Robert Lucas Pearsall

Robert Lucas Pearsall (14 March 1795 – 5 August 1856) was an English composer mainly of vocal music, including an elaborate setting of "In dulci jubilo" and the richly harmonic part song Lay a garland of 1840, both still often performed today.

Although it seems likely that he had some instruction, or at least received advice in composition from the Austrian violinist and composer Joseph Panny, he would still appear to be self-taught when he wrote most of his early attempts.

There is little evidence to support a claim made by Hubert Hunt that his early works included the Duetto buffo di due gatti, published under the pseudonym G. Berthold and often attributed to Rossini.

The success of his earliest works for the society encouraged him to write others, including "The Hardy Norseman" and "Sir Patrick Spens" (in ten parts), and eight-part settings of "Great God of Love" and "Lay a garland".

A 2008 survey by BBC Music Magazine found Pearsall's setting to be the second most popular choral Christmas carol with British cathedral organists and choirmasters.

[6][7] Pearsall's arrangement of "In dulci jubilo" was included by Sir David Willcocks and Reginald Jacques in their popular 1961 music-score collection Carols for Choirs.

[9] Pearsall was the author of several articles and letters that contributed to scholarly understanding of early music in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions and helped to re-establish plainsong, Renaissance polyphony, and ancient church hymns in German and English-speaking countries.

[citation needed] His antiquarian interests, including history, heraldry and genealogy, his rejection of industrialisation, and his search for clarity in musical composition were derived from earlier models and place him firmly in the Romantic movement.