Henry Bishop

Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (London, November 18, 1786 — London, April 30, 1855) was an English musical composer. He is famous today for the songs "Home! Sweet Home!" and "Lo, Hear the Gentle Lark", but was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramatic works, including 80 operas, light operas, cantatas, and ballets. He worked for all the major theatres of London in his era — including the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Vauxhall Gardens and the Haymarket Theatre.

Life and Works

Bishop's father was a watchmaker and haberdasher. At the age of 13 Bishop left full-time education and worked as a music-publisher with his cousin. After training as a jockey at Newmarket, he took some lessons in harmony from Francisco Bianchi in London , and in 1804 wrote the music to a piece called "Angelina", which was performed at Margate.

Bishop's "operas", written in a style and format that satisfied the audiences of his day, have more in common with the earlier, native English ballad opera genre, or with modern musicals, that the classical opera of continental Europe with full recitatives. His first opera, "The Circassian's Bride" (1809), had one performance at Drury Lane — then the theatre burned down and the score was lost.

Bishop composed the music for a series of Shakespearean operas staged by Frederic Reynolds in the years between 1816 and 1828. But these, and the numerous works, operas, burlettas, cantatas, incidental music etc. which he wrote are mostly forgotten. The most successful were "The Virgin of the Sun" (1812), "The Miller and his Men" (1813), "Guy Mannering" (1816), and "Clari, or the Maid of Milan", introducing the song "Home! Sweet Home!" (1823) (words by John Howard Payne), which was 'relaunched' by Bishop as a parlour ballad in 1852. Also of note is Bishop's 1819 musical comedy adaptation of William Shakespear's "The Comedy of Errors" for which he wrote the popular coloratura soprano aria "Lo, Hear the Gentle Lark". [ [http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Henry_Bishop/24553.htm Naxos.com] ]

In 1825 Bishop was induced by Elliston to transfer his services from Covent Garden to the rival house in Drury Lane, for which he wrote the opera of "Aladdin", based on the story from "10001 nights", intended to compete with Weber's "Oberon", commissioned by the other house. The result was a failure, and with "Aladdin" Bishop's career as an operatic composer may be said to close.

Bishop was one of the original directors of the Philharmonic Society when it was founded in 1813. He conducted at Covent Garden and at the London Philharmonic concerts. In 1841 he was appointed to the Reid Chair of Music in the University of Edinburgh, but he resigned the office in 1843, later becoming Professor of Music at the University of Oxford (1848), succeeding William Crotch. The music for the ode on the occasion of the installation of Lord Derby as chancellor of the university (1853) proved to be his last work. Bishop was knighted in 1842, the first musician to be so honored.

Bishop's later years were clouded by scandal. He had married his second wife, the singer Anna Rivière, in 1831. She was twenty-four years younger than he. In 1839, Rivière abandoned her husband and three children to run off with her lover and accompanist, the harpist Nicolas Bochsa. They left England to give concert tours abroad until Bochsa died in Sydney, Australia in 1856. [Norman Gilliland, "Grace Notes for a Year: Stories of Hope, Humor and Hubris From the World of Classical Music," Madison, Wisconsin, NEMO Productions, 2002; p.9.]

Bishop died in 1855 in poverty, although he had a substantial income during his lifetime. He is buried in East Finchley Cemetery in north London.

Principal Works

*"The Maniac, or The Swiss Banditti", 1810; opera
*"The Brazen Bust", 1813; melodrama
*"The Miller and His Men", 1813; melodrama
*"Sadak and Kalasrade, or The Waters of Oblivion", 1814; opera
*"Brother and Sister", 1815; entertainment
*"Guy Mannering", 1816; musical play
*"December and May", 1818; operetta
*"The Heart of Mid-Lothian", 1819; musical drama
*"The Comedy of Errors", 1819; musical comedy
*"The Battle of Bothwell Brigg", 1820; musical romance
*"Clari, or the Maid of Milan", 1823; opera
*"Alladin", 1826; opera
*"Yelva, or The Orphan of Russia", 1829; musical drama
*"The Seventh Day," 1833; sacred cantata

Media

Notes

References

*F. Corder, "The Works of Sir Henry Bishop," "The Musical Quarterly" Vol. IV No. 1 (1918), pp. 78-97.
*M. Faul, " [http://bochsa.site.voila.fr Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, harpiste, compositeur, escroc"] (editions Delatour, France 2003)
*Grove Music Online, "Bishop, Sir Henry R(owley)".
*1911

External links

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