Richard Mico
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Richard Mico (also Micoe, Micho, Meco, Myco; 1590–1661) was an English composer. He was born in
Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...
, Somerset, the eldest of three sons of Walter Mico.John Bennett & Pamela Willetts: "Richard Mico", ''Chelys'', Vol. 7, 1977 The family, originally called "Micault", had immigrated to England from France several generations earlier.J S Bennett & Andrew J Hanley, "Mico, Richard", ''Groves Dictionary of Music (online edition)'', 2010 The Micos were a merchant family: the composer's cousin was Sir Samuel Mico (1608–66), who settled in London by the 1630s, made his fortune in overseas trade to become an
alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...
of London and Master of the Mercers’ Company, and was knighted after the Restoration. Mico was appointed resident musician at Thorndon Hall, Essex, in 1608. There, he worked for Sir William Petre (
William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...
's former patron) as a music teacher for the family's children, as well as composing for the household. Surviving documents record the handing over of the household instruments to Mico in 1608, including five
viol The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...
s (with bows), a
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...
, organ and
virginals The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the Renaissance music, late Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque periods. Description A virginals is a smaller and simpler, rectangular o ...
. While working for Petre, Mico adopted his employer's faith, converting to
Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. In 1630 he was appointed as organist to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, and held this post until the queen's flight to Holland in 1642. He was buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden, on 10 April 1661. None of Mico's consort works were published during his lifetime, but Christopher Simpson, writing six years after his death, named him as one of the best composers of fantasias.


Works

*Manuscript Mus. 517-20 in the library of
Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...
is a set of four partbooks containing instrumental works by Richard Mico (as well as those by Alfonso Ferrabosco, John Ward and John Jenkins). The copyist is unidentified, English, 1630-50. This collection includes 17 of Mico's fantasias for four viols. *Music MS 1197 in the library of the Royal College of Music, London is an autograph set of partbooks devoted exclusively to Mico's four-part works. *Fretwork has published the score and parts of the complete four-part fantasias and pavans of Richard Mico in ''Richard Mico: The Four-Part Consort Music'' edited by Meredith Tyler (London: Fretwork Editions, 1st ed. 1992, 2nd ed. 1997). The Fretwork Edition was used for the Phantasm recording ''Still Music of the Spheres'', 1996. *All of Mico's known surviving works have been published in the Musica Britannica series: Musica Britannica, Volume 65; ''Richard Mico: Consort Music'', 1994, edited by Andrew Hanley. Published by, Stainer & Bell Ltd, London. .: **Four fantasies à2 **Seven fantasies à3 with organ **17 fantasies à4 **Four fantasies à5 **Four pavans à4 **Three pavans à5 **An In Nomine à5 **Latral à5


Recordings

* Phantasm: ''Still Music of the Spheres''; Consorts by
William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...
and Richard Mico, Simax, PSC1143 * Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet: ''Fantazia'', Channel Classics Records CCS 16998 includes Mico's Pavan No.1 in C minor and Pavan No. 4 in C major


External links

*


Bibliography

*J. Bennett and P. Willetts: ‘Richard Mico’, ''Chelys'', vii (1977), 24–46 *J. Bennett: ‘Byrd and Jacobean Consort Music: a Look at Richard Mico’, ''Byrd Studies'', ed. A. Brown and R. Turbet (Cambridge, 1992), 129–40 *A. Hanley: ‘Mico and Jenkins: “Musitians of Fame under King Charles I”’, ''John Jenkins and his Time'', ed. A. Ashbee (Oxford, 1996), 161–9 *R. Thompson: ‘A Further Look at the Consort Music Manuscripts in Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin’, ''Chelys'', xxiv (1995), 3–18


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mico, Richard 17th-century English composers English male composers 1590 births 1661 deaths People from Taunton 17th-century English male musicians