1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ford, Thomas

FORD, THOMAS (b. c. 1580), English musician, of whose life little more is known than that he was attached to the court of Prince Henry, son of James I. His works also are few, but they are sufficient to show the high stage of efficiency and musical knowledge which the English school had attained at the beginning of the 17th century. They consist of canons and other concerted pieces of vocal music, mostly with lute accompaniment. The chief collection of his works is entitled Musike of Sundrie Kinds set forth in Two Books, &c. (1607), and the histories of music by Burney and Hawkins give specimens of his art. Together with Dowland, immortalized in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Ford is the chief representative of the school which preceded Henry Lawes.