Benjamin Cooke

[1] Cooke was born in London and named after his father, also Benjamin Cooke (1695/1705 – 1743), a music publisher based in Covent Garden (active from 1726 to 1743), whose production included a seminal edition of the collected works of Arcangelo Corelli in study scores comprising all five books of sonatas and the twelve concerti grossi.

He coached Abbey choristers who sang in the premiere performance of Harriet Wainwright's opera Comala in 1792.

His Christmas Ode, written in a Handelian style, is one of his relatively few large-scale pieces to have been successfully revived in the modern era.

[citation needed] Cooke died on 14 September 1793, probably of a heart attack, and was buried in the west cloister of Westminster Abbey.

[5][6] He was succeeded at the Abbey by Samuel Arnold, while his son Robert Cooke (1768–1814) was appointed organist of St Martin in the Fields.