John Weldon

Composer John Weldon, a student of Henry Purcell, was known for both sacred and theatrical music in the years around 1700. For many years, he was recognized for a series of six verse anthems, but recent decades have brought new identifications of works that he was previously not known to have composed. He wrote incidental music for plays by Shakespeare, among others, and was an organist at churches in Oxford and London. In 2025, the Academy of Ancient Music recorded his masque, The Judgment of Paris. Weldon was born in Chichester, England, on January 19, 1676. He attended the...