A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bull, John

by Edward Francis Rimbault

BULL, John, Mus. Doc., was born in Somersetshire about 1563 [App. p.568 "in 1562 (this date is proved by a portrait in the possession of Mr. Julian Marshall)"]. He was educated in Queen Elizabeth's Chapel under William Blitheman, the celebrated organist. On Dec. 24, 1582 he was appointed organist of Hereford Cathedral and afterwards master of the children. In January 1585 he was admitted a member of the Chapel Royal, and in 1591 on the death of his master is said to have succeeded him as organist. But this is mere conjecture, as John Hewlett succeeded Blitheman in the place of a gentleman, and the office of organist as a separate appointment did not then exist. On July 9, 1586, he was admitted Mus. Bac. at Oxford, 'having practised in that faculty fourteen years,' and on July 7, 1592, was incorporated Mtis. Doc. in the same University, having previously taken the degree at Cambridge. In 1596 [App. p.568 "on Nov. 30"], upon the recommendation of Queen Elizabeth, Bull was the first appointed Music Professor in Gresham College, and, although unable to compose and read his lectures in Latin, according to the founder's original intention, such was his favour with the Queen and the public, that the executors of Sir Thomas Gresham, by the ordinances bearing date 1597, dispensed with his knowledge of the Latin language and ordered 'The solemn music lecture twice every week, in manner following, viz. the theoretique part for one half-hour, or thereabouts, and the practique, by concert of voice or instruments, for the rest of the hour, whereof the first lecture should be in the Latin tongue and the second in English; but because at this time Mr. Dr. Bull, who is recommeuded to the place by ths Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, being not able to speak Latin, his lectures are permitted to be altogether in English, so long as he shall continue in the place of music lecturer there.' In 1601 Bull went abroad for the recovery of his health, and during his absence was permitted to substitute as his deputy, Thomas, son of William Byrd. He travelled incognito into France and Germany, and Antony à Wood tells a story of a feat performed by him at St. Omer's, where, to a composition originally in forty parts, he added forty more in a few hours. After the death of Elizabeth, Bull retained his post in the Chapel Royal, and his fame as an organist was widely spread. [App. p.568 "His name occurs in a list of persons to whom James I. ordered 'Gold chains, plates or medals' to be given, Dec. 31, 1606. (Devon's 'Issues of the Exchequer,' 1836, p. 301.)"] On Dec. 15, 1606, Bull was admitted into the freedom of the Merchant Taylors' Company by service, having been bound apprentice to Thomas, Earl of Sussex, who was free of the Company. On July 16, 1607, when James I and Prince Henry dined at Merchant Taylors,' Hall, the royal guests were entertained with music, both vocal and instrumental. And while His Majesty was at table, according to Stowe, 'John Bull, Doctor of Musique, one of the organists of His Majesties Chappell-royall, and free of the Merchant-taylors, being in a citizen's gowne, cappe, and hood, played most excellent melodie upon a small payre of Organes, placed there for that purpose onley.' (Chronicles, edit. 1631, p. 891.) On Dec. 22, 1607, Bull obtained^[1] from the Bishop of London a marriage licence for himself and 'Elizabeth Walter of the Strand, maiden, aged about 24, daughter of Walter, citizen of London, deceased, she attending upon the Rt. Hon. the Lady Marchioness of Winchester.' They were to marry at 'Christ Church, London.' In the same month [App. p.568 "Two days before"] he resigned his professorship at Gresham College, which was tenable only so long as he remained unmarried. In 1611 he was in the service of Prince Henry, and his name stands first on the roll of the Prince's musicians, with a salary of £40 per annum. The old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal records under date of 1613 that 'John Bull, Doctor of Musicke, went beyond the seas without license, and was admitted into the Archduke's service.' No valid reason can be assigned for his leaving the country, but it seems he had been preparing for the step some months previously. In the British Museum (Add. MSS. No. 6194), is preserved a letter from Dr. Bull to Sir M. Hicks, wishing his son's name to be inserted instead of his own in some patent dated April 26, 1612; and the same MS. contains an extract from Mr. Trumbull's letter to James I concerning the Archduke's receiving Dr. Bull, the king's organist, into his chapel without permission, dated May 30, 1614. [App. p.568 "Concerning Bull's residence abroad, it should be added that he went to Brussels and became one of the organists of the Chapel Royal under Géry de Ghersem. (Dict. of Nat. Biog.)"] The subsequent life of Dr. Bull has been hitherto simply conjecture, but the writer is fortunately enabled to clear up the latter part of it from a letter written by the Chevalier Leon de Burbure some few years back, in answer to certain inquiries. The Chevalier says, 'I do not know that the Cathedral of Antwerp ever possessed any MSS. of Dr. John Bull, but at all events there have remained no traces for a long time. The only facts relative to John Bull that I have discovered are, that he became organist of Notre Dame at Antwerp in 1617, in the place of Ruinold Waelrent deceased; that in 1620 he lived in the house adjoining the church, on the side of the Place Verte, in which the concierge of the cathedral had lived; that he died on March 12 or 13, 1628, and was buried on the 15th of the same month in the cathedral where he had been organist.' Specimens of Bull's compositions for voices may be found in Barnard's and Boyce's collections and in Sir William Leighton's 'Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule,' 1614, fol. He joined Byrd and Gibbons in contributing to the Parthenia, a collection of pieces for the virginals, printed early in the 17th century, and a large number of his instrumental movements are extant in the volume in the Fitzwilliam Museum known as Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in other MSS. See a curious list in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors, pp. 203–8. To Bull has been attributed the composition of the popular tune, 'God save the King,' but the claim made on his behalf has met with but partial acceptance. [See God save the King.] A portrait of Bull is preserved in the Music School at Oxford. It is painted on a board and represents him in the habit of a bachelor of music. On the left side of the head are the words, 'An. Ætatis evæ 26, 1589,' and on the right side an hour-glass, upon which is placed a human skull, with a bone across the mouth. Round the four sides of the frame is written the following homely distich:—

'The bull by force in field doth raigne:
 But Bull by skill good will doth gayne.'

[ E. F. R. ]

1. This fact has never before been noticed. I am indebted for it to Colonel J. L. Chester. [G.]