Henry Eccles

Biography

Henry Eccles was an English composer and contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi. He came from a family of musicians; his father was the composer Solomon Eccles and his brother, John Eccles. Henry Eccles was an accomplished violinist and joined the entourage of the Duke d’Aumont, the French ambassador to Britain. Around 1713, he returned to France with the ambassador and settled in Paris. His Twelve Solos for the Violin were published here in 1720, dedicated to the English investor and entrepreneur Joseph Gage who was a major player in the financial sector in Paris at the time.

Eccles’s music infamously contains many musical borrowings, or sometimes outright plagiarism. Many parts of the Twelve Solos were taken from Giuseppe Valentini’s op. 8, including full movements in the third and tenth sonatas. His famous G minor sonata appears to be mostly his own work, though the second movement was taken from Francesco Bonporti’s op. 10.