CJ Replay: Music of Deering

(From the Choral Journal article Contristatus est Rex David: The Progressive Product of an Italianate Englishman by Robert A. Kvam)

 

       English composers of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries produced several stunning choral settings of the scriptural text focusing on the death of David’s son, Absalom.Among the better known works based on II Samuel 18:33 are those by Weelkes and Tomkins, published under the title “When David heard.” Lesser known composers Ramsey, East, and Milton also contributed rather commendable renditions. Perhaps the most curious is that of Richard Deering, entitled “Contristatus est Rex David.”

       Richard Deering was born ca. 1580, the illegitimate son of Henry Deering and Lady Elizabeth Grey, sister of the Earl of Kent. As a youth he was sent to Italy, where he received a thorough musical training. When Deering returned to England in 1610, he applied for and was granted a bachelor’s degree from Christ Church, Oxford, stating that he had been studying music for over ten years. It seems likely that he was the same “Mr. Dearing” who was in the service of the British Ambassador to Venice, Sir John Harrington, in 1612.  Deering surfaced next in Brussels, where from 1617 to 1625 he was organist at the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns. Subsequently, he accepted an appointment as organist at Henrietta Maria and “Musician for the lute and voice” to Charles I. Five years later, Deering was dead.