Robert Cooke (1768 – 22/23 August 1814) was an English organist and composer, from 1802 organist of Westminster Abbey.
Life
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Cooke was born in Westminster, London, son of the organist and composer Benjamin Cooke; he succeeded his father as organist of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1793. He was appointed organist at Westminster Abbey on the death of Samuel Arnold in 1802, and was master of the choristers of the Abbey by 1805.[1]
On 22 or 23 August 1814 he drowned in the River Thames near Millbank; it was assumed to be suicide. He was buried in the west cloister of Westminster Abbey.[1][2]
Compositions
editCooke wrote an Evening Service in C (1806), and a collection of chants for the choir of the Abbey. He also wrote an "Ode to Friendship", and several songs and glees, of which a collection of eight was published in 1805.[1][3]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Cooke, Robert (1768–1814)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6176. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Benjamin and Robert Cooke Westminster Abbey, accessed 20 February 2023.
- ^ Heron-Allen, Edward (1887). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 93.