John Reading (composer, Organist and Copyist) - Life

Life

Little is known of John Reading's early life. He was probably the son of the composer and organist John Reading (c.1645-1692) who from 1681 until his death was organist and Master of the Choristers at Winchester College. He received the best possible musical training, being a chorister of the Chapel Royal, where he was taught by John Blow. He would almost certainly have sung at the funerals of Henry Purcell and Queen Mary. It was tradition, when the choristers' voices broke, for the Chapel Royal to find them their first appointment. John Reading was placed as organist at Dulwich College, a position he held for two years (1700–1702), after which he moved to Lincoln Cathedral, becoming Master of the Choristers there in 1703, a post that his father had previously held. By 1708 he was organist of St John's, Hackney in London, a position he held for some 20 years. This was a church with a strong musical tradition, and one of the first to be furnished with an organ after the Restoration. In 1727 he became organist of the combined churches of St Mary Woolnoth and St Mary Woolchurch Haw in the City of London. In addition he took up the post of organist at St Dunstan's-in-the-West. He was an early member of the Royal Society of Musicians. His portrait hangs in the Dulwich College Art Gallery.