John Randall (26 February 1716 – 18 March 1799) was an English organist and academic.

Life

John Randall was a chorister of the

Chapel Royal A chapel royal is an establishment in the British and Canadian royal households serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the royal family. Historically, the chapel royal was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarc ...

under

Bernard Gates Bernard Gates (23 April 1686 in The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west co ...

. On 23 February 1732 at Gates's house, Randall acted and sang the part of Esther in a dramatic representation of

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...

's oratorio ''

Esther Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...

''. In 1744 he graduated Mus. Bac. at Cambridge. In the following year he was appointed organist to

King's College Chapel King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was bu ...

. In 1755 Randall succeeded Maurice Greene as Professor of Music at Cambridge University. In 1756 he was awarded a Mus. Doc degree. Assisted by his pupil,

William Crotch William Crotch (5 July 177529 December 1847) was an English composer and organist. According to the British musicologist Nicholas Temperley, Crotch was "a child prodigy without parallel in the history of music", and was certainly the most dist ...

, who joined him in 1786, Randall retained his appointments until his death at Cambridge on 18 March 1799. His wife Grace predeceased him on 27 April 1792. He is buried at

St Bene't's Church St Bene't's Church is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge, England. Parts of the church, most notably the tower, are Anglo-Saxon, and it is the oldest church in Cambridgeshire as well as the oldest building in Cambridge. Th ...

, Cambridge, where there is a memorial with the following inscription

Works

Randall set to music

Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, and classics, classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College. He is widely ...

's ''Ode for the Installation of the Duke of Grafton as Chancellor of the University'', 1768. He published ''A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, some of which are new and others by permission of the authors, with six Chants and Te Deums, calculated for the use of congregations in general'', Cambridge, 1794; these six were his original tunes. Randall is best known by his two double chants (Grove). ''The Hopeless Lover'' (London, 1735?), and other songs were attributed to him. In the American

Sacred Harp Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music which developed in New England and perpetuated in the American South. The name is derived from ''The Sacred Harp'', a historically important shape notes, shape-note tunebook printed in ...

tradition

William Cowper William Cowper ( ; – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the Engli ...

's hymn ''The Contrite Heart'' is sung to Randall's tune ''Cambridge New''.

References

Attribution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, John 1716 births 1799 deaths English organists English male organists Professors of Music (Cambridge) 18th-century English keyboardists