Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Birchensha, John

by John Weeks Moore

Birchensha, John,(Birchenshaw) a Welshman, lived in family of Earl of Kildare in his youth, and afterwards taught the viol in London, one of his pupils being Samuel Pepys. He published a prospectus, in 1672, of a complete system of music, intended to be published by him under the title of "Syntagma Musicae." It is doubtful whether this work ever appeared, but the prospectus was published by Hawkins in 1776. He wrote two treatises on music, and translated the "Elementale Musicum" of Alstedius from Latin.

Birchensha addressed the Royal Society three times, and Manuscripts of his music are held in The British Library and The Bodleian Library, Oxford.

He was buried in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey on 14th May 1681.