1784

 

 

Feb 11

DRURY LANE THEATRE. / THE ORATORIOS, Under the Direction of Messrs. STANLEY and LINLEY, will commence at this Theatre on Friday the 27th of this Month.[1]

 

 

 

Feb 12

MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE. / THE Lovers of Harmony, and Admirers of the Works of the late Dr. Arne, are happy to hear that his Son, Mr. Michael Arne, and Mr. Barthelemon, are preparing the inimitable Compositions of JUDITH, ALFRED, ABEL, and ELIZA, for public Representation as ORATORIOS, the following Lent, at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-market, at Playhouse Prices. / The principal Singers are Mrs. Arne, Mr. Arrowsmith, a Gentlewoman, and a Gentleman, being their first Appearance, and Mrs. Barthelemon. / Between the Acts the Audience are to be entertained with Concertos on the Organ and Violin by Mess. Arne and Barthelemon. / The above Compositions are to be performed alternately, with some of the PRINCIPAL ORATORIOS of HANDEL.[2]

 

 

 

Feb 20

On Friday Night there was a grand Musical Concert at Sir Watkin William Wynne’s House, St. James’s Square; at which were present the Prince of Wales, and a great Concourse of Nobility.[3]

 

 

 

Feb 24

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / [...] / On Friday (by Command of their Majesties) L’Allegro il Penseroso; to which will be added the Coronation Anthem.[4]

 

 

 

By COMMAND of

Their MAJESTIES

———————————————

AT THE

Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane,

On FRIDAY next, February 27, 1784,

Will be performed

L’Allegro il Pens[e]roso.

To which will be added

The CORONATION ANTHEM{S.}

The Principal Vocal Parts by

{The principal vocal Parts by}

Miss GEORGE,

Mrs KENNEDY,

Mr. NORRIS,

AND

Mr{.} REINHOLD{.}

First Violin by Mr. RICHARDS{.}

{F} Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. FOSBROOK,

at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF A GUINEA each{.}

Pit 5s.  First Gallery 3s. 6d.  Second Gallery 2s.

The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o’Clock{.}

To begin at Half after Six.                  Vivant Rex & Regina[5]

 

 

 

Feb 27

LONDON, Feb. 28. / […] / Last night their Majesties went to the Oratorio at Drury-lane Theatre.  Such unbounded applause as their Majesties met with on their entrance was perhaps never before experienced on any occasion, and which, indeed, may be said to have been continued throughout the whole evening.  The Coronation Anthem was encored with such uncommon earnestness from every part of the house, that the music was in fact drowned in the acclamations of the audience, and tears of joy were seen to trickle plentifully down the cheeks of the Royal pair.[6]

 

 

 

Feb 27, Mar 4

To the Printer of the Public Advertiser.

SIR,

MR. Stanley upon the Entrance of their Majesties to his Oratorio on Friday last, in a most proper Manner saluted them with the Coronation Anthem instead of the usual Overture.  The Idea of Compliment was caught, and eagerly embraced by the House, a very few Persons excepted, who seemed not very desirous that their Sovereign should receive either Pleasure or the Compliments of Loyalty.  However deficient in poetical Merit the following Lines may be, the Insertion of them will I am sure give a worthy Man five Minutes Pleasure, and much oblige your

CONSTANT READER.

March 4.

WHILST Brunswick mourns, by jarring Parties-crost,

“And Factions strive who should distress him most;”

Whilst black-brow’d Treason broods his hellish Deed,

And bold Ambition claims a Patriot’s Meed;

Crown’d be the Man with Bays that never dies,

“Who calls forth loyal Tears from British Eyes;”

Who bids the Heart beat high in Brunswick’s Cause,

Soul of the State and Father of the Laws!

Who bids a crouded Theatre rejoice,

And own their Blessings in their Nation’s Choice;

Who joining Hearts and Hands in one firm Whole,

Pour the sweet Tribute of a loyal Soul.

This to procure—we need no Orpheus’ Hand.

Why need that Lyre? when Stanley leads the Band.

Stanley stand forth—soft Music’s darling Care,

Nor shun that Merit you deserve to share.

If loyal Gratitude to Guilt gives Birth,

“Thou art the most offending Soul on Earth.”

Shakesp.

God save the King! sound loud those Notes again;

Resound the Note—and yet another Strain;

God save the King! here in full Measure run

Thy public Strain—thy private Orison,

Go dauntless on—thy Notes the World approve,

The melting Notes of Loyalty and Love;

Nor Envy, sickning at another’s Praise,

Shall dim the Lustre of thy Patriot Lays.

Finis coronat opus.[7]

 

 

 

February

THEATRICAL REGISTER.

DRURY LANE.

[...]

[Feb.] 27.  L’Allegro il Penseroso—The Coronation Anthem.[8]

 

 

 

Feb 28

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / [...] / On Wednesday Messiah, a Sacred Oratorio.[9]

 

 

 

Mar 2

AT THE

Theatre-Royal[ ]in Drury-Lane,

To-morrow, WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1784,

Will be performed

MESSIAH.

A SACRED ORATORIO.

The principal vocal Parts by

Miss GEORGE,

Mrs. KENNEDY,

Mr. NORRIS,

AND

Mr[.] REINHOLD[.]

First Violin by Mr. RICHARDS[.]

F Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. FOSBROOK,

at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF A GUINEA each.

Pit 5s.  First Gallery 3s. 6d.  Second Gallery 2s.

The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o’Clock.

To begin at Half after Six.                  Vivant Rex & Regina![10]

 

 

 

Mar 4

COMMEMORATION

OF

HANDEL.

Such Persons as are inclined to encourage this Celebrity, are desired to take Notice, that they who do not send for Tickets on, or before the last Day of this Month[,] will not be deemed Subscribers, and consequently not entitled to Preference in Point of Places in Westminster-Abbey.

            March 4th, 1784.[11]

 

 

 

Mar 4

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / To-morrow, by Command of their Majesties, Acis and Galatea; to which will be added Dryden’s Ode.[12]

 

 

 

Mar 5

For the Public Advertiser.

ORATORIO INTELLIGENCE[.]

[By a new Correspondent.] [sic]

JUDITH.

Dr. ARNE.

PREPOSSESSED as we were in Favour of the Messiah, given in its best Style at Drury-Lane, yet we could not help paying a proper Tribute to the Memory of the immortal Arne; consequently our justly fond Predilection for our British Swan, enticed us to the Haymarket.  We knew full well the Talents, Taste, and musical Science of Mrs. Barthelemon—we were not disappointed: Her Cantabiles evinced her Skill and exquisite Taste, and pleased us by an ample Display of Pathos, ever to be considered as the first of Requisites!—The delicate Tones of Mrs. Arne went to the Heart—her Timidity (the inseparable Companion of real Genius) served as a Foil to set off the native Graces of her pleasing Warblings.  Mr. Arrowsmith is an excellent Tenor, and proves, that in the Oratorio Style he will rank as high as any in our Memory.  Mr. Angiers (maugre his Hoarseness) gave us manly Tones in admirable Taste and Manner.—But of Mr. Wilson (also a new Performer) scarce too much can be said!  His Voice is an exquisite Contralto, of amazing Extent and Sweetness.  His Divisions are neat, articulate, and always in Tune; his Shake extremely true, and his Display of Pathos (Divine Attribute of a Divine Art) shews him to be a Musician by Nature!

            We sincerely congratulate the Public on this delightful Novelty, and thank Mess. Arne and Barthelemon for bringing forth his latent Genius.  The Chorusses were truly sublime and adequately performed.  The Band was the best chosen, and performed (under their spirited Leader) in Unity and ensemble as one Instrument.  Mr. Barthelemon’s Violin Concerto was in his usual Style of finished Elegance; his Adagio was exquisite, and the conclusive Rondeau extremely pleasing.  A small Fracas happened in consequence of the involuntary Omission of Mr. Arne’s Organ Concerto.  The Organ was sprained in the Carriage, which prevented the Audience from being enraptured with the Timotheus-like Rapidity of Mr. Arne’s Fingers, Taste, and luxuriant Fancy.  However, it was soon got over, and the whole finished with the most unbounded Approbation.  We sincerely hope that the Managers will reap the Fruit of their Labours; they deserve well of the Public in attempting to give such excellent Performances at Playhouse Prices!

                                                                                                            CLIO.[13]

 

 

 

Mar 5

For the Public Advertiser.

Saturday, March 6,

ORATORIO INTELLIGENCE.

ACIS and GALATEA, on the whole perhaps the most conformable to the present Taste, of all these Compositions of Handel, was very well performed last Night.  The Trio of “the Flocks shall leave the Mountains,”—“Hush, ye pretty warbling,”—Mrs. Kennedy’s beautiful Air in the Second Part,—were exquisitely performed.  Richards led with great Spirit and Correctness.—Of the Organ of our old Friend we cannot add any new Praise.—Crosdill’s Violoncello was never more masterly.—The King was again received with that general Turbulence of Joy which seemed to say, our Cause is the same: We will go on in the bright ascending Path, and at our Leisure dispose of those few and feeble Dividers, whom our Lenity and ours has let escape from the Penalties they deserve,—the SPONGING-HOUSE and the BLOCK!!

            Let no such Man be trusted.[14]

 

 

 

Every Day produces fresh Instances of the ridiculous and unwarrantable Practices to which the Adherents of the Court descend from the Violence of Party Prejudice.  One would have thought however that the Respect they pretend to feel for Royalty, and with the Want of which they endeavour to stigmatise their Opponents, would have prevented the indecent Outrage committed on Friday last at Drury Lane Theatre, when a Number of Persons were stationed in the Galleries for the Purpose of insulting the Heir Apparent of the Throne, on his Appearance in the Theatre, by Hissing and Hooting.  The same was attempted when he withdrew; but the Audience, who could not but feel the utmost Indignation against such an Impropriety, drowned the Hisses, which were few in Number, by a loud and continued Applause.  The Truth is, that the Court Faction find themselves daily declining in Credit with the Public, and will now risk any thing to preserve the Appearance of that Popularity which they are every Hour substantially losing, both by the Grounds of the Contest being better understoed [sic], and by the infamous Means which they employ upon every Occasion to impose upon the Public.[15]

 

 

 

Mar 6

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / [...] / On Wednesday will be performed Sampson.[16]

 

 

 

Mar 9

AT THE

Theatre-Royal[ ]in Drury-Lane,

To-morrow, WEDNESDAY, March 10, 1784,

Will be performed

SAMSON.

An ORATORIO.

Set to Music by Mr HANDEL

The principal vocal Parts by

Miss GEORGE,

Mrs. KENNEDY,

Mr. NORRIS,

AND

Mr[.] REINHOLD[.]

First Violin by Mr. RICHARDS[.]

End of the first Part a Concerto on the Hautboy,

By Mr. PARKE.

F Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. FOSBROOK,

at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF A GUINEA each.

Pit 5s.  First Gallery 3s. 6d.  Second Gallery 2s.

The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o’Clock.

To begin at Half after Six.                  Vivant Rex & Regina![17]

 

 

 

Mar 10

The Playhouse, one of the few Places in which the Sense of the People is not MIS-Represented, shews at once the strong Current of present Opinions and Affections:——The abundant Plaudits and Acclamations on the good King and Queen are yet echoing thro’ the Town.——At the last Oratorio, when a certain young Gentleman [=the Prince of Wales] made his Appearance, he was saluted with a pretty audible Hiss;—which, whether it applied to his Talents, his Virtues, or his Political Opinions, about as sapient in him, as an Act of Suicide,—were thought, by most who were present, perfectly apposite, and accordingly were un-opposed by any!![18]

 

 

 

Mar 11

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / To-morrow (by Command of their Majesties) Alexander’s Feast, with the Coronation Anthem.[19]

 

 

 

Mar 13

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            Such Persons as are inclined to encourage this Celebrity, are desired to take Notice, that they who do not send for Tickets on or before the last Day of this Month, will not be deemed Subscribers, and consequently not entitled to Preference in Point of Places in Westminster Abbey.                                                               March 4th, 1784.

            The Directors of the Concert of Antient Music have opened Books, to receive the Names of such Persons as are desirous of encouraging this Undertaking, and will deliver out the Tickets for the several Performances, at ONE GUINEA each Performance.  Books will likewise [PA: “also”] be opened, and Tickets delivered, at Mr. Lee’s, No. 44, Wigmore-street; Birchell’s Music-shop, No. 129, New Bond-street; Longman and Broderip’s, in the Hay-market and Cheapside; Bremner’s, near the New Church in the Strand; [PA: “at”] Wright’s and Co. Catherine-street, Strand; and at Napier’s Music-shop, [PA: “in the”] Strand.

            No Person will be admitted without a Ticket; and it is hoped, that those who mean to subscribe will do it as early as they conveniently can, that proper Seats may be provided for them.[20]

 

 

 

Mar 13

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / On Wednesday the Oratorio of Jeptha.[21]

 

 

 

Mar 16

AT THE

Theatre-Royal[ ]in Drury-Lane,

To-morrow, WEDNESDAY, March 17, 1784,

Will be performed

JEPTHA.

An ORATORIO

Set to Music by Mr HANDEL

The Principal Vocal Parts by

Miss GEORGE,

Mrs KENNEDY,

Mr. NORRIS,

AND

Mr. REINHOLD[.]

First Violin by Mr. RICHARDS.

End of the first Part a Solo on the Violoncello,

By Mr. CROSDILL.

Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. FOSBROOK,

at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF A GUINEA each[.]

Pit 5s.  First Gallery 3s. 6d.  Second Gallery 2s.

The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o’Clock.

To begin at Half after Six.                  Vivant Rex & Regina[22]

 

 

 

Mar 17

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / To-morrow (by Command of their Majesties) Judas Maccabaeus.[23]

 

 

 

Mar 20

To the LOVERS of MUSIC.

This Day was published, Price 1s. 6d.

A new Edition of NUMBER I.

(To be continued regularly every Week, without a Possibility of Interruption) of

THE NEW MUSICAL MAGAZINE.

Intended to contain the WHOLE WORKS COMPLEAT, of

Arne,

Bach,

Boyce,

Corelli,

Giordani,

Green,

Handel,

Haydn,

Pepusch,

Pergolesi,

Purcel,

Scarlatti,

Schobert,

Stanley,

Worgan,

And other celebrated British, Italian, German, and French Composers.

Accompanied with a Compleat Dictionary of

MUSIC,

           Comprehending not only a familiar Explanation of all the Terms of Art, ancient and modern: but History, Biography, Instructions for Composition and Practice, and every thing that relates to the Science.

           F The bare-faced and impudent Insinuations of certain Monopolizing Music-Sellers will be easily accounted for by the intelligent Public, on examining the following comparative Estimate of the Prices of the Articles already published in th[e] MUSICAL MAGAZINE, with those sold by themselves: to say nothing of the valuable Letter-Press given in each Number, and the superior Accuracy and Uniformity of the whole.

           Contents of the Sixteen first Numbers of the NEW MUSICAL MAGAZINE already published, Price only 24s. all together.

 

Prices of Messrs. Harrison and

Co.’s neat and uniform

Edition.              

 

 

l. s. d.

Music-Sellers

Prices.

l. s. d.

Comus (No. I.)

0  1  6

0  3  6

Messiah, with the

Choruses in Score,

(No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.)

 

 

0  7  6

 

 

2  2  0

Chaplet, (No. 7.)

0  1  6

0  4  0

Acis and Galatea, With

Dryden’s Ode on St.

Cecilia’s Day, the Choruses

in Score, (No. 8, 9, 10, 11.)

 

 

 

0  6  0

 

 

 

1  1  0

Judas Maccabeus[,] with

the Choruses in Score,

(No. 12, [1]3, 14, 15, 16.)

 

 

0  7  6

_____

 

 

2  2  0

_____

1  4  0

5 12 6

 

            The above needs no Comment---and the Encomiums, as well as Encouragement, the Publishers have received from many of the Nobility and Gentry, and from such Professors of the Science as are uninfluenced by Monopolizing Music-sellers, for the Spirit and Propriety with which they have continued to carry on this liberal Undertaking, at once claim their warmest Gratitude, and stimulate them to exert every endeavour in the future Conduct of so important and extensive a Design.

            +++ It may seem unnecessary to hint, to Persons of good Sense and Discernment, that those who purchase the ENTIRE WORKS of all the celebrated Masters, can have little Occasion for the partial, insignificant, and incompleat Selections of Ignorance or Vanity, sold at Prices considerably dearer than the Whole.

            London: Printed for Harrison and Co. No. 18, Paternoster-row; and sold by all Booksellers, Stationers, and Newscarriers, in Town and Country.[24]

 

 

 

Mar 20

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

            Such Persons as are inclined to encourage this Celebrity [sic], are desired to take Notice, that they who do not send for Tickets on or before the last Day of this Month, will not be deemed Subscribers, and consequently not entitled to Preference in Point of Places in Westminster-Abbey.

            March 4th, 1784.

            The DIRECTORS of the CONCERT of ANTIENT MUSIC have opened Books, to receive the Names of such Persons as are desirous of encouraging this Undertaking, and will deliver out the Tickets for the several Performances, at One Guinea each Performance.  Books will likewise be opened, and Tickets delivered, at Mr. Lee’s, No. 44, Wigmore-street; Birchell’s Music-shop, No. 129, New Bond-street; Longman and Broderip’s, in the Haymarket and Cheapside; Bremner’s, near the New Church in the Strand; Wright’s and Co. Catherine-street, strand; and at Napier’s Music-shop, in the Strand.  No Person will be admitted without a Ticket; and it is hoped, that those who mean to Subscribe, will do it as Early as they conveniently can, that proper Seats may be provided for them.

The List of the BAND, who have already offered their Assistance at the COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

 

INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMERS.

Violins            

Tenors            

Violoncellos   

Double Basses

Oboes             

Bassoons        

trumpets         

French Horns  [—]

Trombones     

Kettle Drums  [—]

96

30

30

20

30

28

14

12

3

5

___

268

VOCAL PERFORMERS   

225

___

Total

493[25]

 

 

 

Mar 23

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. / [...] / On Wednesday Acis and Galatea; to which will be added the Music in Bonduca.[26]

 

 

 

AT THE

Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane,

To-morrow, WEDNESDAY[,] March 24, 1784,

Will be performed

Acis and Galatea.

Set to Music by Mr HANDEL

To which will be added

The Music in BONDUCA

Composed by the late Henry Purcell.

The principal vocal Parts by

Miss GEORGE,

Mrs. KENNEDY,

Mr. NORRIS,

AND

Mr[.] REINHOLD[.]

First Violin by Mr. RICHARDS[.]

End of the first Part a Concerto on the Hautboy,

By Mr. PARKE.

[F] Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken [of] Mr. FOSBROOK,

at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at [HALF] A GUINEA each.

Pit 5s.  First Gallery 3s. 6d.  Second Gallery 2s.

The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o’Clock.

[To b]egin at Half after Six.                Vivant Rex & Regina[27]

 

 

 

Mar 24

For the Public Advertiser.

ORATORIO INTELLIGENCE.

Thursday Evening,

ACIS AND GALATEA.

In our Minds, addicted to the less aweful [sic] Graces of Handel, the pleasantest Music of this Master’s usually heard in Lent—was last Night performed with great Correctness by the Drury-Lane Band.

            Our old Friend Stanley, the never failing Precision of whose Memory is no less than a Phenomenon in Nature—Richards—the Violincello, whose Name we know not—and Parke on the Flute, the Hautboy, and the Flagelet—were all very perfect and spirited.

            Of the Singing there was not so much as we wished to commend—there was however some that was pretty good—among which was Norris’s “Love in her Eyes sets playing,”—Reinhold’s “O ruddier than the Cherry,”—Mrs. Kennedy’s “Consider fond Shepherd,”—and Miss George in “Heart, thou Seat of soft Delight,”—and a short running Movement in her first Air—as to the rest of her Songs, which are particularly favourable to the Singer, they were but of little Mark and Likelihood—However, she has Youth on her Side—and if she will but proceed with as much Assiduity as she is hitherto to be praised for, Excellence may be in her Reach—Taste [3] and Pathos—the grand and only genuine, good Effects of the Art, are what she should unceasingly struggle after—and then—but not till then—Miss George will be in our Estimation as George the First.

            The House, to the Disgrace of our idle People, was very indifferent indeed.

            Parke’s Hautboy Concerto was very neat in the Execution—but why not a little better in the Composition?—Why give us nothing new?—Why two Movements made up of common Ballads?—You’ll say they are pretty—but no Matter—let them be changed.[28]

 

 

 

March

THEATRICAL REGISTER.

DRURY-LANE.

[...]

[Mar.] 3.  The Messiah.

[...]

5.  Acis and Galatea—Dryden’s Ode.

[...]

10.  Samson.

[...]

12.  Alexander’s Feast—Coronation Anthem.

[...]

17.  Jeptha.

[...]

19.  Judas Maccabaeus.

[...]

24.  Acis and Galatea...

[...]

26.  Alexander’s Feast—Coronation Anthem.[29]

 

 

 

By COMMAND of

Their MAJESTIES.

—————————————————————

The LAST NIGHT of performing this{ }SEASON.

AT THE

Theatre-Royal[ ]in Drury-Lane,

{Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane,}

On FRIDAY next, April 2, 1784,

{To-morrow, FRIDAY, April 2, 1784,}

Will be performed

MESSIAH.

A Sacred ORATORIO{.}

The Principal Vocal Parts by

{The principal vocal Parts by}

Miss GEORGE,

Mrs{.} KENNEDY,

Mr. NORRIS,

AND

Mr{.} REINHOLD[.]

First Violin by Mr{.} RICHARDS{.}

End of the first Part a Concerto on the Organ{,}

By Mr{.} STANLEY{.}

{F} Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. FOSBROOK,

at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF A GUINEA each{.}

Pit 5s.  First Gallery 3s. 6d.  Second Gallery 2s.

{The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o’Clock.

To begin at Half after [S]ix.                Vivant Rex & Regina}[30]

 

 

 

April

THEATRICAL REGISTER.

DRURY LANE.

[...]

[April] 2.  The Messiah.[31]

 

 

 

Apr 21

[John Stanley to Charles Burney, 21 April 1784]

 

… his time will not Admit of any new business, … And indeed Mr S{tanley} thinks there is little reason to suppose that any other than Mr Handels Musick would succeed, as people in general are so partial to that, that no other Oratorios are ever Well Attended.[32]

 

 

 

Apr 23

[...] On this day [April 23] I drank tea at Mr. Strong’s with ye Doctr. [Brown] who dined there, having gone in the morning to see the preparations now making in Westminster Abbey for the then approaching Commemoration of Handel, which was then much talked of, as a great event in the Musical World, the Orchestra being to be at the West End of ye Abbey & the Band to consist of 500. Performers & the Tickets for admission to be a Guinea each.[33]

 

 

 

<Apr 26

ANCIENT MUSICK.

            The last meeting of the academy of ancient music, gave us, and in a very tolerable stile, Acis and Galatea, and a madrigal of Ruffo, “Prima che Spunt.”

            Bellamy, Dyne, and Hindle sung some things in a better manner than usual.

            Barthelemon led with great spirit—Paxton’s violencello was also much to be commended. […][34]

 

 

 

Apr 27

[…] On Tuesday ye 27h. [of April] I called on Mr. Bates at the Victualling Office to obtain an account of the particulars of ye approaching Commemoration of Handel, which he was so good as to give me & much increas’d my desire to be at it; [...][35]

 

 

 

Apr 27

            We hear the Jubilee in Commemoration of Handel, which will be performed this evening for the benefit of Mrs. Kennedy, is got up in a most masterly stile, nothing of a similar kind having been prepared for the publick since the time of the immortal Garrick’s Ode on Shakespeare.[36]

 

 

 

Apr 27

THEATRICAL INTELLIGENCE.

            Mrs. Kennedy’s benefit last night was very crowded.  The Jubilee, as it was called, in commemoration of Handel, so far executed its design, in drawing pretty strongly to the pit and galleries; Whitfield, we are sorry to say, was very indifferent in recitation of the Ode, which, at the best, is but indifferently written, and requires every aid of the speaker, to make it either commanding or acceptable.  The music, of which the Ode was introductory, was Handel’s; and the arrangements on the stage were, as far as relates to the singers, like an oratorio.  Reinhold, Brett, Mrs. Bannister, and Mrs. Kennedy, were seated in the central part of the frame—the chorus singers were ranged on each side, conveying to the upper part of the stage, where was a kind of Throne, and Throne-like Chair, in which was Mr. Whitfield, and over which, the portrait of Handel, that we have been accustomed to see at the oratorio, and in the room of ancient music.  Of the singing, the best airs in the act, for we will honestly own, we could not stay the second, were the two sung by Brett and Reinhold.  Mrs. Bates, in the lines, by way of introductory Address, was, as she generally is, very fully in possession of herself, and shewed her powers of judgment to be very good.

            The first act, to which we were painful witnesses, crept through more than a long half hour—so that, there was every reason to apprehend, they who had perseverance enough to see the curtain drawn over Rose and Colin, would “hear the chimes at midnight.”[37]

 

 

 

Apr 29

For the MORNING CHRONICLE.

To the Right Honourable, &c. the Directors of the approaching COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

                        My Lords and Gentlemen,

            IT has been a general custom from time immemorial, at all public assemblies for which tickets have been previously given out, for the subscribers upon entering into such place of amusement, to deliver their tickets at the door, which tickets were considered formerly as nothing more than the possessor’s title to admittance, and, afterwards, of no further value, but merely as a piece of waste paper.

            This practice, in times less refined than the present, had nothing in it, but what was perfectly a matter of indifference, as to its consequences: But in this age of improvement and delicacy, when even the card for a dancing master’s ball must come before the public eye adorned with all that genius can bestow in the combined talents of a Cipriani and a Bartolozzi, the affair wears a very different aspect; and it has frequently been with extreme reluctance and mortification, that the man of taste has, on these occasions, surrendered his ticket to the door keeper, which nineteen times in twenty, is found to be the most valuable part of the purchase.

            To you therefore, my Lords and Gentlemen, I take the liberty of addressing these remarks, as persons distinguished, not only for your rank and fortune in life, but for taste and judgment in the elegant arts; and with whom therefore these observations cannot fail of having their due weight: You, my Lords and Gentlemen, have now an opportunity of obliging the public, by ordering that the tickets for the ensuing COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL, which are understood to be preparing by the great artists above-mentioned, shall be the property of the subscribers alone: who may, by this inducement, not only become more numerous; but, by this decree in their favour, find themselves possessed of an elegant and perpetual memorial of the noble festival at which they were present, and of the sublime and immortal GENIUS to whose fame it was instituted.

                                                I have the honour to be,

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Your most humble servant,

A Subscriber and a Lover of the Fine Arts.

Clement’s Inn, April 29, 1784.[38]

 

 

 

<May 1

Miss GUEST’s CONCERT.

            The third or fourth Concert, we forget which, of this excellent performer, was better attended, but not so well worth attending, as the former evenings.  Pieltain, Mahon, and herself, were the solo players.

            By those who are in a habit of frequenting many Concerts, the want of novelty is an evil not a little to be complained of.

            On the present occasion, a remark of this kind chiefly applies to Mahon; and indeed to Harrison also, who, at the best but an indifferent singer, made bad worse by an irksome da capo of an air we have heard him more than a dozen times this winter, viz. “Time and truth, &c.”

            Of Miss Guest’s performances, her own sonata was the best, that was very brilliant and captivating.  As to her other solo performances, one of Handel’s the second concerto if we remember rightly, it was not given with so much effect as we have elsewhere heard it.[39]

 

 

 

[May]

MAY-DAY.

AN EPISTLE FROM SAMMY SARCASM IN TOWN, TO HIS AUNT IN THE COUNTRY.

BY MR. COLLINGS.

[...]

Lo! their Minstrel, blind, legless, that struts in the middle,

And tortures to discord a broken-back’d fiddle;

A grinder of crotchets and quavers so rare!

Of Saint Handel’s five hundred not one such was there.

Had the Thracian so fiddled his wife back again,

Not a runner of Pluto’s had follow’d the swain:

Or, in spite of old Amphion, a similar sound

Would have tumbled his ramparts again to the ground.

[...][40]

 

 

 

May 4

ODE to FANCY.

 

FANCY, nymph of sprightly mien,

    Oft invok’d by tuneful voice,

Thou canst gild each gloomy scene,

    And bid the chearless heart rejoice.

 

Graceful flows thy azure vest,

    Lightly waves thy pliant wing;

Let me greet thee, lovely guest,

    Fairest child of smiling Spring.

 

Though I hear discordant sounds

    Oft ascend from crowded streets;

Though, limited to narrow bounds,

    This eye no beauteous landscape meets;

 

Fancy can guide me to the grove,

    Where sweetest warblers hail the day,

Or bid my footsteps freely rove

    O’er meads perfum’d by breath of May.

 

Though sprung from a plebeian race,

    Distinguish’d not by wealthy dowers,

Fancy to me assigns a place

    With courtly dames in Carlton bowers.

 

Thence waft me to the hallow’d fane,

    Hark! the loud choral peal ascends;

Harmonious Handel hears the strain,

    And from his awful distance bends.

 

See where the wise, the brave, the fair,

    To celebrate his name unite;

Behold the matchless Royal Pair,

    Fit objects for a son of light.

 

The heav’nly minstrel tunes his lyre,

    Such notes to Heav’n alone belong;

Sublime he strikes the golden wire,

    Seraphic spirits join the song.

 

The song implores the Power Supreme,

    To bless the land where Science dwells,

Where Justice rears her sacred beam,

    Where Charity pale Want repels.

 

Fancy, cease thy rapid flight,

    To earthly scenes my mind restore;

Borne by thee to regions bright,

    Mortals tremble as they soar.

 

May 4.             SPIRITUELL[?A].[41]

 

 

 

May 5

Pantheon, May 5, 1784.

            The great preparations making at this place to celebrate the Commemoration of Handel, renders it impossible to have any more Concerts here after to-morrow.  The Nobility and Gentry are therefore respectfully acquainted, that the Concert to-morrow evening will be the only one that can be here till after that grand festival.[42]

 

 

 

May 6

            Several applications have been made to the proprietors of the Pantheon for leave for Madame Mara to sing some select parties of cognoscenti, but the request could by no means be complied with, in consideration of the high terms she is engaged upon, and the extreme strictness of her contract, which forbids her under very heavy penalties from singing in public or private, without leave had in writing of the managers, this is the more mortifying to the lovers of music, as after this evening she cannot be heard till the Commemoration of Handel is over.[43]

 

 

 

May 6

TETBURY MUSIC MEETING.

ON Thursday the 27th of May instant, will be performed in Tetbury New Church, by a select band, the celebrated ORATORIO of MESSIAH.  Tickets of admittance, at 3s. 6d. each, to be had at the White-Lion, White-Hart, the Three Cups, and the Talbot inns, in Tetbury; the Printing-office, Chippenham; White-Lion, Malmsbury; Star, Wotton-Underedge; George, Stroud; and at Mr. Stevens’s music-shop, Cirencester.  To begin at eleven o’clock in the forenoon.

            In the evening of the same day, at the White-Hart inn, will be a Miscellaneous CONCERT of Vocal and Instrumental MUSIC, and after the Concert, a BALL.  Tickets at 2s. 6d. [“3s.” on the May 13 and 20 reprint of the announcement] each, to be had at the White-Hart.  The Concert to begin at seven o’clock.[44]

 

 

 

May 8

            Delpini’s pantomimical Exhibitions do him much credit, and very much engage the public attention. […]

            Delpeni’s [sic] first trip from Dublin in an air balloon, proved so successful, and attracted so numerous and brilliant an audience, that he is tempted to repeat it, and is likely to reap equal advantage.  Entertainments so truly pantomimical were never before exhibited in England.  Delpini seems entirely master of the art, and may as justly be said to preside over it, as Shakespeare does o’er the stage, or Handell [sic] in music.[45]

 

 

 

May 10

            It will afford great pleasure to Lovers of Music to hear, that the celebrated Madame Mara, in a manner that does equal honour to her heart and judgment, has liberally offered to sing at all the three performances in Commemoration of Handel; regarding this celebrity, not only as an honour done to the abilities and memory of that great master, but to the profession, in which she has so eminently distinguished herself.[46]

 

 

 

May 12

This day is published, price 6d.

            LETTERS in behalf of Professors of Musick residing in the country, addressed to the nobility and gentry, directors of the Concert of Ancient Musick, and managers of the ensuing grand performance in commemoration of Handel, and to the directors of the fund for the benefit of decayed musicians and their families, resident in London.

By EDWARD MILLAR,

Organist, of Doncaster.

Printed for G. Wilkie, No. 71, St. Paul’s Church-Yard.[47]

 

 

 

May 13

The Commemoration of Handel being now much talked of, & it being doubted by many people, whether so large a Band as was intended wod. keep well together, or whether it wod. not be a noisy confus’d business, [30] I on the day after I got to Town (Thursday ye 13h. {of May}) went to the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy at St. Paul’s (which I had not been at for many years) that I might be able to form some comparison of the effect intended, from the Band there, which only consisting of about 60 Performers, vocal & Instrumental, & the effect of the Chorusses being as I thought rather weak & languid, I was then well convinc’d that a Band to fill ye lofty & extensive Nave of the Abbey (which was to contain 2000. Auditors) wod. by no means be too great, upon the plan intended——[48]

 

 

 

May 14

[Mary Delany to Frances Hamilton, 22 June 1784]

 

            The old 14th of May [...] is not quite laid aside; my young niece takes upon herself every year, on its return, to invite a select set of company, not exceeding six persons, to dine with me, but on the last a summons was sent to me from their Majesties, that, “as they were informed it was my birthday they must see me.”  Nobody there but the Royal [221] Family, Lady Charlotte Finch, and Lady Weymouth, who was the lady of the bed-chamber in waiting.  It does not become me to say the gracious, kind, and flattering manner with which they received me.  The Queen ordered Lady Weymouth to tie about my neck a small medallion of the King, set round with brilliants; but the resemblance, which is very great, and the gracious manner in which it was done, makes it invaluable.  I cannot enter into a long detail of the commemoration of Handel, performed in Westminster Abbey: the effect was wonderful, and I had the courage (having a very easy opportunity of going into the Abbey) of hearing it four times.[49]

 

 

 

May 14

For the Public Advertiser.

HANDEL and his COMMEMORATION.

THE Commemoration of this great Genius[,] the Idea of which arising from a Conversation between Sir W. W. Wynn and Mr. Joah Bates, was certainly a very good one—is of the greatest Promise!

The new Building for the Purpose in the Abbey, is well designed by Mr. Wyatt—When filled with well-dressed People, and viewed from either End, it must be a Spectacle of the grandest Kind—the Orchestra at the West Door, and the Throne over the Entrance to the Choir, being both conspicuous and well raised Points, and, as near as can be, balancing each other.

Under the Throne is the Place where the Stewards will be—and on each Side of them are the Benches set apart for the Bishops and the Dean, Prebendaries of Westminster.

The Galleries on each Side, and the Pit, which alone will hold a thousand People, are to contain the Multitude of Sins.  The Bottom of the Building is to be floored and matted—the Galleries are to be hung with a well-fancied Festoon of red Cloth, fringed, &c.—the Throne with Silk of the same Colour and Arrangement.

As to the Performances, their probable Excellence is already in general known to the Public—In particular it is also already settled that Pacchierotti, Madame Mara, and Tasca, the three pre-eminent Singers of the Time, are to perform in the Music as follow:

Pacchierotti is to sing “I know that my Redeemer liveth;”—“He was a Man of Sorrows, &c.”

The greatest Things are expected from Tasca, in “The Trumpet shall sound.”

Madame Mara is to sing some of the most charming Airs out of Handel’s Operas.

Pacchierotti, we hope, will also have, Verde Preti and Dove sai.

Hay is to lead one Day—Cramer the other.

Mr. Bates is to direct and play the Organ.  There are also to be Leaders of Subdivisions of the Band.  Every thing is to be on the greatest Scale, ex pede Hercules.  The Kettle Drums are to be of unusual Magnitude—they are made for the Occasion, and will hold 50 or 60 Gallons.[50]

 

 

 

May 14

            The Handel Commemoration bids fair to be very productive for the Musical Fund.  The common expectation was, that but few tickets would find a sale till the day was very near, but the event very luckily has been totally different; the return to the Directors some few days ago was, that there were near 2700 tickets sold.  The whole expence of the different meetings will be under 1000l.  The possible receipts, 200[?0] guineas at the Pantheon, 8000 at the Abbey on the two days.  The probable receipts the reader must adjust for himself.[51]

 

 

 

May 14

            The intended celebration of Handel’s birthday, has excited more curiosity among the lovers of harmony than can well be imagined.  Some are of opinion that the extraordinary number of instrumental performers will render it impossible to prevent confusion and discord.  This opinion we assert founded on prejudice, for at a rehearsal of the pieces intended for the Abbey, on Friday last, in the Concert Room belonging to the Society of Antient Music in Tottenham Court Road, the whole was performed with a precision that could not fail of giving satisfaction to the most cultivated ear in the science.  Above 120 performers attended at this rehearsal, and considering the size of the room, were more in proportion than the 400 performers who are to compose the Orchestra, in Westminster Abbey.[52]

 

 

 

May 15

Under the patronage of His MAJESTY.

In Commemoration of HANDEL, who was buried in Westminster Abbey, on the 21st of April, 1759.

            ON WEDNESDAY Morning, 26th of May next, will be performed in Westminster Abbey, under the management of the

Earl of Exeter

Earl of Sandwich

Viscount Dudley and Ward

Viscount Fitzwilliam

Earl of Uxbridge,

Right Hon. H. Morrice

Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart.

Sir Richard Jebb, Bart,

Directors of the Concert of Ancient Musick;

Some of the most approved pieces of Sacred Musick, of that great Composer.——The doors will be opened at Nine o’Clock, and the performance will begin precisely at Twelve.

            And on THURSDAY Evening, May 27, will be performed, at the Pantheon,

A Grand Miscellaneous CONCERT

Of Vocal and Instrumental MUSIC.

Consisting entirely of pieces selected from the works of

HANDEL.

            The doors will be opened at Six o’Clock, and the Concert will begin exactly at Eight.

            And on SATURDAY Morning, May 29, will be performed, in Westminster-Abbey, the Sacred Oratorio of

The M E S S I A H.

            Such is the reverence for the memory of this illustrious Master, that most of the performers in London, and a great many from different parts of the kingdom, have generously offered their assistance; and the Orchestra will consist of at least

FOUR HUNDRED PERFORMERS.

The following is the List of the principal Vocal Performers, who have generously offered their assistance to the several performances:

Madam Mara,

 

Miss Cantelo,

 

Miss Abrams,

 

Miss Harwood,

 

Miss Abrams, junior.

Signor Pacchierotti,

Signor Tasca,

Signor Bartolini,

Mr. Harrison,

Mr. Norris,

Mr. Corfe,

Mr. Champness,

Mr. Reinhold,

Mr. Dyne, &c.

            In the List of the Instrumental Performers are, Messrs. Hay, Cramer, Crosdill, Cervetto, Paxton, Mara, Vincent, Fischer, Parke, Simpson, &c. &c. &c.

            The profits arising from the performances will be applied to charitable purposes.

            The Directors of the Concert of Antient Music have opened books to receive the names of such persons as are desirous of encouraging this undertaking, and will deliver out the Tickets for the several performances, at ONE GUINEA each performance.  Books are also opened, and Tickets delivered at Mr. Lee’s, No. 44, Wigmore-street; Birchell’s Music-shop, No. 129, New Bond-street; Longman and Broderip’s, in the Hay-market and Cheapside; Bremner’s, near the new Church in the Strand; and at Wright’s and Co. Catharine-street, Strand.[53]

 

 

 

May 17

            The approaching Music Meeting in the Abbey will be unique in its way; considered as an event in the arts it is an epoch; taken only as a mere Concert, its excellence promises to be in a most wonderful degree unexampled.[54]

 

 

 

May 17

            H. DOWLING, bearing a grateful remembrance of the repeated favours which the Ladies of the Nobility and Gentry have been pleased to confer upon him, by their numerous orders for his PATENT DIAMOND POWDER, particularly on all grand and polite Assemblies, returns his most humble acknowledgments, and, encouraged by such distinguishing marks of their approbation, begs leave to acquaint them, that preparatory to the

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL,

he has manufactured a sufficient quantity of this excellent Powder, which, for beautifying Diamonds, Crystals, Paste, &c. and giving them a brilliancy infinitely more bright and sparkling than immediately after they are first set, has not its equal.

            Should any Lady (whose commands Dowling has not yet been honoured with) be diffident of the efficacy of this Powder, as here professed, he will, on notice given him, wait upon them, to clean their Diamonds, &c. and require no gratuity, if he does not evince that what is here asserted, is asserted only in fact.

            Sold in boxes at 2s. 6d. each, with proper brushes at 1s. and 2s. by H. Dowling, inventor and proprietor [of] his Royal Powder and Pomatum Manufactory, the King’s Arms, No. 39, Princes-street, Leicester-fields.  Where may be had his Patent Plate Powder 2s. the packet.[55]

 

 

 

On Monday [May] the 17h. I went to the Abbey to see the preparations making for the Performances there, where the new Organ for Canterbury Cathedral, was putting up at the West end of the Nave, for the occasion, by consent of ye Dean & Chapter who suffer’d Green to make this advantage of it before he put it up at Canterbury——[56]

 

 

 

May 18

            The most distinguishing and honourable feature in the character of the ancient Romans was national gratitude[;] whoever increased their glory or in any degree added to the happiness of the people, was certain of receiving such reward, as could not fail in stimulating others to pursue the same line of conduct.  By this means a succession of great men was secured to the state.  England in many instances has followed her example.  Her Admirals, her Generals and Statesmen, have had monuments erected to them out of the national purse.  Let us not despair but that the honour intended to be paid to the memory and works of Handel will call forth some latent genius, kindle the ethereal spark, and like him astonish and delight the world.  The presence of a Court, surrounded by the most beautiful women on earth will attend on this occasion.—Oh happy! happy Handel!

            A magnificent seat is preparing for the Royal Family in Westminster-Abbey, where the organ formerly stood.  The whole of the Royal Family are to be present.

            The intended celebration of Handel’s Birth-day now [that] the Westminster election is over, engrosses the public attention.  The parties that are forming among the Nobility are exceedingly numerous, so that the assemblage present at the performance promises to be as brilliant and noble, as the performance itself will undoubtedly be grand and sublime.[57]

 

 

 

May 19

            The Directors of Handell’s Jubilee, when they undertook the management, little apprehended the trouble and perplexity of their situation.  The female applicants are as unreasonable as they are numerous.  It is incredible how many Ladies of all ranks and descriptions have applied for seats near the throne, some with a rudeness not easily reconciled to the rules of good-breeding.  However, the Directors have behaved with so much good-humoured politeness to those female candidates, that none have declined to accept such situation, as on a late application could be obtained.[58]

 

 

 

May 19

For the MORNING CHRONICLE.

Commemoration of HANDELL.

            THE writer of a letter, which appeared in this paper the 7th instant, on the subject of the tickets for the several performances in honour of HANDEL, presents his respectful compliments to the noblemen and gentlemen Directors of that undertaking; and wishes to know, in the name of the public, if the report he has heard be well-founded, that every subscriber is to preserve his ticket, and not give it up at the door on being admitted to the several entertainments at the Abbey and the Pantheon.

            If this indulgence is intended the public, he conceives, a short intimation of such design at the foot of their advertisement in the News-papers, would not by any means be improper.

            He farther begs leave to recommend that the tickets be carefully given out in a flat position, and not folded or creased as is commonly done.  The paper made up for these purposes, suffers very great injury by being doubled, being of a very loose and delicate texture.

Clement’s Inn, May 19, 1784.[59]

 

 

 

May 20

            It is a point not easily decided, whether the ears or the eyes, are to be most delighted at Handel’s Jubilee[;] it is certain, that there will be a powerful contest between those senses; the ears, it is true, are to be assailed by the powers of harmony: but the heart, through the medium of the eye, is to be attacked by an assemblage of the greatest beauties of the age.

            The Throne Orchestra and Gallery erecting in the West-Isle of Westminster Abb[e]y, under the direction of Mr. Wyatt, is said, by architects, to be the completest thing of the kind ever executed, in this or any other country.  From the uncommon strength of the construction, one would be led to imagine, it was intended as a monument, to perpetuate the artist’s skill, and not a temporary erection, to suffer demolition in a few days.[60]

 

 

 

May 20

            The Managers of the Pantheon have very judiciously fixed their Masquerade for Monday the 31st inst. following the grand festival of the Commemoration of Handel, of which it will seem to be a part, by its coming immediately after; and in order to enfor[c]e the idea, they call it a grand Jubilee Masquerade, taking it by way of supplement to the most exalted musical entertainment ever had in this or any other country.[61]

 

 

 

May 20

Under the Patronage of His MAJESTY.

In Commemoration of HANDEL, who was buried in Westminster-Abbey, on the 21st of April, 1759.

            ON Wednesday Morning, May the 26th, will be performed in Westminster-Abbey, under the Management of the


Earl of Exeter,

Earl of Sandwich,

Earl of Uxbridge,

Viscount Dudley and Ward,

Viscount Fitzwilliam,

Right Hon. H. Morice,

Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart.

Sir Richard Jebb, Bart.

Directors of the CONCERT of Ancient Music:

Some of the most approved Pieces of

SACRED MUSIC,

of that great Composer.

            The Doors will be opened at Nine o’Clock, and the Performance will begin precisely at Twelve.

            And on Thursday Evening, May 27, will be performed, at the Pantheon, a Grand Miscellaneous Concert of

VOCAL and INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

Consisting entirely of Pieces selected from the Works

of HANDEL.

            The Doors will be opened at Six o’Clock, and the Concert will begin exactly at Eight.

            And on Saturday Morning, May the 29th, will be performed, in Westminster-Abbey, the Sacred Oratorio of

The M E S S I A H.

            Such is the Reverence for the Memory of this Illustrious Master, that most of the Performers in London, and a great many from different Parts of the Kingdom, having generously offered their Assistance; and the Orchestra will consist of at least 400 Performers.

            The following is the List of the principal Vocal Performers who have generously offered their Assistance to the several Performers [?Performances]:

            Madam Mara, Miss Cantelo, Miss Abrams, Miss Harwood, Miss Abrams, junior, Signor Pacchierotti, Signor Tasca, Signor Bartolini, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Norris, Mr. Corfe, Mr. Knyvett, Mr. Champness, Mr. Reinhold, Mr. Dyne.

            In the List of the Instrumental Performers are, Mess. Hay, Cramer, Crosdill, Cervetto, Paxton, Mara, Vincent, Fisher, Parke, Simpson, &c. &c.

            The Profits arising from the Performances, will be applied to charitable Purposes.

            The Directors of the Concert of Antient Music have opened Books, to receive the Names of such Persons as are desirous of encouraging this Undertaking, and will deliver out Tickets for the several Performances, at One Guinea each Performance.  Books will also be opened, and Tickets delivered at Mr. Lee’s, No. 44, Wigmore-street; Birchell’s Music-shop, No. 129, New Bond-street; Longman and Broderip’s, in the Hay-market, and Cheapside; Bremner’s, near the New Church in the Strand; at Wright’s and Co. Catharine-street, Strand.[62]

 

 

 

<May 21

            At a General Meeting of the Musical Society, held a few days since, at the Crown and Anchor, in the Strand, it was resolved, that a Select Committee should be chosen from the body, to attend upon and execute the directions of the Noblemen and Gentlemen, who have with so much liberality stood forward, to celebrate the Genius of Handel.  The following eminent masters were unanimously chosen.  Dr. Benjamin Cooke, Dr. Samuel Arnold, Mr. Redmond Simpson, Mr. Thomas Saunder Dupuis, Mr. Theodore Ailward, Mr. John Jones, Mr. William Parsons, and Mr. Edmond Eyrton.

            At the same meeting, Dr. Arnold and Mr. Dupuis, were appointed to have the direction of the Vocal Performers, and Mr. Redmand Simpson and Aishby, to have the management and arrangement of the Band, as assistants to Josiah Bates, Esq. Commissioner of the Victualling-Office.  All these Gentlemen have undertaken the duty of their appointments with alacrity, but the most indefatigable Members of the Committee, are Dr. Arnold and Mr. Simpson.

            We beg leave to congratulate the public, on the probability of the discordant spirit of party being overcome, for at least three days, by the more prevailing efforts of Handel’s heavenly harmony.

            At the approaching Jubilee, in commemoration of Handel, there will be an opportunity of beholding at one view, a greater assemblage of beauties, decked in all the pride of grandeur, than was ever before seen on any occasion.

            We hear it was no sooner known in Hanover, that Handel’s birth was to be celebrated in London, under the immediate patronage of their Majesties, than several of the first families in the Electorate formed parties to visit England, and be present at the honours paid to the genius of their countryman.[63]

 

 

 

May 22

            At a general meeting of the Musical Society, held a few days since at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, it was resolved, that a Select Committee should be chosen from the body, to attend upon and execute the directions of the Noblemen and Gentlemen who have with so much liberality stood forward to celebrate the genius of Handel.  The following eminent masters were unanimously chosen: Dr. Benjamin Cooke, Dr. Samuel Arnold, Mr. Redmond Simpson, Mr. Thomas Saunder Dupuis, Mr. Theodore Ailward, Mr. John Jones, Mr. William Parsons, and Mr. Edmond Eyrton.

            At the same meeting Dr. Arnold and Mr. Dupuis were appointed to have the direction of the vocal performers, and Mr. Redmand Simpson and Aisby to have the management and arrangement of the band, as assistants to Josiah Bates, Esq. Commissioner of the Victualling-office.  All these gentlemen have undertaken the duty of their appointments with alacrity, but the most indefatigable members of the Committee are Dr. Arnold and Mr. Simpson.

            The directors of Handel’s Jubilee have ordered silver medals to be struck for the purpose of complimenting the performers with them, as a more substantial and permanent proof of respect for their voluntary assistance, than a ticket, however ably executed.  A few gold medals are ordered for the stewards and some particular friends, who have distinguished themselves in supporting the undertaking.[64]

 

 

 

May 21

            Yesterday there was a rehearsal in Westminster-Abbey, of such part of Handell’s music as are intended for Wednesday’s entertainment.  Contrary to the expectations of the most sanguine friends to the Jubilee, every part of the performance was conducted with so much regularity as to excite astonishment not only in the minds of those who was [sic] auditors, but actually surprised the most experienced musicians present.  The Orchestra contained near five hundred vocal and instrumental performers, a number far superior to any ever convened to play in concert.  The writer of this article does not pretend to describe the excellence of the performers, acknowledging himself unequal to the task.  However, he dares venture to assert, that every person who is fortunate enough to get a seat in the Abbey on the day of performance will retire with sentiments of gratitude for these noblemen and gentlemen who have promoted and conducted this business.  The performers are entitled to their share of approbation for entering into the spirit of the undertaking with so much alacrity, and sacrificing every private consideration to pay tribute to the memory of the greatest musical genius that ever lived.

            A list of the Directors and performers was printed, and those who had not attended the rehearsal, had their names struck out, regardless of their rank.  A conduct on the part of Sir Watkins William Wynne so spirited and meritoreous [sic], that he cannot receive too much commendation, as it may in future prevent any person’s undertaking to do duty he means to defer.

            Those who were yesterday present at the rehearsal of the several pieces of musick, to be performed in Westminster-Abbey next Wednesday in commemoration of Handel, speak of the whole with the warmest praise.  The effect is not only grand and sublime as it was expected to prove, but the execution of the instrumental part of the performance correct and harmonious, beyond the most sanguine ideas of the nobility and gentry, who planned this noble compliment to the talents of one of the most admirable composers that ever existed.  The celebrity bids fair to do as much honour to the memory of Handel, as his wonderful genius did honour to Great Britain.

            The accidental delay of Handel’s Commemoration, is for the better, in the proportion of two to one.  The warm weather improving the Abbey Meetings, which are two—the Pantheon, perhaps not improved by the same change, being but one.[65]

 

 

 

REHEARSAL.

            Yesterday there was a regular Rehearsal of the Music intended for the first day of the splendid Festival in honour of Handel.  Excited by zeal for the national object, as well as duty to the Public, whom we profess to serve, we attended, and acknowledge, that our ideas, though highly elevated, fell infinitely short of the grandeur and sublimity of the performance.  The imagination only can reach the powers and effects of the scene, for no experience can furnish us with an adequate impression.  Upwards of 400 instruments in the orchestra, accompanied in the choruses by more than 70 voices, gave such a fulness, and majesty to the Concert, that the soul was held in unutterable enchantment.  The first burst of the Band upon the ear was a feast to musical men.  They stood in rapt astonishment, and their extacy was continued by the perfect harmony of this immense number of instruments.  To speak of the particular performers in this stage of the festival would be premature.  We leave to the Public the undiminished transports they will enjoy at hearing the grand exhibition; and such an exhibition we may account ourselves fortunate in having the opportunity to behold.

            The Directors yesterday conducted themselves with great and becoming spirit.  Such of the managers or performers as were absent from this rehearsal were struck off from the roll, and in this measure no respect was paid to rank.  It is only by such spirit that an undertaking of such grandeur and extent can be accomplished.

            The new kettle-drums presented to the festival by Mr. Asbridge, produced the greatest effect.  These drums are almost two-thirds larger than any that were ever constructed before, and they are the liberal tribute of an individual on this occasion.

            We are happy to inform the Public, that Mr. Simpson’s idea with respect to the tickets is adopted.  The subscribers are to keep their tickets, the design and execution of which will render them a most valuable print, as well as a memorial of the Jubilee.[66]

 

 

 

HANDEL’s JUBILEE.

            On the Rehearsal of Friday last at the Abbey, the instruments were in such unison, that the sound appeared to proceed from one vast organ of extraordinary dimension and power.—This will not be found surprising when it is considered that Handel’s music is universally known, and the pieces selected for performance, have been particularly practiced.  Mr. Simpson, who has the arrangement of the Band, disposed the Performers so judiciously, that the most perfect concord arose from the various instruments.  The Organ, which is intended for Canterbury Cathedral, but fixed for the present in the Abey, is spoken of in the highest terms, on account of its fine tone; Mr. Bates of the Victualling-Office, holds his resolution of playing the organ.  Mr. Hay will lead the band on the first day, and Mr. Cramer, the second and third.  The gallery, which is erected for their Majesties and the Royal Family, with their attendants, is nearly completed.  The subscription is entirely full, and as upwards of 3000 tickets have been distributed, such Ladies as mean to be present, must be under the necessity of coming in small hoops, and with low hats.  Every performer, vocal and instrumental, will display at their breast a silver medal during the time the Jubilee is held; the directors will wear gold medals: silver ones, bearing the same device, will also be worn by the stewards.[67]

 

 

 

May 22

            A seat is preparing in Westminster Abbey, by order of the Queen, for the reception of the foreign ministers, who have all been presented with tickets, by order of her Majesty.[68]

 

 

 

May 24

[Georgina Mary Anne Port to Miss Hamilton, 24 May 1784]

            A. D. desires to know how you do to-day.  She is better for the rain, begs you will say exactly what you would have her say to the D[uche]ss D[owager]. of P[ortland]. about Westminster Abbey[69]

 

 

 

May 24

            The Pantheon has long been the object of universal admiration[;] it was thought impossible to add to its splendour, however Mr. Wyatt’s creative genius has been at work, and Thursday evening will convince the public how much this gentleman is entitled to our warmest commendations.  The East and West Galleries, and the passages behind the Ionic Colonade, are filled up with benches, and also the gallery over the orchestra for company; in this gallery there is a new organ case, decorated with a transparent portrait of Handel, by Smirk, with boys in chiaro oscuro, holding a wreath of laurel.  The orchestra is considerably enlarged, and will hold about 250 performers, over the entrance, and directly opposite the orchestra and gallery is erected, supported by six new Ionic Columns, like those of the original building.  In the center gallery is placed his Majesties box, lined with crimson sattin and looking glass, and hung with curtains of crimson damask fringed with gold.  The ceiling is elegantly painted in Mr. Wyatt’s usual style of ornamental painting.  The box is covered with a dome, in each side of which will be placed the Royal supporters in gold.  Behind his Majesties box are seats for his attendants.  The front of the box will be decorated with crimson sattin curtains and valances, fringed and laced with gold.  The dome will be lighted up with additional lamps.

            The noble Directors of Handel’s Jubilee have applied to the Bishop of Rochester for permission to place a tablet over his monument, with an inscription mentioning the commemoration of his genius, which requisition has been complied with.  Too much cannot be said in praise of the Directors of this magnificent spectacle, for having dedicated so much time to an undertaking, that in the eyes of Europe will place the taste of this country in the highest point of view.

            It is inconceivable what trouble and pains has been taken to collect the Jubilee Band.  Mr. Ashly undertook this arduous office, which he has executed much to his own honour, and to the entire satisfaction of the Directors.[70]

 

 

 

May 24

            The Country Music Meetings of the Choirs, will be one of the few establishments dis-served by the Commemoration of Handel.—The profits however of the Abbey, &c. will well be able to afford an equivalent.[71]

 

 

 

May 24

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

                                                                                                            May, 1784.

            It is earnestly requested, that all persons who have tickets of admission to Westminster-Abbey, either on the 26th or 29th instant, will strictly observe the following regulations:  Subscribers tickets, which are for the middle aisle only, will be admitted at the west door, facing Tothill-street, betwixt the hours of nine, and half past eleven, at which time the door will be shut; and the Subscribers are particularly desired, in order to prevent confusion, to order their coachmen to go to the end of Great George-street, down Princes-street, (alias Long Ditch) to the west-end of the Abbey, and to drive off from thence by St. Margaret’s Church-yard, up King-street; and to take up, after the performance is over, in the same manner.  Tickets for the North Gallery will be admitted at the North door in St. Margaret’s Church-Yard, and the carriages to come and draw off the same way as those going to the West door, but to set down and take up their company at any of the gates in St. Margaret’s Church yard.  Tickets for the South Gallery will be admitted at the Cloyster door, and the carriages to go through Abingdon-Buildings and College-street, into Dean’s Yard, as the other gate leading from the end of Tothill-street into Dean’s-Yard, will be shut on this occasion.  All the doors will be opened at nine o’clock, and shut precisely at a quarter before twelve.  No Ladies will be admitted with hats, and they are particularly requested to come without feathers, and very small hoops, if any.  No servants will be allowed to keep places, nor will they be admitted into any part of the Church, on any account whatever.[72]

 

 

 

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

[same insert as on 24 May][73]

 

 

 

May 25

            A number of ventilators, of a peculiar kind, are fixed in different parts of Westminster abbey, in order for a regular succession of fresh air, and to keep the whole in a due temperature of heat, as well in consideration of the health of the Royal, noble, and other visitors, as that there may be no undue obstruction to the tone of the instruments and vocal performers, it having been long since found by experience, that a clammy heat obstructs and deadens the powers of the best voices and instruments.[74]

 

 

 

May 24, 26

            The following arrangement has been made by the Directors of the Jubilee, to prevent as much as possible the confusion that necessarily must attend the admission at different doors of so much company as is expected at the Abbey to-morrow.

West Door.

Sir Watkin Williams Wynne

Dr. Arnold

Mr. Simpson

Mr. Ayrton.

North Gallery.

Lord Sandwich

Dr. Cooke

Mr. Aylward.

South Gallery.

Lord Exeter

Mr. Dupuis

Mr. Parsons

Mr. Jones to attend

    the Bishops door.

            Yesterday a select part of the Abb[e]y Band attended at the Pantheon for the purpose of rehearsing the music intended for Thursday evening, but the Directors were under the necessity of postponing it to this day, the music stands not having been fixed in the orchestra, the workmen being all engaged upon the King’s box.  There were a great many of the nobility who paid half a guinea each for admission, but there being no rehearsal received tickets of admission for this day.  The Messiah will be rehearsed on Friday in the Abb[e]y, when a considerable sum is expected to be received, as none are to be admitted but upon payment of half a guinea.  The Directors were obliged to make this regulation as well for the advantages of the charity, as to prevent the interruption occasioned by admitting people at discretion.

            As Handel’s Jubilee, at the present moment, is the prevailing topic of conversation, it may not be unacceptable to the publick to inform them, in what manner that festival originated.—In the spring of 1783, the print of Shakespeare’s Jubilee having accidentally caught the eye of Lord Fitzwilliams, at the same moment suggested to his mind, the shameful inattention that had been paid to the sacred memory of Handel, his Lordship, with a soul of gratitude and harmony, communicated his wishes to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, for the establishment of a festival, who, animated with the same generous feelings, promised his most sanguine support.  In consequence of this, an application was made to Mr. Bates, whose assistance was highly necessary towards the accomplishment of their wishes.  Mr. Bates not only expressed his readiness in forwarding the business, but has since proved himself, by the most laborious attention, to have been of infinite service.  In the autumn, Mr. Bates sent for Mr. Ashley, of Pimlico, whom he knew to have a general knowledge of the musical people, and enquired how many performers he thought could be collected in the celebration of the intended Jubilee?  Mr. Ashley, after a few days were elapsed, produced a list of 400 performers, who had promised their assistance.  This circumstance induced Mr. Bates to lay his plan for the establishment of a festival, before the noble Directors of the Ancient Concert, who, as it were with a general sympathy, not only promised their individual support, but engaged to lay the plan before his Majesty, who very graciously patronized the approaching Handel’s Jubilee.  The publick may rely on the authenticity of this information.  The many pitiful attempts that are daily made, by interested or ambitious men, to secure to themselves that merit, which is due of others, can only meet the ineffable contempt of a discerning publick.[75]

 

 

 

May 25

            The rehearsal at the Pantheon yesterday morning, cannot be spoken of in terms of exaggeration; the execution, not only of the vocal but instrumental performers, was far superior to any thing of the kind the harmonious region of Italy can boast.  To enter into a detail of the individual excellence of each performer, is more than can be expected, and more than we confess ourselves equal to; that task we leave to the musical critic, who shall lay his sentiments before the public on Friday; he will certainly have the advantage of the emulation and ardent desire to please, that ever stimulates candidates for fame, when displaying their talents before a brilliant, numerous, and judicious auditory.  We most cordially congratulate the public on the approaching prospect of sitting down to a musical feast, such as never could have been produced in the most refined and luxuriant ages of antiquity.[76]

 

 

 

            Yesterday there was a rehearsal of the music intended for that part of the festival which is to be celebrated at the Pantheon.  The preparations being compleat, the arrangements were yesterday made of the band, and the Directors manifested their discernment and taste in the regulations which were settled.  The band is so ordered that they may all have a full view of the general leader as well as of the secondaries.  The company was numerous and brilliant, the entertainment in the most exalted stile; but as the festival begins this day, we do not think it right to enter into the particular merits of the particular performers.  The preparations are now finished, and this is the day to which the musical world has so long bent their view with anxiety and enthusiasm.

            Such entertainments as the ensuing musical feasts in commemoration of Handel do the highest honour to the nation where they are encouraged, and give superior dignity to the Monarch who patronizes them, as well as those of the nobility and gentry who follow so laudable an example.  How much better is the money so spent employed than that which is laid out in debauchery, dissipation, and luxury!  The latter practice tends to enervate the mind, to enfeeble the constitution, and to waste the fortune; while the former exalts the soul, improves the judgment, and delights the ear of taste.  Let reason and prudence make their choice.

            As Handel’s Jubilee, at the present moment, is the prevailing topic of conversation, it may not be unacceptable to the public to inform them, in what manner that festival originated.—In the spring of 1783, the print of Shakepeare’s Jubilee having accidentally caught the eye of Lord Fitzwilliams, at the same moment suggested to his mind, the shameful inattention that had been paid to the sacred memory of Handel.  His Lordship, with a soul of gratitude and harmony, communicated his wishes to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, for the establishment of a festival, who, animated with the same generous feelings, promised his most sanguine support.  In consequence of this, an application was made to Mr. Bates, whose assistance was highly necessary towards the accomplishment of their wishes.  Mr. Bates not only expressed his readiness in forwarding the business, but has since proved himself, by the most laborious attention, to have been of infinite service.  In the autumn, Mr. Bates sent for Mr. Ashley, of Pimlic[o], whom he knew to have a general knowledge of the musical people, and enquired how many performers he thought could be collected in the celebration of the intended Jubilee?  Mr. Ashley, after a few days were elapsed, produced a list of 400 performers, who had promised their assistance.  This circumstance induced Mr. Bates to lay his plan for the establishment of a festival, before the noble Directors of the Ancient Concert, who, as it were with a general sympathy, not only promised their individual support, but engaged to lay the plan before his Majesty, who very graciously patronized the approaching Handel’s Jubilee.

            The following arrangement has been made by the Directors of the Jubilee, to prevent as much as possible the confusion that necessarily must attend the admission at different doors of so much company as is expected at the Abbey this day.

West Door.

Sir Watkin Williams Wynne

Dr. Arnold

Mr. Simpson

Mr. Ayrton

North Gallery.

Lord Sandwich

Dr. Cooke

Mr. Aylward.

South Gallery.

Lord Exeter

Mr. Dupuis

Mr. Parsons

Mr. Jones to attend

    the Bishops door.[77]

 

 

 

May 25

[Charles Burney to [Sir Joseph Banks], 26 May 1784]

 

                                                                                    Wed[nesda]y Morn[in]g 6 O’Clock

[…] I sh[oul]d have been very happy in the honour of meeting you at the Club yesterday, but had long been engaged to dine at Mr Bowles’s, & to day, if we sh[oul]d meet at Westminster Abbey, we sh[oul]d not be able to talk ab[ou]t business.  Entrons nous donc en Matiere— [417]

            Your Correspondent seems very unwilling to be satisfied w[i]th anything less than good Music, a good Price, & a power of Praise for his pious compilations {?an oratorio}; & I fear his cravings in these respects are not very likely to be gratified: Stanley has said, as plainly as a civil man can speak, in one of his Letters to me w[hi]ch I communicated to you, that he did not chuse to set these Oratorios: 1st because he had not time; 2dly because the public was unwilling to like any other compositions of that kind than those of Handel, though they have heard them so long, that they are heartily tired of them.  If this letter is not destroyed, I wish you w[oul]d send it to your Friend.  Indeed nothing but royal Patronage or uncommon excellence in the Performance can ensure a full house to any of Handel’s best Oratorios.  And I own that my expectations of a more satisfactory answer from Stanley are very small.  If there is any other adventurer in Compositions of this sort: such as Dr Arnold, young Arne, or Linley, to whom he wishes they sh[oul]d be shewn, I w[oul]d willingly communicate to them the MSS.

            I have the honour to be, with great regard, dear Sir,

                                                                        Your obliged

                                                            and most zealous servant

                                                                                    Cha[rle]s Burney[78]

 

 

 

May 26

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

[same insert as on 24 May][79]

 

 

 

May 26

[Georgina Mary Anne Port to Miss Hamilton, 26 May 1784]

 

            A. D. is pretty well; thanks you a thousand times for your kind enquiries.  She has been at the Abbey today, much charmed, begs best love to you.  The D[owage]r D[uche]ss is pretty well, but did not go to-day.[80]

 

 

 

May 26

LONDON.

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            Yesterday the grand festival in commemoration of the immortal Handel began.  We cannot in any adequate terms describe the grandeur of the spectacle.  Habituated as we are to public exhibitions, and having had the opportunity of beholding whatever has engaged the notice of the metropolis for many years, we may be allowed to speak from comparison;—on experience therefore we say, that so grand and beautiful a spectacle, with at the same time a feast so rich and perfect, has not been presented to the public eye within our memory.  The coup d’ oeil infinitely surpassed that of the trial of the Duchess of Kingston in Westminster-hall—and the Jubilee of Garrick, from which the idea of the present was taken, though it filled the bosoms of men with equal enthusiasm, fell greatly short in the execution.  On the trial of the Duchess of Kingston there was a heavy grandeur—the robes and the etiquette of rank, aided by the gloom of the Hall, prevented us from enjoying the beauties of variety.  Here we had all the youth, beauty, grandeur, and taste of the nation, unrestrained by the regulations of a Court of Law, and grouped in all the natural and easy appearance of the pêle-mêle.  The Ladies were without diamonds, feathers, or flowers, and thus, in our mind, their charms were embellished.

———————For beauty

Needs not the foreign aid of ornament;

But is, when unadorn’d, adorn’d the most.

            We have already given some account of the picture of the Abbey.  The arrangement of the whole was admirable, and did infinite credit to the talents of Mr. Wyatt.  His orchestra [platform] he constructed so well, that the whole mountain of performers had a full view of the leader, and were as regular as the most compact band.  The great aisle under the orchestra, and the galleries on each hand, were so contrived, by the gradual elevation, that from every point of view the whole was seen, and the grand box for their Majesties and the Royal Family terminated the prospect.

            The company began to assemble at a very early hour.  Before ten in the morning the appearance was numerous, and about half after eleven, the immense space was crowded to overflowing; the number was not short of 4000, the greatest part of which were ladies.  By the natural coolness of the Abbey, and the contrivance of the Directors, the place was not so intolerable for heat as might be imagined from the season.  Their Majesties arrived about a quarter past twelve o’clock.  The King came first into his box, and on viewing the brilliant spectacle, he started and stood for some moments seemingly in an extasy of astonishment, an extasy which could only be exceeded by the bounding transports of our amiable Queen.  The Royal Pair were accompanied by Prince Edward and the Princess Royal, who sat on the King’s right, and the Princesses Augusta Sophia and Elizabeth on the Queen’s left hand; they were all in one box, which was most elegantly ornamented.

            The festival then began, and the Coronation Anthem was the first piece, which was selected as a Salutation, and in its performance displayed the amazing powers of the Band.  It would be presumptive in us to enter into a detail of the performance.  It was in so grand, so superior, and so exalted a stile, that it must not be subjected to the rules of pettyfogging criticism.  Our readers may imagine better than we can describe, the fulness of a band of more than 500 instruments[.]—They may conceive what must be produced by a combination of all the executive powers in the country, inflamed and actuated by the Muse of Handel.  Will they not believe that

“———they would seize the prison’d soul,

“And lap it in elysium.

            What was said by hyperbole of the eloquence of the Earl of Chatham, might, without a figure, be applied to this; that “it resembled at times the thunder, and at times the music of the spheres.”  Nor was there, we believe, an individual present, who, during the influence of the artillery of the band, when the bursts of the full chorus struck the ear, and shook the mansion, was not carried back by analogy to the torrents of the artillery of Heaven, with which, but that very morning, the hemisphere had rung.  The present is in reality an aera in the music of Britain; and as, while the soul and the genius of music has existence, it will be our pride that Handel composed his works in England, it will not be forgotten that his works have been so greatly commemorated.  His is the muse for the English character.  He writes to the masculine genius of a free people, and it was only by such an execution that the true majesty of his composition could be demonstrated.  It has been attributed to music that it enervates the mind.  How far this may be true of the refinements of the Italian school, or even of simple melodies, we do not think ourselves competent to determine; but surely if any thing can more than ordinarily invigorate the mind; if any thing can arouse the faculties and coagitate the masculine passions of the soul, it is the music of Handel, performed by such a band as are now engaged in his commemoration.

            Joah Bates, Esq; who was the conductor of the band, and to whose efforts so much of the general character and excellence of the entertainment was owing, appeared to be so agitated and inflamed by the subject during the performance—his mind was so involved, and his powers so roused, that his instrument, though immense in its tones, could hardly give utterance to his sentiments.  Driven along the torrent so powerfully, he was at times too rapid in the movement, but his judgment quickly corrected his feelings; and a band more easily directed, more distinct in its impressions, or more perfect in its harmony, we never saw.  Such was the first Exhibition in this national feast; we rejoice that there are yet two more to come.[81]

 

 

 

Wednesday, 26 [May].

[…]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

The grand festival in commemoration of the immortal Handel began this day.  We cannot in any adequate terms describe the grandeur of the spectacle.  Habituated as we are to public exhibitions, and having had the opportunity of beholding whatever has engaged the notice of the metropolis for many years, we may be allowed to speak from comparison;—on experience, therefore, we say, that so grand and beautiful a spectacle, with at the same time a feast so rich and perfect, has not been presented to the public eye within our memory.  The coup d’oeil infinitely surpassed that of the trial of the Durchess [sic] of Kingston in Westminster-hall—and the Jubilee of Garrick, from which the idea of the present was taken, though it filled the bosoms of men with equal enthusiasm, fell greatly short in the execution.  On the trial of the Duchess of Kingston there was a heavy grandeur—the robes and the etiquette of rank, aided by the gloom of the hall, prevented us from enjoying the beauties of variety.  Here we had all the youth, beauty, grandeur, and taste of the nation, unrestrained by the regulations of a court of law, and grouped in all the natural and easy appearance of the têle mêle.  The ladies were without diamonds, feathers, or flowers, and thus, in our mind, their charms were embellished.

———————For beauty

Needs not the foreign aid of ornament;

But is, when unadorn’d, adorn’d the most.

The arrangement of the buildings in the Abbey was admirable, and did infinite credit to the talents of Mr. Wyatt.  His orchestra he constructed so well, that the whole mountain of performers had a full view of the leader, and were as regular as the most compact band.  The great aisle under the orchestra, and the galleries on each hand, were so contrived, by the gradual elevation, that from [392] every point of view the whole was seen, and the grand box for their Majesties and the Royal Family terminated the prospect.

The company began to assemble at a very early hour.  Before ten in the morning the appearance was numerous, and about half after eleven the immense space was crowned to overflowing; the number was not short of 4000, the greatest part of which were ladies.  By the natural coolness of the abbey, and the contrivance of the directors, the place was not so intolerable for heat as might be imagined from the season.  Their Majesties arrived about a quarter past twelve o’clock.  The King came first into his box, and on viewing the brilliant spectacle, he started and stood for some moments seemingly in an extasy of astonishment, an extasy which could only be exceeded by the bounding transports of our amiable Queen.  The royal pair were accompanied by Prince Edward and the Princess Royal, who sat on the King’s right, and the Princess Augusta Sophia and Elizabeth on the Queen’s left hand; they were all in one box, which was most elegantly ornamented.

The festival then began, and the Coronation Anthem was the first piece, which was selected as a salutation, and in its performance displayed the amazing powers of the band.  It would be presumptive in us to enter into a detail of the performance.  It was in so grand, so superior, and so exalted a style, that it must not be subjected to the rules of pettifogging criticism.  Our readers may imagine better than we can describe, the fullness of a band of more than 400 instruments—They may conceive what must be produced by a combination of all the executive powers in the country, inflamed and actuated by the Muse of Handel.  Will they not belive [sic] that

            “———they would seize the prison’d soul,

            “And lap it in Elysium!”

What was said by hyperbole of the eloquence of the Earl of Chatham, might, without a figure, be applied to this; “that it resembled at times the thunder, and at times the music of the spheres.”  Nor was there, we believe, an individual present, who, during the influence of the artillery of the band, when the bursts of the full chorus struck the ear, and shook the mansion, was not carried back by analogy to the torrents of the artillery of heaven, with which, but that very morning, the hemisphere had rung.  The present is in reality an aera in the music of Britain; and as, while the soul and the genius of music has existence, it will be our pride that Handel composed his works in England; it will not be forgotten that his works have been so greatly commemorated.  His is the Muse for the English character.  He writes to the masculine genius of a free people, and it was only by such an execution that the true majesty of his composition could be demonstrated.  It has been attributed to music, that it enervates the mind.  How fast this may be true of the refinements of the Italian school, or even of simple melodies, we do not think ourselves competent to determine; but surely, if any thing can more than ordinary invigorate the mind; if any thing can arouse the faculties and coagitate the masculine passions of the soul, it is the music of Handel, performed by such a band as are now engaged in his commemoration.

Joah Bate, Esq; who was the co[n]ductor of the band, and to whose efforts so much of the general character and excellence of the entertainment was owing, appeared to be so agitated and inflamed by the subject during the performance—his mind was so involved, and his powers so roused, that his instrument, though immense in its tones, could hardly give utterance to his sentiments.  Driven along the torrent so powerfully, he was at times too rapid in the movement, but his judgement quickly corrected his feelings; and a band more easily directed, more distinct in its impressions, or more perfect in its harmony, we never saw.  Such was the first exhibition in this exquisite national feast.[82]

 

 

 

MAY 27.

HANDEL’S JUBILEE.

Yesterday morning the doors of Westminster Abbey were opened at nine o’clock.  In about an hour and a half, the aisle and galleries were filled with company.  At a quarter past twelve, their Majesties made their appearance, accompanied by Prince Edward, the Princess Royal, the Princess Augusta, and Princess Elizabeth.  Their Majesties, and the Royal Family, entered the Abbey at the East Door, and accompanied by the Bishop of Rochester, as Dean of Westminster, went to the Poets Corner, to view the monument of Handel: after which, preceded by the Prebends, and other clerical orders of the church, they entered the Choir by the Altar, and walking down it in procession, ascended the royal gallery, when the entertainment of the morning immediately commenced.  Such an assemblage of fine women could never be brought together in any country in the world.  Neatness and simplicity of dress, added charms to natural beauty.  There were present about 4500 persons, two-thirds at least Ladies.

The accommodations were well adapted to the occasion.  The upper apartments, on the right hand of the throne, were appropriated to [278] the Gentlemen of the Household in waiting; beneath whom sat, in purple robes, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Winchester, Salisbury, Ely, St. David’s, Worcester, Peterborough, and Chichester.  Below these were seated various persons of distinction; amongst whom were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Gower, Lord Lewisham, Lord Bulkeley, Judge Nares, and several Ladies of the first fashion.  On the left of the throne, in the upper apartments, were the Maids of Honour.  The box under the Prebends contained a Bevy of Beauties; in the front of which were seated the Duchesses of Portland and Devonshire, Lady Duncannon, Lady Salisbury, and a numerous company of the Noblesse.  The pit was allotted to subscribers, but not sufficient to contain, by many hundreds, the number of persons to whom tickets had been issued.  In the galleries, which may be stiled the boxes of the House, the parties were agreeably blended.  The Stewards and their friends occupied the center-box, under the throne.  The King, Queen, and Princess Royal, sat in the front of the center square; Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth, on their right, and Princess Augusta on their left, attended by Lord Rivers, Lord Aylesford, Lord Aylesbury, Lord Salisbury, Lord Galloway, Lord Amherst, Duke of Montague, and several others of the Nobility en suite.  His Majesty was dressed in light blue, trimmed with silver, and a primrose-coloured silk waist-coat; her majesty in a straw-coloured silk saque, with laylock bows, and head-dress in neat moderate stile; the Princess Royal in olive-coloured silk; Princess Elizabeth in puis coloured; and the Princess Augusta in Pomona; Prince Edward in light blue silk, wearing the order of St. Patrick.

The band in the orchestra was composed of 513 performers, and the music selected for this day’s performance consisted of The Coronation Anthem, The Overture of Esther, and The Te Deum.  The second part, of the Overture and dead March in Saul.  And the third part, of an Anthem, and a Chorus, from Israel in Egypt.  The band was led by Mr. Hayes.  The voices of the choral band were arranged by Dr. Arnold.  The vocal performers acquitted themselves with much credit, particularly Reinhold, Norris, Harrison, and the Rev. Mr. Clarke.

The performance concluded about half after three o’clock.

Further particulars of a celebrity so near the period of the month, we are under the necessity of postponing.  With respect to the subsequent performance at the Pantheon on Thursday, and at the Abbey on Saturday, it is obviously absurd to anticipate events, for the gratification of temporary curiosity, in a publication intended as a record of past transactions; an attempt moreover, which would hardly fail of subjecting us to incorrectness and inconsistency.—An ample account will be given in our next.[83]

 

 

 

May 26

JUBILEE

Yesterday morning about nine o’clock, the carriages began to move towards the east, the west, the north and the south doors of Westminster Abbey, and before one o’clock, by the puffs and paragraphs, the novelty of the entertainment, and the private workings of the directors, near FIVE THOUSAND pleasure hunting people of all descriptions, and from all parts of the kingdom were assembled, some dressed, some undressed, some noble, some ignoble, some vulgar, some fashionable, some unfashionable, a small number that understood music, and a great number that could not even distinguish between a quick and a slow movement, and to whose ears the sacred songs of the blind fiddling chaunter in St. Paul’s church yard would have been equally delightful, as the full band and chorus in the Abbey.

            On so hot a day, and at such a season of the year, no persons who regarded the health of their fellow creatures would have planned so palpably destructive a scheme to the lives of individuals; and the truth of this observation will be verified in the event of yesterday.  Above one hundred persons overcome by the calcuttean heat which naturally arose from the effluvia of so many close packed bodies, fainted away, and were with the greatest difficulty and the most imminent danger carried out.  Some recovered by being brought into the air, and others were [122] taken home with very little hopes of recovery.  The idea of the black hole in India can only convey to the public what the visitors to this lucrative jubilee, suffered.

            By the time that the place was nearly full, the rosy cheeks of many a beautiful woman displayed a channel on the natural skin, down which the warm moisture run in such plenteous streams as caused visible distinction between the real and artificial colour of the face.  The roots of the hair became from the same cause unpowdered, nor could even the strong perfume of Olympian dew or Lavender water, prevent the vapour from overcoming every delicate constitution in the Abbey.  Even the gentlemen in the Orchestra felt it, and one of them was so much affected, (Mr. Claget) that he was taken out, and carried home quite senseless.  Two young ladies from Buckinghamshire, who came to town on purpose to be present at this Jubilee, and who were hitherto accustomed to the sweet air of the country, are likely to forfeit their lives.  One of them in particular has totally lost her senses, and the other is in a most dangerous fever.  There certainly has never been in this country a meeting from which so much injury to the health has and will arise, and which in future must bring down so many curses on its authors from parents for the loss of children, and from children for the loss of parents.  It seems to be a too great fondness for the immediate profits that induced the Directors not to defer this entertainment to winter, when it might have been performed without endangering the lives of so many people.  We may therefore with the more justice state this matter in the manner we have done to the public, and warn them how they croud to such places at so very hot a season as this is.

            Westminster Abbey, from the nature of its situation in a hollow, from the numerous bodies that are interred both within the aisle, and round the building, and from its continued damp beneath, must cause the most unwholesome air that can be breathed.  Many hitherto have been the fatal colds caught by only sauntering there to view the tombs.  What then must be the effects arising to an [123] assemblage suffocating there for want of air during six or seven hours.  Our duty to the public, however highly we may respect the performance, obliges us to speak the truth, and in doing so to be of as much service as we can on such an occasion to the community.  Indeed we speak the sense of almost every person present; for the general expression when the concert ended, was: “I would not undergo such another purgatory to hear even Handel himself—and I am sure I feel myself, but ill, very ill paid for what I have suffered.”[84]

 

 

 

May 26

H A N D E L

COMMEMORATION.

            THE Patronage of Genius in such Magnitude as this unrivalled Composer is well worthy of such a Constitution as Great Britain!—And when some Historical Narrative of the Arts shall refer to the Publications of the Times, for the Accounts of this memorable Transaction, let The Whitehall Evening-Post record, that it was little less than what may be called the Constitution which accomplished this great Effort—That his Majesty’s Assent, spontaneous and hearty Assent was with it—That the Aristocracy also supported it—at least those among them who are not reduced to Bankruptcy by Gambling, and the yet more extravagant Villainy of bringing Beggars into Parliament—And last, not least in all Matters of Entertainment and Expence, by the Majesty of the People.

            The popular Rage indeed for this extraordinary Novelty was such, that all the Tickets which were issued were bought up with an Avidity beyond all Expectation; so that the Day before the Performance not a single Ticket was to be got through the whole Town; and Yesterday Morning, long before the Time appointed for the Opening of the Doors, Crowds of well dressed People were assembled at the Doors: And the Struggle, though short, was for the Time as violent as any we ever met with at a Theatre.

            The Building, when filled, which it was most compleatly, was one of the most beautiful Spectacles that a large Assembly ever furnished forth!—And when their Majesties, with their Suite—the Bishops, the Dean and Chapter, the chief Nobility, and the Directors, were seated at one End, and antagonised the Band at the West Extremity of the Building, the Effect was inconceivably wonderful and gratifying!—And it was not a little enraptured, at least to those who love and honour our Prince and Country as warmly as we do, by the first Crash of the Coronation Anthem!

            The Music, no doubt aided by the Enthusiasm of the Scene, and the collateral Considerations connected with the Commemoration, as well as by the unexampled Selection of the Performers, was far more than ordinarily impressing!—And what must be a Kind of Epoch in the Art, because it establishes Attainments never before experienced; nor indeed thought possible!—The Deviations from Time and Tune, though in such a multitudinous Band as five hundred and fifteen, were not once perceivable.  For the greater Part they played with as much Neatness, with as much Precision as if they had been a common Band of two Dozen, that had been practising together for twice Twelve Months.

The Band we have said were 515:

Violins                            

Second ditto                      

Tenors                            

Oboes                             

Violencellos                       

Bassoons                            

Double ditto                       

Double Basses                    

Trumpets                            

Trombones                     

Horns                             

Drums                            

Double, ditto.                     

50

52

32

36

30

25

  1

18

14

  3

12

  4

  1

            Hay was the Leader.  Cramer was unemployed but as a Hearer.  Of the other principal Performers and usual Instruments, it is needless to speak—The Specification of the Extraordinaries is as follows—Double drum “of Size enorm” was Ashbridge; Trombones, Zink, Miller, Nerbuker; Double Bassoon, Ashley.

            The Triumph of this unexampled Band was, on the whole, in the Dead March; the Roll of the Basses, Drums, &c. no bad Counterpart to the Thunder of the Morning, succeeded by the crying Flutes of Florio, Descamp, &c. produced the most contrasted, the most impassioned Effects ever heard; they were more than heard—they were felt! imo Corde.

            Pacchierotti, Tasca, Bartolini, did not sing[.]  The Mara, besides what was set down for her in the Book, and to such a Singer Woe be to the Man who quotes from Shakespeare to sing no more than is set down for her, sung “When the Ear heard him”—and we added, we could not help it—When the Ear heard her No sounds could be more divine.

            The Building, though materiem superabat opus, was still the Building of Wyatt! simple, grand, striking in its Contrivance!  The Dispositions of the Throne, the Orchestra, the Ornaments all so exactly harmonising with the Tone of the Cathedral, were imagined in a Taste at once both curious and correct—Yet still our Mind could not help a vain Wish, that the Object had been less fleeting.

            Wyatt should build in Adamant!  The Directors acquitted themselves with uncommon Satisfaction and Success!  All their Measures were so well taken, that the whole Day went off with uninterrupted Eclat: There were none of those Embarassments to which all Entertainments of Magnitude must in their Turn be liable; the only objectionable Point was the Want of Punctuality—The Doors were not opened till nearer Ten than Nine; and the Music was also a little behind Hand in the Beginning.

            The Clocks which were in the same Story gave, we suppose, the Lead to this Error.

            As for Mr. Joah Bates, the Conductor, the most accomplished Dilettante in Europe; this was in Effect a Sort of Apotheosis to him; he played the Organ, and at Times brandished the conducting Roll, &c. &c. &c.

            The King and Queen we have said were there, so were the Princesses, two or three we did not see, they looked Complacency itself, a Virtue they have by Inheritance!  Prince Edward made his first Appearance in Public.

            The Prince of Wales was not there.[85]

 

 

 

May 26

            Their Majesties, we understand, have been so much delighted with the Performance in the Abbey on Wednesday, that a message was sent by the Lord Chamberlain to the Directors, desiring a fourth day, and pointing out the pieces to be performed.  A letter was immediately written by the Earl of Sandwich to Lord Salisbury, expressive of the Directors[’] and the Performers’ readiness to comply with his Majesty’s desire, and Thursday morning next is appointed for the meeting in the Abbey.

            Handel’s first Grand Concerto, the four Oboe Concertos, the Occasional Oratorio, and “Gird on thy Sword” from Saul, are among the Pieces which their Majesties have ordered to be performed in the Abbey on Thursday next.[86]

 

 

In 1784 I was happy to be one of the subscribers to the first Commemoration of Handel at the Abbey, and went myself to that most sublime treat.  I recollect giving Dr. Arnold very tolerable trouble: he, with great kindness, met me at the gate, in his official paraphernalia, and ushered me into what might be thought a very safe and desirable situation—just opposite the seat of the royal family.  Though a passionate lover of music, the immense burst of sound really frightened me, and I rose to leave the place; but how to get out through titles, magnificence, elegance, and beauty, all listening in [96] rapturous silence!  “I shall draw the attention of every body—I shall expose myself,” thought I; and apprehension operated with such power upon my fancy, that fear of illness made me really ill.  From the length of the entertainment, I was overcome by langour; however, I patiently suffered to the end of one chorus and another song; at length courage or weakness compelled me to rise, and make to the door, though I blundered exceedingly in my progress, for the large windows, admitting the broad sun-beams on the variety of gay figures round me, made it all one glare.  I seemed in a huge lantern: my limbs were enfeebled, and I felt ready to fall, when somebody, I don’t know who, pronounced my name: the whisper spread, and in a few moments I had half a dozen hands of kindness stretched forth to lead me out.  The fresh air at the door revived me, and the conscious certainty of getting out when I wished, quite restored my spirits.  I walked about gently, heard an air or song as I pleased, and quitted [97] the Abbey with a determination never again to be thrust into a great assembly, unless with some intimate acquaintance at my elbow.  Being in full dress, I went and came in a sedan-chair.[87]

 

 

 

May 26

            Yesterday their Majesties were attended to Westminster Abbey by Lord Galloway, the Duchesses of Ancaster and Argyle; likewise by the Maids of Honour.[88]

 

 

 

May 27

Thursday 27 [May].

[…]

This evening the grand festival in commemoration of Handel was renewed at the Pantheon which presented a brilliant appearance.  The lofty dome was illuminated with 7000 lamps, in compartments, and terminating at the top of the cupola in a beautiful figure.  About eight o’clock their Majesties, Prince Edward, the Princess Royal, Princess Sophia, and Princess Augusta, arrived and took their seats—the Prince of Wales came as a private gentlem[a]n, and mixed with the company.

There were between two and three thousand persons present; the general anxiety was such, and the fear of not being present at this solemnity made the company so eager, that the press at the doors was as great, and the entrance as vehemently contended for, as it is at the pit of the galleries of the theatre on a night of unusual invitation.  Stars and Duchesses disdained not to set their shoulders to the crowd[s] and jostle for admission to this triumph of the art.

The performance was not over till past twelve.  We enter not into the detail of the concert, which differed from the entertainments of the first day in every thing but its excellence.  The music in the Abbey was the sublime, this the beautiful of Handel.  The one part was full of the grandeur and majesty of the art—the other of the taste and elegance.  In this, however, they were alike, that they both called up the great passions of [393] the soul, and stirred both the turbulent and the [t]ender feelings.

In this night’s performance, Madame Mara drew forth all the wonders of her voice, and with the most melodious throat reached the compass even of an instrument.  In the air of “Ah mio cor schernito sei” she went to D in alt[o]!  Pacchierotti was also very fine in the beautiful accompanied recitative of “Alma del gran Pompeo,” from Julius Caesar.

The select[i]on of the pieces did infinite credit to the taste of the directors; and the execution came up to their warmest expectations.  Nothing could exceed the grandeur and effects of the chorus from Israel in Egypt, “He gave them hail-stones for rain—fire, mingled with the hail, ran along upon the ground.”  The beginning and raging of the storm was a noble achievement of the art—the crash of the instruments—the responses of the double choir—and the immense volume and torrent of sound, was almost too much for the head or the senses to bear—we were sunk into a species of delirium.  This is certainly one of the grandest effects of Handel’s Muse, and never, we will venture to say, was it so greatly executed.

Mr. Bate played the organ with the same touch as he had in the Abbey, the new invention of the ingenious Mr. Green.  The band was led by Crame[r], and the harmony in all its parts was compleat.[89]

 

 

 

May 27

            As the Commemoration of Handel has given rise to one of the most splendid exhibitions which has been seen in this kingdom, we think it our duty to communicate to our readers the particular circumstances which first led to its being adopted.

            In a conversation which took place in the beginning of the year 1783, between Earl Fitzwilliam, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, and Joah Bates, Esq. one of the Commissioners of the Victualling-Office, at the latter’s house, it was lamented, that, as London contained a greater number of eminent performers on different instruments of music, than any other city in Europe, there was not some public periodical occasion which would bring them all together; by which means a performance might be exhibited on such a scale of magnificence, as could not be equalled in any part of the world.  The death of Handel naturally presented itself to three such e[n]thusiastic admirers of that great master, and it immediately occurred that the next (i. e. the present) year would be a proper time for the introduction of such a custom; as it formed exactly a fourth of a century since his death, and a complete century since his birth.

            The plan was soon afterwards communicated to the Managers of the Musical Fund, who approved it, and promised their assistance.  It was next submitted to the Directors of the Concert of Ancient Music, viz. Earl of Exeter, Earl of Sandwich, Viscount Dudley and Ward, Viscount Fitzwilliam, Lord Paget, Right Hon. H. Morice, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, Bart. Sir Rich. Jebb, Bt. who, with a readiness that does honour to their feelings of humanity as well as of music, voluntarily undertook the trouble of managing and directing the celebrity.  The design a[t] last coming to the knowledge of the King, it received the sanction of his patronage.  Westminster Abbey was fixed upon as the properest place for the performance, as Handel was buried there; and application was made to the Bishop of Rochester for the use of it, who readily consented, as the scheme was honoured with the King’s patronage; and who only requested, that as the performance would interfere with the annual day of the Westminster Infirmary, a part of the profits might be applied to that charity.  This was agreed to; and it was afterwards settled that the profits of the first day’s performance should be equally divided between the Musical Fund and the Westminster Infirmary.  The profits of the other days are intended to be applied solely to the Musical Fund.

            As the tickets delivered out on the above occasion are peculiarly excellent, we shall subjoin the following description of them:—It was intended to have had the first morning of this celebrity on the 21st of April, in commemoration of the day on which Handel was buried; and therefore the ticket represents a sarcophagus, with a medallion of Handel over it, and musical instruments uniting and filling up the space betwixt the top of the sarcophagus and the medallion.  This ticket was designed by Sig. Rebecca, and engraved by Mr. Sherwin.

            The ticket for the Pantheon represents Handel playing on the organ, and a figure of Fame crowning him with laurel, designed by Cipriani, and engraved by Bartolozzi.

            The other ticket, which is for the second performance in the Abbey, represents the figure of Britannia pointing towards a pyramid, on which the name of Handel is engraved; at the foot of Britannia is a Genius offering the first-fruits of a sacrifice, by the command of Britannia, to the memory of Handel; and in the back ground appears a perspective view, at a distance, of Westminster-Abbey.  This ticket was designed by Mr. Smirk, and engraved by Mr. Howard.[90]

 

 

 

May 27

            The band at the Pantheon yesterday evening consisted of about half the number of performers assembled at the Abbey the day before.  However, there were as many a[s] the orchestra of the place could be made to contain, and indeed as many as any ear could possibly wish, for the complete covering of all the parts.

            The extent of Mara’s voice was most wonderfully ascertained in the Abbey.  Those who were not able to see her, on account of intervening obstructions, pillars, &c. and were distant from her almost as far as the choir, from the West window of the church, speak of her voice as coming to their perceptions, with undiminished grace and power.[91]

 

 

 

May 27

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            LAST night the festival in memory of Handel was renewed.  The Pantheon presented a most brilliant appearance.  The lofty dome was illuminated with 7000 lamps, in compartments, and terminating at [t]he top of the cupola in a beautiful figure.  We have already described the scite [sic], fashion and furniture of the grand box, erected by Wyatt, for the accommodation of the Royal family.  About eight o’clock their Majesties, Prince Edward, the Princess Royal, Princess Sophia, and Princess Augusta arrived and took their seats---the Prince of Wales came as a private Gentleman, and mixed with the company.

            There were between two and 3000 persons present; the general anxiety was such, and the fear of not being present at this solemnity m[a]de the company so eager, that the press at the doors was as great, and the entrance as vehemently contended for, as it is at the pit and galleries of the theatre on a night of unusual invitation.  Stars and Duchesses disdained not to set their shoulders to the crowd, and jostle for admission to this triumph of the art.

            At this late hour, for the performance was not over till past twelve, we cannot enter into the detail of the Concert.  It differed from the entertainments of the first day in every thing but its excellence.  The music in the Abbey was the sublime, this the beautiful of Handel.  The one part was full of the grandeur and majesty of the art—the other of the taste and elegance.  In this, however, they were alike, that they both called up the great passions of the soul, and stirred both the turbulent and the tender feelings.

            In last night’s performance Madame Mara drew forth all the wonders of her voice, and with the most melodious throat reached the compass even of an instrument.  In the air of “Ah mio cor schernito sei” she went to D in alt!  Pacchierotti was also very fine in the beautiful accompanied recitative of “Alma del gran Pompeo,” from Julius Caesar.

            The selection of the pieces did infinite credit to the taste of the directors; and the execution came up to their warmest expectations.  Nothing could exceed the grandeur and effects of the chorus from Israel in Egypt, “He gave them hail-stones for rain---fire, mingled with the hail, ran along upon the ground.”  The beginning and raging of the storm was a noble atchievement [sic] of the art—the crash of the instruments—the responses of the double choir—and the immense volume and torrent of sound, was almost too much for the head or the senses to bear---we were sunk into a species of delirium.  This is certainly one of the grandest effects of Handel’s muse, and never, we will venture to say, was it so greatly executed.

            Mr. Bates played the organ with the same touch as he had in the Abbey, the new invention of the ingenious Mr. Green.  The band was led by Cramer, and the harmony in all its parts was compleat.[92]

 

 

 

May 27

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

            Last night the festival in memory of Handel was renewed.  The Pantheon presented a most brilliant appearance.  The lofty dome was illuminated with seven thousand lamps, in compartments, and terminating at the top of the cupola in a beautiful figure.  About eight o’clock their Majesties, Prince Edward, the Princess Royal, Princess Sophia, and Princess Augusta arrived and to[o]k their seats—the Prince of Wales came as a private gentleman, and mixed with the company.

            There were between two and three thousand persons present; the general anxiety was such, and the fear of not being present at this solemnity made the company so eager, that the press at the doors was as great, and the entrance as vehemently contended for, as it is at the pit and galleries of the theatre on a night of unusual invitation.  Stars and Duchesses disdained not to set their shoulders to the crowd, and jostle for admission to this triumph of the art.

            The Concert was not over till past twelve.  It differed from the entertainments of the first day in every thing but its excellence.  The music in the Abbey was the sublime, this the beautiful of Handel.  The one part was full of the grandeur and majesty of the art—the other of the taste and elegance.  In this, however, they were alike, that they both called up the great passions of the soul, and stirred both the turbulent and the tender feelings.

            In last night’s [in fact, May 27] performance Madame Mara drew forth all the wonders of her voice, and with the most melodious throat reached the compass even of an instrument.  In the air of “Ah mio cor schernito sei” she went to D in alt!  Pacchierotti was also very fine in the beautiful accompanied recitative of “Alma del gran Pompeo,” from Julius Caesar.

            The selection of the pieces did infinite credit to the taste of the directors; and the execution came up to their warmest expectations.  Nothing could exceed the grandeur and effects of the chorus from Israel in Egypt, “He gave them hail-stones for rain—fire, mingled with the hail, ran along upon the ground.”  The beginning and raging of the storm was a [n]oble atchievement [sic] of the art—the crash of the instruments—the responses of the double choir—and the immense volume and torrent of sound, was almost too much for the head or the senses to bear—we were elevated into a species of delirium.  This is certainly one of the grandest effects of Handel’s muse, and never, we will venture to say, was it so greatly executed.

            Mr. Bates played the organ with the same touch as he had in the Abbey, the new invention of the ingenious Mr. Green.  The band was led by Cramer, and the harmony in all its parts was compleat.

            The King has commanded a fourth day, Thursday next, and the pieces are

First Grand Concerto.

The four Handel’s Oboe Concertos.

The occasional Oratorio.

Gird on thy sword.—Saul.

Jehovah crown’d with glory.—Esther.

 

The Principal INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMERS at HANDEL’s JUBILEE.

FIRST VIOLINS.

Mr. Hay

Mr. Cramer

Mr. Richards

and 47 more.

SECOND VIOLINS.

Mr. Borghi

Mr. Dance

and 50 more.

TENORS.

Mr. Napier, right side of the organ

Mr. Hackwood Shield left side

and 30 more.

OBOES.

Mr. Vincent

Mr. Fischer,

Mr. Effert

Mr. Parke

and 22 more.

FLUTES.

Mr. Buckley

Mr. Decamp

Mr. Florio

Mr. Mansani

Mr. Popendick

Mr. Potter

Mr. Tacet,

 

 

[next column ]

VIOLONCELLOS.

Mr. Crosdill

Mr. Cervetto

Mr. Paxton

Mr. Mara

and 26 more.

BASSOONS.

Mr. Baumgarten

Mr. Hogg

Mr. Lyon

Mr. Parkinson

and 21 more.

DOUBLE BASSOON.

Mr. Ashley.

DOUBLE BASSES.

Mr. Gariboldi

Mr. Richard Sharp

Mr. Clagger

Mr. Pasquali

and 14 more.

TRUMPETS.

Mr. Serjeant

Mr. Jenkins

Mr. Vinicomb

and 11 more.

TROMBONES.

Mr. Zinck

Mr. Miller

Mr. Neibuker.

HORNS.

Mr. English

Mr. Gray

Mr. Kaye

Mr. Leander

Mr. Lord

Mr. Lely

Mr. Miller

Mr. M’Pherson

Mr. Ockle

[next column]

Mr. Payola

Mr. Paltein

Mr. D. Schutz.

DRUMS.

Mr. Nelson

Mr. Weitzemniller [?Weitzenmiller]

Mr. Burnet

Mr. Houghton.

DOUBLE DRUM.

Mr. Ashbridge.

VOCAL PERFORMERS.

CANTOS.

Madame Mara

Miss Harwood

Miss Cantelo

Miss Abrams

Miss T. Abrams

Signor Bartolini

Signor Pacchierotti

and 51 more.

ALTOS.

Rev. Mr. Clark

Mr. Dyne

Mr. Knyvet,

and 48 more.

TENORS.

Mr. Harrison

Mr. Norris, Oxford

Mr. Corfe, Salisbury

and 63 more.

BASSES.

Mr. Champness

Mr. Reinhold

Signor Tasca

Mr. Matthews

and 66 more.

INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMERS.

First Violins

Second Violins

Tenors

Oboes

Violoncellos

Bassoons

Double Bassoon

50

52

32

26

30

25

  1

Double Basses

Trumpets

Trombones

Horns

Drums

Double Drum

18

14

  3

12

  4

  1

VOCAL PERFORMERS.

Cantos

Altos

Tenors

58

51

66

Basses

 

Total of the Band

  70

——

513[93]

 

 

 

May 26, 28

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

GREAT Handel listen’d near th’ eternal throne:

“These strains (he cry’d, enraptur’d) are my own!”

Reading, May 26, 1782[!4].[94]

 

 

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

GREAT Handel listen’d, near th’ eternal Throne:

These strains—(he cry’d, enraptur’d)—are my own!

Reading, May 28, 1784.[95]

 

 

 

May 27

Mr. URBAN,

The following lines relate to a circumstance which happened at the Pantheon during the concert in memory of Handel: they have been handed about at Bath and the Hot-well with some approbation.  If you think proper to rescue them from oblivion, by inserting them in your Magazine, they are at your service.                        Z.

ETERNAL prater!  R—TH—Y, say,

What daemon hurried thee away,

  (Foe to thy peace and quiet)

Ambitious to enroll thy name,

To add a wreath to Handel’s fame,

  And join th’ harmonic riot?

 

Whilst ev’ry ear in rapture hung

On Handel’s notes, on Mara’s tongue,

  Melodious, soft, and swelling;

Whilst ev’ry eye was charm’d to view

Bevies of beauties, didst thou sp—w,

  To d—n our sense of smelling.

 

Methinks I see Duncannon fair;

And, beauteous Devon! thou wast there;

  And Derby——how they titter!

—Otto of roses for her grace—

A filthy Levite from Duke’s-place

  Has made this horrid litter.

 

In wonder fix’d, Sir William * swore,

When first he heard thy stomach roar,

  And saw the filth come from it,

’Twas like the lava that ran down

When old Vesuvius from his crown

  Discharg’d a fiery vomit.

 

Hadst thou no sense of shame or fear?

Why was not Master Shepen there?

  He might have sav’d thy credit;

Cough’d, and cried hem—or held his hat,

Or lent his pocket, and all that,

  Or swore ’twas he that did it.

 

Couldst thou not decently retire?——

Sit like a pig in thy own mire,

  In spite of all decorum;

When Majesty itself was nigh,

And lords and ladies hurried by

  With handkerchiefs before ’em.

 

Why thrust that Israelitish face

Betwixt his lordship and her grace?

  Why counteract thy nature?

Form’d of a coarser kind of clay,

Thy very looks thy soul display,

  A Jew in ev’ry feature.

 

By the Pantheon’s gods I swear,

Had I my will, aloft in air

  From blanket thou shouldst caper.

But what I can, I will,—thy name

Shall, by the Muse held up to fame,

  Be gibbetted on paper.                      Z.[96]

 

 

 

May 27

When Handel’s Commemoration was afterwards removed to the Pantheon, I with some friends was again present; and was this time fortunately placed by Dr. Arnold, the conductor of the whole, near the door, that, should I be oppressed by the heat, I might the sooner get away.[97]

 

 

 

May 28

            The King has commanded a fourth day, Thur[s]day next, and the pieces are

First Grand Concerto.

The four Handel’s Oboe Concertos.

The occasional Oratorio.

Gird on thy sword.—Saul[.]

Jehovah crown’d with glory.—Esther.[98]

 

 

 

May 28

HANDEL.

Veniente die, et decedente.

The Rehearsal of the MESSIAH in the ABBEY.

THE Rehearsal yesterday brought together a great crowd; but being by experience admonished to what lengths the Desperation of Insolvency would carry the Blue and Buff, we took more than usual care of our pockets, and, of course, passed through the Opposition, and yet had a half guinea to pay for admission into the Abbey.

            There could not be less than near 2000 persons present.  The floor was full, and the two front rows of the galleries [too].

            The Band acquitted themselves to a miracle of precision and impassioned expression; and though it was the first Rehearsal, at least the first that was general, there were not above two or three obstructions to a progress strait forward.

            The effect of the Chorusses was most sublime! far beyond all possible expectation!  We thought we were without doubt as to the impression they were capable of producing—but this performance went far beyond the high point we had an idea of.[99]

 

 

 

May 29

Pantheon, May 29.

            The Nobility and Gentry are respectfully informed, that there can be no other Masquerade in London this year, but that which will certainly be at the Pantheon on Monday next, notwithstanding the several paragraphs and advertisements inserted in the news-papers, acquainting the public that there would be one at Willis’s Rooms in King-street.  The Opera House and Pantheon only are licenced by the Lord Chamberlain to have Masquerades; and the managers or proprietors of other public places presuming to have any without a licence from his Lordship, are liable to very severe penalties, which no doubt would be inflicted on them for acting contrary to law.[100]

 

 

 

May 29

            The late George Frederick Handel, the celebrated musician, died on the 14th of April, 1759, at the age of 75 years; he and Quin the player were reckoned the two great voluptuaries of the age.  It has been said of Mr. Handel that he composed his best pieces of music when half intoxicated [had that been true, Britain would have long been the first musical nation in Europe!]; though this is not known to be the fact.  When Handel died, the news being brought to a society of musical people at a tavern in Pall{-}Mall, among whom was the late {(ommitted)} Lord Kelly, an Epitaph {epitaph} was proposed, and among others Lord Kelly was applied to for composing one, when he immediately took a pen, and wrote that one line which is inscribed on the monument of Correlli {Corelli} in the Pantheon at Rome:

“He is gone to that place where only his harmony can be exceeded.”[101]

 

 

 

May 29

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            ON Saturday the exhibition in the Abbey was as grand as on the first day of this glorious festival.  The doors were surrounded by numbers of the most fashionable and exalted persons in the empire, and by ten o’clock the aisle and galleries were filled with the taste and beauty of the age.  Their Majesties arrived a little past twelve; Prince Edward was not present, but two more of the younger Princesses came with their Royal parents, and sat on the King’s right hand with the Princess Royal.

            The Oratorio of the Messiah was then performed.  Of the merits of this piece it would be impertinent in us to speak, since every one who has any knowledge of music, or who is like ourselves, an amateur of the science, is intimate with every movement and passage of the immortal work.  Never was the Messiah so superbly, so wonderfully executed.  The solos may have had equal justice in former representations, because individual performers of equal merits may and have been employed in their execution; but the chorusses were in a stile of magnitude and grandeur unprecedented, and we fear inimitable.  Let our readers imagine the result of such a combination of professional men; for the wonder and brilliancy of this part arises, not from the circumstance of five or six hundred persons being in the band, but that the band, thus numerous, is composed of scientific men, almost every one of them a master in the science, and so executive at their several instruments, that there required but one general rehearsal to compass the undertaking.  Upon no occasion even in the land of music, in Italy itself, was such an orchestra put in motion; the only festival in Italy which approaches to the present was the crowning of Petrarch, and then the band, which consisted only of wind instruments, did not amount to more than three hundred in number.  Is it not, therefore, a subject of national triumph, that, on so worthy an occasion, as the memory of Handel, and for so benevolent a purpose as public charity, we have fixed the greatest atchievement [sic] of the art in Britain?

            The grand beauties of the performance on Saturday were the “Hallelujah,” and “Amen.”  The rapture and ecstasy of the audience, during these chorusses, cannot be described; and what speaks most forcibly for the performance was, that those who knew the science best were the most sensibly affected; her Majesty, the Princess Royal, and others.

            Madame Mara in the song of “I know that my Redeemer liveth;” Tasca’s song, with Serjeant’s trumpet, Norris’s recitatives, Cramer as the leader, and Mr. Bates’s conduct of the organ, were all most highly spoken of; but it is not easy to select individual merit from such a system of excellence, nor is it perhaps the compliment which individuals would covet.  Saturday’s performance fulfilled the original scheme; but by the desire of their Majesties the festival is to be continued for two days more, and Thursday is fixed for the exhibition; we have already told our readers what are to be the pieces.[102]

 

 

 

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            ON Saturday the exhibition in the Abbey was as grand as on the first day of this glorious festival.

[same report as in The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser.  Monday, May 31 1784.  p. [2].]

[…]  Saturday’s performance fulfilled the original scheme; but by the desire of their Majesties the festival is to be continued for two days more, and Thursday and Saturday are fixed for the next exhibitions; we have already told our readers what are to be the pieces on Thursday; and the Messiah is to be repeated on Saturday.[103]

 

 

 

Saturday 29 [May].

The performance of sacred music in the Abbey was again attended by his Majesty, the royal family, and a splendid audience; who were entertained in the most agreeable manner that can be well conceived.

Great Handel listen’d, near th’ eternal Throne;

These Strains (he cryed, enraptur’d) are my own![104]

 

 

 

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

            The Performance of the Messiah on Saturday, being the second of the Acts of Commemoration of Handel in the Abbey, was indeed a glorious instance of the grand and sublime in execution, as the Musick of the Oratorio is confessedly a proof of the grand and sublime in composition.  The orchestra did wonders, and the singers were in general remarkably successful, but most so, Madam Mara, though her notes partake of a wild luxuriancy, extremely beautiful and agreeable to the ear, but irreconcileable, in some sort, to Handel’s stile.  Mr. Harrison, the Rev. Clark, Mr. Reinhold, Mr. Norris, &c. gave abundant proof of their superior talents.  Champness, who for many years together afforded the lovers of musical expression, in the boldest stile of vocal energy, the highest satisfaction, fell a little short of himself in one of the songs.  The chorusses were all admirably given, particularly the Hallelujah at the end of the second act.  The peculiar regularity and correctness of the above performance, was scarcely less the subject of astonishment than its extraordinarily noble effect, and afforded a corroborating proof of the claim the Sub-Directors, who conduct the executive part of this striking example of national taste, and national mastership in the arts musical, have upon the publick for their warmest approbation and gratitude.

            Their Majesties, four of the Princesses, and above 4000 auditors, came away in raptures from the Abbey, which had been the scene of their extacy for three hours successively.

------------------------------------

Clergy and Establishment for the Blind.

            Besides irradiating the country with the lustre of patronizing the arts, the Commemoration of Handel may be estimated as producing other consequences, nationally cognizable—as the encrease of money thrown into new circulations, additional influx of foreigners, some little aid to the Revenue, by incidental travelling, dress destroyed, carriages, and other benefits to trade.

            The band which the publick have lately heard in the Abbey, is the most numerous, as well as the most perfect, ever known to have been collected in Europe.  At Vienna, it is recorded, that there was once a band of above 300 musicians—but never another instance of more, or indeed so many.

            The profits resulting from the different performances in Commemoration of Handel, will make a wonderful total.  The first and second Abbey performances each had near 5000 persons present; the Pantheon 2400; the Rehearsal at the Pantheon near 400; the Rehearsal at the Abbey above 1600 persons paid; the third and fourth Abbey meetings, yet to come, may be expected to produce as much as the preceding—of course, in all, the receipts will be above 18,000l.  The disbursements, we understand, cannot be above 1500l.

            The accumulated profits of this undertaking are to be invested in the Public Funds, as the best deviseable property to the public charities, among whom it is meant to be distributed—The Decayed Musicians—Sons of the Clergy, &c.[105]

 

 

 

May 29

P O S T S C R I P T.

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF HIS MAJESTY.

Third Performance at Westminster-Abbey, on Saturday, May 29.

            AFTER having made our Readers acquainted with the Band and Singers brought together on this Occasion, they will imagine, rather better than we can describe, the Excellence and Grandeur of the Performance.  Not that it was free from reprehensible and inexcusable Faults.  The sickly Melody of Pacchierrotti, unnatural as the Tones are in which it is expressed, is wonderfully captivating; and Madame Mara is the genuine Child of Nature and Genius.  They were too sparingly introduced; and the inferiour Singers had Parts assigned them to which their particular Talents were not suited.  But all Murmurs were silenced by the commanding, perhaps terrifick, Manner in which the Chorusses were performed.

            Agitated and affected as we were by them, we could not keep out of our Minds Ideas of Regret and sometimes of Disgust, arising from the Nature, Character, and Views of the Assembly, and the aweful Subject of the Entertainment.  It has been the diligent Study of Men in Power in this Country for twenty Years, to discredit every Principle that can render Man useful or respectable.  Almost all the active Instruments of publick and private Vice were in our Eye when the Band broke out into—“Hallelujah! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”  And such a Scene would baffle the Skill of Homer; though the Finger of Heaven traces legibly the Characters of Iniquity on the human Countenance.  The Assent given to the Excellence of the Performance; and the Resistance made to the terrifick Truth of the sublime Sentence, formed a mingled Expression more unpleasing and hateful than can be well imagined.  This Circumstance has long induced us to avoid Oratorios; as they are performed exactly in the Manner of Parodies, to ridicule and insult the moral and religious Sentiments they were meant to promote; and it will make us deem the Commemoration of Handel a signal Proof of the musical Proficiency, and the abandoned Profligacy of the present Period.

 

GRAND JUBILEE MASQUERADE at the PANTHEON.

LAST Night, or rather this Morning, a large and genteel Company assembled at the Pantheon in Masques; a few to show they had Wit and Humour; several that they had Taste in Dress, and that they could afford to indulge any Caprice and Extravagance in it; but the greater Number to fly from Ennui, Stupidity, and private Reflexion, into a Vortex of Noise and Dissipation; the last Refuge of a Nation which is sinking the Remains of its Credit and Glory in Venality and Profligacy.

Though the Condition of publick and private Affairs be the most desperate which can well be imagined, yet London has not at any Period exhibited such numerous Instances of the most expensive Entertainments as have engaged our Attention in the last Month.

Last Night the Engagement to the Pantheon was not sufficient.  Miss Vanneck, Lady Basset, and we believe some others, vied with the Managers in the Splendour of their Entertainments.  A Kind of petite Masquerade at Sir Francis Basset’s was conducted with Elegance and Taste.  But Entertainments of this Kind in private Houses break in on the publick Masquerade.  The genteelest Company is engrossed by them; they arrive late in the publick Room; their Spirits are evaporated; and they stroll and lounge, as the Gentry do at a Country Wake.

The Masquerade at the Pantheon was sensibly affected by such Circumstances last Night; and a general Langour prevailed by the Managers set the grotesque Gentry in Motion, and diffused mirth and Jollity through the Room.

The Characters, as usual, were very few; and those performed by Persons who are too often seem in them to give Pleasure.  There was a Giantess ten Feet high, which occasioned general Consternation, and alarmed the Managers for their Chandeliers.  There was also a tolerable Acteon; and a Bookseller in Piccadilly, in an enormous Balloon Hat, with Foxes Tails, &c. seemed to glance satirically at the Duchess of D----.  The Decorations of the Commemoration of Handel remained, and added to the usual Beauty and Brilliancy of the Place.  The Whole was well conducted; and we hope the Managers found their Account in it.[106]

 

 

 

May 29

            The compliment paid by Edwin on Saturday evening to the vocal powers of Madam Mara, was just, well introduced, and well pointed.—“I am just come” said he, “from the Abbey, where Mara sung with powers enchanting, and infinitely be[y]ond the unnatural notes of the Opera squakers.”[107]

 

 

 

May 29

Frances (Fanny) Evelyn-Glanville to Hon. Mrs Edward Boscawen, 29 May:

 

[she reports that W. Pitt was at the] Musick in Westmr Abbey this Morning, an Entertainment for Ears and Eyes far surpassing any this country has produc’d.  I can give You no Idea of it, nor expect You will credit that upwards of 500 Musicians perform in Harmony as in a Concert of 20 hands.  I have not been at Either of the Performances but I went to the Rehearsal Yesterday wch gave me a very good Idea of it […]

I have been interrupted by a Gossip who wou’d come in to tell me how fine the Musick was this Morning.  Their Majesties had 5 or 6 children with Them.  The Pr of W was not there either Morning.  Thursday Night he was as [sic] the same Performance in the Pantheon […] His RHss had a Ball last Night, the Company assembl’d at 10.[108]

 

 

 

May 29

SUNDAY 30 MAY [1784].  […/220…]

He [Dr. Johnson] had now a great desire to go to Oxford as his first jaunt after his illness.  We had talked of it for some days, and I had promised to accompany him.  He was impatient and fretful tonight because I did not at once agree to go with him on Thursday.  When I considered how ill he had been, and what allowance should be made for the influence of sickness upon his temper, I resolved to indulge him, however inconvenient it might be.  I had omitted to attend the first days of the Commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey.  The third and last was to be on the following Saturday, and it was then believed that there would [not] be again an opportunity of hearing that very magnificent [221] musical performance in which upwards of ------2 exerted their talents.  I thought it hard to lose this, but I was willing to make the sacrifice for the quiet and complacency of Johnson.  However, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who then thought that I certainly should not lose it, suggested an expedient, which was that I should go with Johnson to Oxford on Thursday, and having seen him safe there, return to town on Friday, be at the Commemoration on Saturday, and go again to him afterwards.  This, Sir Joshua thought he could not take amiss, but must rather consider it as paying him a great compliment to go to Oxford purposely to attend him.[109]

 

 

 

May 31

            The music to be performed at Westminster Abbey on Thursday next, the 3d of June, [{3}] wi[ll] be rehearsed on Wednesday at eleven o’clock in the morning.  Admittance to the rehearsal at the west door only at half-a-guinea each person.[110]

 

 

 

May 31

            Several adventitious benefits in the wonder-working way have arisen from the commemoration of Handel; it has not only made the people of fashion get out of bed by times in the morning, but it has induced them to go to church!

            The metropolis has been greatly benefited by the Jubilee.  It has brought an immense number of the distant gentry to town, who were all to be new equipped on the occasion, and who consequently have given an advantageous spur to the fashionable trades.[111]

 

 

 

Pantheon, May 31.

            The Nobility and Gentry are respectfully informed, that there can be no other Masquerade in London this year, but that which will certainly be at the Pantheon to-night.  The several paragraphs and advertisements in the news-papers, saying there would be one at Willis’s Rooms in King-street, this evening, were an imposition on the public; they dare not have a Masquerade there[.].  The Opera House and the Pantheon are the only places where Masquerades are permitted, these being under the immediate protection and licence of the Lord Chamberlain.[112]

 

 

 

[May]

The jubilee of Handel.  The King childishly pleased; bespoke it twice more, and went for it to the Pantheon, whither he had never been for its own merit.  The Queen for popularity was said to bespeak the fourth representation.  He had lost 13 provinces, made two ignominious peaces – and was consoled by his victory over Fox and the House of Commons, and by the splendour of presiding at the jubilee![113]

 

 

 

May 31

[Monday 31 May]

 

            The band which the public have lately heard in the Abbey, is the most numerous, as well as the most perfect, ever known to have been collected in Europe.  At Vienna, it is recorded, that there was once a band of above 300 musicians—but never another instance of more, or indeed so many.

            The profits resulting from the different performances in Commemoration of Handel, will make a wonderful total.  The first and second Abbey performances each had near 5000 persons present; the Pantheon 2400; the rehearsal at the Pantheon near 400; the rehearsal at the Abbey above 1600 persons paid; the third and fourth Abbey meetings, yet to come, may be expected to produce as much as the preceding—of course, in all, the receipts will be above 18,000l.  The disbursements, we understand, cannot be above 1500l.

            The accumulated profits of this undertaking are to be invested in the Public Funds, as the best deviseable property to the public charities, among whom it is meant to be distributed—The decayed Musicians—Sons of the Clergy, &c.[114]

 

 

 

Jun 1

                                                                        LONDON, June 1.

[…]

            The profits resulting from the different performances in Commemoration of Handel, will make a wonderful total.  The first and second Abbey performances each had near 5000 persons present!  The Pantheon 2400; the rehearsal at the Pantheon near 400; the rehearsal at the Abbey meetings yet to come, may be expected to produce as much as the preceding—of course, in all, the receipts will be above 18,000l.  The disbursements, we understand, cannot be above 4000l.

            The profits of this undertaking are to be invested in the funds, for decayed musicians, sons of the clergy, &c.[115]

 

 

 

Jun 1

MASQUERADE INTELLIGENCE.

            On Monday evening, owing to the Masqued Ball at Miss Vanneck’s, it being Ranelagh night, Whitsun Monday, and altogether a bad evening, there were but few persons assembled at the Pantheon, and those not of the most fashionable order.  The pavillion fitted up for their Majesties to hear the Music in commemoration of Handel was left standing, and opposite to it was the representation of an organ with a transparent bust of Handel finely illuminated, both of which had a good effect.  The company consisted chiefly o[f] dominos, the characters being very few, and some of them indifferently supported, among the rest was discovered Mrs. H. in the character of Night, covered over with stars, and it may with justice be said she was a fine night; an excellent Mungo, two good chimney-sweepers in company with a new-made Countess and an Oyster Woman danced a double minuet.  Merlin as a gigantic Mother Shipton moved about the room, apparently with great ease; a person dressed as a Coal-heaver, with a label on his back, importing, that owing to the Great Seal being stolen, he had procured a Patent of Peerage, by the name, stile, and title of Earl Longtail, Viscount Ship, Baron Coalmine, of the County of Westmorland, Mr. W. D—— in the character of Sir Jeffrey Dunstan, Night Mare of Garrat[,] soliciting votes against the approaching Election, in which he was threatened to be opposed by Lord Pompey.  The other characters consisted chiefly of noisy Watchmen, dirty Beggars, drunken Hair-dressers, and a few Fruit and Flower-girls.  The supper and wines were in great plenty, and the rooms were not cleared before eight o’clock yesterday morning.

---------------------------------------------------

            Westminster Abbey, on Saturday next, will be far superior in point of number and rank to any of the former meetings.  The Nobility, as well foreign as British, thinking themselves called upon to shew their respect to our amiable Queen, who has condescended to order the Performance for that morning, a circumstance that has not happened since she became the Partner of our Sovereign.—By their Majesties Command—has been the usual stile of announcing to the public their appearance at our Theatres, it was reserved for the harmony of Handel alone to be thus honored by separate commands, an honor the more to be valued, as their Majesties are known to possess great taste, and have a thorough knowledge of those beauties that cannot be felt but by ears highly cultivated.

            Their Majesties having declared themselve[s] Patrons to the Charity established by the Musicians for the benefit of their decayed brethren, they appeared at the Abbey on Saturday last with gold medals struck upon the occasion.

            The St. Alban’s tavern was yesterday beset with carriages the whole day, purchasing tickets for the Abbey to-morrow.  The Directors found themselves under the necessity of changing the mode of disposing of the tickets, as it has been discovered, that some very improper conduct had taken place to the injury of the charity.  One of the assistant Directors attends to deliver the tickets, in order to prevent any further impositions upon so laudable an undertaking—for it has appeared, that not only the charity has been injured, but the public very much imposed upon, by having more money exacted for the tickets than the noble Directors intended.

[…]

            The alteration in the mode of issuing the tickets for Handel’s Commemoration became necessary from the number of forged tickets, which on each of the entertainments found their way into the Abbey and the Pantheon.

            The number of these forgeries is said to be between five and six hundred![116]

 

 

 

Jun 1

            The St. Alban’s tavern was on Tuesday beset with carriages the whole day, purchasing tickets for the Abbey for this day.  The Directors found themselves under the necessity of changing the mode of disposing of the tickets, as it has been discovered, that some very improper conduct had taken place to the injury of the charity.  One of the Assistant Directors attends to deliver the tickets, in order to prevent any further impositions upon so laudable an undertaking—for it has appeared, that not only the charity has been injured, but the public very much imposed upon; by having more money exacted for the tickets than the noble Directors intended.

            The alteration in the mode of issuing the tickets for Handel’s Commemoration became necessary from the number of forged tickets, which on each of the entertainments found their way into the Abbey and the Pantheon.  The number of these forgeries is said to be between five and six hundred.

            Why do not the Directors of the Commemoration of Handel announce the names of those abandoned men who, on so great an occasion as a national festival for a public charity, have practised arts for which they should be punished?  If the rumour be true that certain of the persons whom they entrusted to dispose of the tickets have abused their confidence, the public should be made acquainted with their names.  They should be proscribed as well as execrated[.]—This is particularly necessary if they are in trade, and have the opportunity of committing daily frauds on the unsuspecting world.  The exposure is due also to those who faithfully executed their trust.[117]

 

 

 

Jun 3

Commemoration of Handel,—4th Day.

            The Ab[b]ey was not so much crouded yesterday as upon any of the former days, occasioned by the Messiah being advertised for Saturday.  There were not more than two thousand present, who all retired with the satisfaction that has attended every one of the meetings.  The effect of the funeral anthem was beyond description; the most beautiful faces in the world were drowned in tears, even L—d T—l-w ‘governed his roaring throat and grumbled pity.’  The trumpet passages in the Te Deum were never better decorated than by Mr. Serjeant.  This has been always considered as Handel’s ablest work, and without degradation we may assert that his most sanguine wish could not desire to have better performed than it was yesterday.  Their Majesties were attended with their suite as usual, and accompanied by the Princess Royal, Princess Augusta, and Princess Sophia.

            We hear that Doctor Burney is preparing for immediate publication, an account of the plan, conduct, and effects, of the musical exhibitions in Commemoration of Handel, in which will be inserted, from accurate and authentic information, the number of auditors who attended each performance, the expences, surplus, and disposition of the whole profits arising from this stupendous design, and its successful execution.

            Madam Mara has behaved with a generosity almost unexampled.  The Directors of Handel’s Jubilee willing to demonstrate the grateful sense they entertain of her cheerful assistance to promote the interest of the musical fund, expressed a desire to make her some acknowledgment for her loss of time in punctually attending the meetings and rehearsals.  Madam Mara thanked the Directors for th[ei]r generous intention, but begged leave to be excused from accepting any pecuniary reward, declaring that she considered her being in England at this period, one of the most fortunate circumstances of her life, as it gave her an opportunity of assisting in the most splendid musical scene that ever was exhibited, as well as promoting a charitable scheme.  The Directors felt as they should have done upon the occasion, and mentioned the circumstance to the principal Nobility, who have undertaken to patronize Madam Mara at her approaching Benefit.  We are not decided in our opinion who most deserves our approbation, Madam Mara for her disinterested generous behavior, or the Directors and Nobility for their intended support of her; it must be acknowledged that the conduct on all sides is praiseworthy, and we hope will be adopted by others.[118]

 

 

 

Jun 3

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            The fourth exhibition of Handel’s music was not so numerously attended as the former; it was by the particular desire of his Majesty, and the pieces which he selected were chiefly those which composed the first festival; the Dettingen Te Deum; the Dead March in Saul; the Funeral Anthem; the Coronation, &c.  The orchestra was as multitudinous as ever, and the performance was in the same grand and unprecedented stile.  The moral effects of the exhibition; the holy passion which it engender in the bosom; and the elevated notions of religious worship which it instilled, are circumstances that tend to aggrandize this memorable feast.  The visible impressions which the lofty strains made on the audience; the fervor and the awe inspired by the grand passages of the full chorus; such for instance as,

“To thee Cherubin, and Seraphin, continually do cry[”]

“Holy, Holy, Holy; Lord God of Sabaoth.[”]

“Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory:”

intitle this celebration to honours distinct from its musical merit.  Here it excites emotions favourable to virtue; it imbibes in the most thoughtless bosom, ideas of the ineffable grandeur of the Deity, and it disposes his soul to the consideration of that worship, the solemnities of which are so impressive.

            We cannot enumerate the several beauties of yesterday’s performance.  The feelings of the auditory were stirred to all the kindred emotions of the music—of that music, whose character and articulation is every where as distinct as language.  In the Funeral Anthem they were involved in a flood of tears.  In the Coronation Anthem, it was a flood of rapture.  Madame Mara, who to the singular merit of exerting her talents, though struggling with illness, adds the disinterested virtue of refusing every idea of compensation, gave the air of—“O sing unto the Lord a new song”—in a stile of most masterly execution.  The instruments were as before, individually great, and in the whole wonderful.  The last exhibition is fixed for Saturday, and the inducements are more than usually strong[.]—The entertainment is the Messiah, and it is by the immediate desire of our most amiable Queen.  Their Majesties yesterday wore the medals struck in Commemoration of Handel.  The three eldest Princesses only accompanied their Royal parents.[119]

 

 

 

Jun 4

            Of the large number of our deluded countrymen, who have been tempted since the peace, to try their fortunes in America, three fifths of them have been obliged to work their passage back again to Europe, in all the varieties of the extremest w[r]etchedness.

            Perhaps it would be no bad appropriation of some of those large sums, received at the different Commemorations of Handel, were distributed among the distressed adventurers above-mentioned.  No set of men can want it more—and considering the excessive impositions daily practicing by the American agents, as the blame of these unwary wretches, really receives much mitigation, so also should their sufferings.[120]

 

 

 

Jun 5

COMMEMORATION of HANDEL.

            On Saturday last finished the Concerts in Westminster Abbey[;] it is unnecessary to say a word in commendation of either the music or performance, their excellence is sufficiently known and acknowledged.  The Noblemen and Gentlemen who conducted this musical phenomenon are entitled to every commendation a grateful people can bestow on those who have been concerned in any scheme that does honour to the nation.  The Commemoration of Handel is a circumstance by no means below the dignity of the Historic Muse, and it is with anxious pleasure we look forward to Dr. Burney’s intended history of a transaction so extraordinary in the harmonic world.  We have heard it asserted that in the same proportion a nation becomes attached to the fine arts, in the same proportion the minds of the people become enervated, and regardless of their political liberty, and that music, more than any other science emasculates the mind.  Whether this position be true or false we have not leisure to examine, though we are ready to grant, that where music becomes the business of a people, it may and perhaps does produce the effect alluded to, but where it is taken up as in England by way of relaxation from the more weighty concerns of the statesman and merchant, no evil consequence can possibly, (in a national point of view) attend our attachment.  On the contrary, Concerts assist in forming the manners of our youth, by giving a polish to their behaviour, not often met with among a people, where music does not constitute part of their public amusements.

            Their Majesties were accompanied by the Princess Royal, Princess Augusta, Princess Sophia, and by the Princes Edward, Ernest, and Augustus; there were more of the Nobility present, than at any of the former meetings.  The Abbey was full of Company, and accommodated, without inconvenience, as the Assistant Directors had taken care, that none should be admitted, without tickets, and no more were disposed of, than could conveniently get seats.

----------------------------

 

            Saturday being the last performance for the commemoration of Handel, curiosity led a correspondent [Burney?] to take a survey of the musicians[’] names which were pasted round the orchestra, and he declares his surprise was great to find that Mr. Richards of Drury Lane theatre was not of the band, although his name has been published in every list.

            There was not any person played from the book of the wonderful conductor Mr. Bates, or with the accomplished leaders Messrs. Hay and Cramer.  The last mentioned gentleman led the last four days in a most capital stile.

            The first stand of each part was marked in the following manner:

            Violoncellos—first side, Crosdill and Mara: ditto, second ditto, Cervette and Paxton.

            Second Violins—Borghi and Soderini: on the first side, next to the leader, Dance and Blake.

            Tenors—first side, Hackwood and Shields: ditto, second ditto, Napier and Carnevale.

            Oboes—Fischer and Vincent, Kneller and Effert, the two Parkes, &c. &c.

            Flutes—Florio, Decamp, Buckley, &c. &c.

            Horns—Payola, Pieltain, English, &c. &c.

            Bassoons—Baumgarten, Parkinson, Hog, Lyon, &c. &c.

            The Solo Trumpets were Sergeant and Fitzgerald.

            Double Basses—Gariboldi, Sharp, &c. &c.

            Mr. Ashley, the assistant Conductor, performed on a double bassoon, an instrument very uncommon in this country; it had a fine effect in the chorus; and Mr. Asbridge beat his superb drums with great judgement.  The whole was capital beyond description; but why leave Mr. Richards out?

            The solo singers were,

            Trebles—Madame Mara, Miss Cantelo, Miss Harwood, Miss Abrams, Miss F. Abrams, Signor Bartilini [sic].

            Tenors—Mr. Harrison, Mr. Norris.

            Counter Tenors—Mr. Clark, Mr. Knyvitt, Mr. Dyne.

            Basses—Mr. Reinhold, Mr. Champness, and Signor Tasca.

 

-------------------

 

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

            The two last performances in the Abbey, though the worst attended, were the best worth attention of any of the four—the third, particularly, remarkably aided by the grand concertos.  The concertos were the same, that were performed at the Pantheon—in which, besides the sweet sensations excited by the full harmony of the band in general, Fischer’s hautboy, and yet more the two part passage for the two principal violins of Cramer and Borghi, demand particular praise.

            The full pieces and the chorusses indisputably were the great phaenomenon of this celebrity—and they were indeed a phaenomenon of excellence—of the chorusses, universal suffrage seems to assign a pre-eminent place to the extraordinary passage “of the horse and the rider”—and the chorus, the only piece encored at the Pantheon, “He gave them hailstones, &c.”

            Of the pieces, merely instrumental, the March in Saul, was to be preferred, from it[s] strong power of contrast, in the display of the band.

            As to the vocal parts of these performances, it cannot be too much regretted, that the single airs were not made the most of.

            Much, it has been observed, was done by Mara—how much more would have been the triumphant effect of these grand performances, if other excellence had been resorted to—if, in particular, Pacchierotti had borne the part, he should have done in the Triumph, and with his great executive genius, illustrated the genius of this unexampled composer.

            Of the two leaders, Cramer was more powerful than Hay—more correct, more delicate, more impassioned, he could not be.

            The principal violencellos, Crosdill—Cervetto and Mara, who played out of the same [{3}] book, Aye and Paxton, all have, on this occasion, made great additions to their fame.

            So have Fischer and Parke, Florio and Decamp.

            As for Tacet, whose flute, taken for all in all, is, perhaps equal to any, he had some petty cause of quarrel with his associates, which through a heedless and intemperate assertion, made him, after the first day, leave the band.

            It is to be wondered at, and for his own sake lamented, that Giardini, so far flouted at this solemnity, that he did not give in his name.  The same is to be said of a few other transcendent musicians, of Schwartz the bassoon.

            Mr. Stanley could not have played the organ with more truth nor animation than Mr. Bates, but yet, with much more reason, than give any part above a chorus to Clarke, Knivett, Champness, Corfe, and Dyne, Stanley should have been indulged with, what he would have felt an honour, some portion, if but a small portion of the conducting.

            The organ is the most highly finished one, which that leading artificer, Mr. Greene, had prepared for Canterbury Cathedral.  The front [is] a temporary one.  It is to be noticed, that Mr. Greene, and three or four of his friends, set [sat] during the performance, in one of the recesses of his capacious instrument.

            Norris and Reinhold both added to their reputation.

            In such complete good management was the whole conduct, and every operation in this complicated and laborious undertaking, that it was completed without a single accident, either mechanical or musical.  The time and tune were wonderfully, maintained in perfect order.  There was not any disorder among the music stands, the various instruments, or the seats.

            The seats, by the bye, were but little used, it being very properly hinted by Mr. Hay, that it would be better for the musicians not to sit, if it was wished their powers to be kept unflagging, and in a proper posture to see and follow their leader—accordingly, the band all stood.

            And such was the zeal of all the professional men on this occasion, of their profession being exalted, that this band, whose unexampled numbers, the public already know to be above five hundred, were all voluntary supporters of the cause, who, for the time separated and far apart, from their private business, were, by this attachment to the service, losers, from five to fifty guineas each.

            The numbers returned, as appears by checqued tickets, and entries made at the time, were, never less than 505 musicians in the band.

            Nearly as many more offered their services, which, for want of room, were forced to be refused.

            Of the Directors, who all took great pains, Sir W. W. Wynne was the most assiduous.

            The music in score, were as well as those who performed, brought from all parts of the kingdom.  Not many disagreements were found in the different copies[;] the Oxford copy had the most.[121]

 

 

 

            The Commemoration of Handel concluded on Saturday with the sacred Oratorio of the Messiah.  It was most numerously attended, a compliment due as much to the memory of the immortal Composer, as to the amiable Personage [i.e. the Queen] under whose immediate countenance the entertainment of the day was given.  The festival which has done so much honour to the nation has thus concluded as brilliantly as it began.  We have already given our feeble testimony to the honours of the superb spectacle; we are happy that it is to be taken up by the elegant Historian [i.e. Burney], to whose province it so peculiarly belongs.  He will do justice to the scientific merits of the performances, and his authority will give to this Triumph of the Art the monument which it deserves.[122]

 

 

Jun 5

SATURDAY 5 JUNE [1784].  Breakfast Sir Joshua.  Messiah.

[EDITORIAL NOTE.  The last sentence of Boswell’s first draft of the manuscript of the Life of Johnson for 3 June 1784…ended “…and being fully rewarded for my trouble by hearing The Messiah in Westminster Abbey, the impression of which was such that I resolved I never would go again lest it should be effaced.”  Yet the one leaf of notes that he left (or at least that we possess) for 5 June says little of music and consists entirely of lively remarks of his own made as he was waiting for the music to begin.  For a more informative account of the event we turn to the diary of another member of his party, Miss Mary Hamilton, granddaughter of Lord Archibald Hamilton (he was a younger son of the third Duke of Hamilton) and niece of Sir William Hamilton, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Naples.  She and Boswell had family connexions and many friends in common (Sir William Hamilton was a member of The Club, and Boswell had known him since 1765), but on her own testimony they first met on this day.  A young lady of twenty-eight, she had served for five years as assistant sub-governess in the royal nursery (the Prince of Wales at the age of sixteen had made her the object of a violent infatuation), was a correspondent of Horace Walpole, and was on terms of intimacy with Mrs. Garrick, Mrs. Vesey, Elizabeth Carter, Hannah More, Fanny Burney, Mrs. Delaney, Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Boscawen, and others.  She wrote: “June 5 was the day of the Handel Celebration and performance of The Messiah at the Abbey.  Got up at six.  At a quarter before nine Dr. Burney and Miss Palmer came for me in Dr. Burney’s coach.  Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Boswell followed in Sir Joshua’s chariot […] We got in without any difficulty.  The lower part was already filled with people, but Dr. Burney got us the proper seats for hearing the music.  Sir Joshua introduced me to Mr. Boswell (the Mr. Boswell who wrote the [229] history of Corsica).  From nine to twelve passed away very agreeably in conversation with Miss Palmer and these three sensible men and in remarking the countenances of the company […] Mr. Boswell is one of those people with whom one instantly feels acquainted.  We conversed together with as much ease and pleasantry as if we had been intimate a long time [...] I was so delighted that I thought myself in heavenly regions; 513 performers, the harmony so unbroken that it was like the fall of waters from one source, imperceptibly blended.  The spectacle too was sublime.  So universal a silence.  So great a number of people [...] It was over at four o’clock” (Mary Hamilton…at Court and at Home, ed. Elizabeth and Florence Anson, 1925, pp. 190-91).][123]

 

 

 

[Saturday 5 June 1784]

 

I proposed returning early this morning to Notting Hill but Lord Exeter having offer’d me a place in the directors Box in Westminster Abbey I intend going as everybody says tis the finest sight and the finest musick that ever was heard or seen.  I am just return’d & can venture to say that it is one of the few things which has exceeded my expectations.  I think myself lucky to have heard & seen it [...] The King & Queen the three eldest Princesses & the youngest Princes [sic] were in a very fine Box prepared for them.[124]

 

 

 

[she arrived in London on 2 June]

 

1784 May [...] Sat 5 [June].  went to the Commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey—with Miss Winford Miss Knapp, Mary& Sr: J[?ames] L[?aroche][125]

 

 

 

SATURDAY 5 JUNE [1784].  […/230…]

I said to Dr Arnold the figures in the glass window looked like come down to join chorus—to meet half-way.1  He repeated from Dryden, “He raised a mortal,” etc.2 [126]

 

 

 

Jun 5

For the MORNING CHRONICLE.

VERSES,

On the approaching Benefit of Madame MARA.

 

WHEN Mara sings, ’tis perfect skill combin’d

With sweetness, energy, and taste refin’d;

When Mara sings to Handel’s heav’nly lays,

Rapture is dumb for want of words to praise.

In Charity’s behalf when Mara sings,

Ev’n in the breast of av’rice bounty springs.

Once for herself she sings, with grateful haste

Reward her, sons of genius, bounty, taste.[127]

 

 

 

Jun 5

[Mrs Henry Bates to her sister-in-law, Grace Furey, 7 June 1784]

 

I am very happy to have the pleasure of informing

you that Mrs Bates was safely delivered of

a fine Boy yesterday morning at six-o-Clock, she

had a remarkable good labour, I was not called

up till five o-Clock & she was safe in her bed

about six.  Dr Orme was not in the house ten

minutes before the Child was born, & both Mrs

Bates & her little son are as well as we can possibly

expect.  I hope this good news will make some

amends for my not writing sooner to give you

some account of the glorious Commemoration

of Handel which has been a celebrity that has

exceeded the expectation of every individual &

has astonished all the world.  to attempt to give

you any discription of it would far exceed the

power of my pen.  The Abbey was the finest sight

that ever was beheld in any Country the Orchestra

of Joah’s contriving was the most beautiful

thing that ever was seen, it was built over the

door of the Isle at the west end of the Church,

it was in the form of a half circule, & reached

from the top of the door up to the painted window,

almost perpendicular.  The Organ a very

fine one built for Canterbury Cathedral was in

the centur, and by a contrivence of the Organ

builder your Brother was brought near the front

of the Orchestra eighteen feet from the Organ

he play’d by which means he could see the whole

band, & they could see him, & had no time beater

which is a terrible eye sore, but was whoolly

conducted by the motion of his head or his holding

up a hand.  & it was the wonder of the world that

a band consisting of five hundred performers

should go more perfectly together than ever was

heard before.  The kings throne was erected at

the east end of the Church, facing the Orchestra

& was directed most richly with Crimson silk

satten, & gold.  on one hand side the throne there

was two rows of Bishops.  & on the other side

the Dean and prebands of Westminster in their

gowns which made them uniform with the

Bishops.  below them in the east gallery sat Ladies,

friends of the directors, & on the Deans side

the friends of him & prebands.  just under the

throne there was a box for the directors who sate

there with white wands tip’d with gold and gold

medals to their buttons struck on the occasion.

the King and Queen & your brother had also

gold medals.  gallarys were errected on the North

& South side the Abbey filled with well dres’d

company from top to bottom, between each pillar.

these gallarys came out like Balconies & was

orniment with crimson Moreen fringed.  the bottom

of the church was filled with forty seven

benches from one side to the other all full.  I fancy

there were between three & four thousand well

dressed people all without Hats.  The King &

Queen & all their children by turns attended

every performance, & they were always most

richly dress’d.  I wish I could give you any idea

of the splendid sight.  As to the Music it was far

beyond the power of words to discribe.  In short

Joah is at present the wonder of every living Creature

the King has sent to desire him to go to the

Queens house next thursday evening that he may

thank him.  The pantheon was richly ornimented

& illuminated, & your Brothers say was a fine

sight but not equal to the Abbey but as that was

an evening performance it was not safe for Mrs

Bates to go, & I stay’d at home wi{t}h her.  you will

know before this time that the King commanded

the first performance over again on Thursday

last & the Queen commanded the Messiah over

again on Saturday.  The two last performances

I did not go to because the tickets were a guinea

each & I had been at them the first time.  Dr Bates

did not play because there was not room for him

in the Orchestra, as the band was fully arranged

before we came to Town, & I think he heard it

better as one of the audience.  Lord Exeter was

so kind as to give us places in the directors Box

by us I mean Mrs. Bates & myself.  Harry was

in the Middle Isle & as much delighted as any

human being could be.  I went to get a News paper

that had a pretty good account of this grand

celebration in it but I could not get it tonight

if I can meet with it I will send it in my next

letter.  It is said there is to [be] a Book publish’d

containing a correct narration of the whole business

they have put a tablet over Handels Monument

with this inscription

 

Within these sacred walls The Memory of Handel

was celebrated under the patronage of his

most sacred Majesty George the 3rd on the 26

& 29 May & on the 3d & 5 of June 1784 The

Music performed at this solemnity was selected

from his own works by direction of the Right

Honourable Brownlow Earl of Uxbridge Sir

Watkin Williams Wynn Brt Sir Richard Jebb

Bart. and Conducted by Joah Bates Esquire

 

your brother hopes you will accept my intelligence

of the addition to his family, the same as

if he had written himself which he would have

done but he is hurried with writing letters of form

upon this occasion: ... The Lord Chancellor

of England has offer’d to stand God father to

your Nephew & his offer is accepted but this I

fancy they wish not to be mentioned till the

Christning is over.[128]

 

 

 

Jun 7

To the Rev. Dr. William Adams,

Monday 7 June 1784

London, 7 June 1784

REVEREND SIR: I was perfectly sincere when I told you I was sorry to leave your society.  But I had a very sufficient reason when my [20] object was to hear the wonderful performance of the Messiah in Westminster Abbey.[129]

 

 

 

Jun 8

To the Printer of the St. J. CHRONICLE.

SIR,

THE Commemoration of Handel seems to have been so well received by the Publick, that it is proposed annually to adopt some similar Mode of celebrating such as have rendered themselves useful to Society.  Next Year the Memory of Mr. Garrick may possibly be devoutly revived in Westminster-Abbey.  Preparations, Scaffolding, Attendance, such as the present, are as requisite to honour the Man who could elevate, or soothe, or depress the Soul at his Will, in the same Manner as hath been exerted in Honour of the Composer of Musick.  The reverend Bench of Bishops will gratefully appear at this second Festivity, mindful of him from whom, perhaps, they formerly imbibed some Portion of that persuasive Eloquence by which they so frequently [verb?] in the Pulpit, and so eagerly aim at the Instruction of Mankind.  Dr. Johnson, in Honour of his deceased Friend, might select such Pieces of our most admired Authours as would best suit with so remarkable an Occasion; and the most approved Actors and Declaimers of the present Age would undoubtedly display their utmost Talents in the Recital, and convince every one of the Necessity of annual Commemorations of this Kind.  Charity also (whose fair Name the sour and ill-natured assert to be prostituted at these Assemblies) may lend her Aid, and the Money raised may be advertised as an intended Increase to the Fund for supporting decayed and indigent Actors.  When Mr. Handel and Mr. Garrick shall have received their due Share of Praise, Kings, Princes, Statesmen, Warriours, and the long Train of those who have been esteemed during their Lives for some real or imaginary Service to Mankind may have the Honour of being commemorated also, and thus a perpetual Succession of Amusement may arise, and be a powerful Inducement to the present Race to emulate the Glory of those who have gone before them.

            Give me Leave, Sir, to conclude with a Query or two to those Rev. Persons, who by the King’s Appointment are ordained to the Service of the Abbey of Westminster, and share among them large Revenues on that Pretense?

            Whether it is consistent with the character of any Man, or Body of Men professing themselves to be actuated by the Spirit of real and fervent Religion, to permit the House of God to be applyed [sic] to such Purposes as these?

            Whether the Interruption of the daily service of the Church, to the Performance of which they are bound by every Tie, civil and religious, ought by them to be omitted for the vile and despicable Design of praising a Composer of Musick?

I am, Sir, your humble Servant,

A Man who hath seen better Days.

N. B.—The Service of the 29th of May is in Memory of the Restitution of our regal Government[;] even that is no Consequence at Westminster-Abbey, when compared with the Benefits arising from Handel.[130]

 

 

 

Jun 9

            The King has presented to the treasury of the Musical Society, a purse of five hundred pounds, for the augmentation of that charity.—His Majesty has also signified his intentions of being an annual patron, and will accordingly be placed at the head of the subscription.

            Lord T——’s domestics have reason to curse the Commemoration of Handel; his Lordship is up every morning by five o’clock taking lessons from his music-master, and we hear his progress to excellence is rapid; he can already play several favourite airs: he has declared his intention of visiting Italy this summer for improvement, as he is determined that the Cabinet and Privy Council shall next session dance to his music.  His Lordship has not yet determined to whom he will confide his M———’s conscience during his absence; but in a conversation with his brother, the Bishop, he was heard to say, that his ——— made so little use of his conscience, that he believed it would not be wanted for some time.

            The following inscription, on a tablet of white marble, was, on Saturday morning last, placed over the monument of Handel, in Westminster-Abbey:

Within these walls

The memory of

HANDEL

Was celebrated,

Under the patronage of

His Most Gracious Majesty,

George the Third,

On the 26th and 29th of May,

And

On the 3d and 5th of June, 1784.

The music performed

On this solemnity

Was selected from

His own works,

By the direction of

Brownlow Earl of Exeter,

John Earl of Sandwich,

Henry Earl of Uxbridge,

Sir Watkin Williams Wynne,

And Sir Richard Jebb, Bart.

And conducted by

JOAH BATES, Esq.[131]

 

 

 

Jun 12

SALISBURY CONCERT.

THE Annual MUSICAL FESTIVAL is fixed for the 22d, 23d, and 24th of September next ensuing, for which many of the first Performers are engaged; amongst whom are Messrs. Cramer, Fischer, Cervetto, Gariboldi, Serjeant, (the famous trumpet) &c. and for some of the principal voices, Sig. Tenducci, Miss Cantelo, the chief Choir Boys from the Chapel Royal, and the celebrated Bass, Sig. Tasca, from the Opera House, who was so deservedly admired in the late Commemoration of Handel.  The Dettingen Te Deum, with many more of the finest pieces of that great Master, and other eminent Composers, will make one of the morning performances at the Church, which will be rendered as complete in all its parts, as can reasonably be expected out of London, and on which occasion no pains or attention will be spared by the Stewards.

                                                                                                Rev. Dr. HARINGTON,

                                                                                                W. B. EARLE,

                                                                                                EDWARD BAKER.

F All particulars will be advertised in due time.

June 12, 1784.[132]

 

 

 

June

Handel’s Jubilee, History of, continued.

ARTICLES OF ENTERTAINMENT.

As the Commemoration of Handel has given rise to one of the most splendid musical exhibitions ever seen in this kingdom, the reader will be pleased to see recorded the particular circumstances that first led to its commencement.

In a conversation which took place in the beginning of the year 1783, between Visc. Fitzwilliam, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, and Joah Bate, Esq; one of the Commissioners of the Victualling-Office, at the latter’s house, it was lamented, that, as London contained a greater number of eminent performers on different instruments of music than any other city in Europe, there was not some public periodical occasion which would bring them all together; by which means a performance might be exhibited on such a scale of magnificence, as could not be equaled in any part of the world.  The death of Handel naturally presented itself to three such enthusiastic admirers of that great master, and it immediately occurred that the next (i.e. the present) year would be a proper time for the introduction of such a custom; as it formed exactly a fourth of a century since his death, and a complete century since his birth.

The plan was soon afterwards communicated to the managers of the musical fund, who approved it, and promised their assistance.  It was next submitted to the Directors of the Concert of Ancient Music, viz. Earl of Exeter, Earl of Sandwich, Viscount Dudley and Ward, Visc. Fitzwilliam, Ld Paget*, Rt. Hon. H. Morice, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, Bart. Sir Richard Jebb, Bart. Who, with a readiness that does honour to their feelings of humanity as well as of music, voluntarily undertook the trouble of managing and directing the celebrity.  The design at last coming to the knowledge of the King, it received the sanction of his patronage.  Westminster-abbey was fixed upon as the properest place for the performance, as Handel was buried there; and application was made to the Bishop of Rochester for the use of it, who readily consented, as the scheme was honoured with the King’s patronage; and who only requested, that as the performance would interfere with the anniversary of the Westminster-Infirmary, a part of the profits might be applied to that charity.  This was agreed to; and it was afterwards settled that the profits of the first day’s performance should be equally divided between the musical fund and the Westminster Infirmary.  The profits of the other days are to be applied solely to the musical fund.

This grand harmonic fête was originally intended to have been celebrated on the 21st, 22d and 23d of April; and, the 21st being the day of the funeral of Handel, the music was in some measure selected so as to apply to that incident.  But the sudden dissolution of Parliament necessarily induced the Directors to defer the festival to the 26th of May, when the doors of Westminster-abbey, &c. were opened at nine o’clock.  In about an hour and a half, the aisle and galleries were filled with company.  At a quarter past 12, their Majesties made their appearance, accompanied by Prince Edward, the Princess Royal, the Princess Augusta, and Princess Elizabeth.  Their Majesties, and the royal family, entered the abbey at the East door, and accompanied by the Bishop of Rochester, as Dean of Westminster, went to the Poets Corner, to view the monument of Handel; after which, preceded by the prebendaries and other members of the church, they entered the choir, and walking down it in procession, ascended the royal gallery, when the entertainment of the morning immediately commenced.

The accommodations were well adapted to the occasion.  The upper apartments, on the right hand of the throne, were appropriated to the lords and gents.  Of the houshold [sic] in waiting; beneath whom sat, in purple robes, the Abp of Canterbury, and bishops.  Below these were seated various persons of distinction.  On the left of the throne, in the upper apartments, were the Maids of Honour.  The box under the prebendaries contained a bevy of beauties.  The area was allotted to subscribers, but not sufficient to contain, by many hundreds, the number of persons to whom tickets had been issued.  In the galleries, the parties were agreeably blended.

The popular rage for this extraordinary novelty was such, that all the tickets which were issued were bought up with an avidity beyond all expectation; so that the day before the performance not a single ticket was to be gotten thro’ the whole town; and long before the time appointed for the opening of the doors, crowds of well-dressed people were assembled there; and the struggle, tho’ short, was for the time as violent as any ever remembered at a theatre.

The building, when filled, which it was most completely, was one of the most beautiful spectacles that a large assembly ever exhibited—And what must be a kind of epoch in the art, because it establishes attainments never before experienced, nor indeed thought possible, the deviations from time and tune, though in such a multitudinous band as five hundred and fifteen, were not once perceivable.  The band in the orchestra was composed of 278 performers, viz. violins 50, second ditto 52, tenors 32, oboes 36, violoncellos 30, bassoons 25, double ditto 1, double basses 18, trumpets 14, trombones 3, horns 12, drums 4, double ditto 1.  The music selected for this day’s [458] performance consisted of the Coronation Anthem, the Overture to Saul, and the Te Deum.  The triumph of this unexampled band was, on the whole, in the Dead March; the roll of the basses, drums, &c. no bad counterpart to the Thunder of the Morning, succeeded by the crying flutes of Florio, Decamp, &c. produced the most contrasted, the most impassioned effects ever heard—they were felt ! imo corde.  Bate seemed inspired with a spark of Handel’s fire—his execution upon the organ (one of the largest and best ever built in England, a master piece of Mr. Green, designed for Canterbury cathedral), and his manner of conducting the orchestra, is above panegyric.  The band was ably led by Mr. Hayes.  The voices of the choral band were arranged by Dr. Arnold, with that skill and taste, for which he is so justly admired.  The vocal performers acquitted themselves with much credit.

The building, tho’ materiem superabat opus, was still the building of Wyatt! simple, grand, striking in its contrivance!  The dispositions of the throne, the orchestra, ornaments, all so exactly harmonizing with the tone of the cathedral, were imagined in a taste of the cathedral, were imagined in a taste at once both curious and correct.  Yet still our mind could not help a vain wish, that the object had been less fleeting.

The performance concluded about half after three o’clock.  The Prince of Wales did not honour it with his attendance.

The commemoration was under the following direction viz.

DIRECTORS.

Earl of Exeter,                         Earl of Sandwich,

Earl of Uxbridge,                    Sir W. W. Wynn,

Sir Richard Jebb, Barts.

 

CONDUCTOR.

Joah Bate, Esquire.

 

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS.

Dr. Benj. Cooke,                     Mr. John Jones,

Dr. Sam. Arnold,                    Mr. Theod. Aylward,

Redm. Simpson, Esq;              Mr. Wm. Parsons,

T. S. Dupuis, Esq.                   Mr. Edm. Ayrton.

 

————

 

The second day’s performance was at the Pantheon; and no exertions of art were wanting to decorate that superb building for the reception of their Majesties, and the accommodation of the subscribers.  Having already given an ample description of the first day’s exhibition, it may be sufficient to add, that the music of the second equaled that of the first day’s performance.

The concert was composed of the following selection:

PART I.

SECOND HAUTBOY CONCERTO.

Sorge infausta (from Orlando)  Signor Tascha.

Ye sons of Israel (Chorus from Joshua).

Rendril sereno (from Sosarmes)  Mr. Harrison.

Caro vieni (from Richard)  Miss Cantelo.

He smote all the first-born (Chorus from Israel in Egypt.)

Va[?CHECK] tacito e nascosto (from Julius Caesar)  Sig. Pacchierotti.

SIXTH GRAND CONCERTO.

M’allantano sdegnose pupille.  Mad. Mara.

He gave them hail-stones for vain (Chorus from Israel in Egypt.)

 

PART II.

FIFTH GRAND CONCERTO.

Dite che fa (from Ptolemy)  Miss Abrams.

Vi fida (from Aetius)  Signor Bartolini.

Fall’n is the Foe (Chorus from Judas Maccabaeus).

OVERTURE OF ARIADNE.

Alma del gran Pompeo (from Julius Caesar)  Sig. Pacchierotti.

Nasce al bosco (from Aetius)  Sig. Tascha.

Io t’abbraccio (Duetto from Rodelinda)  Mad. Mara and Sig. Bartolini.

ELEVENTH GRAND CONCERTO.

Ah mio cor (from Alcina)  Madame Mara.

Anthem—My Heart is inditing.

 

————

 

The third day’s performance was again in Westminster-abbey; and was honoured, as before, with the royal presence.

Such general satisfaction was given by this uncommon exhibition, that a fourth performance was particularly ordered by his Majesty, and a fifth (the Oratorio of the Messiah) was commanded by the Queen.

Various reports of the receipts at the Abbey and Pantheon having gone abroad: we are happy in the opportunity of satisfying such as are curious to know the actual amount of what was received each day:

 

First day in the Abbey

Second day in the Pantheon

Third day in the Abbey

Fourth day in the Abbey

Fifth day in the Abbey

Two rehearsals

 

In the whole

Guineas.

2825

1629

3049

1547

2002

800

———

11,842

To this must be added a present of 500l. from his Majesty, and the profits arising from the sale of the books of each day’s performance, which we may venture to estimate at five hundred guineas; so that the total amount of the produce will amount to almost thirteen thousand pounds.[133]

 

 

 

[B. A.’s comments on the June issue]

 

At the Commemoration of Handel, p. 457, the archbishop and bishops were not “in purple robes.”  Several tickets were bought the day before the performance.  The first day’s performance consisted of the Overture to Esther, Funeral Anthem, Gloria Patri” from the Jubilate, Anthem “O sing unto the Lord,” and “The Lord shall reign,” the Coronation Anthem, Dettingen Te Deum and Overture, with the Dead March in Saul.  The third day’s performance in the abbey was the Messiah.  Total receipt, 11,852 guineas.  Total amount of the produce, almost 13,500.[134]

 

 

 

Ib. [TheGentleman’s Magazine 1784] p. 458. col 1.  The music for the first day of Handel’s commemoration was as follows. [742]

PART I.

Coronation Anthem: “Zadock the Priest.”

Overture of Esther.

Dettingen Te Deum.

PART II.

Overture and Dead March in Saul.

“When the ear heard him.”

“He delivered the poor that cried.”

“His body is buried in peace.”

From the Funeral Anthem.

“Glory be to the Father;” from the Jubilate.

PART III.

“O sing unto the Lord all the whole Earth.”

“The Lord shall reign for ever and ever,” from Israel in Egypt.

 

The music for the third day’s performance was “Messiah.”

The music for the fourth day, viz. Thursday, the 3d of June, was as follows.

PART I.

Overture to Esther.

Dettingen Te Deum.

PART II.

Overture in Tamerlane.—Dead March in Saul.

“When the ear,” &c.

“He delivered the poor,” &c.

“His body is buried,” &c.

From the Funeral Anthem.

“Gloria Patri,” from the Jubilate.

PART III.

First grand concerto.

Chorus, “Gird on thy sword,”—Saul.

Fourth hautboy concerto.

Anthem, “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever,”—Israel in Egypt.

Coronation Anthem, “Zadock the Priest.”

 

The price of a ticket for a single day’s performance was one guinea:—except for the rehearsals, which was only half a guinea.[135]

 

 

 

May–June

But Music was ever a favourite art with the King, and he conceived that the true style of music was declining in this country.  The grand combinations of Handel, the brilliant arrangements of Correlli, the fairy-like melodies of Pursel [sic], and the unaffected rural strains of Arne, were shrinking before the eager desire for novelty.  Every thing in music was becoming artificial, rather than natural, and performers seemed more solicitous to surprise than to delight: the composers laboured to introduce as many notes into a given compass, as it was possible for any one to execute; and the performers seemed to consider nothing so good as making their instruments speak in a voice that was never intended for them: the harpsichord had [307] become almost a rattle; the violin-player laboured at the bottom of his bass-string; the violincello-performer tried to produce a fine squeak; and the basson laboured to imitate the soft and lively notes of the German flute.

            To set, if possible, all this to rights, in an art which he loved, the King determined to promote some public display of the music of the great masters, and an opportunity at this time presented itself suitable to his wishes.  Several Noblemen and Gentlemen of fine taste, had felt and regretted the declining state of music in this country, and had associated themselves together for the purpose of attempting its restoration; and after many deliberations, they fixed upon a certain day, which was the centenary of the birth of Handel, for a grand and solemn public performance of some of the finest compositions of that great master in music.  This kind of tribute to the highly esteemed merits of an individual, was not without precedent; for the Jubilee, which had been held but a few years before, at Stratford-upon-Avon, in honour of Shakspeare, furnished a most splendid instance; and George Frederick Handel may fairly be considered as the Shakspeare of music.  He travelled early from his native place in Germany, and having visited every court or city in Europe, where any thing could possibly be learnt in his profession, spent the latter, and greater part of his life, in England; leaving behind him a fame that has never been equalled, and a number of works sufficient to have given the character of great industry to more than twenty composers.  It was determined to apply to the King for his patronage on this occasion; which, according so precisely with His Majesty’s wishes and feeling, he resolved to give the undertaking all the support and countenance in his power.  But to render this great celebration, if possible, more interesting and impressive, it was [308] agreed to connect it with objects of charity, and to divide the net profits between the fund for supporting decayed musicians, and the Westminster Infirmary.  Such an arrangement rendered the proceeding greatly more acceptable to the King: and the use of Westminster Abbey was readily granted, for the sacred music; and of the elegant Saloon of the Pantheon, for that of a lighter and more amusing kind.  The pieces to be performed were found, when selected, so very numerous, as to require three mornings, and as many evenings, to go through them: the services of the performers were all gratuitous; and so great and general was the desire of those in the musical profession to take part in this exhibition of zeal and of national talent, that vocal and instrumental musicians eagerly crowded to London from every part of the kingdom; and the number of those whose assistance was finally accepted, appears to have been, forty-nine violins, fifty-two second violins, thirty-seven tenors, twelve oboes, fourteen second oboes, eight flutes, thirty violincellos, twenty-seven bassoons, sixteen double basses, fourteen trumpets, three trombones, twelve horns, four drums, and one double-drum; in all, two hundred and seventy-nine of the finest instrumental performers in Britain: to whom were added, in the vocal department, twenty-nine cantos, or principal singers, fifty-one altos, sixty-six tenors, and sixty-nine basses; making the whole strength of the orchestra amount to four hundred and forty-three performers.  Such a combination of numbers and of talent has never been displayed in the musical world either before or since.

            Mr. Wyatt, whose transcendent abilities are perpetuated in many of the finest buildings in this country, was desired to give plans for inclosing the principal part of the Abbey, and for making such other arrangements as the occasion required; and those plans having received the King’s approval, [309] were executed very successfully by the different artificers.  The established organ was taken down for this purpose, and another erected over the western door, which had been built for the Cathedral at Canterbury, and was lent by the builder.  In the place whence the organ had been removed, was established a grand gallery for the reception of Their Majesties, and all such of the Royal Family as were capable, by their age, of enjoying such a performance: accommodations were also prepared in this quarter for those whose duty it was to attend the Royal Family.  This gallery was covered with crimson velvet, and bordered with a very deep gold fringe.  A floor, seven feet above the stone pavement of the Abbey, was erected for the whole arrangement, in order that nothing of cold or damp might be apprehended: there were accommodations p[re]pared for more than four thousand persons; and, though the tickets for admission were rated very high, the place was crowded; and as many more tickets might have been sold, could the place have contained the purchasers.  The King and Queen were received by the Committee of Managers, on their going to the different performances, at the entrance door in Poet’s Corner, and conducted to their gallery, in the center of which was an elegant Throne, of the best style of gothic architecture, for their reception.  It is a circumstance worthy of remark on this occasion, that the kettle-drums used in the orchestra, were those taken by the British troops at the celebrated battle of Malplaquet; and were brought from the Tower, by leave of the Duke of Richmond, for the purpose.

            For the evening performances, the Pantheon had been equally well prepared, under the direction of Mr. Wyatt’s superior taste; and the effect was most brilliant and imposing.  The numerous lights, the elegant dome of the building, the splendid dresses of the auditory, added to the presence of Royalty, [310] made the whole scene appear like an assemblage created by the fabled powers of fairy enchantment; and when all this was re-enforced by the magic spells of enrapturing and persuasive sounds, it may be easily conceived, that the occasion produced gratification to all, high pleasure to many, and the extreme of delight to the refined lovers of music.  Amongst this last class I must count the Sovereign as at the head: his susceptibility, his finely cultivated taste in the art, qualified him preeminently for this enjoyment; but it was particularly interesting to the observers on these occasions, to see how the King and Queen were affected by those well-prepared sounds and harmonies, that tended to raise the mind of the auditor in religious adoration.  The whole of this grand Musical Festival was such, that I can compare it to nothing of which we have any previous account, but the Dedication of Solomon’s Temple.

            When music is thus made conducive to the great purposes for which it was intended, how sweet is its voice, how delightful its cadences!  But, in its lesser influences, music may be made to soothe the sufferings of wounded hearts, to inspire an enthusiasm in military enterprise, to cheer the social board with excitements to friendly union, and to form the infant mind, by softening with its melodies the lessons of rigid duty.  When the art is carried beyond these, its legitimate objects, the influence becomes pernicious, and the exertion disgraceful.

            The Prince of Wales appeared at all these assemblies, but he declined appearing in state; and in this we see not only his excellent judgment, but a most delicate regard for his incomparable Parents: it was his wish, on this occasion, that the King should be the great object of popular attention, and his wish could not have been otherwise accomplished.[136]

 

 

 

Jun 21

[William Cowper to John Newton, Monday 21 June 1784.]

 

My dear friend—We are much pleased with your designed improvement of the late preposterous celebrity, and have no doubt that in your hands the foolish occasion will turn to good account.  A religious service instituted in honor of a Musician, and performed in the house of God, is a subject that calls loudly for the animadversion of an enlightn’d minister, and would be no mean one for a Satyrist, could a poet of that description be found spiritual enough to feel and to resent the profanation.  It is reasonable to suppose that in the next year’s Almanac we shall find the name of Handel among the red-letter’d worthies, for it would surely puzzle the Pope himself to add any thing to his Canonization.  The Bishops however seem to have been rather slack, as indeed they prove themselves to be upon most devotional occasions.  I take it for granted that they were hearers, but why were they not performers too?  A fiddle would have made a figure in Episcopal hands, and such a spectacle would have added much to the raptures felt by the congregation.  But perhaps it was foreseen that being incumber’d with lawn sleeves, they could not conveniently have given the Bow that sweep that is necessary to call out the tone of the instrument.  Allowing the force of the objection, they are nevertheless not to be accounted altogether blameless.  They might at least have handled the bassoon or the French horn commodiously enough, and by the distension of their cheeks as much as by their performance have given a singular relish to the entertainments of the day.[137]

 

 

 

Jun 22

[Mary Delany to Frances Hamilton, 22 June 1784]

 

As soon as the bitterness of winter was over I received the King and Queen’s commands to attend the Duchess of Portland to the Queen’s House at eight o’clock in the evening; there was no company there but the five princesses and Lady Charlotte Finch.  There was a concert of music in the next room, which (the door being open) we heard in a very agreeable manner.  The King walked backwards and forwards between the rooms; had a great deal of conversation with the Duchess of Portland; and did me the honour of sharing it with me sometimes.  We had much talk, particularly about music; and his Majesty condescended to order those pieces of music to be played that he called my favourites.  The Duchess of Portland sat on the Queen’s right hand, and I on her left.  Her Majesty talked to me a great deal about books, and especially about those on religion, and recommended to me an explanation of the four Evangelists, translated from the German; and the next morning she sent me a present of the work in three volumes.[138]

 

 

 

Jun 26

[Thomas Twining to Charles Burney, Fordham, 26 June 1784]

 

            O – but the Westminster Abbey Charivari [=commemoration]– how was it?  I long to hear your account of it.  I have had none yet but from the άμουσοι.  Our Archdeacon, Dr. Hamilton, told me at our Visitation that he saw you after the performance of Israel in Egypt, & that you had been worked prodigiously – particularly by “The horse & his rider, &c.”  If the Band were “at unity with themselves,” I do conceive that there might be choral effects produced by such an aggregate of musical sound that were never produced before.  But I own that I had never any great idea of the scheme.  I considered mere loudness as its object, and, moreover, I doubted much whether such a monstrous Orchestra cou’d be kept in tolerable order.  Tell me, I beseech you, all about it.  But beware how you make me repent that I did not go to town to hear it.  How did Pacchierotti acquit himself?  I’ll be hanged if I did not wish that your prophecy – “I foresee that it will be manqué  -- might be fulfilled, merely for their abominable neglect of your opinions & hints….[139]

 

 

 

Jul 8

[Mrs Henry Bates to her sister-in-law, Grace Furey, 8 July 1784]

 

the King and Queen are to be subscribers to the

Ancient Concert next winter.  Joah was with the

King about it last Thursday.  His Majesty told

him that he must lead and Joah said he had twice

resigned on account of his health and that he was

at such a distance it quadrupled the trouble.  The

King smiled and said perhaps there might be

means to remove that inconvenience.  In short

I am persuaded something will very soon be done

for Joah.  It was a good bold push to talk of trouble

when the King expressed his wishes, but I hope

and believe Joah will soon be promoted in one

way or another.  How can Mrs. B. with such blessings

and such prospects be so dissatisfied.[140]

 

 

 

Jul 8

Thursday 8 [July]. The new organ, built by Mr. Samuel Green, and which figured at Handel’s jubilee (see p.458), was opened in Canterbury Cathedral, by Dr. Hayes, professor of music [553] at Oxford.  The placing of it over the stalls at the entrance of the choir (instead of the North side) has produced that happy effect so long wished by every admirer of that ancient and magnificent structure.  The ornamental parts of the case and loft, all in true Gothic taste, surmounted with spires, embellished with pointed arches, and occupying almost the whole of the grand arch under Bell Harry Steeple, gave satisfaction, on the first view, to every eye; but, when the musical powers of the instrument were displayed, the auditors, who, it is supposed, were about 2000, were struck with astonishment, as well by its superior excellence, as the known and acknowledged abilities of the performer.  In the morning service were introduced the Te Deum and Jubilate of Messieurs Hall and Hine, and a Thanksgiving Anthem (Psalm cvi), composed by Mr. Henry Purcell.  And a Sermon, suitable to the occasion (which we hope will appear in print), was preached by the Reverend the Dean (Dr. Horne), from Psalm lviii. 8: Awake up, my glory, awake, lute and harp, (the motto of the organ); in which he gave an historical deduction of sacred music from the earliest times, exemplified by scripture; observed, that organs were mentioned in the fourth century (by Julian, we suppose, see p. 447), and were first introduced into churches in the seventh; elegantly panegyrised those great masters, Purcell, Blow, Greene, and Handel, whom he justly styled “the classics of that art;” appositely introduced the late jubilee at Westminster, &c.—Cantate Domino and Deus misereatur, by (the late) Dr. William Hayes, and a Thanksgiving Anthem (Psalm xxxiii) by Dr. Philip Hayes, made part of the evening service, with several voluntaries, to shew the various stops and powers of that noble piece of mechanism, which has (it is said) 2500 pipes.[141]

 

 

 

[Jul 9]

COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL.

 

Total Receipts

 

Expenses

To the Musical Fund

To the Westminster hospital

Cash in hand to answer subsequent demands

 

Watkin Williams Wynn, Treasurer.

Redmond Simpson, Sub-Treasurer.[142]

£.

12,736

--------

5450

6000

1000

286

s.

12

---

6

0

0

6

d.

10

---

10

0

0

0

 

 

 

Jul 15

Two thousand copies of Cooke’ Voyage to the Pacific Ocean were published the 4th of June, at 4l. 14s. 6d. [163] each; the next day a thousand more went wanted, and since that time from fifteen to twenty guineas have been oferd for a sett.—The sum thus raised, and 12,000l. raised within the month for the Commemoration of Handel, do not speak a ruined nation.[143]

 

 

 

Jul 19

[William Cowper to John Newton, Monday 19 July 1784.]

 

My dear friend—Notwithstanding the Justness of the comparison by which you illustrate the folly and wickedness of a congregation assembled to pay divine honors to the memory of Handel, I could not help laughing at the picture you have drawn of the Musical Convicts.  The subject indeed is awfull [sic], and your manner of representing it is perfectly just, yet I laughed and must have laughed had I been one of your hearers.  But the Ridicule lies in the preposterous conduct which [265] you reprove, and not in your reproof of it.  A people so musically mad as to make not only their future trial the subject of a concert, but even the message of Mercy from their King, and the only one he will ever send them, must excuse me if I am merry where there is more cause to be sad; for melancholy as their condition is, their behavior under it is too ludicrous not to be felt as such, and would conquer even a more settled gravity than mine.  In those days when Bedlam was open to the cruel curiosity of Holiday ramblers, I have been a visitor there.  Though a boy, I was not altogether insensible of the misery of the poor captives, nor destitute of feeling for them.  But the Madness of some of them had such an humorous air, and displayed itself in so many whimsical freaks, that it was impossible not to be entertained at the same time that I was angry with myself for being so.[144] A line of Bourne’s is very expressive of the spectacle which this world exhibits, Tragicomical as the incidents of it are, absurd in themselves but terrible in their consequences.

 

Sunt res humanæ flebile ludibrium.

[…][145]

 

 

 

Jul 20

[Charles Burney to Lord Sandwich, 20 July 1784]

 

My Lord.

            I have the honour to acquaint your Lordship that on Sunday last, at a very numerous general meeting of the members of the Society of Musicians {on July 18}, after a vote of thanks had unanimously passed to your Lordship & the rest of the Directors of the musical performances in commemoration of Handel, by which their Fund has been so greatly augmented, the Earl of Exeter was unanimously elected honorary President of the Society for the year ensuing, & your Lordship, with the Earl of Uxbridge, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, & Sir Richard Jebb, Barts vice Presidents: an office w[hi]ch they presume to hope, from your Lordship’s great zeal & kindness for their Institution, you will not disdain to accept.

                                                                                    I have the honour to be, with

                                                                        the most profound respect, my Lord,

                                                                                    your Lordship’s obliged &

                                                                                                most devoted Servant,

                                                                                                            Cha[rle]s Burney.[146]

 

 

 

Jul 24

[Charles Burney to Fanny Burney and Mrs Phillips, 24 July 1784]

 

{…} & now, being wide awake, let one tell you that in ab[ou]t a week or ten days, I hope to get my MS. so forward, that I can leave it with the Printer, if it gets out of royal Hands, & can receive the Proofs & correct them at Ches{sington}.—I have greatly enlarged my plan in the Sketch of Handel’s Life—& the book, will now, w[i]th the 7 prints, be at least s15. {…} I have 2 [420] Copyists at work, as I believe, I said last Night—at present I outrun them—& hope they will not overtake me till I am arrived at my goal.[147]

 

 

 

Jul 30

[Charles Burney to Mrs Piozzi, 30 July 1784]

 

{…} I have been shut up in the Spidery scribling in the utmost hurry an Acc[oun]t of the late Commemoration of Handel, for immediate publication, so that I gain but little information from mixing w[i]th the world, & still less from news-papers, into w[hi]ch I have hardly time to look once in a Week. {…}[148]

 

 

 

Jul 31

[Charles Burney to Thomas Twining, 31 July 1784]

 

            You ask my opinion of the Commemoration Performance—have a little patience, my dear friend, & you shall have it in print.  W{oul}d you believe it, that after expecting little more than noise & confusion, as I believe I told you in my last letter {of ca 9 May}, things went so much better, & afforded me so much more pleasure & satisfaction than I expected, that in a kind of Rodemontade gratitude I told Lord Sandwich I had some notion of writing an acc{oun}t of the Commemoration Performances for immediate publication, & shewed him the sketch of some such promise w{hi}ch I intended putting into the Papers, to prevent others from spitting i’th’ Porridge?  He jumpt at the Idea—said it was just what [424] he & the rest of the Directors wished—& desired that he might put my slip of Paper in his Pocket, to shew his Collegues {sic}.  But not contented with this he carried it up into their Majesty’s Box in the Abbey, where it was 1st mentioned, & upon the King saying that all went so well that they sh{oul}d get an historian to write an acc{oun}t of it, L{or}d S{andwich}. told his Majesty that it was what he had been just talking of, & shewed him & the Q{ueen}. the slip of paper—The K. was pleased to say he was glad it w{oul}d be in such hands; & wished to see it, when written, in MS.—Here you see I was bound ‘with Styx nine times round me’—& there was no getting loose if I had wished it.  Now my first Idea was to make out a 2 or 3s pamphlet—L{or}d S. & the rest of the managers s{ai]d I sh{oul}d have the 3 Ticket Plates w{hi}ch were elegant & well engraved, w{i}th w{hi}ch to ornament my acc{oun}t—Then I thought, as how a Sketch of Handel’s Life w{oul}d be necessary to accomp{an}y this narrative—& what does my I, but I leaves everything at sixes & sevens, & ran away for the sake of quiet, to Chesington, for a week leaving between 20 & 30 scholars in Town, thinking that I sh{oul}d finish the whole in that time—but, alas! new things, at least different things from what I at 1st saw, were dayly licked up as I explored & meditated on the subject, & now my pamphlet will be a s15 4to (the size of my Hist{or}y) will be ornamented w{i}th 7 elegant Copperplates—a Life of Handel—a longish Preface, and Introduction—an acc{oun}t of all the 5 Days performances, with remarks on every Piece that was well performed—&c &c—and is with permission already given, to be dedicated to his Majesty—who has already seen the Preface, w{hi}ch he took with him to Windsor to read at his leisure—He has now there the Life of Handel & the 1st Day’s performance—I employ two transcribers & cannot get them to keep pace with me—Yesterday I had a single Page composed by the Printer, in order to have it to say in advertising, that it is in the press & will be speedily published.  But hard & incessantly as I work, I see w{i}th grief that it trenches on my poor dear Hist{or}y & will employ all my time & [425] thoughts for a long time to come.  How I wish for you at my Elbow!—& how I lament the want of time to plague you with every page as fast as it is scribled {sic}!—Indeed the chief part [h]as been written on scraps of Paper w{i}th a Pencil, chemin faisant, in going from scholar to scholar — — the instant a sheet is written it is given to be transcribed on gilt Paper for the Royal Eye — — Bates was to have read it to the King; but his Maj{est}y finds that [he] has no time for such things in Town, & therefore carries off every gob of MS. to Windsor as fast as he gets it—A Mr Nicolay, one of the Pages, a German Musician originally ab{ou}t the Prince of Wales is the go between—Entre nous, I wish there was any other mediator than B[ates]—whom I perceive no praise either of himself or Handel can satisfy—& the K{ing}. is full as intoleratingly fond of the old Saxon as B{ates}.—so that, if I was to act politically & wisely, I sh{oul}d openly abuse all other Music, Musicians, & lovers of Music in all parts of the world, but Handel & his insatiable & exclusive admirers.  And in that Case sh{oul}d not you think me a very fit person to write a general Hist{or}y of Music—to do justice to Genius & talents in every Time & Country where I c{oul}d find them?  I see that I am in great danger of doing myself more harm than good by this Business,—however circumspectly I may Act.  But I will not write like an Apostate—I will not deny my liberal principles—I will not abuse the lovers of the best Music of Italy & Germany, & say that they are only admired through fashion, & want of good taste & judgment.—I will ransack the language for terms of praise, in speaking of his best works—& the Manner in w{hi}ch they have been lately performed; but cannot, will not say that there is no other Music fit to be heard, or as well performed. [426]

{…} This one new business has put all other businesses out of my head—& if my brain were microscopically exam[in]ed, Handel and Commemoration w{oul}d be [427] seen clinging to every fibre.  One thing I have discovered (and a most melancholy one it is, fait comme je le suis) that neither his M{ajest}y nor Mr B. has the least notion of a Joke—not the most innocent or insipid smile must be put on a single period—one Key of Panegyric is all they want.—fine!—very fine!—charming! exquisite! grand!! Sublime!!!—These are all the notes (a Hexachord) I must use—Some time or other I’ll shew you a passage or two that I have been obliged to expunge, or render utterly insipid, because they smiled a little—Now B{ates}. can smile & smile & still be dissatisfied—But then the K{ing} — — does not like it.—Into what a Scrape am I got?—I may do myself irreparable mischief—& can I fear derive no good—considering the hands I am in.  I set out with the design of praising honestly & heartily what I felt deserving—& to be silent as to the rest.—After I had read my Preface, & fragments of the rest to L{or}d Sandwich, S{i}r W. W. Wynn, Bates &c—Ld S. said—‘you intend giving the profits of this Acc{oun}t to the Fund, Dr B{urney}.—don’t you?’—‘No, my L{or}d—I had no such intention—It will be a drop in the Ocean, after the Thousands it has gained by the Commemoration—& yet though little for them to receive, it will be a great deal for me to give—There is not a Bookseller in London who w{oul}d not readily give me a £100 for a Pamphlet on the subject.  By paying a Guinea for my admission at each Performance, & the loss of 4 entire days business my Sacrifice to the Commemoration & Fund has already been considerable, & the giving up my Copyright to the Pamphlet will make my contribution much higher than my share, or that of any one else.’—‘His Majesty expects it’—says my L{or}d—‘you w{oul}d not I dare say be the only one who benefited by the Commemoration.’ — — This staggered me—& made me feel very uncomfortable—though it did not convince me that I ought to comply.  I fretted afterwards, & grumbled in the gizzard—till tired of both—I made up my mind ab{ou}t it—& perhaps more heroically than wisely determined to sacrifice my youngest babe to please his M{ajest}y & their Lord{shi}ps & Baronetships.  And an errant Slave has it made me. [428] All my other concerns neglected—Hist{or}y forgotten—a pile of letters 12 or 14 Inches high, unanswered on my table—kept in Town at a time I want, & used to enjoy, tranquility & whol[e]some Air—running a risk of offending the {Majesty} & quarelling w{i}th B{ates}.—a slave to other peoples opinions & prejudices!—in short all that is uncomfortable attends this business—thus far—What the future may produce, I know not.  My heart & pen are locked up.—I wrote the Preface, Life of Handel—Introduction & 3 1st Days w{i}th my heart au bout de la langue.—But now, I am terrified at every word I write—my playful & folatre way of expressing myself taken from me, reduces me to the state of a hireling ministerial Scribler, without the Pay—Every man not merely ‘a fellow without mark or likelihood’ has a way of expressing himself as of looking—I can no more help aiming at bad jokes in writing than you the making good ones.  Ma—ci vuol Pazienza.—Because I had not writing {sic} enough—being summoned to a Gen{era}l meeting of the Musical Fund, after the Commemoration, & suspecting that I sh{oul}d be called to the Chair, I prepared a kind of discourse, as I am not accustomed to public Speaking—& this after much debate, folly, & illiberality, was called for by one of the Members to whom I had slightly mentioned my design.—Part of it will appear in the next London Magazine, in w{hi}ch I must whisper to you, my son Cha{rle}s has some concern, & pressed me to let him make use of it, rather than leave it to the mercy of News Papers—There is nothing in it but a wish to make the Members of a Society now suddenly enriched a little more liberal & Charitable than when they were Poor; which I find very hard to do.  Besides this, as Chairman, I had the Minutes [429] & 6 Letters of Thanks to write to the Directors & Conductors—my hand, head, & heart are alike crippled.

{… 430} or did you foresee that the Directors & Conductor of the Commemoration of Handel w{oul]d want an Historiographer?—{…}

            In my late conversations with Bates, I find you meant him, not Jones in your last letter—‘d’ye think I did not know him?’  Yes, yes, he has made up his mind, avec une vengeance—my God!—what contraction, & childish prejudices—how deaf, as well as how blind are both to real Genius!—These people in fastening on Handel & Clinging so closely to him, are sure of being right sometimes—& if they were to let go their hold, what w{oul]d become of’em?—They will be too insolent now.  Les grands Homees! qu’ils sont! — — That Sr W{ynn}. Sea-calf, as Pac. calls the true Prince of Wales—Sr Watty—do you know him—or did you ever see a sea-Calf—?  I was invited to meet them as I told you before, to 5 or 6 [431] Dinners; but so far from doing any good, I c{oul}d not edge in a Word—all I had to do was to stuff—drink—& be a witness to their importance & blunders—

{…} Have you the Baron d’Astorga’s Stabat Mater? ‘tis of the most exquisite & recherché kind, when recherche {sic} was most in fashion—yes, yes, his Cantatas of w{hi}ch I have many are very fine—I collected at Rome 8 or 10 by him—as many by Gasparini—Marcello—& Hendel, some of w{hi}ch none of the Collectors of Handel here ever saw—These were certainly made while he was at Rome—1709.

{…}

You will instantly perceive that all I have written ab[ou]t his M[ajest]y & Bates is rigorously Sub sigillo—[149]

 

 

 

Aug 2

[Charles Burney to Lord Sandwich, 2 August 1784]

 

{…}

            I have worked double tides at my acc{oun}t of the Commemoration Performances since I had the honour of seeing your Lordship.  His Majesty has read & returned the Preface, of w{hi}ch I have since had a [433] single page printed, in order to advertise with truth, that the pamphlet is in the Press, & will be speedily published.  I have drawn up an advertisement ready for Mr Simpson to have inserted in all the Papers.  His Maj{es}ty has now in reading the Sketch of the Life of Handel, & the acc{oun}t of the 1st Day’s performance, w{hi}ch when returned will be printed with all possible expedition.  I keep two transcribers hard at work—the 2d Day is already copied fair for his Maj{es}ty; & the 3d & 4th Days are now transcribing.  The 5th & last Day, w{i}th a translation of Count Benencasa’s Letter, and a summary acc{oun}t of the Musical Fund—the rec{eip}ts, expences, surplus, it’s disposition &c will be more bulky than any of the other 4, though but little was left to be said of the performance, as it had been minutely described in speaking of the 3d day.  This will be ready for transcription by the time either of the Copyists returns with the 3d or 4th day.

            When my work of writing & revisal is over, I shall closely attend to the press, & the Engravers, rolling-press printers, &c.

            Much will depend on the expedition w{i}th w{hi}ch his Majesty peruses & returns the MS.  But with all the hast[e] possible of every one concerned, I perceive with sorrow that the whole summer will melt away before I shall be able to quit London, or resume the thread of my long neglected History.

            I have the honour to be with the greatest respect, My Lord,

                                                                        your Lordship’s obliged

                                                                                    & devoted Servant.

                                                                                                Chas Burney.

 

            I shd be very remiss if I did not entreat your Lordp to accept of my most grateful thanks, for thinking me worthy the honour of a Gold Medal, wch was delivered to me by Mr Ashley, & wth wch I am very much flattered.[150]

 

 

 

Aug 27

[Thomas Twining to Charles Burney, Fordham, 27 August 1784]

 

            But let us talk of Handel & commemorations.  How I thank you for your little history & nanny-goats about Kings & Commissioners, &c., &c.  For my own amusement I must rejoice at your undertaking: for the hungriest Prophet never swallowed a roll of a book so greedily as I shall gobble up your Quarto, plates & all, like Aeneas & his Trojans.  But your description of your situation, perplexities, & uncomfortable gêne, went to my very heart, but indignation came to my relief.  I felt like Ariosto’s Bear defending her wounded young ones, half pity & half rage.  Lord, now I must find the lines, because they are so [260] charming; & I remember nothing en détail.

Come Orsa, che l’Alpestre cacciatore

Nella pietrosa tana assalita abbia,

Sta sopra i figli con incerto core,

E freme in suono di pieta e di rabbia,

Ira la invita, e natural furore

A spiegar l’unghie, e a insanguinar le labia: -

Amor l’intenerisce e la ritira

A riguardare ai figli in mezzo l’ira.

(Canto 19.7)

(Now is not that charming? what a picture in the last line: a fine subject for a Snyders or a Hondious, &c.)

            Above all I am vexed at the unreasonable expectation that you shd. give up so much time & labour, & suffer so many désagréments without the profit you have so good & incontestible [sic] a right to.  But who can expect feeling or delicacy in these great people?  I don’t even expect that you will be dédommagé some other way.  And yet, if you are not remember’d for this, & made amends hereafter by some notice or mark of favour to you or to yours, &c., I know what I shall think & what I will say anywhere & to any body.  I do maintain that what you urged to Ld. S. was unanswerable.  If, indeed, you had not gone beyond yr. first design of a 3d Pamphlet, the case wd. not have been so bad.  But now, it is totally unreasonable.  What arrant nonsense to talk of your being “the only one benefited by the Commemoration”!  Were the Commemorators to have paid you for yr. book?  That argument might have been urged to Cramer had he demanded so much a day for his performance; the money paid him wd. have been taken from the Charity.  Wou’d this have been the case with you & your book?  If you got £100 for yr. copy, wou’d the Charity have had £100 the less?  As it is, you will give a great deal more (in proportion) to the Charity, than anybody else.  It is exactly the same, for aught I can see, as if you had given them, in hard money for your tickets, the sum, whatever it be, that you wou’d [261] get by your publication.  And then, your Critics!! to clap one padlock upon your pocket, & two more tumpers at each corner of your poor dear mouth, or rather two great cramps [two curlicues drawn in text] to prevent the least simper of the muscles – ’tis too much…

            Well, I long to see yr. book.  Some day or other we’ll have an Edition non châtrée, with all the original jokes in it.  You don’t venture, I suppose, to divulge in this book that Handel took the idea – nay, more than the idea of one of his finest Chorusses in Sampson from Carrissimi? Well, if you have, perchance, been teized & faced into some excess of panegyric upon this occasion, history, when you come to Handel, may modify & speak truth – nay, & smile if she pleases.[151]

 

 

 

[August]

Art. 14.  The Life of George Frederic Handel.  8vo, 1s.  Dixwell.  1784.

We should have suspected that this catchpenny trifle was an extract from some Biographical Dictionary, had it not a certain air of illiterateness about it, which seems to prove that it originated in a humbler source.  Accordingly the compiler, with becoming modesty, whenever he presents us with a period of grammar and common sense, incloses it in inverted commas, and introduces it with a “Thus saith the HISTORIAN.”[152]

 

 

 

Sep 1

[Charles Burney to Thomas Twining, 1 September 1784]

 

{…} I am obliged to be in Town to attend the press every 3 or 4 days {…/436…} Indeed this Commemoration business lies very [437] heavy on my shoulders, for now tis all written, & Royally read & approved, yet my whole time, thoughts, and summers retreat are gobbled up by it, in attending the press.  Then there are Tweedle-dum & Tweedle-dee quarrels in the Musical Society which plague, mortify,—& employ my time & thoughts.  Wrong-headed people there are every where, but in such abundance as in this Society, I believe no where.

            —I have reserved to myself, for the sequel of my History, the critical examination of Handel’s works in general, and then shall ‘extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice.’

            I must do his Maj{esty}. the justice to say that he is much better acquainted with Handels works & merit than any of the noble or gentle Directors.  Right or wrong, he gives reasons for his admiration; & the great crime of exclusive liking, (particularly in a King) excepted, I can heartily subscribe to most of his notions.  He hears no other Music if he can help it, & therefore knows every movement of Handel’s popular works.[153]

 

 

 

Sep 4

[Samuel Johnson to Charles Burney]

 

Sept 4 [1784]. [{Boswell:} Concerning a private transaction, in which his [i.e. Johnson’s] opinion was asked, and after giving it, he makes the following reflections, which are applicable on other occasions.]  “Nothing deserves more compassion than wrong conduct with good meaning; than loss or obloquy suffered by one who, as he is conscious only of good intentions, wonders why he loses that kindness which he wishes to preserve; and not knowing his own fault, if, as may sometimes happen, nobody will tell him, goes on to offend by his [631] endeavours to please.—I am delighted by finding that our opinions are the same. [...]”[154]

 

 

 

Sep 5

DEATHS. [...] [Sept.] 5.  At Bath, of an inflammatory fever, Miss Linley, daughter of Mr. L. manager of Drury-lane theatre.  Her death is a loss almost irreparable to the musical world.  Those who remember her performance at the Oratorios will join in this opinion.  The union of a sweet voice, correct judgement, extensive compass, and, above all, beauty of mind and person, distinguished this much-lamented maid, and her character will be dear “While memory holds a seat in this distracted globe.”[155]

 

 

 

[September]

[book review] The Antiquity, Use, and Excellence of Church Music.  A Sermon preached at the Opening of a new Organ in the Cathedral Church of Christ, Canterbury, on Thursday, July 8, 1784.  By George Horne, D.D. Dean of Canterbury, and President of Saint Mary Magdalen College, Oxford.

This discourse [...] is an elegant panegyric on sacred music [....]

“The objections, in short, of any account, urged against choral music, are pointed at [687] the abuse which has been sometimes made of it, and to which, like all other good things, it is at all times liable.  Great care, therefore, should be taken to keep the style of it chaste and pure, suitable to holy places and divine subjects...The light movements of the theatre, with the effeminate and frittered music of modern Italy, should be excluded, and such composers as TALLIS and BIRD, GIBBONS and KING, PURCELL and BLOW, CROFT and CLARK, WISE and WELDON, GREENE and HANDEL, should be considered (and it is hoped they always will be considered) as our English classics in this sacred science.”

After quoting several passages of the Psalms, and Revelation xix. i &c. admirably set by Goldwin, Blake, Wise, Aldrich, Clark, and Blow, the preacher thus appositely introduces the late Commemoration of Handel:

“Before such a scene, and such a band [...], every human performance must shrink and fade away in the comparison.  A performance, however, has lately been exhibited, and to our honour, has been exhibited in Britain (its sound still vibrates in the ears of many who hear me), which furnished the best idea we shall ever obtain on earth of what is passing in heaven.  It did justice (and that is saying very much indeed) to a composition of the great master, to which may be applied the observation of a learned writer upon a chorus in an anthem penned by the same hand, that ‘nothing less is suggested by it to the imagination than all the powers of the universe associated in the worship of its Creator *.’ [...]”[156]

 

 

 

>Oct 1

[“Anecdotes Written 1784-1796,” after 1 October 1784]

 

A person seeing Ars Musica on the ticket for the music meeting at Oxford,31 asked what it meant, and was answered, ‘Bum-fiddle, to be sure.’[157]

 

 

 

Nov 1

[Samuel Johnson to Charles Burney]

 

Nov. 1 [1784].  “Our correspondence paused for want of topicks.  I had said what I had to say on the matter proposed to my consideration; and nothing remained but to tell you, that I waked or slept; that I was more or less sick.  I drew my thoughts in upon myself, and supposed yours employed upon your book.—That your book has been delayed I am glad, since you have gained an opportunity of being more exact.—Of the caution necessary in adjusting narratives there is no end.  Some tell what they do not know, that they may not seem ignorant, and others from mere indifference about truth.  All truth is not, indeed, of equal importance; but, if little violations are allowed, every violation will in time be thought little; and a writer should keep himself vigilantly on his guard against the first temptations to negligence or supineness. [...]”[158]

 

 

 

Nov 7

[Queen Charlotte to Mary Delany, 7 November 1784]

 

            I have the pleasure of returning dear Mrs. Delany the catalogue of Mr. Granville’s collection of music, with a note from the King, which will sufficiently prove how much he is satisfied with the manner in which she has executed his commission. [...]

 

 

[King George III to Mary Delany, 7 November 1784]

 

            The King is much pleased with the very correct manner in which Mrs. Delany has obligingly executed the commission of obtaining an exact catalogue of Mr. Granville’s collection of Mr. Handel’s music, and desires she will forward it to Dr. Burney; at the same time, as Mrs. Delany has communicated Mr. Granville’s willingness of letting the King see those voll[ume]s. [sic] that are not in the list of his original collection, he is desired at any convenient opportunity to let the following one’s [sic], be sent to town, and great care shall be taken that they shall be without damage return’d:

            No.         19.                     Opera of Amanets.

                        22.                   Teseo.

                        25.                   Amadisce. [237]

                        35 and 36.             Vols. of Duets.

                        37                    Miscellanies and Water Musick.

            As also the Quarto manuscript of a song composed by that great Master in eight parts, beginning, “Still I adore you, tho’ you deny me.”[159]

 

 

 

Nov 12

[Thomas Twining to Charles Burney, Colchester, 12 November 1784]

 

            Well, and – and—and, is the press corrected?  When comes out your Commemoration?  I saw the advertisement.  The touches you gave me of it in town have not at all diminished my eagerness to read it.  It seems to me that it will be a book sui generis.  I’m sure you were a man tui generis, when you consented to get nothing by a labour that might, & certainly wou’d have been, so profitable to you.  I must be indulged in a grumble now & then, ’till par hazard, you are made some amends.[160]

 

 

 

Nov 19

[Frances Burney to Miss Hamilton, 19 November 1784]

 

[...] since my return to town, a certain person, known by the name and appellation of Dr. Burney, enjoins me to give you, “his best compliments,” and [...] “his hearty good wishes.” [...] He desired me to beg you would send him, through me, or in whatever way, you please, your notion, how the late Mr. Granville (our sweet Mrs. Delany’s brother) should be distinguished? simply, (I believe,) meaning the place of his abode, by which he was most known: his purpose being to name all the collectors of Handel’s works that come within his knowledge.[161]

 

 

 

Nov 20

[William Cowper to William Unwin, Saturday 20 November 1784.]

 

The following short Drama will I think set the Musical Business in [299] so clear a light, that you will no longer doubt the propriety of the censure.

Scene Opens and discovers the Abbey filled with

Hearers and Performers.  An Angel descends into

the midst of them.

Angel—What are you about?  Answer—Commemorating Handel.

Angel.  What is a Commemoration?  Answer. A ceremony instituted

                                                in honor of Hi[m]

                                                whom we commemorate.

Angel.  But you sing Anthems?  Answer—Yes.  Because he composed them.

Angel.  And Italian Airs?  Answer.  Yes.  And for the same reason.

Angel.  So then—because Handel set Anthems to Music you sing them in honor of Handel—and

because he composed the Music of Italian songs you sing them in a church?—Truely Handel is much obliged to you, but God is greatly dishonor’d.

                        Exit Angel and the Music proceeds without any further impediment.[162]

 

 

 

Dec 19

[Charles Burney to Lord Sandwich, 19 December 1784]

 

My Lord.

            In obedience to your Lordship’s commands, & with great zeal for the service of the arrangements in meditation, I immediately acquainted Mr Bates that I sh{oul}d be happy in surveying Bloomsbury Church in his company this morning; but he being engaged, I went thither myself, during service time, & from thence directly to St George’s Hanover Square, to form a comparative view, & think Bloomsbury church very little bigger than St George’s.  And as there is no Organ in it, & the west Gall{er}y where it is usually placed being small, & fitted up with Pews, w{oul}d occasion great expense & confusion to make a place there for the reception of an Organ & a large band.  There is likewise but one entrance into Bloomsbury Church, w{hi}ch wd render the admission of company a very slow process.  The Organ Gallery at St George’s Church seems much too small for such a band as will be necessary to keep up the reputation acquired by the Commemoration performances, & to render the next a model for annual exhibitions of the same kind.

            From this last church I went immediately to Westminster abbey, the sight of wch renewed my affliction that there shd be so many impediments to the use of a building so happily constructed for the Purpose of Charitable musical performances on a great scale, worthy [452] of their Majesties presence, & the Nation’s Patronage!  But with the utmost oeconomy, if there were no other objection to get over than the expense of building Galleries & an orchestra, w{i}th the occasional erection of an Organ, I question much whether the produce of one or two performances only, wd be sufficient to pay the Carpenters, & contribute any very great sum to charitable uses.

            But my chief reason for going into the Abbey to day was to see whether the Tablet was replaced, & I find it put up, but so high that from my being very near-sighted, I was unable to read it, even with my concave Glass.  The inscription however, at the bottom of the monument, I was sorry to find had not been corrected, as I understood it was ordered to be in consequence of the discovery I had made very early in the summer, of Handel having died on Good-friday the 13th, & not on Sat{urda}y the 14th of April 1759, as erroneously engraved on the Tablet at the bottom of his Monument.

            From the Abbey I went to St Margaret’s Church, in wch I had never entered before; & I am clearly of opinion, that, next to the Abbey it is the fittest place for the intended performances.  The architecture, though not strictly Gothic, is venerable, & the Size unexceptionable; being at least one 3d larger than any of the Parish Churches in Question.  The side Galleries are deep, & capable of containing great numbers of auditors, &, what is best of all, the Organ Gallery is uncommonly roomy, & fit to be formed into a great orchestra.  I know that the great objection to this Church is the high pitch of the organ, & its imperfections in other particulars; but even if the repairs & additions necessary to make it fit for the next & for all future annual great performances shd amount to the considerable sum of £300, it wd be worth while to sacrifice that sum, if the use of the Instrument & the Church c{oul}d be secured for all such future occasions.  Perhaps the parish wd contribute towards this expense in consideration of the advantage it might be to the Benefit for the Westminster infirmary.  But even if they did not, such is the public hope & expectation of hearing something like the commemoration Performances of last summer, that I do believe the first of that kind next year, be it what & where it will, as it is sure [453] of the Patronage & presence of their Majesties, will infallibly draw together a great deal of Company, even at a Guinea a Ticket; but if the inferiority in the performance shd be very considerable, there will be an end of all hope for succeeding years

            Your Lordship’s objections to St Martin’s Church are certainly insuperable, unless the plan wch has so long been wished & in meditation shd take place in time for the Performance; wch is the opening St Martin’s Lane, opposite the Portico of the Church, into the Mews.  At present this fine building, his Majesty’s Parish Church, is suffocated by miserable tenements, with the Stocks & watch-house only in sight.  In all respects but the approach, this Church is fitter for the purpose than either that of Hanover Square or Bloomsbury; but after examining them all this morning, St Margaret’s appears to me not only preferable internally but externally, as it has every convenience of approach, that there is to Westminster Abbey.

            My Commemoration book has been quite ready for the Plates more than a week, & when these will be finished & worked off, I know not; as I have no reliance on the most solemn promises of Engravers.  I now almost wish, if a Copy of the Acc{oun}t is not ready for presentation before the expiration of the present year, that the ceremony may be delayed till your Lordship’s arrival in Town; as it wd make me very happy to be honoured with your Lordship’s countenance on that occasion.

            I have the honour to be with very great respect, My Lord, your Lordship’s obliged

                                                                                    and devoted Servant

                                                                                                Chas Burney.[163]

 

 

 

Dec 25

[Charles Burney to Lord Sandwich, 25 December 1784]

 

My Lord.

            There is not a single Idea in your Lordship’s letter which does not beam conviction on my mind.  But I fear that precipitate judgments have been formed, & that they will be precipitately followed.  There have been 4 Meetings, I find, of the Concert Committee, at each of w{hi}ch St Margaret’s Church seems to have been wholly out of the Question.  Mr Simpson told me on thursday morning that it was in vain to visit Churches by way of choice, as the King had fixed on St Martin’s.  Mr S. is zealous & active in any cause, as long as it is connected with importance; but he is impetuous & not the deepest & closest reasoner.  Either he has taken upon trust the prejudices of others, or he is very much prejudiced himself: for, to my apprehension, he speaks very unfairly of St Margaret’s Church, & is very much prejudiced in favour of St Martin’s.  According to Mr Wyatt’s calculation the building in [455] this Church will amour to £1000.  The organ, not being of the right Pitch will incur the same expense as that at St Margaret’s.  How many this Church will contain commodiously, I know not; but if expenses amount to 15 to £1600, I have no Idea that the residue will furnish a very splendid sum to the Fund.

            I had this morning a long Conversation with Mr Bates on the subject—I think he under-rates the size of St Margaret’s Church, & sees, by tradition, St Martin’s in too favourable a light.  The difficulties of approach to this last Church are too much overlooked, I think, by every one I have talked with, except your Lordship.  Mr Bates however agrees w{i}th me, that, as the Performance is so distant, nothing should be absolutely & finally determined ab{ou}t the Church till your Lordship & the rest of the Directors come to Town at the opening of Parliament; & then I am certain that many difficulties & prejudices will vanish, wch at present embarrass & distract the Committee.  He agrees with me that it w{oul}d be madness to think of having a Performance in a church till May or June; & that it is of the utmost importance to the establishing an annual performance of the same kind, that it sh{oul}d be in a very grand style & to a numerous & splendid audience, for whom every possible convenience of access & station shd be contrived.

            I called yesterday & to day on Mr Nicolay, but, unluckily missed him; however soon after Mr Bates quitted me he called at my house, & I had a long conversation wth him on the subject of the ensuing Performance.  & I began by begging to know whether his Majesty had absolutely fixed on St Martin’s Church, in preference to any other; as, in that case all discussion of the subject wd naturally drop.  And I find that his Majesty inclining to one Church more than another was merely in consequence of Mr Nicolay’s representation of the superiority of St Martin’s Church to that of Hanover Square or Bloomsbury, without anything being said, as far as I can find, of St Margaret’s. & [456] Mr Nicolay seems to have retailed the opinion of Mr Simpson, & Mr Simpson that of Mr Wyatt.  I cannot however help thinking that Mr S{impson} in applying for St Margaret’s Church has met with some personal rebuff or disagreeable treatment, wch has warped his judgment; & I am not sure that Mr W. has not come to the shortest conclusion, without sufficiently measuring or surveying the several premisses {sic}.  I know he’s an artist of exquisite taste, but, from the constant hurry he is in, liable to go the shortest way to work in order to save time.  His calculation both at the Abbey & Pantheon were last year inaccurate.  The former was laid at 4000, & the latter at 2000—and your Lord{shi]p knows how short of that number the amount was, when both seemed stuffed as full as possible.  I shd be extremely glad to have St Margaret’s Church & St Martin’s carefully and accurately measured, by some indifferent surveyor before the Point is determined not by the Eye but actually by Line & rule.  Mr Nicolay has been made to believe that St Martin’s will contain more people than St Margaret’s: a fact as repugnant to my belief as that it’s approach is more convenient.  I have entreated Mr Nicolay, who is of the Committee, to try to stop further, or at least final proceedings, ab{ou}t the place of Performance [till] the Directors are all in Town; & then, I still hope that more accuracy, & fairness of investigation will take place in deliberations on the subject, & that all will at last be determined for the general good of the Fund & the honour of its great Patrons & Protectors.

            My book still waits for plates, & the plates already done for money; as no proper measures have been taken by the Society for paying any of the bills consequent to getting the work ready for publication, though it was expected to be finished 3 Months ago.  However, when the plates are quite finished I have determined to redeem them myself, rather than the Publication shall be delayed a single day longer than is absolutely necessary for the engravers to finish their work.  The story of the last performance will become little more interesting [457] than an old almanac, when the next becomes the general Topic of conversation.

                        I have the honour to be with the highest respect,

                                                My Lord, your Lordship’s obliged

                                                                        and devoted Servant

                                                                                    Cha Burney.[164]

 

 

 

December

The Life of George Frederic Handel.  8vo.  1s.  Dixwell.

The idea of this production has doubtless been suggested by the late splendid musical commemoration; but the grandeur of that solemnity appears not to have inspired the author with sentiments in any degree suitable.  His work is a mean vulgar narrative; and, except in the extracts from some other biographer, for the most part not only ungrammatical, but destitute even of common sense.[165]

 

 

 

Art. 31.  Handel’s Ghost; An Ode, on the Power of his Messiah.  As Performed at Westminster Abbey.  Addressed to her Majesty.  By Pollingrove Robinson.  4to. 1s.  No Bookseller’s Name.

This Extraordinary composition is a kind of travesty of Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast.  It is not easy to decide upon the intentions of the author; we incline, however, to think him in earnest.  At any rate his performance is highly indecent and profane.  Take for example the following lines.

‘ See him in the fated garden!

Bleeding, suing for our pardon!

See the Saviour all forlorn!

See his sacred body torn!

Hark the stroke!—Ah see the nail!

See how they pierce!—Hark how they rail!

Stretch’d on the cross the great Redeemer hangs

In agonizing pangs!’[166]

 

 

 

Handel’s Ghost.  An Ode.  By Pollingrove Robinson.  4to.  1s.

No Bookseller’s Name.

The author of this extraordinary ode on the power of Handel’s Messiah, seems to have employed a kind of travesty of Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast; but we wish, that on a subject of so sacred a nature, he had avoided assuming an air of indecency, which, though probably not intended, must excite disapprobation.[167]

 

 

 

Musicians in Germany have their disciples; and receive that kind of veneration, which was wont to be given of old to the Greek Philosophers: the names of Graun and Quantz, says Dr. Burney, being more sacred at Berlin, than those of Luther and Calvin.  At the coronation of the King of Bohemia, in the beginning of the present century, Performers of the first rank from all places assembled; and an Opera was represented in open air, by one hundred Voices and two hundred Instruments.  In such a national and patronized cultivation, it must happen, that, although the general powers were lower than they are, there must be good Composition and great Masters; because every man almost, getting his chance of a musical education, no person of genius can escape being brought to light; and hence the reason of what has been acknowledged, that the Science of Music has been brought to perfection by Germans as well as by Italians.  Kepler flourished about the beginning of the seventeenth century; Kircher about the middle; and Pepusch, held to be one of the greatest of modern Theorists, about the end.  The German Musicians have not only subsisted by their Art at home, but passed, like the Italians, into many foreign lands; and their names are great in the history of Music: Mattheson, the family of Bach, Teleman, [399] and Handel; in our own times, Graun, Quantz, Hasse, Gluck, Haydn. [398–99]

[…]

In England, not only the higher, but the middle ranks are rich; and riches begetting caprice, call for variety: foreigners are courted, and old foreigners must give place to new.  The lower people have come to have little time for Music: employed either in labour, or in enjoying the plenty that labour has earned.  The native Music has worn out.  Over the whole land the tone of the people is in general above musical pleasure: Englishmen are born to action; they prefer the Play-house to the Opera: Handel, finding that he could not amuse an English audience for a whole night with Music, was obliged to introduce a Plot into his Oratorios.  Restlessness, indolence, vigour, softness, generosity, and folly reign by turns; and in no stated order, in the breasts of Englishmen. [418]

[…]

Church Music early found its establishment in a nation, so serious as the English; and Organs were very general in Cathedrals and Abbeys in the end of the fourteenth century.  Religion has always been a striking object in England; and hence has religious Music, from the first to the last, had a more steady character than any other in that country.  The Oratorio has succeeded better than the Opera: in the service of the Church there has appeared, from age to age, the soberness, the riches, and the solemnity of the [421] English nation. [420–21]

[…]

The Musicians of England have almost all of them tended to the Church.  There cannot be produced one great Master, the late Dr. Arne excepted, who cultivated Secular Music, and no other.  Tallis, the greatest Musician of England, and who has been compared with Palestrina, composed only for the Church.  Bird, indeed, who was a Church-Musician also, and had a solemn majestic style, wrote Madrigals; and was the first among the English to do so.  The learned Morley, in the end of the sixteenth century, composed both Civil and Religious Music, but with inferior powers.  Orlando Gibbons, who flourished in the beginning of the seventeenth, Aldrich in the end of the same, and Blow and Purcell in the beginning of the present century, all shewed that their chief strength lay in Religious Music.  The principal work of Dr. Boyce, who has succeeded to these two last, is Solomon, an Oratorio; though of an amorous as well as of a religious nature.  Among the numerous foreigners who have resided long in the country, Handel, the most illustrious, seems to [424] have felt the air of England; betaking himself formally, at last, to the Sacred Drama, as his ultimate resort. [423–24]

[…]

The Opera appeared at last in England, in the time of the Usurpation, when the Play-house was shut; and it should seem [?], because it was not known what an Opera was.  It was not a Play; and that satisfied the times.  At last, in the reign of Charles II and considerably past the middle of the seventeenth century, the Opera appeared under its name.  Till the arrival of Handel, however, in the beginning of the eighteenth, it did not reach a perfect state; and with all advantages of polished times, great Composers, and great Performers, [427] it has not, till this day, taken any firm root in the island. [426–27]

[…]

The Concert, that kind of Secular Music which seems most adapted to England, after having been preceded by some musical meetings at Oxford, at last, in the year 1678, was introduced by Mr. Britton, a person of a very ingenious, honest, and liberal mind, by profession a small-coal man; but in easy circumstances for that line of life; and under whose humble, but hospitable roof, it was sheltered for upwards of thirty years.  Such was the origin of the English Concert, in a state that little prognosticated its future success; performed, as every body knows, in a little hovel belonging to one Britton, as history has undeservedly styled him.  People of the first rank, [429] however, were known to crowd to his garret; and both Handel and Pepusch to have assisted at his Concerts. [428–29]

[…]

The taste of England for Music is so subordinate to other and greater objects, that more constantly affect it, [431] as to be intermitting, changeable, capricious, and crude; not that the natives want a passion for Music; for there, as in so many other cases, they have been known to give the loosest rein to passion.  English audiences have, at times, felt Italian ecstasy.  Who has not read invectives against the English Public, Nobles, and Princes, for shameful degeneracy, caressing, and almost idolizing of Opera-singers in the beginning of the present century? Fifty thousand pounds were subscribed by a Royal Academy for the exhibition of Operas: Performers were received as superiour Beings: parties, the most violent on earth, were formed for or against particular Musicians: the Academy was overturned to its foundation, in less than ten years after it was established.  When we hear of the impression made by Handel upon an English audience—dead silence, respiration checked—we respect and admire their feelings: when we are told that an English lady, upon hearing the celebrated Farinelli sing, exclaimed with rapture, “One God, one Farinelli!” we are shocked at the extravagance.  In place of falling behind other nations, the English, addicted to temporary phrenzies, can go, at times, beyond all others in the madness of Music. [430–31]

[…]

Performers in England generally come from Italy and Germany.  The natives have been celebrated for fine Voices, but not for grace, and elegance, and manner in Singing.  The Germans appear to play the first part.  Hence the popularity of loud Music and of Execution; like the taste for tolling of Bells, from which England has been called the ringing island.  That Handel resided fifty years in this country, carried on, for a long time, a contest with the whole Nobility, raised Opera against Opera, gained the victory, and died worth twenty thousand pounds, are proofs of the sovereignty of German taste.  The secession of the Nobles, like the rebellion of slaves against their masters, proceeded, probably, more from a sentiment of liberty than of taste.  Every one has heard of the sublimity and unbounded invention of Handel; but few, except the learned, of the tenderness and elegance of Buononcini, who served the Public at the same time.  Geminiani gathered fame indeed, but he left the true Italian taste: his powers being more turned to ingenious Harmony and Instrumental Composition, than to Dramatic Music.

The Oratorio, which first appeared in 1730, and which does not admit of Dance, Decoration, and [433] Dress, shews, especially in the grand pieces of Handel, who brought it on after the Opera had run its race, the particular bias of the English taste: something religious and solemn, something of the simplex sanctaque Melodia, which was required in their Church Music, as appears from Spelman, so early as the eighth century, is necessary to make a lasting and national impression.  And now that impression, says Sir John Hawkins, is over.  The Music of the present day, says he, wants Harmony, is loud and noisy: all Keys with the lesser Third are rejected as melancholy; mirthful Music is the taste: Handel, Corelli, Geminiani, Purcell, made deep and lasting impressions, but every one forgets the Music of the last year. [432–33]

[…]

It is, in fact, the vulgar, who have called for Imitation; and Musicians, finding their account in [444] gratifying them, have tried to imitate every thing; the seasons of the year, the roaring of winds, cataracts of rivers, buzzing of flies, hopping of frogs.  Handel himself had to let his audience hear the Sun stand still.  At most, this beauty is of a petty kind; and the Imitator is hardly to a Musician, what a Mimic is to an Actor upon the Stage. [443–44][168]

 

 

 

In the reign of George II, Powel, a Welsh Harper, who used to play before that Monarch, drew su[ch] tones from his instrument, that the great Handel was delighted with his performance, and composed for him several pieces of Music, some of which are in the first set of Handel’s Concertos.  He also introduced him as a performer in his Oratorios, in which there are some songs Harp Obligato, that were accompanied by Powel: such as, “Tune your Harps” and “Praise the Lord with chearful voice” in Esther, and “Hark! He strikes the golden lyre” in Alexander Balus.[169]

 

 



[1] The Public Advertiser, Wednesday 11 February 1784, [1].

[2] The Public Advertiser, Thursday 12 February 1784, [1].

[3] The Public Advertiser, Monday 23 February 1784, [3].

[4] The Public Advertiser, Tuesday 24 February 1784 [4]; reprinted, Wednesday 25 February 1784, [4]; Thursday 26 February 1784, [4].

[5] Broadsheet in three versions: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection; variants indicated with curly brackets.

[6] Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, Saturday 6 March 1784, [1].

[7] The Public Advertiser, Saturday 6 March 1784, [2].

[8] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 148.

[9] The Public Advertiser, Saturday 28 February 1784 [4]; reprinted, Monday 1 March 1784, [4].

[10] Broadsheet: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection.

[11] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 4–Saturday 6 March 1784, [1]; reprinted, The Public Advertiser, Monday 8 March 1784, [1]; reprinted, Tuesday 9 March 1784, [1].

[12] The Public Advertiser, Thursday 4 March 1784, [4].

[13] The Public Advertiser, Saturday 6 March 1784, [3].

[14] The Public Advertiser, Monday 8 March 1784, [2].

[15] The Public Advertiser, Monday 8 March 1784, [3].

[16] The Public Advertiser, Saturday 6 March 1784 [4]; reprinted with “Samson,” Monday 8 March 1784, [4]; reprinted, Tuesday 9 March 1784, [4].

[17] Broadsheet: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection.

[18] The Public Advertiser, Friday 12 March 1784, [3].

[19] The Public Advertiser, Thursday 11 March 1784, [4].

[20] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 11–Saturday 13 March 1784, [1]; The Public Advertiser, Saturday 13 March 1784, [1].

[21] The Public Advertiser, Saturday 13 March 1784, [4]; reprinted, Monday 15 March 1784, [3]; and with “To-morrow,” Tuesday 16 March 1784, [4].

[22] Broadsheet: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection.

[23] The Public Advertiser, Thursday 18 March 1784, [4].

[24] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 18 March–Saturday 20 March 1784, [2].

[25] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 18–Saturday 20 March 1784, [4].

[26] The Public Advertiser, Saturday 20 March 1784, [4]; reprinted with “To-morrow,” Tuesday 23 March 1784, [4].

[27] Broadsheet: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection.

[28] The Public Advertiser, Friday 26 March 1784, [2–3].

[29] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 233.

[30] Broadsheet in three versions: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection; variants given within curly brackets.

[31] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 284.

[32] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 417, n6.

[33] US-SM (Huntington Library), HM 54457, vol. 9, p. 24; reprint (with slight modifications), The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752–1828), edited by Brian Robins (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1998), 313.

[34] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 26 April 1784, [3].

[35] US-SM (Huntington Library), HM 54457, vol. 9, p. 25; reprint (with slight modifications), The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752–1828), edited by Brian Robins (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1998), 313.

[36] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Tuesday 27 April 1784, [3].

[37] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 28 April 1784, [3].

[38] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 7 May 1784, [4].

[39] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Saturday 1 May 1784, [3].

[40] The Wit’s Magazine; Or, Library of Momus 1 (1784): 191.

[41] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 27–Saturday 29 May 1784, [2].

[42] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 5 May 1784, [3].

[43] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Thursday 6 May 1784, [3].

[44] The Bath Chronicle, Thursday 6 May 1784, [1]; reprinted, Thursday 13 May 1784, [1] and Thursday 20 May 1784, [1].

[45] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Saturday 8 May 1784, [3].

[46] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 10 May 1784, [3].

[47] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 12 May 1784, [1].

[48] US-SM (Huntington Library), HM 54457, vol. 9, pp. 29-30; reprint (with slight modifications), The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752–1828), edited by Brian Robins (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1998), 314.

[49] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 3:220–21.

[50] The Public Advertiser, Friday 14 May 1784, [3].

[51] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 14 May 1784, [3].

[52] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 17 May 1784, [3].

[53] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 13–Saturday 15 May 1784, [4].

[54] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 17 May 1784, [3].

[55] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 17 May 1784, [4].

[56] US-SM (Huntington Library), HM 54457, vol. 9, p. 31; reprint (with slight modifications), The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752–1828), edited by Brian Robins (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1998), 315.

[57] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Tuesday 18 May 1784, [2].

[58] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 19 May 1784, [4].

[59] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 21 May 1784, [2].

[60] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Thursday 20 May 1784, [4].

[61] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Thursday 20 May 1784, [4]; The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Thursday 20 May 1784, [3].

[62] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Tuesday 18–Thursday 20 May 1784, [4].

[63] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 21 May 1784, [3].

[64] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 20 May–Saturday 22 May 1784, [3].

[65] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Saturday 22 May 1784, [3].

[66] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 20–Saturday 22 May 1784, [3].

[67] The Morning Herald, and Daily Advertiser, Monday 24 May 1784, [2].

[68] The Morning Herald, and Daily Advertiser, Saturday 22 May 1784, [2].

[69] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 3:214.

[70] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 24 May 1784, [2].

[71] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 24 May 1784, [3].

[72] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 24 May 1784, [3].

[73] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 25 May 1784, [4].

[74] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 25 May 1784, [3].

[75] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Tuesday 25 May 1784, [3].

[76] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 26 May 1784, [3].

[77] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 26 May 1784, [3].

[78] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 416–17.

[79] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 26 May 1784, [3].

[80] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 3:215.

[81] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Thursday 27 May 1784, [2].

[82] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 391–92.

[83] The Universal Magazine 74 (1784/1): 277–78.

[84] Parker’s General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer, 27 May 1784: Duncan Sprott, 1784 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1984), 121–23.

[85] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Tuesday 25–Thursday 27 May 1784, [3].

[86] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 28 May 1784, [4].

[87] John O’Keeffe, Recollections of the Life of John O’Keeffe, written by Himself, 2 vols. (London: H. Coburn, 1826), 2:95–97.

[88] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Thursday 27 May 1784, [2].

[89] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 392–93.

[90] The Whitehall Evening-Post Tuesday 25–Thursday 27 May 1784, [4].

[91] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 28 May 1784, [4].

[92] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Friday 28 May 1784, [2].

[93] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 27–Saturday 29 May 1784, [2].

[94] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Saturday 29 May–Tuesday 1 June 1784, [4].

[95] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 31 May 1784, [2].

* Sir W. Hamilton, who sat near him.

[96] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/2 (July–December 1784): 533.

[97] John O’Keeffe, Recollections of the Life of John O’Keeffe, written by Himself, 2 vols. (London: H. Coburn, 1826), 2:97.

[98] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Friday 28 May 1784, [2].

[99] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Thursday 27 May–Saturday 29 May 1784, [3].

[100] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Saturday 29 May 1784, [3].

[101] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Saturday 29 May 1784, [3]; reprinted in The Bath Chronicle, Thursday 3 June 1784, [2]; variants in curly brackets.

[102] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 31 May 1784, [2].

[103] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Saturday 29 May–Tuesday 1 June 1784, [2].

[104] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 393.

[105] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 31 May 1784, [2].

[106] The St. James’s Chronicle, Saturday 29 May–Tuesday 1 June 1784, [4].

[107] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 2 June 1784, [3].

[108] So Dearly Loved, So Much Admired: Letters to Hester Pitt, Lady Chatham from her relations and friends, 1744–1801, edited by Vere Birdwood (London: HMSO, 1994), 161.

2 [editorial footnote:] Left blank in the manuscript.  There were 525 performers.  Boswell cancelled nearly a page of his draft here, no doubt thinking he was talking too much about himself.

[109] James Boswell, Boswell: The Applause of the Jury: 1782–1785, edited by Irma S. Lustig and Frederick A. Pottle (New York et al.: McGraw-Hill, 1981), 219–21.

[110] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 31 May 1784, [2].

[111] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 31 May 1784, [2].

[112] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 31 May 1784, [3].

[113] Horace Walpole, “Journals of George III,” p. 84; MSS, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

[114] The Whitehall Evening-Post, Saturday 29 May–Tuesday 1 June 1784, [2].

[115] Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, Saturday 5 June 1784, [2].

[116] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Wednesday 2 June 1784, [3].

[117] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Thursday 3 June 1784, [3].

[118] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 4 June 1784, [3].

[119] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Friday 4 June 1784, [2].

[120] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Friday 4 June 1784, [3].

[121] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Monday 7 June 1784, [2–3].

[122] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday 7 June 1784, [2].

[123] James Boswell, Boswell: The Applause of the Jury: 1782–1785, edited by Irma S. Lustig and Frederick A. Pottle (New York et al.: McGraw-Hill, 1981), 228–29.

[124] “Lady Mary Coke’s Journals, 1784”; Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

[125] A lady of the Clayton family, “Diary 1776–1785”; Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

1 [editorial footnote:] Samuel Arnold, Mus. D., was one of the assistant-directors of the commemoration.  He had charge of one side of the chorus.  He performers were tiered up against the great west window.

2 [editorial footnote:] Alexander’s Feast, ll. 169–70:

                        He [Timotheus] raised a mortal to the skies;

                        She [St. Cecilia] drew an angel down.

[126] James Boswell, Boswell: The Applause of the Jury: 1782–1785, edited by Irma S. Lustig and Frederick A. Pottle (New York et al.: McGraw-Hill, 1981), 230.

[127] The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, Saturday 5 June 1784, [4].

[128] Betty Matthews, “Joah Bates: A remarkable amateur,” The Musical Times 126 ([no. 1714, December] 1985), 749–53: 751.

[129] James Boswell, The Correspondence and other Papers of James Boswell relating to the Making of the Life of Johnson, edited by Marshall Waingrow (New York and Toronto: McGraw-Hill, [?1969]), 19–20.

[130] The St. James’s Chronicle, Saturday 5–Tuesday 8 June 1784, [2].

[131] The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 9 June 1784, [2].

[132] The Bath Chronicle, Thursday 17 June 1784, [1].

* Now Earl of Uxbridge.

Now at Naples.

[133] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/1 (January–June 1784): 457–58.

[134] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/2 (July–December 1784): 516.

[135] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/2 (July–December 1784): 741–42.

[136] W. M. Craig, Memoir of her Majesty Sophia Charlotte, of Mecklenburg Strelitz, Queen of Great Britain… (Liverpool: Caxton Press [=Henry Fisher], 1818).

[137] William Cowper, The Letters and Prose Writings of William Cowper.  Volume II: Letters 1782–1786, edited by James King and Charles Ryskamp (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), 254; also on http://dx.doi.org/10.13051/ee:doc/cowpwiOU0020254a1c.

[138] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 3:220.

[139] A Selection of Thomas Twining’s Letters, 1734–1804: The Record of a Tranquil Life, ed. by Ralph S. Walker, 2 vols. (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991), 1:257.

[140] Betty Matthews, “Joah Bates: A remarkable amateur,” The Musical Times 126 ([no. 1714, December] 1985), 749–53: 751.

[141] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/2 (July–December 1784): 552–53.

[142] The Universal Magazine 75 (1784/2): 50.

[143] Bath Chronicle, 15 July 1784: Duncan Sprott, 1784 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1984), 162–63.

[144] William Cowper, The Letters and Prose Writings of William Cowper.  Volume II: Letters 1782–1786, edited by James King and Charles Ryskamp (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), 264–65.

[145] http://dx.doi.org/10.13051/ee:doc/cowpwiOU0020264a1c

[146] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 418.

[147] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 419–20.

[148] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 422.

[149] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 423–31.

[150] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 432–33.

[151] A Selection of Thomas Twining’s Letters, 1734–1804: The Record of a Tranquil Life, edited by Ralph S. Walker, 2 vols. (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991), 1:259–61.

[152] The English Review 4 (1784/2): 142.

[153] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 435–37.

[154] James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, L[.]L.D...., 2nd edition revised and augmented, 3 vols. (London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1793), 3:630–31.

[155] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/2 (July–December 1784): 717.

* Sir John Hawkins.

[156] The Gentleman’s Magazine 54/2 (July–December 1784): 686.

31 Probably a reference to the annual Handel Commemoration concerts, given sometimes in the Sheldonian Theatre and sometimes in the Oxford Music Room {...}

[157] Horace Walpole’s Correspondence with Mary and Agnes Berry II (“The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, Vol. 12”), edited by W. S. Lewis and A. Dayle Wallace (New Haven: Yale University Press / London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1944), 258.

[158] James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, L[.]L.D...., 2nd edition revised and augmented, 3 vols. (London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1793), 3:631.

[159] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 3:236–37.

[160] A Selection of Thomas Twining’s Letters, 1734–1804: The Record of a Tranquil Life, edited by Ralph S. Walker, 2 vols. (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991), 1:264.

[161] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 3:242.

[162] William Cowper, The Letters and Prose Writings of William Cowper.  Volume II: Letters 1782–1786, edited by James King and Charles Ryskamp (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), 298–99; also on http://dx.doi.org/10.13051/ee:doc/cowpwiOU0020298a1c.

[163] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 451–53.

[164] The Letters of Dr Charles Burney.  Volume I: 1751–1784, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 454–57.

[165] The Critical Review 58 (July–December 1784): 240.

[166] The English Review 4 (1784/2): 146.

[167] The Critical Review 58 (July–December 1784): 240.

[168] Thomas Robertson, An Inquiry into the Fine Arts. [Of Music] 1st volume (London: W. Strahan, and T. Cadell, 1784).

[169] Edward Jones, Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards: Reserved by Tradition, and Authentic Manuscripts, from Remote Antiquity… (London: the author, 1784), 27.