Peter Philips
(1560 - 1628)
Philips was an English composer and organist who spent most of his working life in Belgium. He was a Catholic, and as such chose to leave England after a tenure as singer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He first went to Brussels, and then quickly on to the English College in Rome where he met the English Catholic landowner Lord Thomas Paget. Philips and Paget traveled throughout Europe together, before settling in Antwerp shortly before Paget's death. There, Philips obtained a position as organist to the chapel of the Archduke.  He was also highly regarded as a virginal player, and made a living teaching on this instrument.

Philips composed music for both instrumental consort and keyboard, many of these pieces surviving. These pieces involve the best-known genres of English instrumental music of the time, the fantasia and pavan & galliard. Philips' style of vocal composition is extremely smooth, with well-planned harmonies, and a general lack of contrapuntal artifice. Philips was one of the outstanding vocal composers of his day. 