Robert de Pearsall
Robert Lucas Pearsall (the “de” he adopted in Germany was an affectation) was born in Bristol and embarked on a career in the Law.
However he went to live in Germany, where he studied Renaissance music and became enthused with the idea of encouraging a renewed interest in Britain in the English Renaissance composers and their techniques.
De Pearsall wrote many madrigals and part-songs but is probably best remembered for his arrangement of the carol In dulci jubilo and the eight-part madrigal Lay a Garland. The suspensions so beloved of the early madrigalists are a very obvious feature of this elegiac piece, set to words adapted from a Jacobean play.