Sebastian Westcott (also spelt Wescott or Westcote) (c. 1524 – 1582) was an English

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

St. Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. He is especially known for staging performances of plays with the

Children of Paul's The Children of Paul's was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Along with the Children of the Chapel, they were an important component of the companies of boy players that constituted a distinctive feature of ...

Life

Westcott was a chorister, under John Redford, at

, London, and in 1550 became

and

almoner An almoner () is a chaplain or church officer who originally was in charge of distributing money to the deserving poor. The title ''almoner'' has to some extent fallen out of use in English, but its equivalents in other languages are often used f ...

of the cathedral. In 1557 he became master of

, the boys of that cathedral. He retained his post at St. Paul's, under

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

, Queen Mary, and

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

, from 1550 to 1582, notwithstanding the fact that he was an avowed Catholic. Westcott is best known for the many plays and pageants, with music, which he produced for the English Court during a period of 32 years, these plays being performed by the boys of the cathedral school. So celebrated was he in this respect that he was generally referred to as "Master Sebastian". Under Queen Mary he had the honour of arranging the music for the formal restoration of Catholicism at St. Paul's, in November 1553. He also composed the

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

which was sung on 9 February 1554, on the suppression of

Wyatt's rebellion Wyatt's Rebellion was a limited and unsuccessful uprising in England in early 1554 led by four men, one of whom was Sir Thomas Wyatt. It was given its name by the lawyer at Wyatt's arraignment, who stated for the record that "this shall be eve ...

. He conducted the service for the reception of Cardinal

Reginald Pole Reginald Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English cardinal and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1556 to 1558 during the Marian Restoration of Catholicism. Early life Pole was born at Stourt ...

on the first Sunday of

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

, 1554, when the

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

''Te spectant Reginalde Pole'', by

Orlande de Lassus Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlui ...

, was sung. Di Lassus was in England at this time, as was also

Philippe de Monte Philippe de Monte (1521 – 4 July 1603), sometimes known as Philippus de Monte, was a Flemish composer of the late Renaissance active all over Europe. He was a member of the 3rd generation madrigalists and wrote more madrigals than any other c ...

, and both were probably present. Under Elizabeth I, in 1559, Westcott refused to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles, yet official documents from 1559 to 1561 prove that "Master Sebastian" was well paid for his musical and dramatic performances. In May 1561 the Catholic propagandist Nicholas Sander, in a report to Cardinal Morone, highly praised Westcott. In 1561 Bishop

Edmund Grindal Edmund Grindal ( 15196 July 1583) was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church durin ...

summoned him for refusing to take part in the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

, and in July 1563

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...

him. Lord Robert Dudley, the Queen's

favourite A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated signifi ...

, intervened for him, however, and Bishop Grindal answered at length, apologizing, and explaining his action, though declining to suspend his verdict, only to suspend it for a while.Rosenberg p. 302 14 years later, in December 1577, Westcott was deprived by Bishop John Aylmer and imprisoned in the

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners—including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition—it became known, ...

as a

recusant Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth missed her customary Christmas plays by the

chorister A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

s of St. Paul's, and so Westcott was released on 19 March 1578. Westcott died in 1582, leaving assets of considerable value.

Notes

References

*Birt, Henry Norbert: ''The Elizabethan Religious Settlement'' (London, 1907) *Grattan-Flood: ''Master Sebastian in The Musical Antiquary'' (April, 1912) *Rosenberg, Eleanor: ''Leicester: Patron of Letters'' Columbia University Press (New York, 1958) ;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Westcott, Sebastian English classical organists English Renaissance composers History of Catholicism in England 1524 births 1582 deaths 16th-century English composers 16th-century English musicians 16th-century Roman Catholics English male classical composers English male classical organists