Cooke, Benjamin
Cooke, Benjamin
Cooke, Benjamin , English organist and composer; b. London, 1734; d. there, Sept. 14, 1793. He studied with Pepusch, whom he succeeded in 1752 as conductor at the Academy of Ancient Music. In 1757 he became choirmaster (after Gates), in 1758 lay vicar, and in 1762 organist, of Westminster Abbey. He received a Mus.Doc. from Cambridge (1775) and from Oxford (1782). He became organist of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in 1782, resigning the Academy conductorship in 1789 in favor of Arnold. His best works are in the form of glees, canons, and catches, for which he took several Catch Club prizes (Collection of 20 Glees, Catches, and Canons for 3–6 Voices in Score, London, 1775; 9 Glees and 2 Duets, 1795). He also wrote odes, instrumental concertos, church music, pieces for organ and harpsichord, etc., and added choruses and accompaniments to Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (1759) and Galliard’s Morning Hymn (1772) for the Academy of Ancient Music. His son Robert Cooke (b. Westminster, 1768; d. Aug. 13, 1814) became organist of St. Martin-in-the-Fields after his father’s death in 1793, and on the death of Arnold, in 1802, was appointed organist and choirmaster of Westminster Abbey. He ended his life by drowning himself in the Thames. He publ. a collection of glees in 1805.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire