Composers
Read about three composers and two writers on music linked to Chester.
An infographic showing major English composers since 1550. The size of their name is proportional to the number of their pieces on Apple Classical in 2024.
Great Britain has been called ‘the land without music’. Search Wikipedia for native composers between Purcell and Elgar and you won’t find many. Before Purcell there were many fine composers from these shores, and from Elgar’s time composition has blossomed. What are some of the reasons for this, and what are the connections with Chester? We are going to meet three composers and two writers on music, all with connections to the city.
In 1645 William Lawes, favourite composer of Charles I, was slain at the Siege of Chester, a climactic moment in the English Civil War. Lawes was a remarkable, productive musician although his music was never published in his lifetime. His portrait suggests a confident, outgoing Cavalier but his music (particularly for the viols) has a romantic, inward tone, full of brooding melancholy, suggestive of those uncertain times.
Largely forgotten until the 1960s, the music of William Lawes stands midway between that of the great Renaissance composers such as William Byrd and the great Henry Purcell (who learnt from Lawes). His was an unpopular era: Charles I wanted a world where power and culture (including music and art) were confined to the king and a small elite rather than being shared with the public. We now skip forward to a time when classical music was booming and very much in the public eye.
Is there anything more British than Messiah? George Frederic Handel was born in Halle, Germany and became a British citizen, penning many hits for the hurly-burly of Georgian London. Handel wrote his Messiah in 24 days, and it has been hugely popular ever since. Unlike his contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach (whose choral music is best suited to a church setting) Handel’s music is more theatrical.
Statue of Handel in Halle, Germany. Handel looks towards London, his adopted home.
Travelling from London to Dublin (where Messiah was premiered) Handel stopped in Chester, waiting for the weather to improve before crossing the Irish sea. There the 14-year-old Charles Burney (who went to King’s School Chester and wrote the first history of music in the English language) spotted the great man sipping coffee and smoking a pipe.
Burney shared a wonderful anecdote about an impromptu rehearsal of Messiah here. Handel wanted to try out some of Messiah while in Chester (he was lodging at the Golden Falcon on Northgate). Some musicians were summoned including a printer called Janson, one of the best musicians in the local choir with a good bass voice. The rehearsal didn’t go well and Handel (known for his fiery temper and physical bulk) after swearing in four languages shouted in broken English “You scoundrel! Did you not tell me you could sing at sight” to which Janson replied, “Yes sir, so I can; but not at first sight”.
Felix Mendelssohn visited Chester in 1829 on his journey from Liverpool to Holywell and admired the city and its sights. Mendelssohn was a fine watercolourist but unfortunately didn’t leave us his visual take on the city. Mendelssohn loved Britain and vice versa. He visited ten times, wrote some cracking pieces inspired by these isles, and was a major catalyst for a renewed interest in classical music. For example, the Liverpool Philharmonic Society was formed in 1840 and they asked Mendelssohn to write a piece for them based on a work by Milton, but he died before it could be completed. His Elijah received its premiere in Birmingham.
Mendelssohn didn’t write any music inspired by Chester but in 1829 he stayed with the Taylor family at the village of Rhydymwyn near Mold and wrote his (pleasant enough) three opus 16 fantasies for piano as gifts for Taylor’s three daughters.
Sir George Grove is most famous for Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians which has been the authoritative resource for music research since 1879 to the present day. Grove started out as a civil engineer and worked for the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company and was the site engineer when the Chester (joint) Railway Station was first built.
Grove lived in Chester for a year at Abbey Square and enjoyed hearing music at Chester Cathedral and was friends with John Owen (‘Owen the Melody’) the organist at St Bridget’s Church and another important musical figure.
After wrapping up his first career as a distinguished civil engineer, Grove moved to London and became secretary at the new Crystal Palace putting on varied and popular musical programmes. Grove loved the music of Schubert and he and his friend Arthur Sullivan (half of Gilbert and Sullivan) went to Vienna where they discovered some of Schubert’s lost music.
In the 1880s, the musical academies in London were in poor shape. Grove was appointed the first Director of the Royal College of Music and raised significant funding in its first year. Historian David Wright said: “The founding of the RCM in 1883 clearly represents the major turning point for musical training in Britain”. Grove prepared the way for the renaissance in British classical music from 1900 to the present day.