Music for the London stage

Abstract

The English composer John Eccles (c.1668–1735) obtained his first major composing job as a result of a 17th-century industrial relations dispute. In the early 1690s, the United Company was the only theatre company in London licensed to perform plays. Following a dispute over salaries and conditions, the theatre manager and actor Thomas Betterton broke free of the company in 1695 and—taking many of its most experienced actors and singers with him—formed a breakaway company at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. For some reason his principal composer, Henry Purcell, stayed with the remnants of the old company. This left the field open for John Eccles, who had composed a few songs for the United Company, to join Betterton as his chief composer. Within a few months, Purcell was dead, and over the next decade Eccles became one of the leading composers for the London stage, supplying music for operas and masques, as well as incidental music for more than 60 plays.