Ferrabosco was born at
Greenwich, the
illegitimate son of the Italian composer
Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder. His mother might have been Susanna Symons, whom Alfonso the elder later married. Ferrabosco the younger was left under the guardianship of Gomer van Awsterwyke, a member of Queen
Elizabeth I's
court. Although Alfonso the elder asked for Alfonso the younger to be sent to him in Italy, where he had moved with his wife, the Queen insisted that he stay in England. Ferrabosco remained in Gomer van Awsterwyke's care until Awsterwyke's death in 1592. At this time he started a long career as a court musician. After the
Union of the Crowns he became the private music tutor of
Prince Henry and a groom of privy chamber, with a salary of £50. Ferrabosco was paid for "making the songs" for
Anne of Denmark's masque,
The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, performed in January 1604. Ferrabosco collaborated with
Ben Jonson on several projects, including
The Masque of Blackness (1605), and wrote music for several other
masques besides. His music was published by John Browne in 1609, including a number of settings of poems by
John Donne and
Thomas Campion, as well as
lute and viol music. He frequently wrote in the new declamatory Baroque style, and although he never went to Italy, he was well aware of contemporary Italian music. Ferrabosco the younger's reputation was built largely on his prowess as a viol player, and even more so his compositions for viol
consort. These were highly idiomatic works, with many divisions, and virtuosic lines. He also wrote many
In Nomines, which were great examples of that popular genre, without the pedantic bent many later
In nomines possessed. Ferrabosco was also one of the first to write
lyra viol music in tablature, along with
Coprario, and wrote a book of
Lessons for the lyra viol. Ferrabosco continually had difficulty with debts, and was involved in an unsuccessful scheme involving various rights on the
River Thames, including dredging it for gravel, and imposing fines on people who caused a nuisance on it. He died in March 1628 and was buried at
St Alfege Church on the 11th of that month, in his home village of Greenwich. ==Family==