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 tune in their own works.
Handel used it, for instance, in an
anthem entitled
O Praise the Lord With One Consent, as did
Arthur Sullivan in his
Festival Te Deum of 1872
, and also
Hubert Parry in his 1911
Coronation Te Deum. Bach's Fugue in E-flat major,
BWV 552, is often called the "St. Anne", due to the similarity (coincidental in this case) of its subject to the hymn melody's first phrase. A further tune attributed to William Croft is 'Binchester' (a village in County Durham) for the hymn 'Happy are they, they that love God'. His tune 'Eatington', for the hymn 'The Church triumphant in thy love' takes its title from Croft's birthplace of Lower
Ettington.
Funeral sentences Perhaps Croft's most notable legacy is the suite of
Funeral Sentences which have been described as a "glorious work of near genius". First published as part of the
Burial Service in
Musica Sacra, the date and purpose of their composition is uncertain. The seven sentences themselves are from the
Book of Common Prayer and are verses from various books of the Bible, intended to be said or sung during an
Anglican funeral. One of the sentences,
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, was not composed by Croft, but by
Henry Purcell, part of his 1695
Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary. Croft wrote: Croft's
Funeral Sentences were sung at
George Frederic Handel's funeral in 1759, and have been included in every British
state funeral since their publication. They were used at the funerals of
Winston Churchill in
1965,
Diana, Princess of Wales in
1997,
Baroness Thatcher in
2013,
Prince Philip in
2021, and
Queen Elizabeth II in
2022. ==References==