East, Michael

▪ English composer

East also spelled  Easte, Est, or Este  

born 1580?

died 1648, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.

      English composer, especially known for his madrigals. (He was once thought to be a son of the music printer Thomas East, but late research suggests that they were, at most, distant relatives.)

      East had some madrigals published as early as 1601 and again in 1604 and took a bachelor of music degree from the University of Cambridge in 1606. He had patrons in London for a time, was employed by Ely Cathedral from 1609 to 1614, and apparently, from 1618, lived in Lichfield, where for some time he was master of choristers for the cathedral. Over the years he published seven “sets of bookes” (1604, 1606, 1610, two in 1618, 1624, 1638) containing his madrigals, pastorals, anthems, “Neapolitanes,” “fancies,” various songs, and works for bass viols and treble viols. His compositions offer a valuable outline of the English musical tastes of the period (which were somewhat Italianate), but his music tended to be unoriginal and colourless.

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