Giles Farnaby

There are over 50 works for keyboard by Giles Farnaby surviving today, together with his ‘Canzonets’ and Psalm settings he presents as a versatile composer of the late Elizabethan/early Stuart period.  Born 1563?, son of a carpenter, in London, he lived there all his life except for 2 years in the small village of Aisthorpe, Lincs., 3 miles North of Lincoln, where he was tutor c. 1608 to Sir Nicholas Saunderson’s family of Fillingham, Lincs.  By 1611 Farnaby was back in London.  His last publication c. 1634 was ‘The Psalmes of David, to fower parts, for Vyols and Voyces’ dedicated to Dr Henry King “cheife prebend” of St Paul’s.  In November 1640 the St Giles’ Cripplegate Register records the burial of “Gyles Farnaby musitian”.