Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Bates, Joah, Esq

Bates, Joah, Esq., one of the commissioners of the customs, was a good musical theorist, and an excellent performer on the organ. He was a native of Halifax, in Yorkshire, and born about the year 1740. Such were his talents, and so great was his repute as a sound musician, that, at the commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey, he was fixed upon as manager to arrange the band, and to superintend and conduct the performance. To this gentleman are also to be ascribed the undeviating correctness and energy which for many years attended the choral performances at the concerts of ancient music, of which he was conductor till the year 1793, when he was succeeded by Mr. Greatorex. It is understood that none of the compositions of Mr. Bates have hitherto been given to the public. He died in 1799.