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{{distinguish|James Hooker (musician)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
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'''James Hook''' (3 June 1746 – 1827) was an English composer and organist and a friend of [[Joseph Haydn]] and [[Muzio Clementi]].
==Life and musical career==
He was born in [[Norwich]], the son of James Hook, a razor-grinder and cutler. He displayed a remarkable musical talent at an early age, playing the harpsichord by the age of four and performing concertos in public at age six. He began performing regularly by the time he was 10 years old, including benefit concerts. He held many jobs to earn money, including teaching, composing, transcribing music and tuning keyboard instruments.
Sometime between June 1763 and February 1764 Hook moved to London.<ref name="McGairlGrove">McGairl, Grove Online</ref> There he became the organist at [[White Conduit House]], Pentonville, one of the tea gardens that were popular in 18th-century London. He worked as an organist, teacher and composer, and gained a reputation for composing vocal music. He married the artist and writer Elizabeth Jane Madden on 29 May 1766, at St. Pancras Old Church.<ref name="McGairlGrove" /> They had two sons, James (1772–1828) and Theodore Edward (1788–1841).
Hook was appointed organist and composer to [[Marylebone Gardens]] in 1768. In addition to his performances as an organist, and occasionally on the harpsichord, he was now invited to perform concertos between the main works in the theatres, and his short musical entertainments and comic operas were being produced for the [[pleasure gardens]] and in the London theatres.
He was appointed organist of St Johns Horselydown, Bermondsey, in 1776, and frequently played concerts on newly built organs, both in London and in nearby counties, often playing his own compositions. He was highly successful as a teacher of organ and harpsichord. Hook remained at Marylebone Gardens until the end of the 1773 season, and a year later was engaged in a similar position at [[Vauxhall Gardens]]. Hook had a pupil then named [[Margaret Martyr|Margaret Thornton]] and 1778 when she was singing Hook's songs in [[Vauxhall Gardens]]. She sang his songs there each summer until 1780. Thornton returned to Vauxhall as Margeret Martyr<ref name=mbio>{{Cite
Throughout these years he composed operas and other musical works, most of which were produced at Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. He frequently collaborated with family members. His wife Elizabeth wrote the libretto for the opera ''The Double Disguise'' (1784). His son James provided librettos for ''Jack of Newbury'' (1795) and ''Diamond Cut Diamond'' (1797), while Thomas Edward composed librettos for at least eight operas.
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==Works==
[[File:John Brewster - Portrait of Sarah Prince (also known as Silver Moon or Girl at the Pianoforte) - 2017.33.1 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Sarah Prince by John Brewster, Jr. (ca. 1801). She is holding a copy of the sheet music for Hook's song "The Silver Moon" (1794).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Portrait of Sarah Prince (1785–1867) (also known as Silver Moon or Girl at the Pianoforte)|url=https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/218697|access-date=2021-10-05|website=artgallery.yale.edu}}</ref>]]
'''Stage works'''
*''Trick Upon Trick'' (pantomime), July 1772, Op. 3
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*''The Fortress'' (melodrama), 16 July 1807, Op. 117
*''Music Mad'' (comic sketch), 27 August 1807, Op. 119
*''[[The Siege of St Quintin|The Siege of St Quintin, or Spanish Heroism]]'' (drama), 10 November 1808, Op. 122
*''Killing no Murder'' (farce), 21 August 1809, Op. 129
*''Safe and Sound'' (comic opera), 28 August 1809, Op. 130
*''Sharp and Flat'' (operatic farce), 4 August 1813, Op. 140
'''Large
*''The Ascension'', oratorio, Covent Garden, 20 March, 1776
'''Chamber
*''Six Sonatas For Violoncello and Piano'', 1783
*''Six Solos for Flute and Harpsichord'', ca.1774
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*''Six Trios for Three Flutes'', Op. 133
'''Keyboard
*''Six Familiar Sonatas'', 1798
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'''Rhymes'''
* Christmas Box <ref>
* Christmas box, Volume 2 (For Juvenile Amusement. Set to music by Mr. Hook.)<ref>
'''Pedagogical works'''
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== References ==
*{{Citation | last = Baker | first = Theodore | contribution = Hook, Ernest | year = 1992 | title = Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians | edition = Eighth | editor-last = Slonimsky | editor-first = Nicolas
* {{
* {{Citation | title = The Annual Register or a View of History, Politics and Literature for the Year 1806 | volume = 48 | page = 489 | publisher = W. Otridge and Son | place = London | year = 1808}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hook, James}}
[[Category:English Classical-period composers]]
[[Category:1746 births]]
[[Category:1827 deaths]]
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