Robert Lucas de Pearsall (b. 1795, Bristol, England; d. 1856, Wartensee Castle, Switzerland)

Although Robert Pearsall was trained as a lawyer, he had a love for music that encompassed most of his life. At age thirteen he wrote a cantata entitled Saul and the Witch of Endor. He studied music in Germany from 1825 to 1829. He returned to his native England for a year, but then went back to Germany, where he composed a number of works including a ballet opera (which was never performed) and his Miserere mei, Domine.

During a trip to England in 1836, Pearsall became familiar with the Elizabethan madrigal school, which influenced his compositions for the remainder of his life. He published about sixty part-songs and madrigals. Pearsall demonstrated a thorough understanding of the madrigal form but departed from the style’s strict rules to create his own imaginative works.

Pearsall wrote a number of works for the Anglican worship service. Near the end of his life he joined the Catholic Church, for which he wrote several psalm settings, a Requiem Mass, the office of Tenebrae, two settings of Salve Regina, and other compositions.