, 1971.

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{ChoralWiki|Matthew Locke|Matthew Locke}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Locke, Matthew|cname=Matthew Locke}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Locke, Matthew}}
[[Category:English Baroque composers]]
[[Category:English music theorists]]
[[Category:Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal]]
[[Category:1620s births]]
[[Category:1677 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century English classical composers]]
[[Category:English male classical composers]]
[[Category:17th-century English musicians]]
[[Category:People educated at Exeter Cathedral School]]
[[Category:17th-century English male musicians]]