Thomas Brewer (1611–c. 1660) was a 17th-century composer best known for introducing the

glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...

form. Little is known of his life. However many of his compositions have survived. Most of them are catches, rounds and glees but three instrumental pieces are stored in the Oxford Music School collection.

Life

A celebrated performer on the

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

, he was born (probably) in the parish of

Christchurch, Newgate Street Christ Church Greyfriars, also known as Christ Church Newgate Street, was a church in Newgate Street, opposite St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. Established as a monastic church in the thirteenth century, it became a parish church afte ...

in London. His father, Thomas Brewer, was a poulterer, and his mother's Christian name was True. On 9 December 1614 Brewer was admitted to

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 155 ...

, although he was only three years old. Here he remained until 20 June 1626, when he left school, and was apprenticed to one Thomas Warner. He learnt the viol at Christ's Hospital from the school music-master. The date of Brewer's death is unknown.

Works

His compositions are met with in most of the printed collections of

John Playford John Playford (1623–1686/7) was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churc ...

and John Hilton, published in the middle of the seventeenth century; nothing is known as to his biography. His printed works consist chiefly of rounds, catches, and part-songs, but in the Music School Collection at Oxford are preserved three instrumental pieces, consisting of airs, pavins, corrantos, &c., for which kind of composition he seems to have been noted. Two pieces by him are in Elizabeth Rogers's ''Virginal Book''.

References

External links

* 1611 births Year of death unknown English classical composers English viol players Glee composers English male classical composers {{UK-composer-stub