A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Eccles, Solomon
ECCLES, Solomon, born in the first half of the 17th century, whose ancestors for three generations had been musicians, was from about 1642 a teacher of the virginals and viols, a pursuit from which he for some years derived a considerable income, but embracing the tenets of quakerism, he abandoned his profession, broke all his instruments, and burned them, together with his music books (the value of the whole being more than £24), on Tower Hill, and adopted the trade of a tailor. In 1667 he published a curious tract entitled 'A Musick-Lector, or, The Art of Musick … discoursed of, by way of dialogue between three men of several judgments; the one a Musician … zealous for the Church of England, who calls Musick the gift of God: the other a Baptist who did affirm it to be a decent and harmless practice: the other a Quaker (so called) being formerly of that art doth give his judgment and sentence against it, but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God'—from which the foregoing particulars are gathered. He subsequently resumed his profession and contributed several ground basses with divisions thereon to 'The Division Violin.' The date of his death is unknown.
His eldest son, John, was born in London about the middle of the 17th century. He learned music from his father, and about 1685 became engaged as a composer for the theatre, in which occupation he continued for upwards of a quarter of a century. Of the pieces to which he contributed, the most important (musically considered) were 'Don Quixote' (with Purcell), 1694; [App. p.625 "'Loves of Mars and Venus' (with Finger), 1696; 'Macbeth,' 1696;"] 'Europe's Revels for the Peace,' 1697; 'The Sham Doctor,' 1697; 'Rinaldo and Armida,' 1699; and 'Semele,' 1707. The composition of the music in 'Macbeth,' generally attributed to Matthew Lock, has sometimes been ascribed to Eccles [App. p.625 "refer to Macbeth Music, vol. ii. 185 a"]. In 1698 [App. p.625 "1705"], upon the death of Dr. Nicholas Staggins, Eccles was appointed Master of the King's Band of Music, in fulfilment of the duties of which office he composed numerous birth-day and new-year's odes. In 1700 he gained the second of the four prizes given for the best compositions of Congreve's masque, 'The Judgment of Paris'; the first being awarded to John Weldon, and the third and fourth to Daniel Purcell and Godfrey Finger. The score of Eccles' music for this piece was printed. In 1701 he set the ode written by Congreve for the celebration of St. Cecilia's day in that year. About 1710 he published a collection of nearly one hundred of his songs, comprising many of those which he had written for no fewer than forty-six dramatic pieces. The freshness and flow of Eccles' melodies rendered his songs universal favourites. In the latter part of his life he gave up all professional pursuits, except the annual production of the birth-day and new-year's odes, and retired to Kingston-upon-Thames for the diversion of angling, to which he was much attached. He died in January 1735.
Henry, second son of Solomon, was a violinist of considerable ability, who conceiving himself neglected in England, betook himself to Paris, where he was admitted a member of the French King's band. In 1720 he published at Paris, in two books, Twelve Solos for the Violin written in the style of Corelli.
Thomas, youngest of the three sons of Solomon, studied the violin under his brother Henry, and became an excellent performer. Being idle and dissipated, he gained a scanty and precarious subsistence by wandering from tavern to tavern in the city and playing to such of the company as desired to hear him.[ W. H. H. ]