John Blanke was a trumpet player of African descent employed by the English Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII in the early 1500s. He's the only black person of the Tudor period for whom we have both a name and a picture – in the Westminster Tournament Roll of 1511, currently on display at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool – but he was by no means the only person of African heritage living in England at that time. Lucie Skeaping uncovers the life and world of John Blanke and the music he would have known, in conversation with expert on diversity in Tudor England, Dr Onyeka Nubia.
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Nothing to do with early music, or indeed the topic above, but there is a fascinating book about Joseph Emidy, black slave who via a tortuous route became Cornwall's leading violinist in the 19th century. I fond it fascinating.
Taken from Africa into slavery by the Portuguese, kidnapped by the British Navy and held captive aboard ship during the French wars of the 1790s before being abandoned in Falmouth, the stranger-than-fiction story of Joseph Emidy deserves telling in its own right. What makes it more remarkable is that Emidy - a violinist and composer - became a prominent figure in the musical scene in Cornwall for the remaining thirty years of his life. The richly varied pattern of local activity is illustrated by accounts in local newspapers, as well as by personal memoirs; many of the anecdotes are amusing and always enlightening in the view they offer of a provincial society at a time of great and hitherto unsuspected activity and change.Last edited by ardcarp; 24-05-22, 15:42.
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