Born in Norwich, 1623
Died in London, between Dec 24, 1686 and Feb 7, 1687
- John Playford was an English bookseller, music publisher.
- Note that, though he appears in MusicMaster and in this site under the heading “composer” (there’s nowhere else to put him) he’s actually a publisher who compiled and preserved anonymous tunes in The English Dancing Master – he didn’t write the music.
- Playford was the foremost London music printer in the late 1700s. He founded a publishing dynasty in which his sons Henry Playford and nephew John Playford II took part.
- Playford had a strong impact on English Baroque music, especially sacred music (a special interest of his). The poet Nahum Tate wrote an elegy at Playford’s death, which Henry Purcell set to music.1
Sources
- Margaret Dean-Smith and Nicholas Temperley, “Playford family,” Grove Music Online (2013), accessed October 20, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000043168.