Coprario, Giovanni

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Coprario, Giovanni ( John Cooper) (b c.1575; d London, 1626). Eng. composer and viol player. Visited It. c.1600, changing name to Giovanni Coprario (or Coperario) and retaining this on return. Comp. well over 100 str. fantasias, also masques, anthems, dances, suites and songs. Taught mus. to Charles I and to the Lawes brothers. His Funeral Teares (1606) and Songs of Mourning (1613), 7 songs written at death of James I's eldest son, Henry, are among earliest Eng. song-cycles. Some time before 1617 he wrote his Rules How to Compose. Was in service of Cecil family at Hatfield House, Herts., and of Earl of Hertford in Wiltshire.