Clarke, Jeremiah (EN)

Clarke, Clark, Clerk, Jeremiah, *ca. 1674, †l December 1707 London, English composer and organist. From at least 1685, he was a chorister in the Chapel Royal under the direction of J. Blow, where he sang until his voice broke in 1692. Between 1692 and 1695, he was organist at Winchester College. From June 1699, he served as vicar-choral at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where he also held the post of organist. At the turn of 1703–04, he became almoner and took up the post of master of the choristers at the cathedral, succeeding J. Blow. Clarke died tragically, shooting himself in the head with a pistol, probably as a result of unrequited love.

Clarke ranks among the leading composers of the generation that began their artistic careers in Purcell’s time. He continued the forms cultivated by Purcell and Blow (anthems, odes), but compared to the works of these two masters, Clarke’s melodies bear the hallmarks of the galant style. He wrote sacred music for the Anglican Church (services, anthems, psalms and hymns), including works for important occasions, such as the anthem Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem for the coronation of Queen Anne (1702). He also left behind many secular compositions, both vocal and vocal-instrumental, including occasional odes. Particularly noteworthy is the ode Come, Come along for a Dance and Song (1696), written on the occasion of Purcell’s death and performed at the Royal Theatre, Drury Lane. Contemporaries appreciated Clarke’s songs, dialogues and music for stage productions by eminent English poets, including J. Dryden, Th. Champion and Th. D’Urfey, most of which were published in London. Notable within this genre is The Four Seasons, or Love in Every Age – Clarke’s music for the semi-opera The Island Princess (1699), described as an interlude. Clarke also composed numerous harpsichord pieces published in London, Catches, and a suite for wind instruments containing his most famous work – The Prince of Denmark’s March, which for many years was attributed to Purcell as Trumpet Voluntary (although the earliest known source for The Prince of Denmark’s March is an anthology published in 1700 entitled A Choice Collection of Ayres for the Harpsichord or Spinett, suggesting that the piece may originally have been written for a keyboard instrument).

Literature: C.L. Cudworth Some New Facts about the Trumpet Voluntary, “The Musical Times” XCIV, 1953; T.F. Taylor Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Tunes. Another View of Origins, “The Musical Quarterly” LVI, 1970; T.F. Taylor Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Jeremiah Clarke, Detroit 1977; R. Klakowich Harpsichord Music by Purcell and Clarke in Los Angeles, “Journal of Musicology” IV, 1985/86; P. Holman A New Source of Restoration Keyboard Music, “Royal Music Association Research Chronicle” XX, 1986/87; I. Spink Restoration Cathedral Music 1660–1714, Oxford 1995; H.D. Johnstone A New Source of Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century English Harpsichord Music by Barrett, Blow, Clarke, Croft, Purcell and Others, in: Essays on the History of English Music (…) in honour of John A. Caldwell, ed. E. Hornby, D. Maw, Woodbridge 2010; P. Holman Inexperience or boldness? The orchestral writing of Jeremiah Clarke’s early concerted works, “Early music performer: Journal of the National Early Music Association” XLVIII, 2021.