Philip Rosseter was an English composer, musician, and theatrical manager, born in 1568 into a family that seems to have come from Somerset or Lincolnshire. He may have been employed with the Countess of Sussex by 1596 and was living in London by 1598. In 1604 he was appointed a court lutenist for James I of England, a post he held until his death. In 1609 he became a shareholder in a company of boy actors known as the Children of the Chapel. He died on 5 May 1623.

Rosseter is best known for A Book of Ayres, written with Thomas Campion and published in 1601. His lute songs are typically short and homophonic, with little word painting, yet inventive. His only other book, Lessons for Consort (1609), was scored for a broken consort of bandora, cittern, lute, flute, and treble and bass viol, and includes arrangements of his own and others’ music. Giles Farnaby’s Rosseter’s Galliard, probably based on his music, appears in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Rosseter
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1374217