Biography
John Abell moved through several musical roles as composer, lutenist, singer, and occasional violinist. Because he held pro-Catholic views, his arrivals and departures at the English court rose and fell with the prevailing tensions between church and state. His reputation rested chiefly on an outstanding counter-tenor voice, which earned him a place in the King's Private Music. Numerous anecdotes still circulate that attest to the voice's excellence and the strong reactions it provoked both domestically and in foreign lands. Between 1701 and 1703 he produced his most substantial body of work, issuing the collections titled "A Collection of Songs, in Several Languages," "A Collection of Songs in English," and "A Choice Collection of Italian Ayres." Travels through Italy left a clear imprint on those pieces. At their strongest his compositions remain, unfortunately, trite. History preserves him above all as a singer. [One wonders if his counter-tenor range might better be described as castrato.] ~ Keith Johnson