Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666) was the most prominent member of a large family of French and Italian musicians in the service of the English court since the middle of the sixteenth century. He received a position as one of the lutes in the King’s Music, 12 January 1615/16. Previously (c. 1605-13) he had held a position as a domestic musician in the household of Robert Cecil. At court, in addition to his position as lutenist, Lanier was a singer, and performer on the viol. He was the first to hold the position of Master of the King’s Music, from at least as early as 1626 until his death (with a hiatus during the Civil War and interregnum), and he served as first Marshall (for life) of the Corporation for Regulating the Art and Science of Music.

As a composer, Lanier was recognized in his own day, and is chiefly remembered now, as one of the composers who introduced the new style of Italian monody to seventeenth-century English music. He was an important composer of music for court masques, especially those of Ben Jonson. Indeed, if we are to take Jonson’s remarks at face value, he was the first English composer to write music for a masque that was sung throughout, and thus may be considered the beginning of a sort of opera in England-Jonson, in his introductory stage directions to Lovers Made Men (1617/1640), states, "the whole Masque was sung (after the Italian manner) Stylo recitativo, by Master Nicholas Lanier; who ordered and made both the Scene, and the Musicke." Jonson also mentions Lanier (along with Lanier’s uncle, Alfonso Ferrabosco) as composer of music for his Masque of Augurs.

He was a poet: many of the lyrics to his songs are probably his own, and at least one of his poems was set to music by another composer. He served as representative and agent of Charles I in the purchase of a large portion of the extraordinary art collection of the Dukes of Mantua. This purchase, which has been described as "the greatest single coup in the history of collecting by any purchaser, prince or patron", took Lanier to Italy (mainly in and near Venice) off and on for about three years (1625-28) and was the means by which he came into direct contact with the new Italian music.

Lanier was both a painter and a print maker, producing several paintings and two books of prints. As Ben Jonson noted in the remark quoted above, Lanier provided scenery for Lover’s Made Men. He evidently developed a reputation for knowledge of specialized painting techniques. Theodore de Mayerne, writing about 1630, comments on a recipe for "amber varnish" given to him by Lanier. He describes Lanier as "a superb musician and art lover". De Mayerne states that Lanier "says that he had learned this and obtained the recipe from signora Artemisa, the daughter of Gentileschi". It has also been suggested that during the interregnum Lanier supported himself by painting forgeries in imitation of masterworks. Sanderson, Graphice (1658), writes: "It is said that Laniere in Paris, by a cunning way of tempering his Colours with Chimney Soote, the Painting becoms duskish, and seems ancient; which done, he roules up and thereby it crackls, and so mistaken for an old Principall, it being well copied from a good hand."

Life information from: Gordon J. Callon, "Introduction", Nicholas Lanier: The Complete Works..., ix-xiii.

Select Bibliography (very limited):

• Callon, Gordon J. "Songs with Theorbo by Charles Colman and his Contemporaries in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Broxbourne 84.9 and London, Lambeth Palace Library MS 1041," Journal of the Lute Society of America, XXIV (1991), pp. 15-51.
• Emslie, MacDonald. "Nicholas Lanier’s Innovations in English Song", Music and Letters, XLI (1960), 13-27.
• Graham, F. Lanier. "The Earlier Life and Work of Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666), Collector of Paintings and Drawings." M.A. Thesis, Columbia University, 1967.
• James, Susan E. "Nicholas Lanier: A Greenwich Notable, Part I 1588-1612", Journal of the Greenwich Historical Society, I (1992), 51-60.
• James, Susan E. "Nicholas Lanier: A Greenwich Notable, Part 2 (1613-1625)", unpublished typescript [for publication in the Journal of the Greenwich Historical Society, II (1993)].
• Spink, Ian. English Song, Dowland to Purcell. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1974.
• Spink, Ian. "Lanier in Italy", Music and Letters, XL (1959), 242-252.
• Wilson, Michael I. Nicholas Lanier: Master of the King’s Musick. Aldershot, Hampshire: Scolar Press, 1994.
• Songs with Theorbo (ca. 1650-1663): Oxford, Bodleian Library, Broxbourne 84.9, London, Lambeth Palace Library, 1041. Edited by Gordon J. Callon. (Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 105). Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 2000.