Galliard, Johann Ernst
Galliard, Johann Ernst
Galliard, Johann Ernst, German oboist, organist, and composer; b. Celle, c. 1680; d. London, 1749. He was a pupil of A. Steffani in Hannover. A skillful oboist, he went to London (1706) as chamber musician to Prince George of Denmark. He succeeded Draghi as organist at Somerset House, and in 1713 played in the Queen’s Theatre orch. From 1717 to 1736 he engaged in writing music for the stage productions at Covent Garden and Lincoln’s Inn Fields. He last appeared as an oboist probably in 1722. Besides the music to numerous plays, masques, and pantomimes, he wrote several operas, including Calypso and Telemachus (London, Queen’s Theatre, May 17, 1712), Circe (London, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, April 11, 1719; 3 songs extant), and The Happy Captive (London, Little Theatre in the Haymarket, April 16, 1741; music not extant). He also composed cantatas, a Te Deum, a Jubilate, anthems, soli for Flute and Cello, etc., and set to music the Morning Hymn of Adam and Eve, from Milton’s Paradise Lost.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire