Thomas Ford

Thomas Ford was a skillful composer of the early Stuart period in England known for a book of song and dance music, a pair of anthems, and secular and sacred songs. He was a musician to Prince Henry Stuart, appointed in 1611. After the death of that beloved crown prince in 1612, Ford took a similar position in the service of Prince Charles, remaining in his service after his coronation as King Charles I until the Civil War in 1642. His publication Musicke of Sundrie Kindes (1607) is a collection of settings of several songs, and a number of dances, with various instrumental parts. In addition, there are duets for lyra viol. The two anthems were published in Sir William Leighton's Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule (1614). The consort music is contrapuntal and expressive and the songs range from old fashioned and pedantic to truly expressive along with some fine anthems.