Six Sonatas of Two Parts - Saxophone Duets - LM875

COMPOSER : William Croft

ARRANGER : David Beal

These Sonatas have been taken directly from the composers manuscripts.

They have been left open for interpretation of both articulation and dynamics.

William Croft did not put dynamics into the composition and articulation was very bare.

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William Croft (1678-1727) was born at The Manor House in Nether Ettington in the county of Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal under the instruction of John Blow (1649-1708), and remained there until 1698.

Two years after this departure, he became organist of St. Anne's Church, Soho and he became an organist and 'Gentleman extraordinary'at the Chapel Royal.

In 1707, he took over the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal post, which had been left vacant by the suicide of Jeremiah Clarke. The following year, Croft succeeded Blow (who had lately died) as organist of Westminster Abbey. He composed works for the funeral of Queen Anne (1714) and for the Coronation of King George I (1715). In 1724, Croft published Musica Sacra, a collection of church music, the first such collection to be printed in the form of a score. It contains a Burial Service, which may have been written for Queen Anne or for the Duke of Marlborough.

Shortly afterwards his health deteriorated and he died while visiting Bath aged 48.

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