The Four Cantatas

Henry Holcombe (1690–1756), born in Chester as the son of a silk weaver, became between 1720 and his death one of the leading English composers in small-scale forms, mainly vocal but also instrumental. Most of his vocal compositions are short, strophic songs, but each of his two major song collections – The Garland (1748) and The Musical Medley (1755) – contains a work in several movements describable as a chamber cantata.

This volume brings together Holcombe’s four cantatas, which are very attractive melodically and fine examples of a kind of music widely cultivated in English domestic music-making during most of the eighteenth century. They can be performed by voice and keyboard alone, but the option also exists to use a violin and/or a cello in addition.