English composer and singer. [...] Cranford's six-voice elegy Weep, Brittaynes, weep [...] was occasioned by the death of Prince Henry in 1612; its context suggests he was already in London and part of a musical circle involving the St Paul's Cathedral clergy and others living nearby. Significantly the other contributors to Ravenscroft's 1621 psalter belonged to this group. Probably Cranford was already vicar-choral at St Paul's Cathedral, a post he is known to have held by 1624 and in which he served until the Civil War. [...]
Source: Andrew Ashbee: William Cranford quoted from Grove Music Online accessed 22 January 2010
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