William Croft

William Croft (baptised 30 December 1678 – 14 August 1727) was an English composer and organist. Life Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal under the instruction of John Blow, and remained there until 1698. Two years after this departure, he became organist of St. Anne’s Church, Soho and he became an organist and ‘Gentleman extraordinary’ at the Chapel Royal. In 1700, Croft, in collaboration with “an Italian Master”, probably Gottfried Finger, published six sonatas for violin, flute, harpsichord and viol, in the newly fashionable Italian style. In 1707, he took over the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal post, which had been left vacant by the suicide of Jeremiah Clarke. Shortly afterwards his health deteriorated, and he died while visiting Bath aged 48. A fragment of music attributed to Croft, Ground in C minor (D221), has been used by contemporary composer Michael Nyman as the source of his piece An Eye for an Optical Theory. St Anne One of Croft’s most enduring pieces is the hymn tune “St Anne” written to the poem Our God, Our Help in Ages Past by Isaac Watts. Other composers subsequently incorporated the t