Richard Eastcott (baptised 1744–1828) was an English clergyman and writer on music. Born at

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

about 1740, he matriculated at

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

, but did not take a degree. Ordained in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1767, he lived in the

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

area and followed musical interests. At his death in 1828 Eastcott was chaplain of Livery Dale, Devonshire, on the presentation of Lord Rolle.

Works

Eastcott was author of ''Sketches of the Origin, Progress, and Effects of Music, with an Account of the Ancient

Bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...

s and

Minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

s'', Bath, 1793. The book, which was well received, was constructed from the histories of

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicis ...

and John Hawkins. There is a chapter on the state of English church music, in which the author deprecated the custom of writing

fugal In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...

music for voices, on the ground that such treatment prevents the words from being properly heard. An elaborate criticism of the book was in the ''

Monthly Review The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

'', xiii. 45–50 (see also John Davy). At the end of his book appeared an advertisement of other works by the author.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Eastcourt, Richard 1744 births 1828 deaths Clergy from Exeter English chaplains 18th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century English male writers 19th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century English musicians 19th-century English musicians English writers about music 18th-century English Anglican priests 19th-century English Anglican priests Musicians from Exeter Writers from Exeter