English family of music publishers and booksellers.
MARGARET DEAN-SMITH/NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY
(b Norwich, 1623; d London, between 24 Dec 1686 and 7 Feb 1687). Publisher, bookseller, and vicar-choral of St Paul’s Cathedral. During the period 1651–84 he dominated the music publishing trade (then virtually confined to London) in a business to which his son (2) Henry Playford succeeded. For the printing of his books he engaged the services of Thomas Harper (successor to Thomas Snodham, who had inherited the business of Thomas East), William Godbid (successor to Harper) and his own nephew (3) John Playford the younger, who, apprenticed to Godbid, entered into business in 1679 with the latter’s widow Anne. The format, style and printing of Playford’s books, together with evidence from the stationers’ registers, suggest with some certainty that they were printed with East’s types, although for title-pages, other than those engraved, a less florid style than the earlier borders was preferred. In many instances Playford adopted East’s device and its surrounding motto, ‘Laetificat cor musica’ (see fig.1).
A monument at St Michael-at-Plea, Norwich, to his father John, a mercer, and local records show that he was one of a large family many of whom were scriveners or stationers. Since there is no record of his entry at the grammar school his brother Matthew attended, he was probably educated at the almonry or choir school attached to the cathedral, where he acquired a knowledge of music and the ‘love of Divine Service’ to which he later referred. Shortly after the death of his father (22 March 1639) he was apprenticed to John Benson, a London publisher of St Dunstan’s Churchyard, Fleet Street (23 March 1639/40), for seven years, achieving his freedom on 5 April 1647, when he became a member of the Yeomanry of the Stationers’ Company. This entitled him to trade as a publisher.
He lost no time in securing the tenancy of the shop in the porch of the Temple Church from which all his publications were issued until his retirement. It was one of the addresses of Henry Playford until 1690, when the stock was auctioned. Royalist by family and by personal inclination, Playford began publishing political tracts culminating in The Perfect Narrative of the Tryal of the King and others relating to the executions of royalist nobility (reprinted in 1660 as England’s Black Tribunal). In November 1649 a warrant was issued for the arrest of Playford and his associates. Nothing more is known of him until a year later, when on 7 November 1650 he entered in the stationers’ registers ‘A booke entituled The English Dancing Master’. Although registration before publishing was theoretically obligatory he entered so few of his music books that it is impossible to tell if this, subsequently published in 1651 (see fig.2), was his first.
In 1653 he was admitted clerk to the Temple Church, an office he held with some distinction to the end of his life, devoting himself to the repair and maintenance of the building and to promoting the seemly ordering of the services. At about this time he married. When his wife Hannah inherited from her father, Benjamin Allen, publisher of Cornhill, the Playfords moved (1655) from the neighbourhood of the Temple to Islington, where she established a boarding-school for girls, which she maintained until her death in 1679. Playford then moved back to London, taking a house in Arundel Street, Strand, which later passed to his son.
The court books of the Stationers’ Company show that Playford was called to the Livery in 1661. In 1681 a letter from the king to the master and wardens required that he and others named be admitted to the court of assistants. Soon afterwards he was allotted a share in the English Stock which managed the company’s lucrative monopoly in psalms, primers and almanacks. In the successive purges of the court in 1684 and 1685 he survived unscathed, no doubt through royal protection. In 1684 he retired from active business in favour of his son Henry and another young man, Robert Carr. A number of books, however, retained his imprint until 1686. In his will of that year, which names Henry Purcell and John Blow as beneficiaries, he desired to be buried in the Temple Church, or in St Faith’s, the stationers’ chapel in the undercroft of St Paul’s, but no record of the burial is known in either place. Playford was also deeply involved with the Company of Parish Clerks of London; he presented them with several copies of his 1671 Psalms and Hymns, which had psalm tunes arranged for four male voices. He was credited with the invention of a stringed instrument called the ‘psalmody’ for accompanying metrical psalms (see Psalterer).
Though unloved in the competitive world of publishers, Playford was highly esteemed by poets and musicians. Nahum Tate, the poet laureate, wrote a ‘Pastoral Elegy’ on his death which was movingly set to music by Henry Purcell. The dedications and prefaces to his publications reflect his commercial acumen, his xenophobia, and his devotion to the monarchy and to the divine service decently ordered.
Playford’s publications, apart from the political tracts and miscellaneous non-musical works, fall into three categories: theory of music and lesson books for various instruments, which usually contain brief instructions followed by ‘lessons’ or short pieces derived from popular airs; collections of songs and instrumental pieces; and psalms, psalm paraphrases and hymns. He began to publish music in 1651; new books succeeded one another rapidly in the early years, becoming more sparse later. Examination of the contents, however, shows that often a ‘new edition’ differs little from its predecessor although new ‘lessons’ may have been added and some others subtracted, and the later songbooks may be selections or rearrangements of earlier titles under new names. It is generally assumed that The English Dancing Master, addressed to the ‘Gentlemen of the Innes of Court’, came first, but A Musicall Banquet (also 1651) bears, as well as Playford’s imprint, that of John Benson, his former master. The English Dancing Master, with many enlarged editions (some entitled The Dancing Master) until 1728, is probably Playford’s best-known work, because of the modern revival of the country dance and because of its status as the largest single source of ballad airs. A Musicall Banquet contains the genesis of later books: Musick’s Recreation (1652), Catch that Catch Can (1652; variously entitled The Musical Companion and The Pleasant Musical Companion in some later editions), A Breefe Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654; later An Introduction to the Skill of Musick) and Court Ayres (1655). All but the first continued in new and enlarged editions. The Introduction was immensely influential for 100 years or more; its theoretical sections were copied or cited in numerous later treatises and in the didactic introductions to psalmody books. Apollo’s Banquet for the Treble Violin (1669) reflects a new fashion for this ‘brisk and airy’ instrument that was to last for the next 30 years, but the lessons for the cittern and the virginals, which did not last much beyond the mid-17th century, are evidence of declining sympathy with Playford’s nostalgia for these instruments.
The same is true of the hymns, songs and instrumental pieces addressed to the proficient performer. As examples of the creative genius of Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, William and Henry Lawes, Christopher Simpson and Richard Dering, they afford interest to the scholar, but are without those qualities which enabled the vocal music of the Tudor period eventually to outlast them. The latter had been the property of Thomas East. In 1653 Playford offered them as part of his bookseller’s stock in his Catalogue of All the Musick Bookes Printed in England. In 1690, when the stock of his shop by the Temple Church was to be sold by auction, they were again catalogued for the benefit of ‘those remote from London’ and offered to buyers for a few pence.
Playford’s numerous editions of the metrical psalm tunes, for one voice (The Whole Book of Psalmes, 1661), two voices (Introduction, 1658), three voices (The Whole Book of Psalms, 1677), four voices (Psalms and Hymns, 1671), keyboard (The Tunes of Psalms, c1669), and cittern and gittern (A Booke of New Lessons, 1652), supplemented his practical work at the Temple Church and the Company of Parish Clerks. They represent an ambitious attempt, quite separate from his books of devotional hymns for domestic use, to raise the standards of music in worship by means of a well-instructed parish clerk and male choir. His aim was to restore the old tunes in correctly harmonized versions rather than to introduce new ones. Success came only after his death, with the burgeoning of voluntary parish choirs in the 1690s; many of his tune harmonizations were used throughout the 18th century in England, Scotland and North America.
(selective list)
all published in London; Playford’s printers and partners not cited
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A Musicall Banquet in 3 Choice Varieties: The First … New Lessons for the Lira Viol: the Second, Musica Harmonia, New Allmans … for Tr and B Viol, by W. Lawes and other Authors: the Third … New Catches and Rounds: to which is added Rules … for such as learne to Sing or to Play on the Viol (16516) [each part was later expanded into a book]; The English Dancing Master: or, Plaine and Easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances, with the Tune to Each Dance (1651/R; numerous rev. edns to 1728) [entitled The Dancing Master in some later edns]; A Booke of New Lessons for Cithern and Gittern (1652; enlarged 3/1666); Musick’s Recreation on the Lyra Viol (16527, 4/16829); Select Musicall Ayres and Dialogues (16528; enlarged 2/16537; selections 3/16595) [1659 edn entitled Select Ayres and Dialogues]; J. Hilton, ed.: Catch that Catch Can (165210; enlarged 7/16864; other edns to c1720) [entitled The Musical Companion, The Pleasant Musical Companion in some later edns] |
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A Catalogue of All the Musick Bookes … Printed in England (1653); H. Lawes: Ayres and Dialogues … the First Booke (1653); J. Playford: A Breefe Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654; other edns to 1730 incl. 1655 [having as pt ii T. Campion’s Art of Composing with addns by C. Simpson]; 1657 [omitting Campion, but incl. Directions for Playing the Viol de Gambo and Tr Vn]; 1658 [adding The Tunes of the Psalms as they are Commonly Sung in Parish-Churches]; 1660 [having as bk 3 Campion’s Art of Descant with addns by C. Simpson]; 1674 [incl. Order for Performing Divine Service in Cathedrals], [some edns entitled An Introduction to the Skill of Music]; H. Lawes: The Second Book of Ayres and Dialogues (1655); Court Ayres … of 2 Parts, Tr, B, for viols/vns (16555; rev. 2/16628 as Courtly Masquing Ayres) [enlarged from Musica Harmonia in A Musicall Banquet] |
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W. Child: Choise Musick to the Psalmes of David (1656) [variant repr. of First Set of Psalms, 1639, advertised in A Musicall Banquet, but no earlier exemplar known]; M. Locke: His Little Consort (1656); H. Lawes: Ayres and Dialogues … the Third Book (1658); M. Locke and C. Gibbons: Cupid and Death … reprinted with Scenes and Music (1659) [orig. pubd without music, 1653]; J. Playford, ed.: The Whole Book of Psalmes Collected into English Meeter (1661) [orig. pubd 1562; 6 edns to 1687]; R. Dering: Cantica sacra, 2, 3vv, bc (org) (1662) [ded. by Playford to Queen Henrietta Maria]; Musick’s Hand-Maide Presenting New and Pleasant Lessons for Virginals or Harpsycon (16637) |
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Musick’s Delight on the Cithren, Restored and Refined (16664); The Treasury of Musick (16695) [incl. the 1659 selection of Ayres and Dialogues, bks 2, 1655, and 3, 1658, of Lawes’s Ayres and Dialogues]; The Tunes of Psalms to the Virginal or Organ (c1669) [sheet inserted in some copies of Musick’s Hand-Maide]; Apollo’s Banquet for the Tr Vn (1669; other edns to 1701); J. Playford: Psalms and Hymns in Solemn Musick, 4vv, on the Common Tunes … ; also 6 Hymns, lv, org (1671) [ded. to the Dean of St Paul’s]; T. Greeting: The Pleasant Companion … for the Flageolet (1672, 4/1682); London Triumphant (1672) [Lord Mayor’s Show]; Choice Songs and Ayres, 1v, theorbo/b viol: being Most of the Newest Songs sung at Court and at the Publick Theatres (16733; enlarged 3/1676); M. Locke: The Present Practice of Musick Defended and Vindicated against the Exceptions … laterly published by Thomas Salmon … together with a Letter from John Playford (1673) |
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T. Jordon: The Goldsmith’s Jubilee or London’s Triumphs (1674) [Lord Mayor’s Show]; Cantica sacra containing Hymns and Anthems, 2vv, org, both Latine and English … the Second Sett (16742) [ded. to the king]; The Triumphs of London (1675) [Lord Mayor’s Show]; G. Sandys and H. Lawes, rev. J. Playford: A Paraphrase upon the Psalms (1676) [orig. pubd 1638]; J. Playford, ed.: The Whole Book of Psalmes (1677; 20 edns to 1757) [not identical with the 1661 pubn]; Musick’s Hand-Maid: New Lessons and Instructions for the Virginals (16786); Short Rules and Directions for the Tr Vn (1679) [lost]; Choice Ayres and Songs … the Second [–Fifth] Book (16797, 16814, 16835, 16843); T. Jordon: London’s Glory (1680) [Lord Mayor’s Show]; H. Purcell: Sonnata’s of III Parts (1681); G. Dieseneer: Instrumental Ayres in 3 and 4 Parts … in 3 Books (1682); The Triumphs of London (1683) [Lord Mayor’s Show] |
(b ?Islington, 5 May 1657; d London, May–Dec 1709). Publisher, bookseller and dealer, son of (1) John Playford (i). He continued his father’s business but was unable, owing to competition from the publishers of engraved music and to his conservatism and training in the old methods of bookselling, to maintain the same dominance of the music publishing trade. Nevertheless, during the late 1680s and early 1690s he was probably London’s best-known music publisher.
Apprenticed to his father in 1674 and freed in 1681, he initially published in conjunction with John Playford (i), who shortly before his death handed over part of his business to his son and to Robert Carr, son of the music publisher John Carr. Henry worked from the same addresses as his father, a shop in the Temple and a house in Arundel Street. After three publications he parted company with Robert Carr, and thereafter published largely on his own account, occasionally in partnership with other publishers. His early works mainly followed the examples set by his father or were new editions of his father’s titles. From 1687 he began to publish large numbers of non-musical works, which were to remain important in his output. He married Anne Baker in 1686; records of one daughter have been located. From 1690 until 1693 Playford was active in promoting sales and auctions of art works and antiquarian music books; from 1692 he was responsible for the publication of most of Purcell’s music in association with that composer and later his widow Frances.
Around 1695 Playford found that competition from publishers of engraved music (notably John Walsh, John Hare and Thomas Cross) greatly affected his sales, and so he took action to regain his share of the market. He tried issuing a series of engraved songsheets in 1697 but soon reverted to the older, more familiar methods of printing from type. In 1699 he purchased equal shares in William Pearson’s improved music type fount, the ‘new London character’. To attract a wider audience he initiated new forms of publication, including the music periodical Mercurius musicus (1699–1702) and the cheap collections of popular songs entitled Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy. Further, he attempted to establish a network of music clubs to promote his publications. These innovations were finally to no avail, as Playford’s old-fashioned methods were quickly superseded by those of the new publishers of engraved music.
Playford never reached his father’s seniority in the Stationers’ Company. He was called to the livery in 1686, and awarded a half-yeomanry share in the English Stock in 1696. Records document five apprentices. His stock was sold by John Cullen from 1706, and also by John Young who probably sold them on Pearson’s behalf. After his death, his saleable type-printed works were issued by John and Benjamin Sprint and William Pearson, and the engraved ones by John Walsh and John Hare. In his will he left his estate to his wife Anne.
Henry continued to reissue many of his father’s titles, after updating them to suit modern tastes, until his death. The influential treatise An Introduction to the Skill of Musick (five editions) was reissued in 1694 with a new section on ‘The art of Descant’ by Purcell. Among Henry’s works modelled on those of his father were the song collections The Theater of Music (1685–7), The Banquet of Music (1688–92) and Deliciae musicae (1695–6).
Playford's most significant publication was perhaps The Divine Companion (1701), for which he commissioned eight leading professional composers, including Blow, Jeremiah Clarke (i) and Croft, to provide psalm tunes, hymns and anthems in a simple but up-to-date style. The anthems, as he pointed out in his preface, were the first printed for parish churches, and they would be reprinted, revised and imitated in dozens of books of parochial psalmody during the following century. One of Clarke’s best-known hymn tunes, ‘Uffingham’, originated here (as ‘Evening Hymn’) while his ‘St Magnus’ appeared in the expanded second edition (1707).
(selective list)
all published in London; Playford’s printers and partners not cited
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Works first pubd by (1) John Playford (i): The Dancing Master (8/1690), 12/1703; other edns to 1728); The Second Book of the Pleasant Musical Companion (2/1694, 5/1707/R); An Introduction to the Skill of Musick (11/1687; 15/1703; other edns to 1730); Apollo’s Banquet (5/16877, 6/16904, bk 2, 16915; other edns to 1701); The Second Part of Musick’s Hand-Maid (16897); T. Greeting: The Pleasant Companion … for the Flageolet (5/1683) |
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Works pubd by Henry Playford: The Theater of Music (16855, 16856, 16863, 16875); Harmonia sacra, or Divine Hymns and Dialogues (16881, 16931); The Banquet of Music (16886, 16887, 16895, 16905, 16916, 16928); Thesaurus musicus … the Second Book (16947) [the 1st pubd 1693 by J. Hudgebut]; Deliciae musicae (16957, 16958, 16965, 16966, 16967); The A’Lamode Musician … ingraved from the Originalls (16982) [the ‘Originalls’ were pubd separately, early examples of sheet music]; H. Hunt: A Collection of Some Verses out of the Psalms … Composed in Two Parts (2/1698); The Tunes of the Psalms (1698); Wit and Mirth (16996, 17004); A Book of Directions to Play the Psalmody, an Instrument Invented by John Playford (1699); Mercurius musicus (16994–1702); S.S. and J.H.: Tunes to the Psalms (1700); The Divine Companion (1701; 2/1707; other edns to 1722); H. Purcell: Orpheus Britannicus … the Second Book (1702); The Diverting Post (1706) [house journal] |
(b Stanmore Magna, c1655; d ?20 April 1685). Printer, nephew of (1) John Playford (i). He has been confused with other members of the family also named John, and with one, believed to be a bookseller, who spelt his name Playfere, but there is now no doubt that he was the son of the Rev. Matthew Playford (brother or half-brother of John Playford (i)), vicar of Stanmore Magna, who forfeited both livelihood and property because of his royalist sympathies.
At some time, probably in the 1670s, William Godbid, a printer of scientific books and music, took young John Playford as apprentice; at Godbid’s death in 1679, his widow, Anne, took John into the partnership and advertised in The Art of Descant (refashioned from Campion’s Art of Composing published by ‘Snodham alias Este’) that ‘the only Printing-house in England for Variety of Musick and Workmen that understand it, is still kept in Little Britain by A. Godbid and J. Playford Junior’. In 1682 Playford seems to have acquired the ownership of the business and in the same year his name appears in the livery list of the Stationers’ Company; in 1683 he attended the company’s Court of Assistants. He died between 20 April 1685, when he signed his will, and 29 April when the will was proved, bequeathing the business to his sister Eleanor.
Day-MurrieESB; KrummelEMP
E. Arber and G.E.B. Eyre: Archives of the Worshipful Company of Stationers … Transcript of the Registers 1554–1708 (London, 1875–1914)
F.A. Inderwick: Calendar of the Inner Temple 1505–1714 (London, 1895)
F. Kidson: ‘The Petition of Mrs Eleanor Playford’, The Library, 3rd ser., vii (1916), 346
F. Kidson: ‘John Playford and 17th Century Music Publishing’, MQ, iv (1918), 516–34
E.A. Ebblewhite: The Parish Clerks’ Company and its Charters (London, 1932)
W.C. Smith: ‘Some Hitherto Unnoticed Catalogues of Early Music’, MT, lxxvii (1936), 636–9, 701–704
M. Dean-Smith, ed.: Playford’s English Dancing Master 1651 (London, 1957) [annotated facs.]
M. Tilmouth: ‘Some Early London Concerts and Music Clubs 1670–1720’, PRMA, lxxxiv (1957–8), 13–26
C. Blagden: The Stationers’ Company: A History, 1403–1959 (London, 1960)
M. Tilmouth: ‘A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers Published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719)’, RMARC, i (1961/R), 1–107
L. Coral: ‘A John Playford Advertisement’, RMARC, no.5 (1965), 1–12
N. Temperley: ‘John Playford and the Metrical Psalms’, JAMS, xxv (1972), 331–78
N. Temperley: ‘John Playford and the Stationers’ Company’, ML, liv (1973), 203–12
M.M. Curti: John Playford’s Apollo’s Banquet, 1670 (diss., Rutgers U., 1977)
P.A. Munstedt: John Playford, Music Publisher: a Bibliographical Catalogue (diss., U. of Kentucky, 1983)
N. Temperley: The Music of the English Parish Church (Cambridge, 1979)
D.R. Harvey: Henry Playford: a Bibliographical Study (diss., Victoria U. of Wellington, 1985)
J. Barlow, ed.: The Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford’s Dancing Master (London, 1985)
G. Beechey: ‘Henry Playford’s Harmonia Sacra’, The Consort, xlii (1986), 1–14
I. Spink: Introduction to John Playford: Music for London Entertainment, 1600–1800, vols. A5a and A5b (London, 1989)
R. Thompson: ‘Manuscript Music in Purcell’s London’, EMc, xxiii (1995), 605–98