John Alexander Fuller Maitland

“ Lind's retirement from the stage, one of the most interesting was the performance of ‘Elijah,’ given in Exeter Hall on 15 Dec. 1848, in order to raise a fund for the endowment of a scholarship in memory of Mendelssohn, who had died in November of the previous year. Although, as in the case of Meyerbeer's opera, Mlle. Lind was not the first to sing the soprano part, there is no doubt that the composer had her voice in view when he wrote the music, and therefore a peculiar interest attached to the first of many occasions on which she interpreted it. ”

“ In 1820 the Italian Opera had reached a degree of commercial and artistic depression that was extraordinary, even for this most disastrous of speculations. The season had come to a premature end, and there seemed to be no prospect of an opera for the ensuing season. The secret of Ebers's apparent self-sacrifice is no doubt to be found in the circumstance of his being ‘engaged in the interests of the box-holders.’ He seems to have gone into the undertaking with his eyes open, but to have relied on his musical director to bring matters into a more satisfactory state. ”

“ He distinguished himself even as a boy singer, and by his gentle, amiable disposition, became a great favourite not only with his master, but also with Sir John Hawkins, whose daughter, in her 'Anecdotes,' mentions him frequently, and always with the highest admiration, not only of his talents, but of his character. He made his first appearance as a bass singer in 1788 at the Ancient Concerts, and he kept up his connection with that institution, with only one break, until he was compelled by ill-health to resign. ”

“ The gift of music seems to have been diffused through this family to a degree that is comparatively rare in musical history. In Bull's ‘Virginal Music’ (Addit. MS. 23623) there is an arrangement of a ‘Toccata di Roma, sexti toni,’ by Hieronimo Ferabosco, whose music may very possibly have been introduced to Bull by the elder Alfonso. From the internal evidence of the second Alfonso's music it is clear that he imbibed none of his father's ‘deep skill,’ and that he attached himself definitely to the new school of music which sprang up in Italy at the beginning of the seventeenth century. ”

“ Like Wagner, he was an ardent disciple of Schopenhauer, and his purely literary works show a good deal of the philosophical spirit. As a musical critic, although he wrote in a language not his own, and on a subject for which he had no exceptional natural qualifications, he yet filled a post of great responsibility with success, if not with distinction, and he exerted an elevating influence on the art of his time. ”

“ Living at a time before faithfulness to a composer's intentions was considered the first qualification for a conductor, it is not to be wondered at that Costa should have made additions to Handel's scores with a view to rendering the compositions of that master thoroughly effective from his point of view. ”

“ The elder Gauntlett promised the congregation that if they would subscribe for an organ he would provide an organist from among his own children, intending to make two of his daughters play together. His son, then aged nine, undertook, by the time the organ was put up, to be able to play it. In a few weeks his promise was fulfilled, and he was regularly installed. He held the post for ten years. In order to celebrate the accession of George IV, he got up a performance of the ‘Messiah,’ first copying out all the parts, and training all the singers himself. ”

“ FERRABOSCO or FERABOSCO, ALFONSO (d. 1628) , lutenist and composer, is said to have been ‘born at Greenwich of Italian parents’ (Wood, MS. Notes, in Bodleian) . If so he must have been born some time before 1587, possibly as early as 1567 [see Ferrabosco, Alfonso, fl. 1544–1587] . Dowland, in his ‘Varietie of Lute Lessons,’ 1610, calls him ‘the most Artificiall and famous Alfonso Ferrabosco of Bologna.’ This would imply that he was taken to Italy by his father, and that he studied music and lute-playing at Bologna. ”

“ EAST (also spelt Est, Este, and Easte) , MICHAEL (1580?–1680?) , musical composer, is generally supposed to have been a son of Thomas East [q. v.] , the well-known printer. The only information to be obtained concerning his life is such as may be gathered from the title-pages of his musical compositions. The first of these, a madrigal, ‘Hence, stars too dim of light,’ was contributed to the ‘Triumphs of Oriana,’ the collection of madrigals made in honour of Queen Elizabeth, and printed in 1601, though not published until two years afterwards [see East, Thomas] . ”

“ The adaptation of prominently successful foreign operas to the English stage was held to involve as a matter of course the composition of more or less suitable numbers to be inserted according to the exigencies of public taste. Among the mass of operas and plays with incidental music which were produced during his directorship it is extremely hard to disentangle his original compositions from those which he borrowed, with a merely general acknowledgment, from all kinds of sources. ”

“ On the death of John Eccles [q. v.] in 1735 he was appointed master of the king's band of music. He thus held, before he was forty years of age, all the chief musical appointments in the country. Greene had been an ardent admirer of Handel when that master first came to England, and became intimate with him, it is said, through procuring for him, even before he himself became organist, facilities for playing on the cathedral organ at St. Paul's. But Greene was also friendly with Buononcini, and did not abandon the intimacy at the time of Buononcini's famous quarrel with Handel. ”

“ At a time when the compositions by the English madrigalian composers are admired by comparatively few lovers of music, and when the very structural laws of the true madrigal are only understood by a mere handful of learned specialists, it is exceedingly difficult to estimate the position which East held among his contemporaries. ”

“ He wrote also thirty-six glees, mainly arranged from familiar melodies, selections of sacred musical compositions, a ‘Treatise on Singing,’ and ‘Thorough-bass simplified, or the whole Theory and Practice of Thorough-bass laid open to the meanest capacity.’ In estimating his works, it must be remembered that he was a contemporary of Jackson of Exeter, and that the influences which formed that most insipid composer were not unfelt by him. ”

“ The only portion of any real value is a chapter on the state of English church music, in which the author deprecates the custom of writing fugal music for voices, on the ground that such treatment prevents the words from being properly heard. ”

“ FARMER, JOHN (fl. 1591–1601) , composer, was a favourite of Edward Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford, ‘a great favourer of poets (being one himself) and musitians’ (Wood, MS. Notes in Bodleian) . To this nobleman he dedicated the two works which he published on his own responsibility. ”

“ Owing to the industry of the pupil and the skill of the teacher, by June 1842 she had learnt all that any singing-master could teach her. In July of that year the power of her voice was tested by Meyerbeer's wish in the Grand Opéra at Paris. An erroneous report was spread in after years that this so-called ‘trial performance’ was given in order that she might procure an engagement in Paris, but the fact that she had already signed an agreement with the Stockholm Opera for either one or two years is a sufficient refutation of the rumour. ”

“ The ‘exercise’ for his degree is preserved in a large and very beautiful choir book in the Lambeth Palace Library (Cat. no. 1) . It is a Gloria in five parts, and is complete, as the parts were written in ‘cantus lateralis,’ instead of in separate part-books. The other portions of the mass, which follow immediately upon the Gloria, are probably by Fairfax, although his name only appears over this one movement. This may possibly be a portion of one of the five-part masses mentioned by Wood as existing at Oxford. The other masses by him are in three parts. ”

“ The ‘Jenny Lind fever’ is a matter of history, and it is quite certain that the adulation of the public has never been more worthily bestowed. Out of the thirty operas in which she took part during her career she appeared in London only in the following: ‘Sonnambula,’ ‘Lucia,’ ‘Norma,’ ‘Roberto,’ ‘Figlia del Reggimento,’ ‘Figaro,’ ‘L'Elisir d'Amore,’ ‘Puritani,’ and ‘I Masnadieri,’ the last an early and unsuccessful attempt of Verdi. She had immense success at a concert which she gave at Norwich in 1849. ”

“ The title this time is in English throughout, and runs: ‘Concertos, or the Universal Bizzaries in seven parts, for four violins, tenor violin, and violoncello, with a thorough-bass for a harpsichord.’ The peculiarity of the concertos is that to each one is prefixed the name of an Italian city or a country of Europe, implying that each is written in the characteristic style of the place after which it is named. ”

“ In 1774 he went to London for the production of his opera, ‘Alessandro nell' Indie,’ in which his friend Rauzzini made his first appearance; the opera was only partially successful, since, as Burney says, ‘his name was not sufficiently blazoned to give his opera much éclat, or, indeed, to excite the attention it deserved.’ He did not again visit England for thirteen years, but remained fully occupied in Edinburgh. ”

“ He was living in Paris in 1735. In that year the youngest of the brothers, Thomas Eccles, also a violinist, but an exceedingly dissipated character, who was at that time an itinerant performer, said that he had a brother who was at that time in the service of the king of France, and that this brother had taught him to play. Mendel (Convers. Lex. iii. 315) asserts that Henry Eccles died in 1742, and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the statement even of so untrustworthy an authority may be taken as possibly true. ”

“ As he learnt music from his father, who in 1667 had given up the art, though apparently only for a time, from conscientious scruples, we may assume him to have been born very near the middle of the century. He began composing for the theatre about 1681, and from that time till about 1707 he was constantly employed in this way, contributions by him occurring in no less than forty-six plays. Of course in many cases one or two songs were all that were required, and in the large majority of instances the music was composed by a number of persons in collaboration. ”

“ Her chief success was made in sacred music, which she delivered with much impressiveness. Among her secular songs the most famous was Purcell's ‘Mad Bess.’ She is said to have brought her husband 6,000l. or 7,000l. as a marriage portion, the tangible results of her popularity as an artist. Her success, it is said, gave a great impetus to the cultivation of music among the factory girls in the north of England. ”

“ The early authorities seem to agree in considering Finger to have been the best of the competitors, and the award is generally explained as the result of animosity against a foreigner. At this point of musical history English music enjoyed for a brief space exceptional popularity. The foreign element which had made its appearance with the Elizabethan madrigalists had died out, and the advent of the Italian opera and Handel did not take place until a few years later. The judges of the compositions were not masters of the art, but members of the fashionable world. ”

“ It is by no means impossible that these may be one person of nomadic tendencies. To him, or to one of his namesakes, if the other supposition is preferred, must be ascribed the anthem given by Tudway ‘O Lord Almighty,’ since by no stretch of imagination could Richard Farrant be described as ‘Mr. Farrant who lived in K. Ch. I's time.’ The short service in D Dorian, manuscripts of which are extant at Ely Cathedral and Peterhouse, and which is published in ‘Ouseley Cathedral Music,’ 1853, is by the earlier John Farrant, organist of Ely. ”

“ COURTEVILLE, RAPHAEL or RALPH (d. 1772) , organist and political writer, was the son or grandson of one of the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal who bore the same name, and who died on 28 Dec. 1675. The organ from the Chapel Royal was presented by Queen Mary in 1691 to the church of St. James's, Westminster, and on 7 Sept. in the same year a Ralph Courtaville, who had been strongly recommended by the Earl of Burlington, and who had previously been a chorister in the Chapel Royal, was appointed the first organist, with a salary of 20l. per annum for himself and 4l. ”

“ A series of lectures on the history of modern music was delivered at the Royal Institution early in 1861. In 1864 Hullah lectured at Edinburgh, but in the next year failed in his candidature for the Reid professorship of music owing to the casting vote of the rector of the university (the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone) , which was given against him. In 1866 and 1867 he conducted the Philharmonic concerts in Edinburgh, and in the latter year received a medal at the Paris Exhibition, but seems to have been mortified by the bestowal of a similar award upon the Chevé system. ”

“ That Hatton's enduring fame as an English musician is based on so slight a foundation is not due to any shortcomings in natural gifts, but to the irresistible influence of his animal spirits and his lack of artistic earnestness. His part-songs, like ‘When evening's twilight,’ remain among the most popular works of this kind; genuine humour is displayed in such songs as ‘Simon the Cellarer;’ and one at least, ‘To Anthea,’ has become a classic. Hatton was popular wherever he went ”

“ Though it is impossible to deny that these two works owe their form, if not their very existence, to the success of Mendelssohn's ‘Elijah,’ there is yet no doubt that they contain many extremely effective passages, many attractive melodies, and, in the latter case more especially, some instances of fine choral writing. Perhaps the best proof of their vitality is the fact that they are still retained in the programmes of the Sacred Harmonic Society. ”

“ BATTISHILL, JONATHAN (1738–1801) , composer, was the son of a solicitor, and was born in London in May 1738. At the age of nine he became a chorister of St. Paul's, and was articled pupil to the choirmaster, William Savage, before the age of thirteen. Under this master, who treated him with great severity, he advanced rapidly in scientific knowledge of music and in manual execution. When his term of apprenticeship expired he was already known as one of the best extempore performers on the organ in the country. ”