How Love and a Coin Toss Brought About the Death of a Baroque Composer
The peculiar circumstances surrounding one composer’s latter days have both the elements of a tragedy and a comedy. This is the story of Jeremiah Clarke.
By Joseph John L. Verallo · May 18, 2026
Jeremiah Clarke was an English composer born in London in 1604, who today is largely overshadowed by his baroque contemporaries–Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and the like. Indeed, I have only come to know him for two reasons: the first being, like the case with Christian Petzold’s Minuet in G being attributed to Bach, Clarke’s Prince of Denmark's March (known more as Trumpet Voluntary)–a popular choice for weddings–which had been attributed to Henry Purcell for over 200 years after its composition.
Second, like the case with Jean-Baptiste Lully, who famously died from gangrene after stabbing himself in the foot as he was conducting, Clarke seems to owe much of his fame to the peculiarity of his death.
In addition to being a composer and organist at Winchester College, then at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and lastly at the Chapel Royal, Clarke was also a pedagogue, a well-respected one at that, considering the prestige of the positions he held. He likely attracted a lot of upper-class students, one of them being a female of high social ranking, whom Clarke would have the misfortune of falling in love with.
Considering this large gap between social classes, this turned into a classic case of unrequited love. Whether out of disinterest or a reluctance to go against 17th-century social obligations, the woman would come to reject his love.
Clarke was clearly smitten, though to what degree, his friends and acquaintances would only find out later. While in the countryside, he had been residing in his friend’s house when he decided to leave for London. Noting Clarke’s grief, his friend provided him with a horse.
While on the way to London, melancholy got the better of Clarke. He dismounted his horse and walked towards a nearby pond. There, he debated whether he should end his life by drowning or hanging himself on one of the surrounding trees. Unable to make this morbid decision, he decided to flip a coin and leave it up to Fate. The coin ended up landing on its edge, embedded in the clay.
What were the chances? Fate seemed to be telling Clarke to carry on.
This seemed to be what Clarke took it as, returning to his horse and resuming his journey to London. Arriving in his home by St. Paul’s Cathedral, however, a fit of melancholy likely tormented Clarke once more. The composer eventually got his pistol and shot himself.