Ignatius Sancho - Music of an 18th Century Black Englishman (The Raritan Players)

Information

Composer: Ignatius Sancho

1. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 13, Minuet in E-Flat Major
2. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 18, The Friendly Visit
3. A Collection of New Songs: No. 1, The Complaint
4. 12 Country Dances: No. 8, Strawberrys and Cream
5. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 20, Hornpipe in B-Flat Major
6. New Instructions for the French Horn: Horse Grenadier's March
7. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 3, Minuet in G Major
8. Ode upon Dedicating a Building to Shakespeare: Sweetest Bard
9. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 16, Sir Harry Flutter
10. New Instructions for the French Horn: Minuet in C Major
11. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 1, Minuet in F Major
12. A Collection of New Songs: No. 2, Sweetest Bard
13. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 5, Minuet in F Major - No. 6, Minuet in F Major
14. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 9, Les contes des fees
15. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 2, Minuet in B-Flat Major
16. 12 Country Dances: No. 5, Lord Dalkeiths Reel
17. 12 Country Dances: No. 10, The Royal Bishop
18. A Collection of New Songs: No. 3, Anacreon Ode XXIII
19. 12 Country Dances: No. 12, Mungos Delight
20. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 22, La maison de la reine
21. A Collection of New Songs: No. 4, Thou Softly Flowing Avon
22. New Instructions for the French Horn: The Echo Tune
23. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 5, Minuet in C Major
24. The Runaway
25. Minuets, etc, Book I: No. 10, Christmas Eve
26. A Collection of New Songs: No. 5, Kate of Aberdeen
27. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 11, Minuet in G Minor
28. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 15, Gavotta in A Major
29. A Collection of New Songs: No. 5, Kate of Aberdeen
30. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 19, Who'd a Thought It
31. The Feathers
32. Corporal Trim
33. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 1, Minuet in D Major
34. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 14, Air in D Major
35. The Sampler
36. Shandy Hall
37. A Collection of New Songs: No. 6, Friendship, Source of Joy
38. Minuets, etc, Book II: No. 17, Richmond Hill

Sonya Headlam, soprano

The Raritan Players

Rebecca Cypess, director & square piano

Date: 2025

Label: Centaur Records

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Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780) was a composer, writer, actor, and prominent abolitionist. Born on a slave ship en route from Guinea to the Spanish West Indies, he was brought to England as a child and raised in Greenwich. Supported and educated by the Duke of Montagu, he later worked as a butler and valet before opening a grocery shop in Westminster. In 1758 he married Ann Osborne, with whom he had several children. Sancho composed music, wrote plays (now lost), and published letters that earned him literary recognition. A friend of Gainsborough and Garrick, he became the first black Briton to receive a published obituary.

The Raritan Players are an ensemble dedicated to reviving the lost performance practices and repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries through historically informed performance and musicological research. Based in New Jersey’s Raritan Valley region, the group seeks to illuminate forgotten stories from the musical past. Founded and directed by historical keyboardist and scholar Rebecca Cypess, Associate Dean at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, the ensemble presents research-based performances across the U.S. Cypess is also a noted author of major scholarly works on early modern music and women’s roles in the Enlightenment’s musical culture.

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