James Nares

Nares was an English composer, teacher and organist. He studied under <a href="spotify:artist:5BmXbfqAgfkuTkPlVQDKOW">Gates</a> at the Chapel Royal as a chorister and eventually replaced his former teacher. Nares was an organist of York Minster for twenty one years and the organist for the Chapel Royal shortly before receiving his Doctorate of music from Cambridge in 1757. The majority of his compositions were written as sacred vocal works though he also wrote pedagogical pieces on playing the harpsichord and on singing ("Il Principio or A Regular Introduction to Playing on the Harpsichord or Organ," "A Treatise on Singing"). Melodies composed by Nares were sweet and flowing and he had a tendency to prefer setting texts of a sad nature. His most famous anthem, "The souls of the righteous," represents his musical stylings well. It is safe to say that Nares had a definite interest in keyboard music accentuating the need to strengthen the weak fingers and earl attention to trills. Nares' writings on voice concentrated heavily on the proper singing of musical syllables (solmization) during sight singing and his insights present important information concerning the history of these practices. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi