Biography
John Blow was born in 1649 in Newark-on-Trent and trained as a chorister of the Chapel Royal under Henry Cooke, later studying with Christopher Gibbons. In 1668 he became organist of Westminster Abbey, a post he gave up in 1679 in favour of his own pupil Henry Purcell and resumed after Purcell's death, holding it again from 1695 to 1708. Blow composed over 100 anthems, numerous services and secular songs, and, with "Venus and Adonis" (c. 1683), his only stage work, which is regarded as one of the earliest fully sung English operas and a major influence on Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas". After Purcell's death, he honoured his former pupil with the ode "An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell" (1696).
On Stagelog
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