Busby, Thomas

1755-1838

English organist, composer and musical writer. He was a pupil of Battishill and was organist successively of a number of London churches. He was given the degree of Doctor of Music by Cambridge in 1801. He was a very industrious composer of dramatic and other music, but his works had no amount of originality. Some of his best compositions were The Prophecy, an oratorio; dramatic music to Joanna, to A Tale of Mystery, to Rugantino and to The Fair Fugitive; also odes, anthems and glees. He was also the author of a Dictionary of Music, a Grammar of Music, and a General History of Music, which was largely compiled from Burney and Hawkins.