John Nares

An English composer. Although he published organ and harpsichord compositions, the bulk of his compositions were sacred vocal works, and the texts he chose to set to music, in his rather sweet and flowing style, tended to be of a melancholy disposition. He was one of the first composers to give singers specific advice on performance - in The Souls of the Righteous, there are charming instructions such as "a trifle faster" and "succeed...in gentle advances to the Allegretto". He also appears to be the first person to publish a systematic series of keyboard lessons. He seems to have had a definite interest in keyboard music which emphasized the need to strengthen weak fingers, with early examples of attention to trills, and his pieces for voices tended to concentrate on the proper singing of musical syllables (which has given some useful insight for musical historians studying this period).