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Maritime Musicians and Performers on Early Modern English Voyages Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2022
Abstract
Maritime musicians and performers on early modern English voyages had fascinating, complex lives, and yet the historical and critical conversations have obscured them. Opening with a pair of trumpeters, John Brewer and William Porter, the Introduction sets the stage by presenting the major players on English ships and the conditions of their performances. Despite significant gaps in the research about these players’ lives, this book benefits from scholarly work on maritime labour, and I argue not only for the legitimacy of shipboard playing as labour, but also for the recognition of shipboard performers as multiskilled crew members occupying an important in-between space.
Keywords: John Brewer, William Porter, maritime music, shipboard performance, Ian Woodfield, English voyages
Trumpeters John Brewer and William Porter had extraordinary lives on land and sea. Brewer was the lead trumpeter on Sir Francis Drake's famous circumnavigation (1577–1580), and upon returning to England after the world-compassing voyage, he worked as a court musician for Queen Elizabeth from 1582 to 1589. Brewer probably came from yeoman stock like Drake, but he was noted for his skilful musicianship at a young age. One of his first known employers was Lord High Chancellor and Queen's favourite Christopher Hatton. Hatton recommended Brewer to Drake, and so began the young trumpeter's adventure on the Pelican, renamed the Golden Hind during the voyage. Brewer's experience aboard ship was perilous. While stationed on the poop deck during a calm day at sea, he was struck by a stray rope stirred by a gust of wind and fell into the ocean. Seamen on the Hind cast him ropes, but Brewer failed to catch or hold on to them. Just before drowning, he managed to cling to one and was safely recovered. Brewer also witnessed the wreck of the accompanying Marigold in the Straits of Magellan in 1578, and he was entangled in controversy as an accuser of gentleman-navigator Thomas Doughty, notoriously executed during the voyage for mutiny and insubordination towards Drake. Brewer survived the nearly three-year circumnavigation, and several years after his return he attained the highest level of employment for an English musician as a trumpeter for the Elizabethan court and married into a musical family, as well.
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