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Chapter on the Three Years' System. By W. C. A. Blew. 2s. 6d. LETTERS OF S. WESLEY RELATING TO THE INTRODUCTION INTO THIS COUNTRY OF THK WORKS OF BACH. Is. RULES AND MAXIMS FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS. By Schumann. 4d. Reeves' Music Primers. ELEMENTARY MUSIC (Is.) Dr Westbrook, ART OF MODULATION. 2s. 6d., cloth 4s. ... C. Zoeller HISTORY OP MUSIC (Shortly) LIFE AND WORKS OP MOZART (Is.) ALif Whittingham LIFE AND WORKS OP HANDEL (Is.) Do. Any of the above may be had in cloth, price 6d. extra. MEMOIR AND WORKS HENRY SMART. EALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON A Cornell University y Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022193456 HENRY SM^RT HIS LIFE AND WORKS. WILLIAM SPARK, ORGANIST OF THE TOWN HALL, LEEDS, ETC. tmitt) Portrait. LONDON: WILLIAM REEVES, 185 FLEET STREET, Publisher of Musical Works. CONTENTS. PiOE BIRTH OF SMART I PRODUCES HIS FIRST WORK 13 APPOINTED ORGANIST OF ST. LUKE'S CHURCH . .16 HIS OPERAS iB CHURCH MUSIC 22 ANTHEMS 49 PART-SONGS ... . . -74 TRIOS AND TERZETTOS . . . . . 81 VOCAL DUETS 89 SONGS 97 "THE BRIDE OF DUNKERRON "' . . . . 120 ORATORIO OF "JACOB" .... . 1 37 CANTATA — " KING RENT'S DAUGHTER " . . . I46 ORGANS AND ORGAN PLAYING 162 ORGAN WORKS • . . . 231 ARRANGEMENTS OF HANDEL'S CHORUSES . . . 257 PSALMODY 262 ENGINEERING— ANECDOTIANA . . ... 288 CONCLUSION— HIS LAST ACTS, ETC 326 HIS DEATH 33S EXTRACTS FROM PUBLIC PRINTS 339 HENRY SMART COMMEMORATION SUNDAY . -353 CATALOGUE OF HIS WORKS 3^5 PREFACE. No apology need be offered, I trust, for the intro- duction here of an extract from the first printed announcement of this book, in which the chief reason why the publication has been undertaken is plainly stated. " The work will be the first of its kind ever pub- lished of an English musician. Foreigners — especi- ally Germans — are continually producing biographies — many of them elaborate — of their composers and performers, even during their life-time ; but in Eng- land this sensible way of. making the merits of our musicians known has been too much neglected. " The memoir of Henry Smart will not only be a record of a life full of interest and instruction, but it will also contain an analysis and catalogue of his numerous compositions." It is no mock-modesty on my part, but the mere statement of a fact (and many of my friends can verify this), that shortly after Henry Smart's death viii PREFACE. when I found the materials likely to warrant such an undertaking to be of the most meagre description, I desired to retire from the task, feeling my utter inability to produce a biography worthy of accept- ance by those — and their name is legion — who regard Henry Smart to be one of the world's musical heroes. He kept no diary — no record of anything : not a single letter could be placed at my disposal by any of his numerous relations; and I had therefore to rely solely upon what information the latter could give me, — on the assistance of two or three mutual friends of Smart's and my own, and on my long intimacy with him, which ex- tended over thirty years. My misgivings as to the success of a work from my hand, under such circumstances, were combated by those who felt interested in the production ; and I was at last encouraged and emboldened to take the final plunge which has resulted in the appear- ance of the following pages. May I not hope, there- fore, that the critic and the general reader will forgive me many sins of omission and commission which I must have committed during the progress of my labours ? Strongly have I felt that the time had arrived when an effort should be made to make better known the lives and works of some of our great English musicians — those who have shed light PREFACE, ix and lustre upon their art, their profession, their country. It would, indeed, be a source of infinite satisfac- tion to those who, like myself, have felt and taken a deep interest in the progress of music, wherever our efforts could be exercised, could this present humble beginning be followed by the biographies of such men as Sir Sterndale Bennett, Dr. Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Sir John Goss, &c. Nothing but the usual short newspaper notices on their demise, or the brief dictionary record, in which a few facts alone are given, has yet appeared of the great majority of Britain's musical geniuses. How different the interest taken in the lives and works of foreign composers ! Upon this subject even our own countrymen seem never weary. Why not now turn their attention to those nearer home ? Besides, why should the biography of our composers be so scanty, and the facts of their personal histories so rarely alluded to, as compared with those of the great masters of other arts ? " We would rather have supposed," said a writer in The, British Quarterly Beview, "that the very mystery of that spiritual meaning which the composer elicits from sound and rhythm, that his function as the priest of an oracle which speaks in language native to the soul yet hidden from the intellect, would have created the keenest interest in aU that related to his person, cul- X PREFACE. ture, habits, and external relations. The very secret of that hero-worship, which of late years has been exaggerated into a dogma, and which makes us track with such delight those ' footprints on the sands of time ' left by great men of the past, is the piquant conjunction, in one view, of that power of large ideal conception which separates genius from ordinary humanity, with those personal facts which again identify it with the mass of common life. Curiosity usually hovers about the point at which the sphere of a strong creative force touches that of a mere mortal existence, chequered with common joys and sorrows. And of all the powers wielded by human art, that by which the great master in music " ' Takes tie prisoned soul, And laps it in Elysium,' is surely that which might kindle in us the eagerness of Comus to learn something of the ' mortal mixture of earth's mould ' from which it emanates." Of Smart it may be said that his marked indi- viduality — the deep reverence shown for his works since his death-r-his uncompromising independence and self-reliance — and the perfection of his work in all that he wrote — single him out as a man and a musician of such power and high example, that it seemed to be absolutely necessary that a more ex- tended notice than has yet appeared of his life and PREFACE. xi works should be undertaken. What Fetis wrote of another great musician applies quite aptly to Henry Smart : " He was possessed of a well-tempered mind, — powerful enough to resist the popular impulse, and to manifest the force of its individuality hy work which bears the impress of genius, thoughtfulness' and constructive skill. And whether this genius be expressed on a large scale, or in miniature, its results are equally interesting, and will take their place among the monuments of art." In conclusion, I have to acknowledge great obli- gations to Mrs. Callow (Smart's only surviving sister), Mrs. Browning and Mrs. Unwin Sowter (his daughters). Colonel Wilkinson, Stockport ; T. L. Stillie, Esq., of Glasgow; and Mr. J. Spencer Curwen. To Mrs. Sowter {nie Clara Smart) my most espe- cial thanks are due, for the interest she has shown in and the trouble she has taken for me during the composition of the work, — one which, with all its difficulties and fears, has been truly to me a labour of love. WILLIAM SPAEK. Apperley Bridge, Leeds, October 1880. COREIGENDA. Page 274, footnote, should read, " A Week's Music in London ; published by Metzler & Co." Page 292, line 15, for " music " read " organs.'' 292, .301, 318, 3.S6, 346, 26, ,, " Tom " read " Thomas." 22, „ " Catalain " cead " Catalani." 7, ,, " tubce" rca(i " tuba." 5, insert after " Sowter ■'—" (Clara.)" 26, insert after " youth "— " (Mr. Thomas Bradbury)." LIFE OF HENRY SMART. o Heney Smart was born on the 26th. of October, 1 81 3, in Foley Place, London, at a house then num- bered 39. He was the second surviving child of Henry and Ann Stanton Smart. His musical talents were inherited from both his parents, but more par- ticularly from the paternal side, his father and grandfather having been well-known musical pro- fessors. On his mother's side he belonged to one of the oldest and noblest families in England, Mrs. Smart being a lineal descendant of Eobin Hood, the outlawed Earl of Huntingdon. Mr. Smart, who was a most genial, amiable man, as well as a highly- gifted musician, was for many years leader of the Philharmonic Society and at Drury Lane Theatre, and he filled the same post at the Italian Opera just before the advent of Spagnoletti. Not a little proud of his clev.er, original boy, he made him his constant companion, and frequently took him to the theatrical rehearsals; where the machinery 2 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. (especially when a pantomime was in preparation) greatly engrossed the little lad's attention. Eather unfortunately for his family, Mr. Smart was pos- sessed with a passion for mechanics, and much of his leisure and his money was devoted to inventions from which, alas ! he reaped little else than reputa- tion. Thus his son's aptitude for construction was •fostered, and the whole house was littered with miniature pantomime tricks, and other wonderful productions of the little fingers, and notably with a small engine, invented to crack hemp seed for a tame bird ! As yet music seemed to claim but little share of his attention, although, by dint of follow- ing his father to rehearsals, and creeping into the room at the home quartet parties, he was living in the midst of the best that London then afforded; and the professors, who kindly drew out the quaint child and patted him on the head, little thought that a great one was among them. In 1823 Henry Smart the elder went to Dublin on professional business, and there fell a victim to typhus fever, at the early age of forty-three. Such a lad as young Henry, it may be well imagined, was no light charge to a widowed mother. She stUl sent him to school, and his attendance was far more regular than in the lifetime of his in- dulgent father. He was then ten years old, and pianoforte playing and the rudiments of harmony LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 3 began to form part of his daily study ; but he soon declined having anything to do with the music then considered good enough for children, and when sent to practise, would do nothing but extemporise, much to his mother's chagrin. A cure for this passion was, however, found in Cramer's First Book of Exercises, which were not only practised but greedily devoured; and before long young Henry could play many of them from memory. Nor did he become unfaithful to his "first love," for from the time he began to teach pianoforte playing, he constantly introduced to his pupils the book which had so early delighted himself. About this period he became acquainted with the Eobsons, the celebrated organ-builders of St. Martin's Lane, and spent much of his leisure in rambling through their workshops, and in trying his skill on their organs. It was probably at their house he made the acquaintance of Mr. Neil, then organist of All Souls Church, Langham Place. Like others with whom he came in contact, this kind old gentleman took a fancy to the fatherless boy, who crept up to his organ-loft on most Sunday mornings, and was frequently allowed to take some small part in the service, no doubt gaining many practical hints thereby. Still music by no means engrossed the whole of his attention. A clever uncle (on his mother's side), Captain Bagnold, E.M., took much 4 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. notice of Henry, and by intercourse with this gentle- man, the friend of Sir Humphrey Davy, Faraday, "Wilberforce, and other equally distinguished men, his latent mental powers were becoming rapidly developed, and he not unfrequently put startling and difficult questions to the scientific professors he saw when sometimes admitted to the Eoyal Institu- tion. By and by Henry Smart got into the habit of absenting himself from home on half-holidays, fre- quently only appearing towards night, and when rather anxiously questioned as to where he had been since noon, replied simply, "At Maudsley's," and in proof of his assertion, he produced a great roll of mechanical drawings. Who introduced him to the great engineers, and by what means he obtained leave to roam about the premises and make his draw- ings, no one ever heard, but it was so all through his life. He retained to the end the wonderful magnetism by means of which he managed to draw out every one who possessed information worth knowing, and at the same time exercised a real fascination over those whom he thus scrutinised. It is a pity these mechanical drawings (like so much other work of Smart's) should have perished ; they excited the astonishment of Colonel Drink- water of the Engineers, when shown to him as the work of a boy scarcely twelve years of age ; and he strongly advised that his evident talent should be LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 5 cultivated as a profession, " for/' said he, " engineers have a great future before them." He little thought what a future ! Alas ! the means were wanting which might have given another great engineer to the world. It now became pretty clear that for a clever little fatherless boy, who thus chose his own acquaintances, and disposed of his own time, London was not the safest place, and it was decided to send him to a boarding-school. He was placed under the care of a Mr. Gittens, the proprietor of a large establish- ment on the top of Highgate Hill, still, I believe, known as Lauderdale House, though the kind master and his boys have long departed thence. Perhaps a better teacher could hardly have been chosen, for Mr. Gittens was a gifted and highly- educated man. Henry Smart was, naturally, soon at the top of all his classes, and was frequently busy in assisting his master to get up the lectures and experiments in the lecture-room of the estab- lishment. Music, in the meanwhile, lay pretty much in abeyance, though, of course, Henry's performances on the pianoforte were always at a premium for school concerts. Those were very happy days, and he always spoke with great affection of his master, but, like most other happy days, they passed away all too quickly, until the time came for the school- boy to study for a profession. Possibly, it might 6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. have been better to have left the selection to him- self, and then, had means been forthcoming, to have made him an engineer ; but the world would have lost a great musician. Mrs. Smart's family, who had always entertained an unreasonable dislike to her marriage, were strongly prejudiced against music as a livelihood, and vehemently urged her son to study law, which he as vehemently objected to do ; but at last his resistance was overcome, and he was articled to a solicitor, sorely against his will. His legal studies began, but the practice he saw was not of a class to reconcile such a mind as Henry Smart's to what was, of course, but drudgery. Unfortunately his master's clients were, like angels' visits, few and far between, and their husiness anything but celestial, being, in short, of the meanest description. Mr. T was fond of amusement too, and taught his young clerk more of rowing and billiard-playing than of law, till one day the lawyer disappeared after as- signing young Smart's articles to a much better man than himself. Some knowledge of law, however, his pupil had acquired in the course of four years, and this sufficed to show him that the assignment made by Mr. T was informal, not having been properly witnessed ; and greatly to his poor mother's dismay, but to his own triumph, he exclaimed, "I took up law to please my relations, and now I'll leave it to please myself." Here was a dilemma! The strong head LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 7 and the headstrong character of the lad were by this time fully recognised. His mother's family had committed the unlucky mistake which had placed him originally in such bad hands, and so anxious were they to keep him in the crooked path generally supposed to lead to the woolsack, that they would have made some sacrifices for the completion of his legal education, but all in vain ! Henry would none of it, and spoke his mind more distinctly than politely. So he remained at home with little de- finite aim for his future life, but never idle. Music began to claim a much larger share of his thoughts ; for he had become intimate with George Macfarren, and with John Barnett, then chiefly known as the composer of the popular " Light Guitar," but who has since given to his rather ungrateful country "The Mountain Sylph," and the wonderful but ill-fated opera of " Fair Eosamond." The three friends spent much of their time tpgether, and thoroughly believed in each other. Smart had also made another life-long attachment, and this was to the works' of John Sebastian Bach, whose glorious "48" Preludes and Fugues were always under his hands. The pedal fugues were his next discovery, but how was he to find oppor- tunities for practising them? By and by mys- terious quantities of wood and wire arrived at the house, and were qarried up to the young man's bed- 8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. room, whence they emerged one day in the shape of a complete set of pedals, which were quickly adapted to his mother's square piano — a sad snare to unwary and unwitting feet. His next importa- tion was of a far more, distressing character, for he wanted to know how to write for wind instruments, and as a means to that end he purchased a French- horn for private practice. This was, of course, rele- gated to the attic, but the dismal tones travelled only too sadly and surely through the house. Henry, in his leisure evenings, had already produced several compositions of a simple form, as, for in- stance, a set of quadrilles, graceful and melodious, an air, "When man's day-dreams are over" (un- published), and the charming "Ecco quel fiero istante," of which so many editions were sold out, and which stiU keeps its place at "Cramer's;" but when these early works were produced he was still unable to write them down for himself, and they were printed from his mother's MSS. At this time, however, he made a great stride in musical knowledge. Sir George Smart (his uncle) had arranged, for Covent Garden Theatre, an opera en- titled " Azor and Zemira," the music being selected from one or two of Spohr's operas. Music of this class was then almost new to London, and many rehearsals were necessary before the piece was ready for the public, and during all this time the director's LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 9 nephew almost lived in the theatre. It was there that Henry made the acquaintance of Mr. Kearns, the leader, and as long as the opera continued to run, always found a seat in the orchestra ; but after a few of the performances he had the whole of the opera, music and dialogue, firmly fixed in his memory, and would reproduce the whole work at the pianoforte for the amusement of his friends. Mr. Kearns was a most able musician, and Henry Smart always acknowledged that he had learnt much from him. Mrs. Smart often went with her family to Great Yarmouth, where she had many attached friends, and her son was always thoroughly happy, there being a glorious old organ at the parish church, and another, rich and mellow (though smaller) at St. George's Chapel, to both of which he had easy access. By the time he was eighteen he had already become more than an average player, and his grow- ing knowledge of orchestral effect enabled him to make some of those wonderful combinations for which he afterwards became famous. The grand St. Nicholas organ, however, had no composition pedals, and Henry Smart never rested till he had obtained leave from the Mayor and Corporation of that right radical borough to supply the deficiency. How he persuaded them to trust the matter to him, or to furnish him with what he required, no one ever 10 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. knew ; but he shut himself up with his carpenters and his materials, and in a short time gave such a performance on the old organ as had never been heard before, and quite convinced the townspeople of his abilities. He always loved that grand instru- ment, and would travel miles out of his way to pay it a visit. Organs were not the only delight which Yarmouth offered to his versatile character. Ever since his boyish visits to Portsmouth with the sailor uncle, when he was so proud of &ing the evening gun on board the " Princess Charlotte " (then guard- ship), he had nourished a p,assionate love for the sea, and at Yarmouth this found full scope. Kind old Captain Smith (the first man who ascended Pompey's Pillar) never wearied of answering his questions on nautical matters; and Henry would spend long hours among the beach-men, both on sea and land, and from them he learned to know all the sands and various lights along that most dangerous coast, and acquired much of the skill and experience which in after years made him so keen a yachtsman. Perhaps it was his singular talent for adapting himself to all classes of society that was the secret of his widespread knowledge — no smattering, be it remembered, but sound, practical knowledge, always ready for instant application. He had, moreover, a remarkable power of concentrating his attention upon any given subject, and while this was under LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ii consideration, nothing could distract him from his point ; when once, however, the matter was thor- oughly digested, it was consigned to a most tenacious memory, and remained there impressed upon it for ever. Smart had now acquired the vigorous constitution, and tall, powerful stature, for which his mother's family were remarkable, but his eyes were a con- stant source of anxiety to Mrs. Smart, who noticed, even in childhood, his peculiar method of reading with the book held close to one eye. Travers and Alexander were both consulted. From the latter little comfort was obtained, as he merely advised that he should adopt no profession requiring much sight, as the faculty would probably leave him alto- gether early in life. This sad prognostic was happily not verified until he had entered his fifty-second year. Organ-playing soon became his constant pursuit, and no scheme of life found favour with him which did not include this dear delight. Hearing that an organist was required for the parish church of Black- burn, in Lancashire, he applied for the post and obtained it, and thenceforward started alone, to make his own way in the world, at something less than twenty years of age. Lancashirewas much more of a journeyfrom London in those days, when there were no railways to whirl one off to Liverpool in four hours, and Henry Smart's 12 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. settling down among the hearty cotton-spinners seemed little short of banishment. Quaint descrip- tions of the people and their ways reached his family from time to time, but, as usual, he fitted himself to his surroundings and soon made many friends. His vicar. Dr. Whittaker, made him a frequent guest at his table, and quickly found in him something more than a clever organist. The after-dinner chats often turned on theological subjects, which Henry Smart eagerly discussed with one so able ; and all his life he retained a lively remembrance of those pleasant evenings, when he profited alike by his vicar's hospi- tality and learning. Pupils soon flocked to such a master, but he felt that he himself had much t'o learn. Late into the winter nights would he remain shut up in the parish church, mastering the difficulties of his in- strument, whilst the poor bellows-blower doubtless often wished him in bed ! Then he took a fancy to learning the violia under the guidance of a friend, but the self-inflicted tortures of the scales were too much for him, and in a fit of anguish he threw the unlucky fiddle on the ground and stamped it to atoms. His musical services were often enlisted by religious bodies of all denominations. For a mis- sionary meeting among the Nonconformists he wrote the beautiful hymn-tune now so well known as " Lancashire." He would also at times lend his aid LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 13 to the Eomanists for some high festival. On one of these occasions his extraordinary memory enabled him to conduct a Mass of Beethoven's when the score was unaccountably wanting. The fine voices and correct ear so frequently met with in Lancashire were a great source of pleasure to him. He trained his own choir to sing entirely from memory, having found that to them " a little knowledge was a dangerous thing," and that they were much more reliable when unencumbered by printed parts. At this period Smart studied Albrechtsberger and other theoretical writers with some diligence, but his com- positions were then mostly confined to Church pur- poses, always excepting some graceful duet waltzes dedicated to two young pupils, and the "Three Ariettes," for which the words were furnished by his favourite sister. This sister supplied the text of his songs for many years under the initials of " E. M. S." He liked her verses, because, without being fine poetry, they were pure, and had the lyrical quality which lent itself readily to musical expression. In 183s he produced his first work of importance. Dr. Whittaker requested him to write an anthem for the Tercentenary Commemoration of the Eeforma- tion, and himself selected the words. The per- formance took place on the 4th of October in the Parish Church of Blackburn, and produced a strik- 14 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ing effect, it being really a grand work, -which might now be heard to advantage, though it is all but unknown. This anthem consists of a tenor and soprano solo, a trio and a quartet, interspersed with recitatives and choruses; and although it is a strictly original composition, it gives evidence of Smart's admiration for Spohr, rather than of the devotional and graver spirit which marked his later Church music. The work was dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Howley), and pub- lished by subscription at Chappell's. Soon after the anthem made its appearance in London, the composer followed it, and began his career as a pianoforte teacher, having been appointed organist of St. Philip's, Eegent Street, of which church Mr. Eepton was then the incumbent; still much time remained on his hands, and he presently accepted the post of musical critic to the "Atlas," an admirably-managed and widely-circulated paper. The appointment was, very probably, a misfortune for him, for Henry Smart (always intolerant of empty pretension and flourishing incapacity) never spared the lash where it was due, and no doubt it often cut pretty severely. He went but little into general society, but renewed his old musical friendships, and always eagerly cultivated the acquaintance of any one from whom knowledge was to be gathered. His duties in connection with the "Atlas," of course. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 15 took him much both to concerts and theatres, and he now, for the first time, became practically familiar with the great symphonies of Beethoven, although he had long known their scores. Mr. Whiting was not slow in finding out the wide scope of Smart's knowledge, and having a great liking also for his terse, vigorous English, proposed that he should con- tribute a weekly scientific article to his paper. All these various avocations did not save him from the common fate of mortals, and he fell in love. This he did, like most other things, not moderately, or by halves, but earnestly, deeply, and seriously. Things did not look promising, for though he found favour with the lady of his choice, a young and unknown musician was hardly likely to win consent from a prudent father. The course of his true love ran decidedly crooked, and worry and excitement threw poor Henry into a bilious fever, which for some time threatened to shorten his career. His vigorous constitution, however, triumphed, and after some weeks the gaunt and wasted musician again occupied the seat at his organ, and resumed his ordinary avo- cations with all diligence, having now, as he said, something to work for. To this period must pro- bably be assigned the commencement of the opera of " Undine," on which much time and genius were expended. Smart was never a fa^t writer, and used to express the most unmitigated contempt for what 1 6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. he called " Tlw finish-an-opera-iTi-a-fortnigM " style of music. " Undine " occupied him for some years, and more than three acts of it were completed. Alas ! that probably no more remains of all this fine work than one charming recitative and romance for a soprano voice. But " Undine " was not the fair one who chiefly occupied the young musician's mind ; it was set upon a lady less romantically named, and as there seemed small chance that fate would clear away the obstacles to his happiness, Henry Smart determined to surmount them at a bound, and he was married on the 2d of July 1840. By a curious coincidence he received his wife's hand in the very church which for so many years resounded to his grand improvisations, and where for the last time, in 1879, he conducted the musical service. He was appointed organist of St. Luke's Church, Old Street, City, in March 1844, a position he re- tained for twenty-one years. After a short inter- regnum he was offered and accepted a similar office at St. Pancras, Euston Eoad. This he held for nearly fourteen years. The appointment at St. Luke's was obtained by competition, the judc^es being Messrs. Turle, Topliff, and Goss, and the play- ing was on the organ in Cripplegate Church. The other candidates had no idea that Smart would com- pete, and they were utterly dismayed when he put in an appearance and buckled on his armour for the LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 17 fight. Several of them at once took up their music and departed, saying, that it was useless to play against him; indeed, it proved to be a case of " Eclipse first, and the rest nowhere." As soon as he was fairly installed at St. Luke's, he was always busying himseu with improvements in the organ, many of which were not previously known in England. This was the case with the tremulant, and the sub and super-octave couplers ■ (swell to great), and other valuable additions, In 1862 the organ in St. Luke's was thoroughly cleaned, the choir-organ lifted up from behind the great, and its scale raised a note. The clarionet was carried down from tenor C to CC ; a new trumpet in the great, and a trombone of .sixteen feet were also added to the pedal-organ. All was done under his own careful personal supervision. When ready, Smart gave a performance on the renovated instrument, which greatly delighted the numerous organists and members of the congregation who were present. The programme included his favourite pedal fugue in A minor by Bach : — i S: The Pilgrim's March, as it is called, from Mendels- sohn's Italian Symphony; Eossini's Cujus Animam; and other pieces. 1 8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. It is impossible to follow Smart's career in chrono- logical order, the records he kept of himself and of his work being so meagre. Indeed, he never even numbered his compositions ; he had no Opws i, lo, or 100; they were written as the spirit moved him (carefully revised, be it remembered), and at once consigned to the charge of the publisher, after which, beyond correcting the proofs, he seemed to forget what he had done, and looked out for new fields and new pastures of labour. Bearing this in mind, the reader must pardon the somewhat desultory character of the sketch of the rest of his life and works, which I purpose dealing with under different heads and chapters. And, first of all in importance, come his imperishable musical productions, nearly all of which that are published are now justly regarded among the masterpieces of modern art. As may be sur- mised from his early training and associations, his first predilections were essentially dramatic, and a few remarks may here be made respecting his Operas. Only one opera out of three he had nearly completed was performed during his life-time, and that was en- titled " Berta, or the Gnome of Hartzberg," produced (unfortunately) at the end of a rather bad season at the Haymarket Theatre. The work (the libretto was written by Mr. E. Fitzball) was received with great LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 19 enthusiasm on its first performance, and the goodly- number of musicians present were especially de- lighted with the charming orchestration it contains, and the genuine ring of true musicianship pervading every number. Sims Eeeves played the part of Michael (the hero), and made a great effect with the ballad " In vain I would forget thee," which it was thought would become exceedingly popular. The original key was D flat, but it was only published in the more useful and available key of B flat, and this is the pretty theme : — Michael. i fc: =:1t e^ a tempo. ^=? In vain I would for- fs^^=i= i3^3* ~-^'-* -*-'Tr n?F=^ S Se SziV r=^ 33 thee, Or fly thy po-tent spell. =p^_^_tf_^_S_,=tf. 20 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Another pretty aria in this opera was : — To ait a - lone and work and sing A-mid thebal-iny floVra of Spring. i iE^^3: •F- 3: As if the attempted popular element was not suf- ficient (and it is the only case I know of where Smart attempted to cajole the public taste), there is the following in the somewhat Balfeian style of ballad : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Michael. J3 21 i p^ It ■X past her cot, At ear - ly dawn I stray'd. P ^^ BEE :i=i= ^ __F I I Of another song in " Berta/' allusion and quotation will be made in the chapter on Smart's miscella- neous songs ; sufficient, however, has here been given to shew that he was not deficient in the kind of melody which Balfe and Wallace had made so popular. Circumstances militated altogether against the success of "Berta." It had been announced three times before the first performance actually took place, and notwithstanding its reception when it 22 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. did appear, the success achieved could not he fol- lowed up by a performance on the following nights, " other arrangements " having been made long before, which could not be altered. There was a fine song sung by Weiss, " Oh, what a happy life," but somehow this and the other airs failed to become popular, and only a few of the most favourite songs were published by Messrs. Chappell & Co. instead of the whole opera. Smart was naturally disgusted with the result, and though he afterwards occasionally worked at his two other unfinished operas, " The Siege of Calais," and his first love, "Undine," he never completed them, and generally avoided the subject when asked for information as to their progress. After this comparative ill-success in operatic pro- ductions, it is not to be wondered at that Smart turned his attention, and employed his musical powers, in other and more profitable channels. As if to go from one extreme to the other in style and use, there is no class of composition he afterwards attempted in which he was more thoroughly suc- cessful than with his Chuech Music. Smart's chief contributions to Church Music were undertaken somewhat late in life, happily when his judgment was sound and his taste and manner fixed. When the gradually-spreading desire of elevating our LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 23 dnirch Services became too evident a sign of the times to te disregarded by any composer of power and prominence, Smart, abont the year 1 860, began, at the earnest request of those friends who knew his capacity for such work, to think more of and write more music for public worship than he had composed during his previous life. He used often to laugh and sneer at the " supreme twaddle " to which our fore- fathers gave authority, such as "Jackson in F," " Kent in C," and other simUar weak productions ; but he entertained great reverence for the real old masters of English ecclesiastical music, — Pur- ceU, Gibbons, Tallis, Croft, &c., and would, with the critical acumen which so marked all his utter- ances, point out, in a perfectly fair and skilful manner, where he thought them great and where little. It was delightful to be shut up with Smart in my own snug study, and having brought out from the bookshelves some old scores of Purcell, Boyce, and others, to begin playing to him one of the fine old anthems. On one occasion — at Christmas time — he asked me to play him Purcell's too little known anthem, " Behold ! I bring you glad tidings," and when I had finished, he said, " Now, isn't that fine ! — many curious harmonies and what we might call crudities, but how stately and grand ! Ah ! some of those early musicians had some- thing to say, and knew how to say it. We cannot write like TaUis, Gibbons, and Purcell now. There 24 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. is not the same spirit or surroundings. Everything is changed. Our education, our habits, our pleasures —all different; therefore I do not hold with those who say, ' Write in the style of the grand old masters of Church Music' We cannot do it, and if we try we should fail. But we can study the hest of their works, and learn a valuable lesson from them in the strength and purity of their harmonies, their simpli- city and earnestness of manner, and, above all, their true devotional feeling." It will be seen how truly he benefited from his own views on this important branch of the art, and how well he carried them into practice in that truly sublime emanation of his genius and knowledge, " The Morning and Evening Service, together with the Office for the Holy Com- munion, set to Music in the Key of F. Dedicated to his Friend, Sir John Goss."* Of this work it is, I think, agreed by the most eminent Church musi- cians, that there is nothing more complete or beau- tiful of its class in the whole range of music. As this Service in F stands out with majestic prominence, and is, or soon will be, universally known wherever such music is possible of per- formance, I must dwell for a short time upon some of its more prominent characteristics, and endeavour to point out a few of its beautiful themes. Nothing * Published by Novello, Ewer, & Co. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 25 can be more plain or straightforward, and at the same time more appropriate to the words of the grand, old Ambrosian hymn, than the opening passage of nine bars : — Yivace. PuLt, SOPKANO Alto. Tbnoe. Bass. ei=3 4 V 351 "TT- I I IS5I ^ rsi-: We praise Thee, O God, we ac - I I i 1^ Yivace. Full. ^^ I i I i-^ i^l I I I I I I knowledge Thee to be the Lord All the earth doth wor-ship ^ 4.4,1. -^ rrr ifc*: i~T-| =?=55= ^-1 26 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. $ J !- :p=©. ■g j cL. T^F^ 351 d-=i 35=^=^ I I Thee, the Fa - ther ev - er - last :T 325SI ing. For dignity, power, and a grand conception of the text, we must go on to that part of the Te Deum commencing — I p Dec. rrrr When Thou took- est Tip on Thee to do llv p Dec. 1 1 3- ^^^m z^ -:f=^ -1 — I — Ti— ^ Deo. i 1 ■■ im 9-ViSt!*- I 5' i -'SrSr ■^-4-^ ^,-^ti<^'^'^b^fei:-^,^^fl m :^=? ^-^ T =bg= -Mr ^--j- — ^- -^ ^« i-3- E3E king-dom o£ Heaven to all be - liev - I I I a^^=i- ^ 4- ers. QC1 I ;6=6i =^-1ff -iKr~i" ^" -^1 =^-f zazn i,i4¥J- =** The manner in wHcli this sublime unison passage is "built up," rising chord after chord with rich and flowing music, which seems as if it would never stop until it reached the gates of heaven itself, is simply magnificent. This is another portion of it, and how. imploringly touching and beautiful it is ! Deo, LIFE OF HENRY SMART. \ — I — U 29 — I r i-p ii 00 rfeasz; We tlierefore pray Thee help Thy ser vants, Deo. I i I „„_ 'ge raCT - a i Dec. ^-=^7— I- ^^P!^ te-5==:l7S2; -^^ i I S^e^-s^r =!-H-^< IlJ ^rt:.1-:5r-&^^-?t--"t^. W^ 5rfc:^= "•^^titj -£^-& :l2n= ist I I I I 3i5 P=S whom Thou hiist re - deem J— I— i f±^^^^^=Sf^^f \^- PCT 3^ S P i OO ^ps I I ed with Thy pre-cious blood. ijztd^aaz 3? :?: ^S isi ±si 2=2^i: !*zt , ' I rs^l t^^ I I ^ I I I airite :b=2= ^ ^^^1^^^*=^^^=^^=^ ^-«,- k? J2£±±=^fe: I The closing phrase of- this Te Beum is marked " Full/' ■without any change of time. I ventured to suggest to Smart on the first performance of, the work in Leeds, that it should be sung slower and quite piano, and as he was pleased with the effect (it was rare indeed that he would Accept a suggestion in reference 3° LIFE OF HENRY SMART. to his own music), we have ever since retained this mode of singing it, and I feel sure that once heard in this way, no one would desire to hear it in any other. This is the passage to which I allude : — Full. i , , ii ~CJ~ =2?: I O Lord, in Thee, in Thee, have I Full, i | trust - ed, -I — 4- ~g~ -s- k— o- ^=^ :s?: ) Full. | -S^- teszs: rilard. Wz W^ ~55~ 1^ BE let me ne-ver be con -^ ^ -J- found - ed. I -<^ I I 1- ritari. ^ ' I ., 1 ^f-i?*=?=l-.^=f5^ ^m A as I I j^tfc ^= 5 Q' m LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 31 It must not be inferred, from the manner in -which I have spoken of the Te Deum, that there are not other parts of this service in F deserving our ad- miration and attention. The Benedidus and Jubi- late are brimful of sterling musical coin, having a tone and ring unmistakably Smart's own. In the Benedidus he introduces for the first time a short fugue to the words "As it was in the beginning," and, as if pleased with it, he treats the same words at the end of the Jubilate fugally also. There are two Kyrie Bleisons — the first a delicious little bit of vocal part writing, the second in D minor — ia unison. "We must be contented with a quotation from No. i, which speaks for itself : — i3= =s:^= n up "T I Lord, have mer - cy I J J on us, and in- ~ I I -gj- :^- fei -J- cline A ^ our hearts to =-1= I I keep this law. ! -•' ri =5!^ 32 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. following this comes the grand Nicene Creed, which the composer liked better than any other part of the Service. It is undoubtedly very fine, and illustrates the sublime passages of the declaration of faith in our English Common Prayer with music, containing all the elements of beauty and truth. The opening unison phrase and the succeeding Handelian passage are worth quoting : — Vivace. :^ *^: -stst '^^^^^ I be-lieve in one God, 4=1: m S^^^fC ZtDt S I be-lieve in one God, ST-np: =i=t 3 I be-lievein one God, w Vivace. I be-lievein one God, Cft. Org. f Full Swell. Gt. Org. \ ' I 5$ # ■'4Jr^- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 33 a^^ii^ the Fa tier Al - migh - ty, f -F-P- r|=4: 1 \ EF the Pa BE . ther Al - migh - ty, l^E J J -•'-ts- the Fa - ther Al - migh ty. aia =p=t -J- S31i=t=^-1 =F=t --t=|t; ^E The following passage might have been written by Beethoven for his colossal Mass in D : — I B 3 m I :fA=S ci - lied SEE3E 3=£ i s -e — =-- mk -P-5q= i#l And was lli -P^^i^ i -P=il= ^^^ a^il 11 -1— ,-F ^^^ Ig^^^fe^ -•-F- 34 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. $ tf US un-der Pon - tius Pi - gB & •— • s i tt us un-der Pon - tius tl-^ -& •— • &- us un-der Pon - tius late. aiiiii IS5Z Cl «-«=t3g ^=trt :^=:j= Mi M- 1 M- Mi He H M- m% -m. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 3S The effect produced by the performance of this Nicene Creed, shortly after it was published in 1868, conducted by the composer, will not easily be for- gotten by those who heard it. The Leeds Madrigal and Motet Society was then in the zenith of its glory and efficiency, numbering 250 magnificent Yorkshire voices. They sang with an aplomb and spirit which so delighted Smart that, in his enthu- siasm at the end of the concert, he kissed his hands to the chorus, and said with agitation, " Magnificent ! With you, as Wellington with his army, I could go anywhere; do anything! God bless you! Good 36 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. night ! " This was quite sufficient for the warm- hearted Yorkshire people to respond at once with a thrilling, enthusiastic cheer. Poor Smart, he was quite overcome, and said to me, " Thanks, my dear friend, for all your attention, and for the opportunity I have had to conduct this splendid chorus, of which you ought to be very, very proud. We have no such voices in London, I assure you." In the Sursum Corda of this service, and especi- ally the Sanctus, Smart does not seem to have equalled the other parts, though there are some magnificent passages in the Gloria in Excelsis ; — for example — -W- hare JQZS^ bjSzbtoc :4=t Thou thafc ta - kest a - way the sins of the world, have -ff-- — — J"/, ESa: I t=1-:ts ks= ^!E^=^ES^.5S§E^^fe^^^ Thou that ta - kest a - way the Bins of the world, vr k^^=5gBEEfe^ai lo- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 37 t Si i 5 i s Btz=;s^3^ i 1 i mer - cy up - on :£:!•= ii & -p»- tir r BE iteai m/ |! m/Ee - --r^ ^;± — m/ Eo - ^ ^— bid— tl^^TT -^^i sszor =l=:1= ta - ke&t a - way the sins of the world, Be - ceive Bi ±5 — fe-to- J . J T ^g-^ ' f ta - keat a - way the sins of the world; 1 I I ^— — «^ ■ I 1 — ■ ^ -— — ' -^ 1 38 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The rest of the service consists of a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, either of which would make a reputation for any ordinary composer. The whole composition is written " full " (Smart did not care for solo singing in the Canticles), and so is another fine Service in G, composed for " The Prac- tical Choirmaster" in 1870, of which I was then the editor. It consists of " A Morning, Communion, and Evening Full Service, set to Music in the Key of G, for Four Voices, and. Organ Accompaniment."* This important contrihution to the service-music of the Church is not yet so popular as it must become when better known. It does not equal the Service in r for power, beauty, and difficulty — its elements are simplicity, melodious vocal part-writing, gene- rally plain, but telling organ harmonies — a thorough comprehension of and corresponding setting of the words ; and lastly, it presents no difiiculties in per- formance by any ordinary church choir, but is com- paratively quite easy both to sing and play. The first ten bars of the Te Beum afford a good example of the unpretentious strength and simplicity of the whole work : — * Published by Metzler & Co. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Vivace, Full. 39 m:=Sz -e — e — s- 'T^; -M=M- ■^. We praise Thee, O God; we ao - know-ledge Thee to J . — -Si s- We praise Thee, O God; we ao - Imow-ledge Thee to i Vivace. ifcrsz fcd=d: iiii ^i ails hl- HdL -M 1^ -©-^p- i zst izd=zz^i aii= be tlie Lord. I 1 ^, i~^~ All the earth doth wot - ship !=?: =s^ ^=^ $ the Lord. isz: All the earth doth wor - ship I -I 1- ^=^= m^ 1 1- 40 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. t '^. — "^ — r 's;!::;^ i i ■ . I I ^ Thee, the Pa ther e ver last ing. I I i J -sf- I g^^ («-•- :J_ Thee, the Fa - ther e ver last i3^ ^ -a © ©- I I "'^i^^H- , W m^^ *^ S5= s I cannot help giving two more beautiful examples from the Te Deum in proof of what I have said. First :— 1=*!=:]: 3Eg "^^W^^^W ailE^ We be - lieve that Thou shalt come : to ho our Judge. ^ gg ?^ ^^ ^^ We he - lieve that Thou shalt come: to be our Judge. ^s^Si^j^iSg^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 41 ^h zzii -a=: -6+ B* We thfere-fof^e pray Thee, help Thy ser-vanta : -whom Thou hast redeemed _-a--aia:^d:^ii!=l-i S^3s We there-fore pray Thee, help Thy ser-vants : ■whom Thou hast redeemed I— 1-4-+ HsS ^^-zt. biMi 3^^ ■oA -g- fc ■■=-©- -\m Second : FniL. dower. ^ 22=+-© &- a£ ret "Tl O Lord, in Thee, in Thee have I trust - ed I TT I I ailE 1 -^^—^—^ Oct cs iqzrg-j-a =1=1: 4= O Lord, in Thee, in Thee have I truet - ed : LIFE OF HENRY SMART. t ^* 3S m. let me ne Ter to con found ed g^T:^ 32: fl=s^ let me ^^^ti^ The Jvhilate, is vigorous and joyous throughout, as it should be ; but especial attention may be drawn to the first of two Kyrie, Uleisons, which is simply lovely in its unadorned melody and harmony : — -^^ i B :1=d=i I I I I I Lord, have mer - cy up ! Ill -¥ '■^ P — F~ I I I US, aud in • t " I ^m s uJ-i $ isiz ^- B^ hearts to . . . I I I keep this I I zsiz — 0- law =^= ^= LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 43 ■ In the Nicene Creed, Sanctus, Sursum Corda, and Gloria in Uxeelsis, there is some very fine ■writing without being in the least elaborate or difficult. In the Magnificat and N'unc Dimittis great variety is given by a change of rhythm, — the composer here writes in the ordinary common time (four crotchets), instead of four minims in a bar, as in the Te Deum. As an instance of his fertility of invention, one interesting quotation more may be cited, irom which the whole character of the Magnificat is deter- mined : — I Vivace non troppo. Full. J— J 1- ^ fiz 1 — ^ f=*T^F=r My soul doth mag - ni - fy the an b: M^ 1 I 3^¥ i My soul doth mag - ni - fy the -I — t- EB=±z —4 1 — a _ « 1 ■ — ( • • • • — F B • • a » fTT-rrrfrr-^ Ot. Org. f ^ I I I I 44 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. izSz 3t Lord : and my spi - rit hath re - joic - J- -<^ I I N J I J a? ed, my =t=t= I r I ■ - 1 ' I Lord: and my spi - rit hath re - joic - - ed, my i%=A=}=^^ zS: ir^' z=J= I I ==1= I =J=J= LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 45 It has teen often said that Smart's music would have become much more popular during his lifetime had it been less difficult. No such objection can be urged against this Service, no passage therein being more complex or elaborate than the extracts I have given; and I am persuaded, when this extremely useful as well as beautiful work of his is better known, it will almost exceed in popularity — because it appeals to a larger number — ^the famous Service inF. There are, however, two more Evening Services of a very different character — elaborate and grand — being more especially suitable for Festival occa- sions. The first in G was written for his friend, Henry Haycraft, about the year 1850, and was published by Addison & HoUier (an extinct firm), and since purchased by Novello & Co. The second has on the title page " Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, set to Music in the Key of B-flat for the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, 1870, by Henry Smart." Of the first some idea of its nature and quality may be gathered from the opening phrase : — i Teebles I & 2. Vivace. lES: -1=^ My Boul t=S ^ i Mt My zfe- !£?=::■ T- My soul Jtt ISZ Vivace Fed. JN-4- :.:=S- ^E the Lord, S T • . ^- ztt i ai^ _ni - fy the Lord, =5:^ --s?:: LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 47 istg my soul doth ^55=;Pq=f^ i 3E£f: :t=1= is* Boul doth mag the Lord. -(a-.P-^=P- + -H-li- Its ttz^^tii: soul my soul doth mag - ni f y the Lord. e^ i=d= =si 123!:; soul doth Throughout, the organ accompaniment is almost entirely independent of the voices, and might be scored for a hand, whilst the. constant use of contra- puntal forms, set forth in a variety of canonic imita- tion and ingenious devices, show what a learned musician Smart was, and that he had all the tecnique of his art at his fingers ends. The fugue on two subjects in the Gloria, to the words " As it was in the beginning," is extremely fine. 48 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Almost the same remarks may be applied to his Sons of the Clergy Service, which is less elaborate, but, to my mind, infinitely more happy and beautiful. Here is a Handelian phrase from the opening symphony : — Allegro. I Ped. in &vi. ^ -•-*- e^k J J. 1--' I 1 I =SW- .Li-Lkj:2l -s- -^^ t=-WZ Smart was a great student of both Handel and Purceli. There were few of their works he could not quote or talk about. It is not often that he intro- duces any of their peculiarities of style or manner, but when he does, it is accomplished with masterly skill and effect. The following might have been written by the immortal Henry Purceli himself : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 49 „ .I'DIL. , 1 1 1 1 1 J ' (/ 1 1? ' ; -J J «t J. " cs ^ 1 Glo 1 ry 1 1 1 1 be to the 1 ! Fa - - - 1 1 ther, 4 ^ 'Y u g ■ ' ' 1? ^^ r 1 L 1— 1 1 i fc=;J=J=± Tit I I ! ^ &^i=2^: i=i=P= -P— P- ^=J#^ 1— t- -1— I— t- and to the Ho - ly Ghost, J I I J ! _^ I ^E i and to the Son, ^■ There is a delicious piece of quiet diapason volun- tary at the beginning of the Nunc Dimittis, and the devotional feeling which casts so great a charm around the words — "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace," can only be appreciated by hearing this lovely setting of Simeon's Hymn pro- perly played and expressively sung. Thus much for Smart's Church Services. We will now proceed to consider his Anthems. So far as I can ascertain, he seems to have com- posed about twelve or fifteen, two out of these having so LIFE OF HENRY SMART. teen written "to order" for the Festivals of tlie London Church Choir Association, held at St. Paul's Cathedral in 1876 and i8;8. The majority of his anthems are short and fuU, but the two Festival ones occupy nearly half-an-hour each in performance, and are indeed equal to some small cantatas in their varied contents and length. The anthem is undoubtedly a most important and impressive accessory to the pious exercises of the Church, and it is remarkable with what earnest zeal Smart entered into his work in this special branch of his art, adding many new, imperishable treasures to the repertoire of Cathedral Music. Unlike Samuel Sebastian Wesley, and many other anthem writers, Smart was not nurtured, and his taste for church music fostered from childhood within the hallowed precificts of the Cathedral, or Chapels Eoyal. As already stated at the beginning of this book, he was mostly enamoured with the opera and the orchestra, as well as with his favourite instrument, the organ. There seems to be little or nothing known of his early love for or knowledge of vocal part music. Hence it is the more astonish- ing that he should have become one of the most successful composers of vocal concerted music England has ever produced. When Smart wrote his first anthem for the inauguration of the new or»an in the parish church at Blackburn, whilst the grand LIFE OF HENRY SMART: t,v old Cathedral anthems were stiU to be heard, and possessed only by the purchase of Boyce's Collec- tion, or some other most expensive publication — there was little modern music for use in public worship that was not either ugly, monotonous, puerile, dreary, and expressionless — in short, nearly the whole mass of it was a disgrace to art and an insult to religion. I much regret the non-possession of this first anthem (it has been long since out of print), which I once heard and carefully looked over — and so far as I can remember, it was rather dramatic and chromatic, and contained a fine bass solo, specially written, as I was told, for the delectation of a favourite member of his choir. It must have been many years after this when he composed his second anthem — his views on church music having under- gone a great change ; — and he ultimately settled down into that strength and purity of style for which he has since become famous. The full an- them for four voices, " God the King of glory " * (Collect for the Sunday after Ascension Day), affords a remarkable instance of the severe and yet beauti- ful ecclesiastical mode which Smart occasionally adopted, and he himself never surpassed. The opening starts with the simplest harmonic * No. io6, Novellc's Octavo Anthema. 52 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. progressions wliicli are afterwards developed into bursts and groups of chords and a fine bass, ulti- mately terminating in a splendid vocal fugue to the •words "Who liveth and reign eth with Thee and the Holy Ghost." The commencement of the anthem is in this solid fashion : — i Yivace. *fr S\-S\-d' E'z isL :l^ -e-J- o ' a O God the King ot glo ry i i i o i i \ -HeH-+& I ,^ \ 3 rJ -n 1 O God the King of glo ry -who haat ei - alt i 1W=Ftt=tq35 =55:: b; ayt5 ^-4.6,^: O God the King of glo ry who hafit ex- B=s3i ^tlstt: ::e2I2z: istzS: rssiss: O God, O God the King of glo-ry who hast ex- i YwazR. 3=H= :efcsi: :5z2i tgr a? "n i~t pi B#=tt:3=E=M::::si3;^- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. S3 i Thine on - ly Son Je BUS Ghiist i ^^ =Ei 1221 ■,&—&—zi— — "'—ey- ed Thine on - ly Son Je "23 sus Christ with great i •g^ — "~ -HQB- lEZI © — ©■ alt ed Thine on i^^::^?: ly Son Je - bus Chrisfc [ is~~g -| -u> es T H g iWt alt ed Thine on ly Son Je sus Christ i 1—1- I I I =tia= a^ The subject of the fugue is strong and healthy, and Smart displays his wonted power in working it out to the end, terminating with this fine " Amen " : — i Slower to the end. twt I i e? A- -g n- 54 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ^EEm =f: =5 A beautiful harvest anthem,* but in a much more attractive and modern style, is "The Lord hath done great things for us," in which occurs a treble solo of much grace and sweetness. It commences — Allegro moderato. -p * No. 163, Novello's Octavo Anthems. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. SS And this theme is repeated in full chorus, charm- ingly harmonised, followed by a spirited concluding coda to the words, " bringing his sheaves with him." The first large anthem to which I have alluded is entitled " Sing to the Lord." It was composed for the fourth Annual Pastoral of the London Church Choir Association, held at St. Paul's Cathedral, October 26, 1876, and is dedicated to the Eev. S. Flood Jones, M.A., Precentor of Westminster Abbey, who selected the words. It consists of five different movements-^ (i.) Chorus, Allegro—" Sing to the Lord." . (2.) Chorus, Andante con moto — For trebles, inter- spersed with a bass solo, " All creatures serve Thee." (3.) Chorus, Allegro moderato — " The Lord maketh a way in the Sea." (4.) Quartet, Poco piu cento—" Yet Thou art merci- ful." (5.) Chorus, Allegro moderato— " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel." S6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Each of these divisions are worthy of being part of an oratorio. Smart never displayed greater con- structive power, or more ingenious fancy, than in this truly magnificent composition. Every phrase — nay, every bar — is finished and rounded off with the care of a conscientious artist ; there is not a note we could wish to have removed, neither could any one suggest the smallest addition. That he had " old Bach," — " dear old Sebastian," as Smart used sometimes to call him, occasionally in his mind, I do not for a moment doubt. The inaugural bars of the first chorus would suggest such a thought to many musicians— d = 92. ^ ^ Sing, 315^ sing, -Q.— eSEsz Sing, i 3 sing, t-Si— T 1 — !-•■ sing to the Iiord LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 57 a new song . pi^ j -f -l-l- 4 .r-^=^ 2J _<; j _g! : . . to the Lord a new song . zfezSz 35=55—55: 1^=^ .... to the Lord a new song . BEE v>^'r ^^=i T-^- a new song . Shortly succeeds a vigorous fugue to the words " Let them give glory unto the Lord," from which he returns to the original subject in the following effective and masterly way : — 58 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ^-^ ii 122= <-' Lord, i and de - ■t- M Lord, and de • IZt 3EE Lord, — © — and — Q— de- -a- 55 f; and de • m $ His praise, and de * i= His lezi * Hia praise, and :J= Hia i ISt ffi±I praise, and — Q Si- de — Q- clare — e — His — »- ^ ^^ J- J- ^^, d U d U praise, and J- de ^l J- J- J- — SI O p - I 3C LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 59 % prolae, Sing, sing. i Bing, % piraise, Sing, Sing. BEE Sing, 8lng i "T The andante con moto to the words " All creatures serve Thee," though somewhat Mendelssohnian, and less individual perhaps than the other parts, is far too lovely not to be quoted here. The first fourteen bars will show how it is made — Andante con moto. ChobtiS. IBt & 2d Tbbbles. ^s All creatures servo 3rd & 4tli Tkebles. Pi H/-^ Allxreatures serve = 72. Andante con moto^ Er-^ — T r ^ , Sw. 8 (& 4^. without Heeda. Manual. ^ ,- — 6o LIFE OF HENRY SMART. S :p:=R= — t— t-f-l- Thee, aU creatures serve Thee. ii^^s^ rrT^-^- Gt. Org, with Full Swell coupled throughout. ^^. P^ I I -I I N j-J-j-^J-q-^- i-B P^=F^ -rr IJlX^iA^ I m n ^J- JM^ ^L ^ F ik^^ ^=^-gf- =^^^WFi p^q=r 66 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ^ After a chorus to the words " Lord, Thou hast been our Eefuge/' written in a broad and solid style, there is a lovely tenor solo and chorus, which might have been Mendelssohn's. It commences with the follow- ing modulation from thep revious movement into E- minor, preceding the solo : — Tenob. Voice. Andante con moto. m Sw. 8 ft. Harmonic flute and soft reed. r-<' 5=^ r-F- ManuaJ. Choir. Soft 8 ft. ^SE^i S^ii± r=-!^« ]5^5=t :^^3^:3: Pedal. Soft i6 ft, coupled to Choir. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 67 i 11 I |3r==- >- Choir. Scio Clarinet. es giEgii{ ( &=^ggg^ gg^i ■M^= a* i|3=il -F^F- -F-F ?-F-F- Heark - en un - to my voice, . :1=H=t: TJ3l= 1=3=1: -•-•-•-•-J 33 * <-• — k«-«- -i- --4- ■-*■ ■* -* l^Tt-T -rM-* ■:;:^i Bii: -tf-F— F — F-=TF— F — F — ? — F — F -F— F- i 4=:t EEE -d — *- O Lord, when I cry un - to Thee. :1=:l==t Sw. =t=t: it^ iS=§- Ozs: ^E ^ ^-Lt i= -F — F- -F — F- 68 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The whole of this movement is full of passionate, devotional feeling, especially towards the close, where the composer merges into E-major to the words, " For Thou hast been my succour ; leave me not, neither forsake me, God of my salvation." No one can play over this passage without perceiving that Smart must have felt deeply, at the time when he knew his health was failing, the full force of these beautiful words of the Psalmist. The short, joyous chorus which follows is remark- able for its simple, diatonic harmonies. It begins thus : — Allegro moderato. J — 104. f m -A-=^ ^ Sing, sing, O hear'ns, m ::!= letzM; -e-^ Sing, sing, O heaVus, m 3:^ -i=i— *- :::l- =1= Sing, sing, O heav'ns, em: -^-F- Sing, sing, O beav'ns, m \ Gt. Org. f-viSa. Swell coupled. .?5 am ^^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 69 i ^E 5^^ :r3= =[: i sing, O heav'ns, and "be joy-ful, O earth, =t: i sing, O heav'ns, and be joy - ful. rp=ii: t=t: 1 — r =i= t=t= sing, O heav'ns, and be joy - ful, O earth, ai ±=t :t i: t=i: sing, O heav'ns, and be joy - ful, O earth, i .4- J-^ N ' I -J- J V J 1 I 1 V A rp^=iz =t=F # The succeeding quartet contains some of Smart's happiest thoughts, as in the following few bars : — BE i B'z i=tsi Joy and i m :pzpija: - ri ^ ^ -«- :t=^ ■•-■-)— |-+F-«-l Thanisgivliig and the voice of melody. Joy and gladness shall be there-ln.Thanksgiving and the voice of melody, Choir. Choir. P^^=^^?^ 70 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The final chorus seems to be unusually hrief ; pro- bably he was pressed for time, and was unable to develop it with his usual power and care. The " Hallelujah " is treated f ugally, and the anthem is brought to a close with the following fine " Amen " for five voices : — I m - g— jd - "^=3a_:::p^ ^^ 1— le^f s' -J I 1 men, A men, A - men, A e^ #_-gij-.^ 4 ■y-y^. -^ t3 o~T o - M Compared with those already mentioned, the rest of the anthems are comparatively short, but probably much more fit for general use. Three, which he composed at the request of Mr. Curwen for his series of "Plaistow Part Music," may be specially recommended for their simplicity and utility. The best is undoubtedly " Unto Him that loved us ; " the other two, " What are these which are arrayed in white robes ? " and " Now unto Him that is able," are scarcely equal to Smart's high standard of writing, though they are, of course, graceful and effective. There is a lovely anthem, "Grant, we beseech Thee," published in Messrs. Boosey & Sons' coUec- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 71 tion of cheap Part Music, which ought to he more widely known. An anthem for Easter, " The Lord is my strength," and one for Christmas, "The Angel Gahriel was sent from God," written for the "Musical Times,'' are hoth good specimens of Smart's workmanship. The former is plain, but strong — the change at the passage, "I shall not die, but live," being particu- larly felicitous. The Christmas anthem breathes its composer's manner from beginning to end, and not being difficult, it ought to become popular. There is a charming little quartet, marked L'istesso tempo, a few bars of which I must quote : — Qttaktet. L'istesso tempo. i Sii =t i^ And the Lord God shall give to TTiTn the throne of His fa - ther ^^m lirt i And the Lord God shall give to Him the throne of His fa - ther -0—0- ^ S And the Lord God shall give W=K =P to Him the throne of HIb fa - ther =t=t: It It z^sztc And the Lord God shall give to Him the throne of His fa - ther senza Fed. 72 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i E3^E^E i Da - Tid, the Lord God shall giro to Him the :t= i Da - Tid, the Lord God ehaU give to Him the -h- -\ r vid, the Lord God shall give to Him the ^ Da :±=t: =t:^t Tid, the Lord God shall give to Him the m-. \ ai =5^: I s- V :?: -J- ^r^i: i=&- 1^— ^ i £^ 3:^ throne of his fa - ther Da - vid, shall give i :^t:^ ^- m. . . ^ ^^ throne of his fa ther Da - vid, shall ^ve to i s^: rM=iJz m throne of his fa - ther Da - Tid, , ,V— N-n shall give to 1=1: A- :fc=E: throne of his fa - ther I shall LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Ti The organ accompaniment is written exactly after Smart's own way of playing such music with voices, the occasional use of the pedals staccato, — not a con- tinuous employment of heavy, buzzing pedal pipes, as some organists play, affording a lesson in accom- panying to inexperienced organists which they would do well to lay to heart and not forget. The following last chords with which he concludes, and in which there is a remarkable instance of the major third falling to the flat seventh, shall be my last quotation from Smart's anthems : — Lento, 3:?: =t=t =5= i i -#-- His King - dom there shall be 4: i: i -#= His King - dom there shall he :t aE -#- His King dom tbeie shall he $^^ q=:=^ His King - dom there shall Lento. :J = 66. (I \ 1^ ^A. JW I I =55= fet Fed, in Sues. 74 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i i BE ead. m pSsiE ■4-7- ^^= 3t ZZ& ^ I -- If there is one species of composition more than another which helped to make Smart popular with the general public, it was his Paet Songs. I well remember the occasion when he resolved to try his hand at these delightful vocal utterances — the joy of many a thousand chorus singer — a charm to musicians everywhere. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 75 We had been to one of Professor HuUah's admir- able concerts in St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, -where the programme of five instrumental compositions, played under the experienced direction of that ex- cellent musician and worthy man, was relieved by the choir singing two part songs by one of the then most popular of modern English vocal composers — and the rendering of which so gratified the audience, that an encore was demanded and granted. " Well," said Smart, " you think they are fine, do you ? They are certainly pretty little compositions, but nothing more. I thinh I can do better." " Do," I replied, " do give us something better if you can, and you will see how eagerly such things will be looked after and performed." He took " a pinch '' out of his favourite old snuff- box, and said, " I'll write a set of six, one or two of which you shall hear in this very room, in about three months, when you come up to town again." " All right, that will be delightful," I replied. True to his word he wrote to say that two of the first set of six would be sung at St. Martin's Hall on the following day, and he hoped nothing would prevent me from coming up to hear them. I went, and heard the first performance of "Ave Maria," and " The Shepherd's Farewell," Part Songs which are now familiar to almost every choral society in the English-speaking countries, and which bear the 76 LIFE OF HENR Y SMART. unmistakable marks of his genius. They were re- ceived with hearty and genuine applause, and on my becoming rather enthusiastic for an encore, (which duly came), Smart said somewhat earnestly, " Don't be so demonstrative, they'll keep." And they have kept, and will keep as long as the art exists, com- parative trifles as they are as to length. What Mr. Grove has said in his delightful notice of Mendels- sohn,* referring to his part songs, applies with just and equal force to Smart : — " Many can still recol- lect the utterly new and strange feeling which was then awakened in their minds by the new spirit, the delicacy, the pure style, the delicious harmonies of these enchanting little compositions ! " The beautiful words for all his earlier part songs were written by his favourite sister, and signed " E. M. S. ; " subsequently he used lines by many of the older poets, as well as others by Longfellow, Passmore, Enoch, &c. One of the most charming of all is the " Cradle Song," and which has been so frequently sung with thrilling effect by Mr. Henry Leslie's celebrated choir. A quotation from this " Cradle Song " affords an instance of a device frequently used afterwards by the composer, that of commencing with two basses in the perfect concord of fifths : — * Parts 8 and 9, Dictionary of Music and Musicians. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 77 Larglietto ma non troppo. :ii: i -k-v e molto sostenuto. m &??=#: lE^EH W^^^^r i '^?=&-- Lul-la-by, lul - la-by, "' ejnotiojostenufo.. n-- g=i^l ^^1^ Lul e moUo sos tenut o. la-by, aHSE^zot E6.^fc f ! 1/ I Lul - la by, lul - la - by, cantabile. lul ±&: :^q=l= 5^ Lul la - by, . . thewiuds are I te !£ lul-la-by, lul-la-by, lullaby, lul-la-by, lul- la-by. fcfc 1- :l= izizdi =5^ a^ lul - la-by, .. . lal •J 4 \-\- la-by. lul la- B^ r'r=r- iprcp: t by. lul la - by. lul la - by, 78 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. lul la - by, On thy mo-ther's breast. In " The Curfew," " Stars of the Summer Night," and several others out of the no less a number than seventy-six part songs he produced, he frequently employs two basses (and sometimes two trebles) with telling effect. Though generally termed " Foiir- Part Songs," many passages of some of these gems are written in five, and sometimes in six parts. Several of his best part songs were written for the Plaistow Series, and have been duly published in both the old and Tonic sol-fa notations. Two of these possess especial beauty and power, "The Shepherd's Lament," and "JSTature's Praise." Of the former, Mr. J. Spencer Curwen, one of Smart's greatest admirers, has written on a copy I have in my possession, " When last I saw Mr. Smart he asked me to send some copies of this to Mr. Lam- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 79 beth,* and said, 'I call this the king of my part- songs.'" But we all have our favourites, as with Bach's Fugues, Beethoven's Sonatas, or Mendels- sohn's "Lieder." For a little pet of the sweetest and yet most passionate character, commend me to " My true love hath my heart," from the following two bars of which the ring of its true metal may be heard : — Lento espressivo. v f My true love hath my heart And I have his. piVFFy rpi^tfl^ js^jg^^ My true love hath my heart And I have his. -iM-3-q = My true love hath my heart And I have his. ja;^sfe^^ Mj true love hath my heart And I have his. The words, by Sir Thomas Sidney, are as quaint and pretty as the music is original and effective. Smart used to make some humorous remarks to his friends as to the source of this inspiration, declaring in the end that it was not altogether " scientific." In addition to a number of bright and happy secular part songs, he wrote also for Messrs. Metzler * Conductor of the famous GlasKOW Choir. 8o LIFE OF HENRY SMART. and Co. several beautiful ones for a serial entitled " Sunday Part Songs," most of -wliich are but too little known, but they breathe the true spirit of devotional expression, and are most valuable both for public and private use. His last compositions of this class were written for and published by Messrs. Augener & Co., of E"ewgate Street, the chief of which firm so highly appreciated Smart's genius and power of production that an arrangement was entered into to pay him a fixed sum per annum, for which he was to furnish a certain number of pieces, but they might be more or less according to circumstances and his inclina- tion. He was much gratified with this proceeding, and intended, had he lived, to show Messrs. Augener that their liberality to, and confidence in, him were not misplaced. The four specimens of his latest handicraft in part song writing, published not more than a year or two ago by this firm, afford a remarkable proof of his power and cheerfulness even to the last. They are entitled respectively, " The Gipsy's Song," " Sum- mer Offerings," " My love is like the Swallow," and " Autumn Song." A few bars from the" first of these will show of what substance they are made : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 8i iEi± Allegretto moderato. m = 120. _ -__ mf^ sempre stacc. :^g=JS- gf m Through for-est andwood-lands bo -hN- j^-5^3^1^ •^ i_*_ i Through for-est and wood-lands so ^ 3EEr -•— • — ,• — •- 'b=*±*: ^izt Through for-est and wood-lands so fflta; i^ W v— .»— • ■g=^= Through for-est and wood-lands so gree n, We wan - der. 82 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Altogether, Smart composed about one hundred part-songs, — a goodly quantity, indeed, when we consider the quality of each. The care and finish he gave to these "exquisite trifles " are such that I doubt if Bach himself could improve upon a single passage, or alter with advan- tage a solitary chord. Beauty, strength, and purity, together with a sweet and graceful melody for each of the voices, are characteristic of all Smart's part- songs. It is certain that, with such qualities, these harmonical gems will not only become increasingly popular, but will endure as long as the art itself. In writing part-songs, the composer has no adven- titious aid from any accompaniment, — he has to rely solely upon the human voice, on the organ made without hands. It was not so with another species of work in which Smart also greatly excelled. I allude to his Teios and Terzettos. In these, amounting to no less than forty, there is greater length, more freedom, and a display of fancy and ingenuity in the voice parts, as well as in the pianoforte accompaniments, with which but few musicians, especially vocalists and teachers of sing- ing, are unacquainted. At the time when Smart began to write these LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 83 trios, some for soprani, first and second, and a bass, others for treble voices only, there were few available pieces of the kind, either for concert or " chamber " use. Cimarosa's " My Lady, the Countess," from his sparkling opera, "II matri- monio Segreto," of which Schumann says in his Operatic Notebook — "Masterly throughout, in a technical sense, as to composition and instrumen- tation, but uninteresting, and finally tiresome." Cherubini's Canone, " Perfida Clori," a few by Bishop, and others, — these had been sung thread- bare — usque ad nauseam. One of the first, and in- deed the most popular of all, then as now, was " The Carnival," as happy, melodious, and efiective a composition as ever emanated from Smart's busy brain. The little bit of symphony alone at the commencement is worth quoting : — Allegretto u, la Barcarola. i ^ i ^^—^=:p=^. :3= E^S ■i=t=i=^z zip=i mf g— ft— » . »-. f-f . »-. -i-f— ^m^^m ^^T^ ^S 1 1 ^ _ 84 LIFJE OF HENRY SMART. ^^ ^rt ^^1 ^ dim: ei-i^-L .CSl^Ol -t^- w a^E^ fe£=t :t=^:f=:p=: Pf r "V The- success of this was so great that two others quickly followed, " Queen of the Night," and " The PUgrim's Eest," the excellent words of each having been written by Mr. W. H. Bellamy. Coming soon after these were the trios for female voices, chiefly written to supply the great demand which was created by the establishment of vocal classes in the Metropolis and elsewhere for ladies only. Smart's music proved of immense value to these and kindred institutions, and they soon be- came well known throughout the kingdom. They are nearly all of a cheerful character, redolent of sunshine, flowers, happiness, and contentment. One of the earliest was " Oh, hear ye not, maidens," the words by his sister E. M. S., a few bars of which will substantiate what I have said : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 85 I Isi Soprano^ W^±. 2nd Soprano. gin^^i i Contralto. '^ W-^=^ it \ Ti^-r 'rr mf Fed. r- ^SEEEZ hi}=±z m i '^JE il ESiE Oh I ^ i Oh I I I ^iii af3^-= s Oh I drd:=|= ^ E3^^ ^^ dim. 86 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i P=5= fe \^^ l^. ^ ^-tl2r hesx ye Dot maidens The lark's merry lay. Come, i :l!s:W :We: f^ - it-^s- itii hear ye not maidens The lark's merry lay. Come, ^^ ^^ &E^-- I^ hear ye not maidens The lark's merry lay, Come, Two of the most popular of his trios for female voices are. "The bird at sea" (the poetry by Mrs. Hemans), and "Eest thee on this mossy piUow" (the words by Bishop Heber). The first is all life and animation, the second is sweet and graceful. It is not often that we can meet with three ladies in one family whose voices are sufficiently varied to enable them to sing these trios with suitable taste and expression ; but I have in the course of my professional career had several instances of three sisters, whose singing of these vocal three -part jewels never failed to delight LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 87 those who had the pleasure of listening to them. I telieve the last trio he produced was one published so late as the autumn of 1878, when Smart was in hy no means good health, hut the composition of which affords another instance of his wonderful mental brightness and vitality. The first few bars of this trio for soprano, alto, and bass, "Eun up the Sail" (the words by Frederick Enoch, of whom more in another place), are stirring if not absolutely rollicking in its cheerfulness and merry tune : — \ AUegretto ma non Troppo. {M.M. J =76.) m=m^.^sm^^=^ n^kK WkV^-; ^^ l§ s ^fe WI l^pi^^l fei^ i LIFE OF HENRY SMART, mf — W » p:ri- -t==t Et=E -■ ' '— > — I' = — : — ^ Run up the sail, the wind is fair, The i mf -=1 ^ ZjtH — Euu up the sail, the -wind is fair. The asE mf =!=■ =i^= ^- ^E^ I £M= Eun up the sail, the wind is fair, The ::1^=:t=:^: ., \^ 1 ^ :5_ 1 1 .^_J 1_. ._ J j H^ ::1=^ aoE mj i ^ hlow ing free mi le IS blow ing free h'-^. blow jng ^^=i free LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 89 Vocal Duets. It has been said of the voluminous works of John Sebastian Bach that it would take a man a pretty- long lifetime even to transcribe all the compositions attributed to the great Leipsic Cantor, and the ques- tion naturally arises, — were they all of his own handicraft ? No such inquiry can be suggested of Smart's music, for no one living could write so well in his own style and manner, but amazement at the quan- tity he created is naturally great when we find heaps upon heaps of other music yet to be referred to, in however slight a manner. , He produced nearly fifty vocal duets, not one of which seem to have been carelessly or indifferently written! The mere transcription of these alone must have absorbed an immense amount of his time, but it is evident that he took great interest in the composition of vocal duets, and went to work with a hearty goodwill, the result being eminently satis- factory. Some of his earlier efforts in this direction were of too elaborate a character, conceived and written in the most refined taste, displaying noble thoughts, a poetic ideality, and a finish in detail rarely equalled, and never surpassed. But they were too difficult to 90 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. become popular. This was the case with a set of six duets for soprano and contralto, published some- where about 1850. One of these, "Absence," is so intense in its passionate beauty, its melody, and the disposition of its harmonies, that the heart must be cold indeed that could hear it well sung without being touched with a responsive and tender sympathetic chord. Subsequently Smart brought forth a goodly num- ber of very attractive duets for soprano and baritone, mezzo soprano and baritone, besides a quantity for two sopranos, or soprano and contralto. Among the former may be mentioned two at least, which have deservedly become extremely popular; I allude to " When the Wind Blows in from the Sea," and " We Two." The first he wrote for Signer and Madame Ferrari, and the second for his friends, Mr. William Hayter and his sister. The words of " We Two " are by J. P. Douglas, and the last verse ends — " But uncliangiiLg, calm, and glad as summer weather, Hand in hand, and side by side, we two wander on together. " It was a pretty little fancy of Smart's, which he used to dwell on with child-like pleasure, after hear- ing this duet sung, to draw attention to the conclud ing music and words — " Together, we Two." LIFE OF HENRY SMART. --5» --S. jRitard. 91 iii^iiii^j ^^^ We two wander on to ge Bita/rd. ESE EE We two wan-der on to ge ibB: t^ i^t t=t- i S^ n^^iSi^y coUa parte Fed. ^0^^ =sr- i a Tempo. FP= H I F — F — 1- -• — F- ther to - ge ther a Tempo. n We 3i3=EE =t ±kz -F — p — n^ ther to - ge ther We '& m r -- =FEE ^ty Pe(^. a?zb: il^nii^aFE ^^ !;b=f:t 92 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. w- two - - aHESEE )=r=£: =f.bz two -- I 1 =^f=r=E Ped. The duet, "When the Wind blows in from the Sea" (the poetry by Frederick Enoch), is rich in both melodic and harmonic power and variety. The inaugural phrases are fascinating, and this charm is maintained throughout. Observe the charming o o swing of the first six bars only : — Allegretto Moderato. Mezzo Soprano. ii I^P^i ^ p^Si Merry Is the dawn that is Jj- lEL ■-i ^ -^ ^- r LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 93 WT^I^ ■jtiotj^t!^ 1^ -Jtxl brea k - - - ing Brea king o'er, t be flsbermaii's barque Id such a wide domam of art as Smart travelled over, it is impossible to do him justice, or to omit noticing what others might deem to be rare points of interest in his music. And here I would faia dwell over these duets — cull a flower here, and snatch a characteristic beauty there, for they seem to me to unite all that is soulful and artistically rich; but I must be content with one or two more brief quotations, and then go on to his songs. The devotional tenderness he has infused into " Vocal Duets " (sacred), seven of which, out of an intended series of twelve, have been published, com- mands especial attention and interest. The poetry seems to have been selected with great care, from the writings of Bishop Heber, EHza Cook, Jessica Eankin, Dr. Bonar, W. S, Passmore, and William S. 0. Peabody. Por use at any time, especially on 94 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Sundays, these duets are so flowing, sweet, and graceful, and by no means difficult, as to make them particularly valuable. ' Two of them were especial favourites of Smart himself, " Faint not, fear not," and " Where the weary are at rest." What can be more simple or reverent than the following pas- sage : Andaidino. ' Soprano. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 95 P -^^ 393 It hear thee. From his heav'n - ly throne a - bove. ;s^ ( hear tbee. From his heav'n - 1; throne a - bove. I B?P^ 1= Bi And then the close of his other favourite, — who can hear it plainly and quietly sung without heaving the responsive sigh for him whom we all fervently hope is now indeed " at rest " ? Andante Moderato. ^^E^ ife: ^ shall fol _ - low the de - part - ed. We shall fol - low the de - part - ed. -3-^=^' T 96 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i 5=3EE ^ — •- " Where the wea - ry ^1 at rest !" d^3iE rt^tr- " Where the wea - ry are at rest 1" ^^ SS!= =1==^ 03: ^^i^^gffii ^-^— ^= _^ — ,- m jral. "Where the wea - ry -ral._ are at rest !" _a.g ral — __ EiE "Where the, wea - ry "I- tr- are at rest I" |^^iigl^=^i ^gE Lra?.. IS LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 97 Songs. It will be scarcely credited, but it is nevertheless a fact, that Smart's pubUshed songs, of every one of which I believe I possess a copy, amount to no less a number than one hundred and sixty-seven ! Schubert has been generally regarded, not only as one of the finest, but probably the most prolific song-writer of this century. And yet I very much doubt whether he produced many more songs than Smart. And it must be remembered that not one by the latter was of a trifling description, with a dum-dum ac- companiment, or carelessly written for the sake of gain or popularity. Every one of them bears the marks of thoughtful intelligence and artistic finish. This remarkable fact ought of itself to secure for our composer the homage of every true musician, as well as an undying fame. It must be confessed, however, with regret, that not very many of this immense number of lovely compositions are known to the general public. The reason is not difficult to find. Nearly every one of the songs is a study in itself, the melody, harmony, and accom- paniment, being treated in — if not always original — a scholarly manner. As a rule, the accompaniments are too difficult for the ordinary run of singers, and they are, moreover, almost invariably quite inde- pendent of the voice. This was especially the case 98 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. with Smart's earlier songs, the symphony to one of . ■which, from the opera of Berta, or. The Gnome of Hartzberg (published in 1855), will be sufficient to show : — Andante. :fe3t= ^^^- ^ss^ii i^± ::=d=T=f=:=t EJ =ii=l=p= -ti^t -fe-,_- «_(i_ tt 'S '^^^^^ -•--^* \ m zw=t.-=rz ^ T-El I ) ^ciS: is- ^ii ^ tSi^'^S^^^^^^^^gf^ rJ^S^^tSI: ^ -^ r -^ -^— F ii -ft- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 99 There is nothing in this at all difficult to the musician; but to amateurs (the chief buyers and users of songs), those who at that time cared for little but such childish ditties as "Jeanette and Jeanotte," it does present such intrication as cannot so easily be unravelled. The publishers warned Smart more than once of this obstacle to his songs becoming popular and familiar to the multitude; and although in one or two instances he made his symphonies easy enough, he was sure to launch out into some bars of his own lofty ideal before he had gone far into his work. It will be seen how exactly this was the case in a very pretty song, entitled " Gentle Zephyr " — Vivaxe, AUegretto. m 1 ^LS^JE ^■^ lOO LIFE OF HENRY SMART. This was well enough, and quite grace and simplicity. But after a came to the following passage, at moral certainty that nineteen out stumble : — Mozartean in its while the singer which it was a of twenty would Biat. t ::!= trea • sures dost thou ^=t^=t^ =£* =t=t iti — »- brin^? 1=:t LIFE OF HENRY SMART. lOI There is another remarkable instance with a song of exquisite beauty to the musician, "Come back to me, Love," published in 1859, in which the symphonies and accompaniments are flowing and effective • — =3^ 3 • -m- Fed. Teneramente. ^m^^^m i^ 1.— ,, l^^q-,-4 6il«= ^^m y^^ ^] 102 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. About 1839 Smart composed a song for Miss Dolby, then in her prime of voice and popularity as one of England's greatest vocalists, the words of which were written by George Macfarren. It is entitled "Estelle," and was sung at the Third Sub- scription Concert in the Hanover Square Eooms and elsewhere in London, and was unanimously pronounced by the critics and the dilettante, to be one of the grandest songs ever written by an Englishman. From its length and varied character it should have been called a " scena," being full of dramatic power and varied movements. It was about this time, when he had made a decided hit, and demonstrated to all who had ears to hear,hearts to feel, and minds to comprehend, what great powers of production he possessed, that many of his friends urged him to write some songs in a more popular and easy style, so that he might obtain higher prices from the publishers, and have the satisfaction of receiving increased golden tributes to his genius. He was wayward, and chafed a little at first, remarking, " My songs are not more difficult than Mendelssohn's, and none of you find fault with him ; then why should I lower myself to the position of a publisher's hack ? " But the suggestion nevertheless brought forth the right sort of fruit ; he began, and contiQued up to a short time of his death, to produce a continuous stream of lovely songs — ^less difficult. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 103 more attractive to the general puMic, full of bright and taking melody, and always graceful and refined. A few of these may now be indicated and con- sidered. There can be no question, I think, that the most popular of his favourite songs (published in 1862), is "The Lady of the Lea," which was first made known by Madame Sainton Dolby, who sang it throughout one of her extensive tours. The poetry, by W. H. Bellamy, embodies a very pretty little touching story of the aristocratic, beautiful young damsel who, being proud of "her gold and land," declines all offers of wedlock, saying laughingly, "Sirs, we would be free," and shall continue to remain "The Lady of the Lea." At last she fell in love with a young knight, but putting his suit aside, he left her in her pride, and broken-hearted, droop'd and died, the Lady of the Lea ! Smart has treated this little story — told in three verses — in a highly characteristic way, and his music, varied throughout to suit the purport of the words, affords a fine example of his concentrative power, and his keen perception of how best to put the right notes in the right place. An^/intiiM. -n v 'd> .- kP ^ XT y _,. . .^3 .4- Ob t the La - dy of the Lea, Fair, and youn^, and 104 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. $ W ^^M ^ ^ 5^- 2?=^ s 'cf- - -y- • - - w gaywasshe, Beau-ti-fulex-ceed-ing-ly, The La-dy of the Lea. It will be seen at once that the tune is simple and striking — and has in it aU the elements of popu- larity — though it must be remembered, that com- paratively easy as it is, the master-hand, especially in the last verse, is evident from the first note to the last. This song was subsequently arranged by the composer, at the request of the publishers, as a quartet, in which form it is also very acceptable and effective. Not much less popular is the fascinating song, " The Birds were telling one another," in which there is one flowing stream of melody and harmonious accompaniment of the freshest and most delicious character : — AUegro modercUo. ^ ^^^ ig3E zfut tjzt^: S35 S:3: Thebirdsweretellmgonea-no-ther;"TheMayis here, the May is here 1 " It was written for a soprano voice, but there is another simplified edition in G, which will be found the most useful for amateurs. Tor a lovely contralto song — ^modest in its pre- tensions, and yet masetrly, commend me to " By the Blue Sea " : — ^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Andante. 105 ^=t D= ^S^H^ *^ isi d- j . J~ a — ^ — \- Jtt -*-*-^ -*^-* 1 Btoodwherethe&ummertideflow-mgiHoiuB^^dthe^arkgaily bore. The song " Good-bye," written by F. E. Weatherly, is among Smart's happiest inspirations. There is an originality throughout — a perfectly intelligible, though at times peculiar rhythm, which at once arrests attention. It may be observed that there is no " verse and verse alike " (as in a hymn tune) in the songs. Wherever the words seemed to require a different expression, they re- ceived it — no matter what extra time and trouble were necessary. We have here a beautiful theme, which is never unremembered, and yet each verse, especially the commencement of the last, presents a totally different treatment. The beginning of the song runs thus : — Andante con moto moderato, ± io6 i n-. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. rit. a Tempo. 35a ±=±^. :/^V=i«t Good-bye 1 Good-bye! Good-bye! This is the i gg?i; iP^^ w Fed. trS- "if" *T rit. a Tempo i ^p= i^ — ,_ (i laat, love ! The last, sweet, sad Good - bye- .._i — "^ \=^ rpizi ^'-ril zfe ^§ 3E And then what a sweet and tender conclusion is this for the last " Good-bye " :— sempre rit. ^ I fe^ ^. lunga ii; SziEi -^ sempre rit. Good - bye ! Good - bye.- *±E2E i I i: *^ 33Z ^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. IC7 i m ,fc6= _p__-_ :t: :r -• — f — •— H?=g ^^ t S In looking through all these songs, it is quite astonishing to find how little the composer repeats himself. It may not be exactly true, but so far as a tolerably careful examination goes, there does not appear to be any two phrases, or even two bars, exactly alike, not even at the commencement or the close ! "The Fairy's Whisper," the words of which are by J. P. DouglaSj the music of which was composed for and sung by Madame Laura Baxter, is another favourite gem which cannot be too well known. The opening phrase is clear and expressive : — Andante non Troppo. I E£ s ^ 4- i a tempo W I In glen iS^S far off and -1— l=rl:=:ji ^ io8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. $ ±z ^ £^ 4; I 1 lonely Where the rose and vio let wave, 1^1 -^-:i- m B ■*- i^iJ-V ■*-=tr ae: i l=S s ^ For unadorned form, the song, "Tell me, sweet zephyr " affords ample proof : — Quasi Allegretto. $ -h ^ Tell me sweet ze pher WTiat J^sempre moUo sostenuto. aFis love lay ^ =^— ^^ thine i:~j: j? -^^--r— r LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 109 And then notice with what unpretentious ingenuity he varies the harmony for the commencement of the second verse in order to suit the different sentiment of the words : — ^-. - ver for years %= tl_ i^^^i^^^ ^z One of Smart's finest song inspirations is "The Ahhess," the words by W. H. Bellamy. The beautiful poetry seems to have incited the composer to pro- duce an exceptionally tender and expressive work. The reader will not be troubled if I here transcribe the words, in order to show how well the musician caught up the spirit and feeling of the poet. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " Through the chapel -window Streams the slowly setting sun, And the Ahhess at the organ. She is sitting there alone. Carelessly her fingers Wander o'er the keys. Dreamily she wakens Their hidden harmonies. ' The 'Vesper Hymn,' the 'Sanctus,' ' Nunc Dimittis 'now she plays. But her thoughts ! Ah ! they are straying To her childhood's early days ! ' The strain becomes more tender As those memories thickly come, Till at last it echoes fondly, ' Home ! sweet Home ! ' ' Can, oh ! can you hlame her As in thought that home she sees. If all else fade before her, TLnd a tear falls on the keys ? Ah no ! her fingers falter, And her cheek with tears is wet ! Oh ! the heart may alter. But it never can forget ! " Many a composer would have rejected these words as being a little irregular and unrhythmical. Not so Smart, who has given us such lovely music to them as every one can feel and appreciate. The opening symphony might be one of his own charming organ voluntaries : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Andante con moto. Ill rtzE I I I '^ ^ p ^^_- /-4_- - ^^^^^ rj^ . =i- ;:b^q=? -^ :^=t I =trt?: -?^^^ 1 ^ xrrnj^ -±\ I J_6-M I I k:4— g 1 ^: , I. -^ I ^■ The manner in which the familiar melody, " Home ! sweet Home!" is introduced at the close of the second verse, without fuss or indication, is indeed most touching : — 112 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. I i^Si=^=^E !SS 'Till at last it e - choes, fond - ly, " Home! sweet ^^=^-- ^m. ^iig^fedil w^$. . r r 1 -nr:p: ^s ^^^ f- T ^"T-j i -ffr -F — 4 Home I" It e - choes marcato. :t=t ,-l-' ^■3 liTZii is?: I -^-r r^ ai3EE ^fe 5-:bj----^- =6- *i^it?td;* i ^^ i ritard. -JS^z ' Home ! sweet Home !" i=-=fc^ -( — F— F— ^- VJ 1 1 :r S LIFE OF HENRY SMART. "3 Two of Smart's last songs, written for his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. C. M'Oaul, the former of whom is the author of the poetry, have a pianoforte and violin obbligato. No. i, "The Maiden's Prayer," opens with the following short and graceful sym- phony for the two instruments : — Andante maderato. M.M.J = 60. P r r jr c l^M. fH^Pi i-;-i-; lA w m 7^ .±=j^ ^ S Fed. "?- ^ 114 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. There is a delicious passage to the -words, " Still in sleep she's softly praying To the throne of grace ahove," and then follows this : — pico cres, col voce. VlQLIM. Voice. ■ Fa-ther, Heav'nly Fa-th er, " say-ing, " Kee p and guard Piano. HI Fed. No. 2, " Love and Hope," is especially observable for its responsive dulcet phrases for the voice and violin, which reply to and cheer each other like the evening song of the linnet and the thrush : — ^ ^^^^S fc^ M"ow "we are sail in^^ on the sum-mer mJ^^^M^s^. pfT±^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 115 Throughout the composer shows his intimate know- ledge of the violin — the resources and effects to be obtained from this instrument in conjunction with the voice. In the second verse there is a beautiful passage, commencing thus : — Ii6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. After a return to the original subject, he closes with the following mellifluous symphony : — :p:=^=j=p- T J- poco ritard. j -I r 1 = ^^=^ 5^ P P- -^-F^-^ ^ 1 poco ritard. rri^Ti 5— g-F-4 r r Ped. One would fain dwell on numbers of Smart's other songs, but we must be content with the mention of a few only of those which are among the most popular, or deserve to be. " Sandalphon," the poetry by Longfellow, might more properly be termed a "scena" than a song, LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 117 SO varied and dramatic is it in its form and ex- pression. It is suitable for a baritone or mezzo soprano, and would be worthy a place in the pro- grammes of any of the miscellaneous concerts of a musical festival. It is dedicated to his friend Joseph Bennett. Three other songs for baritone are deserving of special attention : — " Sir Koland," a pretty story told in sweet poetry by Jessica Eankin ; " The Moss- trooper's Eide," a spirit-stirring song, somewhat of "The Stirrup-Cup" class; and a most graceful inspiration, " Wake, Mary, Wake." For a tenor voice, two of the most beautiful are, " I dream of thee at morn " (poetry by Barry Corn- wall), and "Go, whispering breeze" (words by Charles J. Eowe). In addition to those soprano songs from which I have already quoted, may be mentioned the follow- ing, which are all gems of the purest water : — " The Spinning Wheel;" "The Eeindeer Bells;" "Eose of May;'' "Dawn, gentle Flower," and "Hark! the bells are ringing," published in two keys, A-flat and F-major. For a contralto voice there are no more beautiful songs written than "Thinking of thee," "Thy spirit is near," and ''Bird of my dwelling." The last of the miscellaneous songs to be alluded to, one of the Mendelssohnian type, is "Dropping ii8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. down the troubled river," the words of which were written by the Eev. Horatius Bonar, D.D., whose lines (which shall be given) made a great impression on Smart, who seemed, within the last two or three years of his life, to take a deep and peculiar interest in hearing the song sung in private : — " Dropping down the trouUed rivei-, To the tranquil shore ; Dropping down the misty river — Time's willow-shaded river, — To the spring-embosomed shore ; Where the sweet light shineth ever, And the sun goes down no more, O wondrous, wondrous shore ! " Dropping down the winding river. To the wide and welcome sea, Dropping down the narrow river — Man's weary, wayward river, — To the blue and ample sea. Where no tempest wrecketh ever. Where the sky is fair and free, O joyous, joyous sea ! " Dropping down the rapid river. To the dear and deathless land : Dropping down the well-known river — Life's swoll'n and rushing river. To the resunection land. Where the living live for ever, And the dead have joined the hand, O fair and blessed land ! The melody (which lies within the compass of an LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 119 octave) and has a low, flowing, delicious accompani- ment, begins — ^^.tS Con moto moderato. l=B3= -t -»- r DroppingdownthetroulDledriT- er to the tranquil, tran- guil shore. The ending is as quiet and peaceful as the happy, painless close of a well-spent life : — ritard,' Fed. Fed. an* ^J- ii: J^ , . jSf-ppp ^T :t- 1^^ I20 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Perhaps the most important work Smart ever produced, and the one which has secured for hitn undying fame and reputation, is the dramatic cantata. The Beide of Dunkereoit. The libretto was furnished him by Mr. Frederick Enoch, a gentleman holding a Government appoint- ment in London, who first made Smart's acquaint- ance by offering him some words of a few songs. The composer at once saw that he had got hold of a poet who would prove of interest and advantage to him, and he therefore cultivated his acquaintance, and the two worked cordially together — poet and musician — up to within a short time of the death of the latter. The verses throughout the " Bride of Dunkerron " are not only musical in themselves, and therefore adapted for musical setting, but characterised by genuine poetic fancy ; and the story, while as simple and intelligible as such stories should always be, is deficient neither in romantic incident nor impas- sioned feeling. Smart had made up his mind, before he had penned a note, that so far as his powers would go, they should be fuUy employed to make the work worthy of himself, and of the great Musical Festival for which it was written. Unfortunately his eyes never very strong and healthy — had become slightly worse at the very time he began " The Bride," and LIFE OF HENR Y SMAR T. 121 there can be no doubt that the incessant labour it involved — labour which he carried but too often far into the night, using for his light the London gas, which was not then of the most lustrous or pure character — considerably affected both his sight and his general health, leaving him, after the pro- duction of the work at Birmingham, in a very weak state. We must remember that this cantata is not one of ordinary size and character ; it is great in its pro- portions, as well as sublime in its style. Of the twenty-one " numbers " of which it consists, includ- ing an instrumental introduction, and intermezzo solos, songs, duets, and trios for soprano, tenor, and bass voices, as well as several picturesque and elaborately wrought out choruses, there is not one piece — not a bar indeed — which would have been deemed unworthy the pen of Mendelssohn, whose " First Walpurgis Night " it most resembles in its dramatic power, magnificent orchestration, and charm of melody, both vocal and instrumental. As no description of my own could in any way equal that written by a most accomplished musical critic (Mr. J. W. Davison), and which appeared in the Times of Sept. 10, 1 864, three days after the work was first performed, I am quite sure' that its reproduc- tion in these pages will be a source of much interest and pleasure to aU who know Smart's chef d'ouvre, 122 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. as well as to those who will now, I trust, desire to make its further acquaintance : — A more honest and frank success than that ohtained hy Mr. Henry Smart's new cantata is scarcely on recordi The audience seemed to incHne to it from the heginniug, and as the performance went on, their interest visihly increased. In truth, " The Bride of Dunkerron " is of its kind a masterpiece. Its composer — though long possessed of a sort of mysterious reputation for which only those, as it were, within the precincts of the temple coidd account, and though esteemed hy amateurs as the author of many highly-finished and graceful songs, part-songs, for chorus, of equal merit, and admirable pieces for the organ, an instrument in the art of playing on which he is a consum- mate master — has never tdl now been allowed a favour- able opportunity of publicly vindicating his claim to dis- tinction as one of the most gifted and accomplished of living musicians. To write a work expressly for the Birmingham Festival was an honour of which any com- poser might feel proud, and Mr. Smart was not a very likely man to throw away such a brilliant chance for want of energy. Nor has he done so. On the contrary, he has produced a cantata not only a credit to himself, but to the great music-meeting at which it was brought forward The Book (in verse throughout) is from the pen of Mr. Frederick Enoch, who entitles it " a lyrical tradition." Its argument can hardly be stated more briefly or more clearly than in his own words : — " The Lord of Dunkerron, enamoured of a sea-maiden, seeks her for his bride ; she has not the power to quit her element, and he follows her to her spirit-home. The sea- maiden leaves him that she may obtain the sea-king's LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 123 sanction to the union, but he, -witli the storm-spirits, has already doomed her to death, for loving one of mortal birth, and she reappears to her lover only to announce her fate, he, for his temerity, is driven from the spirit-land, and cast back by the tempest to the shores of the upper world. The sea-spirits lament the loss of the maiden — the serfs the death of their master." This tradition forms the subject of a baUad by Crofton Croker, the plot of which Mr. Enoch has pretty closely followed until it approaches the catastrophe, from which Ae entirely deviates. The scene is the ruined castle of Dunkerron, on the Kerry coast. The story can hardly fail to recommend itself as one of the family of " Lorleis," " Melusines," " Undines " (or " Oudines "), &c., which Mendelssohn, Gade, Benedict, and others have success- fully treated. Ireland, however, possesses just as explor- able a mine of legendary lore as Germany or any other country ; and Mr. Henry Smart, in his music, has shown himself quite able to compete with the masters named above, on the same ground — although he be what Thomas Moore would have called a "Menus Anglicus." On the whole, "The Bride of Dunkerron" is the best dramatic cantata that has come from an English pen. The music is as picturesque and, full of character as it is ingenious. The orchestra plays a very prominent part throughout, but it is handled so skilfully that, instead of being found de trap, it is always welcome as an engaging and indis- pensable agent. That Mr. Henry Smart has a strong sympathy for Mendelssohn, is evident; but he evinces also an occasional leaning towards Spohr, and out of the two elements he has formed a style which may justly be called his own, and which is at once elegant, polished, aristocratic, and intellectual. The music of " The Bride 124 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. of Dunkerron" is, above all, remarkatle for the careful and exquisite finisli bestowed upon every part of it. There is not a negligent bar from one end to the other. Seldom, indeed, has a composition of the same length been stuffed so full of artistic beauties. The orches- tration absolutely glows with brightness and richness of tint. Not seldom we are tempted to compare it with the effulgent colouring of Turner's Italian landscapes. Moreover, Mr. Smart's genius for description is eminent. His view of supernatural harmony is undoubtedly that of Mendelssohn — not in " A Midsummer's Night's Dream," or " Melusine," but in " The First Walpurgis Night," and " Lorlei ; " nevertheless, although in " The Bride of Dunkerron " we meet with a chorus of the storm-spirits, ("Down through the deep"), occurring immediately after the sea-maid has lured away the Lord of Dunkerron to her home, which cannot fail to make the hearer revert to that wonderful chorus in Walpurgis Night, where the Druids attempt, by strange sights and sounds, to scare the Eoman soldiers from the sacred hill, not a phrase, not an idea, belonging to Mendelssohn has been appropriated by his survivor. That Mr. Smart was thinking of Men- delssohn while writing this largely planned, characteristi- cally developed, and truly magnificent piece, is more than probable ; but he has constructed it out of materials ex- clusively his own. It is long since so striking an exhibi. tion of descriptive power in secular music has appeared. It startles at the outset, as, through an extraordinarily bold progression of harmony, it modulates from the key of A-flat major, at the end of the beautiful and expressive love duet ("Hark! those spirit-voices"), between Dun- kerron and the sea-nymph, to A-minor, the key in which the chorus is principally set, and is carried on from end LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 125 to end with an interest that never flags for an instant. There are other instances of similar power in the cantata, as, for example, the chorus when the storm-spirits exhort the storm-king to doom the sea-nymph to death for having yielded to the solicitations of a mortal, which, though less elaborately developed, is not less in keeping, not less full of character, and not less remarkable for striking progres- sions and masterly orchestral treatment than the other. The choral element is just as effectively employed else- where in another way. The introduction sets out with an admirably-written scene. The retainers of Dun- kerron seeking for their master, and arrested in their search by the approach of sea-nymphs, return in fear and trembling home. This offers a chance of contrast which has by no means been lost by Mr. Smart, who has given to the lord-loving serfs a vigorous and spirited chorus (" Ere the wine cup is dry "), and "to the sea-maidens one of the freshest and loveliest melodies conceivable. These two divisions are alternated and intermingled with ad- mirable judgment, the orchestral accompaniments, by masterly touches, indicating the presence of the spirits, and clearly defining their part of the action. And further on there occurs a deliciously melodious chorus, " Hail to thee, child of the earth," for the same gentle spirits, whose friendly welcome to the mortal wooer of their companion appears in soothing contrast with the wrathful denuncia- tions of those uglier and sterner genii of the storm. Much more might be written of the choruses in " The Bride of Dunkerron," but enough has been adduced, to show with what good results Mr. Smart has used what, at the hands of a practised musician, is so important an agent of efiect in the conduct and colouring of a lyrical poetic drama. The solos and duets, modelled after a no less congenial 126 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. fashion, are in every respect as tappy. The song of Dunkerron, on the look-out for the sea-maiden, of whose charms he is enamoured (" The full moon is beaming "), is a perfect gem of melody and instrumentation. There is moonlight about it. To the subsequent duet between the lovers (" Hark ! those spirit voices "), brief allusion has been made. It is simply beautiful ; what more need be said ? ' The song of the storm-king, " Oh, the earth is fair," comparing the attractions of the earth with those of the sea, and impartially giving his preference to the latter, is marked alike by energy and sharply-defined character ; the orchestral accompaniment recalling an occasional touch of Handel's graphic portrayal of Polyphemus' raging desire for Galatea — the suggestion, however, being merely tran- sient. The cavatina of the sea-maiden, sea-nymph, or mermaid (fes trois se disent) — " Our home shall be on this bright isle,'' built upon a graceful, catching melody — is at the same time strong and brilliant, the efifect being artfully enhanced by the chorus, with which it is fre- quently alternated and combined. To this succeeds an- other duet for the lovers (" Here may we dwell "), replete with genuine sentiment, crowded with expressive melody, and conducted from beginning to end with singular felicity, a capo d'opera, in the true dramatic vein. The climax to this is the separation of Dunkerron from his beloved, and a repetition of the angry denunciations of the storm-spirit, to the same impressive music as before. The finale is preceded by a trio (for the sea-maid, Dun- kerron, and the sea-king), with which the storm-spirits and sea-nymphs mix in chorus. This trio and the sequel to which it leads — the fate of Dunkerron, the lamentation of his retainers, and the weird song of the sea-nymphs, to LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 127 the lovely strain of melody -which, has been already heard more than once, — is quite as dramatic as the duet, and as picturesque and beautiful. Indeed, one of the marked characteristics of this cantata is its eminently dramatic character, which, as it is well known that the composer has an opera completed in his portfolio, the libretto by Mr. Planch^ encourages a hope that Mr. Smart (whose Bertha was anything but well treated fifteen years ago at the Haymarket) will be speedily afforded another and a more favourable opportunity. If " The Siege of Calais " he only as good as " The Bride of Dunkerron,'' there would be smaU chance of its failure. The performance of the cantata was not all that could have been wished, although the representatives of the chief personages — Madame Eudersdorff (the sea-maiden), Mr "Weiss (the sea-king), and Mr. Cummings (Dun- kerron), took the utmost pains : and so far as they were concerned, the composer had full cause to be satisfied. The audience, however, were interested from first to last ; insisted on a repetition of the fresh, tuneful, and seduc- tive chorus of sea-maidens (" Hail to thee, Child of the Earth "), and called for Mr. Smart after he had quitted the orchestra, amid unanimous plaudits, to receive new and enthusiastic tokens of their satisfaction. All the critics whose opinions were worth having, shared equally with the Times the high estimate formed of the work, even after but once hearing. The critic of the Morning Post (at that time Mr. Howard Glover, the composer) was especially enthu- siastic, adding at the end of a long notice the follow- ing:— 128 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. There are many particularly striking thiags in "The Bride of Dunkerron," and we find that Mr. Henry Smart Las risen with his colleague ; that is, where Mr. Enoch is best, Mr. Smart is best. This is perfectly natural. How could it be different in the case of an intellectual composer who sees something more in music than successions, or combinations of tones addressed merely to the ear, &c., &c. We leave Mr. Smart's magnificent work with regret, but trust we have said enough to show that the brilliant success it met with was richly merited. As will be seen from the following letter, my friend was unusually anxious that I should accom- pany him to Birmingham to hear the first per- formance of a work which he probably felt he should never surpass, if equal. As ill-luck would have it, my customary weekly recital on the Leeds organ took place on the same day, and I wrote to say that I feared it would be impossible for me to accompany him. His reply was characteristic, and by altering- the hour of my performance, I did go and was fortunately able to be present : — "London, fi'epf. 4, 1864. "My deae Spaek,— Just off for Birmingham. I should much like you to be there on Tuesday. Can't you be too ill to play the organ that day? or can't you contrive to give the organ a bad cold, or something or other? You never have shirked LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 129 your work at Leeds, so I think you have some title to get off for once. In haste. — Yours ever sincerely, "Henet Smaet. "Dr. Spark." The work was admirably conducted by the com- poser himself. During the performance I sat among a nest of critics, some of whom made sensible re- marks, others, as usual, quite the contrary, the latter being given in a somewhat loud and authoritative voice. Messrs. Metzler & Co. had purchased the copy- right (it now belongs to Novello & Co.), and Mr. George Metzler (always a true friend and admirer of Smart's) accompanied the composer and myself to our hotel when the concert was over, and where we talked over the merits and demerits of the per- formance, and many other matters, until the small hours when rest and sleep claimed us for their own. After the great Midland "Music-Meeting" Smart returned to town, but he was in a very poor state of health, and his eyes grew weaker and worse. The family surgeon urged a change of air and scene. I proposed a trip to Paris, where I wanted to see the famous organ-buUder, CavaUl^-Coll, about a new instrument for my own church. This was Smart's reply : — 130 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " London, Se^t. 17, 1864. " My deae Spaek, — I am at home, and very much wish to be anywhere else, as I am sadly out of health, and in want of change of air, scene, and aU the rest of it. However, I don't see how, at present, I can manage anything of the sort. If I can, I will write and let you know. — With kindest regards to Mrs. Spark, believe me, ever sincerely yours, "Heney Smaet. « Dr. Spark." Notwithstanding this letter, I made my " disposi- tions," as the French say, and started for Paris, call- ing on Smart in town on my way, but failed to in- duce him to join me. So I went alone, and landed at the Hotel de Lille d' Albion, in the Eue St. Honore, late in the evening. The next morning I was awoke out of my sleep by a loud thumping at my door, and to my amazement recognised Smart's voice shouting, " Here I am, old boy ; get up, and let me in ! " He explained that after I had left him in London the sun shone out brightly ; he thought what a happy time I should have, and in a moment made up his mind that it would do him great good, and he would follow me by the night mail. And we Aid have a happy time of it. Smart got rapidly better; his usual high spirits returned, and we went off cheerily in the afternoon to call on Cavailld, who had been LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 131 advised of our coming, and had sent for the cele- brated organist, Lef^bure Wfly, to meet us at the Factory. A new instrument of three manuals and about forty stops, or registers, having been just erected in the works before it was placed in a church near Paris, we each of us tried and played it for some time, admiring its lovely reeds, harmonic flutes, &c., delighted with its exquisite touch and mechanism. Lefebure had just composed a new Offertoire in F, which he played to us with charming taste and exe- cution. Most organists will recognise the subject of a piece now well known in England : — *1 Smart was delighted both with the piece and the playing, and said, " How brilliant aud animated ! I wish some of our dull organists in England would take a lesson out of Lefdbure's book, and put a little more life into their playing." And yet Smart himself never cultivated the French style of composition, 132 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. though it is true I have often heard him extemporise in the Gallic manner. On the following day we all met at St. Sulpice, other Parisian organists joining us. Lef^bure W41y being here the organist of one of the finest instru- ments, placed in one of the grandest churches in France, led off the playing with nearly half an hour's improvisation, in which he displayed the variety and beauty of the organ, its power, its delicacy, its cre- scendos and diminuendos, in a series of themes and subjects of the most ingenious and charming descrip- tion. Smart was then induced to take the seat, and often as I had heard him play, I never remember such a magnificent performance as he gave on this occasion. Perfectly spontaneous as it was, it might have been written after deep thought and consideration, so perfect was it in form, contrast, and development. Starting with a theme in D-minor, common time, moderate, he gave the reins to his fancy and skill, and poured forth a succession of harmonious combinations and thoughts which astonished and delighted every one present. But he had not done when he concluded the first movement. He held on with alternate hands, whilst changing and preparing the stops, the normal key-note — "t^^^^^El and then, when quite ready with his combination, he dropped gently LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 133 into a lovely Andante in triple time, varying the theme with all sorts of stop variety and colouring, and producing beauties all the more beautiful from their spontaneity and unexpectedness. As if this was not enough, there followed a grand and brilliant Finale in D-major, in which towards the close he held down for thirty or forty bars the dominant A — Man. Ot. Org. Fed. with the full power of the organ, and upon this he introduced each of the themes that had been pre- viously heard, and treated them with such masterly skill and power that the excitable French organists were quite " lifted off their feet ; " and Lef 4bure being unable to restrain himself, kept exclaiming in excited tones, " Superb, superb, superb ! " This improvisation lasted about twenty -five minutes, and was, indeed, equal to a full-blown sonata. At its conclusion Lef^bure literally em- braced Smart after the French fashion, the latter whispering to me that we had better get away and see after some dinner. 134 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. "When the mutual and rather overwhelming com- pliments were over, and we had parted from our kind and vivacious French friends, Smart said, "Now, I'm rather dry, and I'd give five shillings for a draught of good English beer. I've heard there's a place somewhere at the hack of the Opera Comique, where it can be had, so we'll make in- quiries." But the " place " was not so easily found. Smart spoke French well, though slowly, and after many confabulations with gend'armes, shopkeepers, and others as to the locality we were so anxiously seeking, we came unexpectedly opposite to a door of a house up a courtyard, from whence we heard a man call out, " Pot of 'alf an' 'alf, waiter ! " " That's my language," said Smart eagerly, " that's my language — this must be the place ; let's go in." It was not long before two tankards of foaming English draught ale were brought, and it was most amusing to observe the heartiness with which Smart drained the cup, ex- claiming when he had done, " Thank God for bitter beer when you're thirsty ; and thank God also that we are Englishmen, and are not bound by law or custom to imbibe that beastly drink of this country, the abominable vin ordinaire, of which I'll not take another drop if I stay here a month ! " We may be sure that he was as good as his word. The next morning we went to CavaiU^'s factory to examine the mechanism and inside work of the LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 135 organ we had heard the day before. Whether it was in the make and shape of the bellows and feeders, the sound-boards, the wind-trunk and wind- chest, the draw-stop action, the pallets, the pull- downs, the grooves, the pin-rail, sticker, back-faU, tracker, square, arm, trundle, slider, or copulas — Smart was equally at home in the manufacture and excellence, or otherwise, of every detail connected with the building of a modern organ. He was warm in his admiration of CavailM's " artistic workmanship," and would often unfavour- ably compare some of our English work with it. It must be borne in mind, however, that since the time we are alluding to, great and manifold im- provements have been made by our own organ builders in the construction and inside work of their instruments. We visited other churches, and tried more organs, returning to London viA Dieppe, after having spent a delightful week in Paris — a visit which we were all very happy to find had so much improved Smart's general health. Yet the resuscitation was not of long continuance. His eyes got gradually worse, and after many ineffectual attempts by the best occulists to stay the apoplexy of the visual organs with which he was afflicted, he made up his mind to commence composing by dictation. It was at first an irksome task, causing him to chafe occasion- 1 36 LIFE OF HENR Y SMAR T. ally under the infliction. But his daughter, Clara, cheered and encouraged him; she devoted herself heart and soul to his interests and work, and spared neither time nor trouble in writing down his compositions from his own dictation of every detail. Not only was she most accurate in all she wrote, but her music characters and caligraphy generally were so neat and clear, that it was seldom any alterations or corrections were required in any of the numerous works her fair and useful hands committed to paper. With ordinary songs, &c., his plan was to have the poetry read over to him two or three times — they were then firmly written on the tablet of his excellent memory — ^go to his " den,'' as he termed his little study downstairs, where the window opened out into the open space which Londoners are pleased to call a garden, light his pipe, pace up and down the room, go out into the open, and then return to play the piece over on the modest cottage pianoforte that stood in a corner. In an hour or two he would call for his daughter to get out the music paper, pen and ink, proceeding at once to dictate the piece which was implanted in his mind. The process was very plain and intelligible. For instance, if the following had to be written : LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Allegretto moderato. 137 f^^i^^B I 335^ ^i=d^f5,=,=^_^^ SEiz he ■would proceed thus : — " Symphony to a song, key G- with one sharp ; trehle and bass clefs, § time; treble, — crotchet chord, tail up — D and B below the lines; two quavers, tails up, bound together ; G second line, B above; — bar. Crotchet chord, A second space, E below, C below. Two quavers, tails up, bound to- gether ; E first line, A second line," and so on. This would be thought very tiresome work by thousands of musicians who never had it to do, but when, instead of a song, or organ piece, it came to be an oratorio, written in full score, for a large orchestra, principal voices, chorus, and organ, the wonder is increased, and the labour appears to be altogether herculean. Such, however, was accom- plised by Smart, and his daughter, in writing that splendid composition — the only oratorio he com- pleted — "JACOB." The work was composed for and first performed at the Glasgow Festival, November 1873, with what 138 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. success may be gathered from the following notice written for the Glasgow Herald by that admirable art-critic, Mr. Joseph Bennett, whose contributions to musical literature in the columns of the Daily Tele- graph, " Musical Times," &c., are so much admired and valued : — " "With characteristic modesty, Mr. Henry Smart styles his ' Jacob ' a cantata, when in effect it is an oratorio, of small dimensions, we grant, but an oratorio, neverthe- less. We will not quarrel with the esteemed composer on this account, being glad to receive anything from his pen, no matter what name it bears. Mr. J. C. C. M'Caul, by whom the libretto was compiled, could do no more than take a few of the episodes ia the life of his hero, and being thus Hmited, he chose the flight to Padan-Aram, the marriage with Rachel, and the return to Canaan, the whole ending with Jacob and Esau's re- conciliation. " This was a good choice, especially as the flight and the return presented plenty of dramatic incident, with diffi- culty of treatment. The marriage, however, was a dehcate matter, and necessitated much care. Mr. M'Caul cut the knot rather than untied it. In the first place, he got rid of Leah altogether, and doing so, he of course avoided touching upon Laban's unworthy trick in the matter of Jacob's first marriage. !N"or was this all. Leah being ignored, reference to the circumstances under which Jacob obtained Eachel became unnecessary. Thus the story is simplified, and discreditable incidents are avoided. True, Laban is represented as pursuing Jacob, when the latter steals away ; but no allusion is made to certain Lares and ZIFE OF HENRY SMART. 139 Penates, and, after a very brief dialogue, all parties join amicably in a hymn of praise. On tbe wbole, the mar- riage episode is successfully treated, though exception may be taken to the way in which Mr. M'Caul has occa- sionally met the exigencies of musical effect. Because these demanded a soprano air in a certain place, it was hardly right to make Rachel sing ' This is my beloved,' &c., and afterwards question Jacob as to who he was and whence he came. Nor can we approve of making Laban quote a well-known passage, which tells how a Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep, apropos of an invitation to Jacob to enter his service. There are ex- amples of dragging in songs neck and crop ; but, after all, it wiU not do to visit them with severe censure. The playwright and the author of libretti have a scarcely- challenged license in such matters ; why should not the compiler of oratorio books be equally fortunate ? Passing on to Mr. Smart's music, we have, first of all, to make the general remark that in style and character it belongs emphatically to the school of Mendelssohn. Some may discover in this a good reason for objection if not for rejection. We are not of the number. To so few is the faculty of an originator given, that were nothing but original works of art permitted, the world would as regards them be poor indeed. Besides, that is denied in music which is freely granted in, for example, painting. A Kubens or a Kembrandt forms a distinctive school, and men who have not their creative genius, but who are artists nevertheless, win ungrudged honours by following in their steps. Why should not the case of great composers and their disciples be exactly parallel? Who would destroy the early works of Mozart because they were in- spired by Haydn, or of Beethoven because they were I40 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. inspired by Mozart ? On all grounds we fail to see any- thing derogatory in tlie fact that Mr. Smart's ' Jacob ' belongs to the school of an illustrious genius, and we assuredly prefer to receive it as such than as an attempt at originality imperfectly carried out. Accepting the work, therefore, without cavil on this score, we have nothing but hearty praise for the skill of its writing and the beauty of its effect. Such merits were looked for by all who knew how accomplished a musician is the com- poser, and the highest expectations have not been dis- appointed. In the brief space now at command, we cannot attempt an exhaustive criticism, and must be satisfied to choose for special notice those numbers of the most representative character. Among them we place the brief but very suggestive introduction — an admirable ex- ample of true orchestral writing. The incident of Jacob's dream must rank even higher, although the music descrip- tive of the descending angels reminds us, without having a copy, of the prelude to ' Lohengrin.' Its effect is charm- ing, and so, in a different style, is the effect of the angelic choruses. In point of fact, the whole of this episode in the work is masterly and effective to a high degree — the chorus, ' The Lord is thy keeper,' with which it ends, being a capital example of impressive power and contrar puntal skill. In ' The Marriage,' Rachel's air, ' Who is this that cometh ? ' stands out prominently by reason of the beauty of its melody and the aptness of its expres- sion. A more pleasing and graceful example of modern art would not be easy to find ; and this remark applies also to Laban's air, ' The Good Shepherd,' and especially to a duet for^ Jacob and Eachel, ' TeU me, fairest of women.' The latter is simply a gem, with its tender love phrases, its exquisite orchestration, and its sugges- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 141 tion of true Oriental passion. The concluding chorus of this scena, ' Happy art thou, Jacob,' is another illus- tration of the musicianly skill with which Mr. Smart uses his resources. In ' The Eeturn ' occurs a beautiful contralto air, ' Be thou patient,' founded upon the model of ' rest in the Lord,' and an elaborate chorus with incidental trio, ' Praise ye the Lord,' which serves to strengthen the impression already formed of the composer's great skill as a contrapuntalist. The ' Amen ' of this chorus belongs to very high art indeed — art of which no great master need be ashamed. Simple beauty marks the subsequent chorus, ' Behold how good and pleasant,' and the quartet, ' Gracious is the Lord,' while the finale, ' Oh praise the Lord,' is worthy of the best portion of the work. As are the numbers to which we have made reference, so are, and in a greater or less degree, those over which we have passed j and, therefore, without the smallest hesitation, we welcome ' Jacob ' as a valuable addition to English music. The performance was generally a fine one, and did much credit to aU concerned. Miss Wynne, who sang Eachel's air charmingly, Mdme. Patti, who was not less effective in the song of ' The Angel,' Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Lewis Thomas, and Mr. Santley, did their very best for the work, while the chorus more than sustained the reputation it had previously earned. Such music, so well given, could not fail to please, and at the close Mr. Smart was overwhelmed with applause, which he acknowledged by bowing from the front of the gallery." From Smart's warm-hearted Glasgow friend, Mr. J. S. Stillie, a few " notes " anent the " Jacob " rehear- sals, and the composer's presence, will not, I think, be inappropriate or unacceptable here. He says : — 142 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " I attended the rehearsals in company with Mr. Smart, and was much interested to see the blind man, with vivid interest and keen intelligence, make suggestions to Mr. Lambeth, choir master and conductor, as to the effects he wished produced. It was quite apparent when and when not the composer was satisfied with the results obtained. Things going smoothly there was such a genial and loving smile ; he kept nodding his head to the time of the music, and occasionally kindly gave a mild rap on the floor with his walking-stick, his constant and faithful friend. But when matters were not going smoothly what wry faces he did make. I firmly believe that he had no in- tention whatever of openly showing his displeasure, yet the fact remains that he, to some extent, painfully dis- played his annoyance. The head was tossed, the nostrils were distended, and there was a quivering of the lips, aU tending to show that something was out of joint. There was now no gentle tapping of the friendly staff, down it came with a sudden thump on the floor, which called all to attention. The same remarks apply with equal force to the public and first performance of the ' Oratorio ' in the City HaU. For reasons which need not now be entered into, the public performance was not at aU points perfection, and this, we have been told, was Mr. Smart's own opinion. All the more credit, therefore, to the intrinsic merits of the music, which created such a profound effect alike on musicians and amateurs." " Jacob " has certainly not yet met with its due reward and appreciation. That a work of such exceeding beauty must become better known and valued, there can be no matter of doubt. So far as LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 143 I know, and up to the present time, only one per- formance, given under the direction of Dr. Bridge, has taken place in London, on which occasion it was received with great pleasure and satisfaction by a large and discriminating audience. A selection was included in the programme of the Leeds Musical Festival in 1877, when Sir Michael Costa was con- ductor, and the composer was present. The distin- guished musician. Dr. Macfarren, was among the audience, and during the performance of the capti- vating duet for Eachel and Jacob, "Tell me, fairest of women," he said to me, " That is really lovely music ! " Smart was much gratified when I told him of this spontaneous tribute to his genius from so high an authority. But why such works as "Jacob" should not oftener be presented to the public by musical associations, concert-givers, &c., in pre- ference to much questionable production from the hands of second and third-rate foreigners, it passeth comprehension to know, excepting that many of our countrymen and fellow art-workers are frequently found throwing the wet blanket of discouragement over the efforts of men of talent, whose chief fault is that they are Englishmen, and perhaps nominal frimds ! Unfortunately, I was unable, from pressure of engagements, to accede to Smart's earnest wish that I should be present in Glasgow at the first perform- 144 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ance of " Jacob " but I eagerly read the best criti- cisms I could find on the work and the performance, and wired him my felicitations on its success. Shortly afterwards he sent me the following letter, which is quite characteristic of his modesty when speaking of his own compositions : — "6i MoKAT Place, Glasgow, N(yi}. 13, 1873. "My deae Spaek, — Many thanks for your tele- graphic congratulations. 'Jacob' seemed certainly to make a great success here, as far as we can judge, and I trust to have this confirmed when we get a better performance of it in London. " To tell you the truth, I don't know when I can promise to be in Leeds. I am suffering a good deal from bronchitis, and am far from well, so that the only thing I have actually made up my mind to, is to stop two nights with the Coddingtons, for the purpose of breaking the journey southwards. If at the end of this little rest I find myself in at all a decent and presentable state, I will certainly come over and spend two or three days with you, and of this I will give you notice from Blackburn, where we hope to be somewhere in the beginning of next week, or the end of this. — With best love to all, believe me, very sincerely yours, "Henet Smart. " Dr. Spark." LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 145 He did come to visit me at Leeds from Blackburn, much out of sorts, and looking weak and poorly. Our best efforts were used to revive him during the three or four days he stayed in Leeds, not altogether, I believe, without success. It was remarkable to observe that, notwithstand- ing his enfeebled health, his mind was always active. We had a long talk about various organs, especially " The Leeds Organ," as he always called the great instrument in the Town Hall, and it ended, as usual, in our going together to try, examine, and play to each other. He was no careless artist in anything connected with music. Every stop almost was drawn singly, and the tone of every note carefully considered. "'Just let Hutchince (the tuner) fetch me out that D in the great organ harmonic trumpet." The pipe is given to him, and blind as he was, he takes off the " boot " of the pipe, feels the " tongue " (the thin, elastic spring, or plate of brass), and then says with perfect confidence, " Just as I thought. A lot of these reeds should be taken out, cleaned, and re-burnished, and when I come down again, we shall hear that they are as pure and even as on the day they were first put in." And so we go on through the whole organ, spending many a long hour in conference and investigation, with a view to any possible improvement in the instrument we both loved so well. After each of these searching K 146 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. inquiries (often repeated), he quietly sits down to the organ, asks if we are alone, and then for half an hour — sometimes an hour — ^he brings forth from his grand musical soul a series of sublime conceptions, sweet melodies, and majestic harmonies, that chain me to the spot, and I drink deep of the enchanting sounds, longing and wishing that the symphonious tones might last almost for ever ! Oh ! what a gift is the power of improvisation with such a genius as a Smart or a Wesley ! What a marvel that those ten fingers can convey and express from the brain beautiful thoughts, happy ideas, and interminable combinations of music ! Where does it all come from ? Where does it go to ? Alas ! that one cannot always exist in such an atmosphere of spontaneous, delicious harmony! But there are no more Smarts and Wesleys in England — the giants have gone ! On this point more will be given in the chapter on Organs and Organ-Playing. It is now time to say something about one of the most popular, as well as one of the most beautiful, of all Smart's works — the cantata for female voices, with pianoforte accompaniment, the verse by Frede- rick Enoch, entitled "King Een^'s Daughter." It consists of thirteen pieces, or numbers — songs, LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 147 duets, trios, and choruses, as well as an overture, arranged as a pianoforte duet. The story is one which deeply interested Smart, and he took a special concern in producing music for Mr. Enoch's delightful verses adapted from Henrik Hertz's drama. King Een4, Count of Provence, had a fair daughter. " Fairer than the spring, Daughter of a king," who was blind from infancy, and knew, but by touch alone, the rose. A beautiful spot is described, " Valley of summer flowers, Valley of golden grain ; " and here lolanth^, Beatrice, Martha, and the vin- tagers develop and unravel the story of the blind girl's love, the troubadour's gift of the roses, her restoration to sight, her joy and happiness, and the final scene when " Een^ the king will ride forth from the gate, With his horsemen and banners in state." The overture in D-major makes a most effective pianoforte duet, and opens with a short and graceful movement in six-eight time, andante tranquUlo. This being followed by an allegro vivace in D-minor, which towards the end merges into a kind of stately march in the major mode. Then follows the chorus 148 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. of vintagers for soprano and contralto, "Vallej of summer flowers," which, as will be seen from the first ten bars of the symphony, is rather Mendels- sohnian in its character : — Alltyro oioacG. [c^ = 76. *# g ^ttS fr^ a^ I A counter-theme is soon introduced, in which Smart's individuality may at once be seen : — i f LIFE OF HENRY SMART. AJlefjro moderato. [m ^ 76) -j- 149 itei s==^^=^ ^ ^ i~r - ^ i *i= ¥±:^;+=fesi* ij^^HJ r j?j; (Sm. p Here the first smile of spring is thesweetest.Herethe -I- Gff'raTT HT" ^mm -I And then the return to the original suhject is made and the latter dwelt upon with all the freshness and beauty of the spring of whose charms he sings so sweetly. This is followed by a trio and chorus in F-major, " See how the gay valley shines," in which there are, in several passages, six pure vocal parts for soprano and contralto, in addition to an independent, flowing accompaniment. After a duo with chorus, in B-flat major, " There is a fair maid dwelling there," comes the fascinating and pictiiresque recitative and arietta : — ISO LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " List'ning to the nightingales, Comes my lady fair ; While the glowing twilight pales, Come the star-beams there.'' The pianoforte introduction to the recitative is so quaint and characteristic that we are bound to look at these few bars : — Andante lento. (^=10G.) i Eecit. Maeta. ^^=^^ Prom her bow'r hearkens my la - dy i s -F — -- ■•d— : — g 8 1 a g "- s rrf m » ^^ i^i LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 151 fair. -P ^- \% % ■f- -*r =t==iP ^££ I ^^ 3^ ^ Soon after we are introduced to the first part of the arietta in A- minor : — n^ I i: ^^ Ji lv=5r- S=^ ¥ -^-jV^ * -»— »- -•--=•-• List'a-ing to the night-mg - gales.Comes my la dy fair. And when this subject has been properly expanded, there comes the second part in the major with this delicious theme : — ist-MS: ^ m. 1^ Come the star-beams there, . . Oomes my la -dy fair. a tempo. -I-J4 TTTJ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. List^'ning to the nightin - pfales. Comes my la dy fair. This song has become a great favourite, and has been issued by the publishers in a separate folio edition, with flute obbligato. In the scena and chorus, " The spell has wrought," the composer's clever harmonical devices are brought out with telling effect; then lolantM, the king's daughter, sings the recitative, "White or Eed," followed by the thoroughly Smartean air, com- Aiidante modcrato. (J == 60 ) SE =^=ifcttj= ^^1 rafffira ^^^^^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 153 P^^^^^ m -^ ^^ S T-t I love the rose pear"a with the summer ^^p^^^^^ ^si J --.L-rJ : =^ 1?=^ ^ s -^ — t- dew. Fresh with the dawn it slept up-on the spray. 45= -^^ ^. The recitative, " What magic in a minstrel's song must dwell," succeeded by a highly dramatic trio for Beatrice, Marta, and lolanthfe, "Now amulet and 154 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. spell," leads to the elegant and enchanting duet and chorus, " Sweet the angelus is ringing," than which Smart himself never wrote anything more charming or effective. After a short symphony it begins : — i tf PMakta. S i 4* Sweet the An - ge - pBlfiATRiCIi. '&. ^izt W ^ AndanU quasi larghttto. (^ ^ 78.) Sweet the An - ge - i^^^^^Fi aEfcfeE^^^SSE^^^^q 1^ I p^^^^^ m - lus is ring-iiig, O'er tha ri - ver, up the dell. ' ' =^ — H^ — ?*• ^ ^ W^^ -lus is ring - ing, O'er the ri - ver, up the deli. 'i "'\ T P^ f>r-^ r ^ ?:_ 1^ P^ jtE P 5 1 ^ i F;^— f^ i 0*^^=^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. I5S And then, when the duet has been properly wrought out, we have the chorus entering in this simple, telling unison, with a delicious accompaniment : — Chorus Sweet the Ange - lus is ring-ing. O'er tlie ri-ver, up the dell, m 1^^ Sweet the Ange - lus is ring-ing. O'er the ri-ver, up the dell, Sweet the Ange - lus is ring-ing, O'tr the ri-ver, up the deli. re^^'^gno^ The close of this unique piece of musical work- manship is so remarkably beautiful, that at the risk of malting too many quotations and extracts, I can- not forbear from giving it here : — ir6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. MaeTA. -nn i I* ■- 'm ^^^^^^^P Peaes and rest to labour bring - ing, Beatrtce. ^_^_ - i i^ >«=^ ^E^ Peace and rest to labour bring - ing, i tf Chorus. W- ^^^R^ ^a^ ^^g^ i 1^ Peace and rest to labour bring -ing. W- W' f-=1- Peace and rest to labour bring - ing, W- Peace and rest to labour bring - ing, Ptd. g? r |4 ^^ i *^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. TP. 157 ^ R=— .t-|t =t Cbimes.cbimes the bell, chimes tbe bell. . . i tf: ff- J£ Cbimes.chimesthe bell, chimes the bell. i I*: 3v^ • • ■ Cbimea.chiineathc bell, chimes the bell. i 11= E^3^ iiE Ohimes.chimes the bell, chimes the bell. , . m -=1-F- Chimes,ohimesthe bell, chimes the bell. I A stort recitative and chorus, " Fair falls the day," leads to the finale, which is ushered in by one of those brilliant marches for which the composer is famous, " Eene the king wiU ride forth from the 1S8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. gate," and this brings to a happy finish the finest work, sui generis, ever produced in England. It was a happy thought to suggest a performance of this work in Leeds for the benefit of the Blind Institution, which at the time (January 1878) was much in need of funds. It is true that the execution thereof was left wholly to amateur ladies and gentlemen, but so much trouble was taken at the numerous rehearsals in training the fresh voices brought together, that it is doubtful if it could have been much better done, even with a professional cast, and then the latter would have cost a considerable sum, and lessened the splendid take of £12^, no less than ;^ 1 10 of which, after paying all expenses, was handed over to the treasurer of the institution. The names of the performers were not given on the programme, but it may here be stated that Mr. E. 0. Dykes conducted, and Mr. George Tetley presided at the pianoforte. Smart was particularly gratified with the intro- duction to a Leeds public of what he modestly called his " little work." In a letter to me, dated January 10, 1878, he says, " It is very good and very kind of your old friend and pupil, George Tetley, to take so much interest in, and trouble with, ' King Eend's Daughter,' and I feel sure he will take care LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 159 that the performance is a good one. You know how partial I have always been to this little work; and that its composition was to me a real labour of love. It is true that its performance excites in me more emotion than I care to show, but the why and the wherefore you know as well as I do," &c. The two following letters, which the composer ad- dressed to Mr. Tetley just before the work was pro- duced in Leeds, will be read with interest here : — " 30 King Heney's Eoab, N.W., Janvary 23, 1878. "My deae Me. Tetley, — Many thanks for your note, and it gives me great pleasure to learn from it that you intend to perform my ' King Kent's Daughter ' in Leeds. This little work has always been, I must confess, a great favourite with me, and I am, therefore, especially, glad that it is to be heard among my old friends in Leeds, with the advantage of so good a performance as it is sure to have under your care. "You ask me if I have any suggestions to make about it ? I do not remember that there is any- thing I can point out which is not provided for by the printed marks of expression, or that will not immediately occur to your own intelligence. Of course a great matter in the performance of such i6o LIFE OF HENRY SMART. works as this is, that the various movements should be given with their intended times. I believe, how- ever, that the work is marked throughout with a metronome time. Should I be mistaken in this, and you would particularly wish to know these times, I will mark a copy and send it down. " Please let me know the result of the performance, and with best wishes for the entire result of your undertaking, and kind regards, believe me, very truly yours, " (Signed) Heney Smart. « George Tetley, Esq., Leeds." "30 King Henry's Eoad, KW., Jcmwary 26, 1878. " My deak Me. Tetlby, — I am very sorry I could not answer your questions sooner, as I had no copy of ' King Eene's Daughter ' by me. " I have one now, however, and hope the answers I now send may be in time for your performance. To begin with, I think the 'I'istesso tempo' at the beginning of 'So. 7 would make this movement a little too fast. !■ think you had better change for j = 100. The ' accel. ' and ' allegro vivace ' may be safely left to your judgment, always remembering that the latter should not exceed J = 144, that being LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i6i the time at which Marta must enter with the words ' The spell has wrought/ which is of course the time of all the following part of the movement. " I hope all this will be perfectly satisfactory ; and with best wishes for the success of your concert, I am, yours very truly, " (Signed) Heney Smart. " Geo. Tetley, Esq." The foregoing letters were written by Mr. Smart's daughter Clara, and signed by Mr. Smart. The great success of "King Een^'s Daughter" led the composer to write another work for female voices, " The Fisher Maidens ; " but whilst the latter contains much beautiful and original music, worthy of general and useful acceptance, the design and character thereof are so similar to the former, that there is no necessity for dwelling on its merits, or analysing its contents. It may not now be an inopportune time to say something on a subject, apart from composition, and for which Henry Smart possessed exceptional and splendid talents. I allude to i62 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. OEGANS AND OEGAN PLAYING. Here Smart reigned supreme. There was no known organist, and scarcely an organ builder, who knew more of the construction, mechanism, and tone of an organ than Smart. Even when he became blind (this has already been shown in reference to one of his later visits to the Leeds Town Hall organ), he frequently astonished skilled artists and workmen with his observations, suggestions, and instructions. The three principal organs he was chiefly instru- mental in designing, were the great instruments in the City Hall, Glasgow, the Town HaU, Leeds, and St. Andrew's Hall, Glasgow. With the former he had much less to do than with the two latter, but I believe it was the first concert instrument erected in Great Britain, in which appeared the sub and super octave couplers, harmonic flutes, and other improvements, which Smart had seen the value of in Paris, and lost no time in applying to our own manufacture. It was built and erected, in 1853, by Gray and Davison, London, and the following is a descrip- tion of the instrument from " The Organ, its History and Construction," by Hopkins and Eimbault, pub- lished in 1855. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 163 " The large and fine organ in tlie City Hall, Glasgow, containing fifty-five stops, and upwards of three thousand pipes, is, by many degrees, the most complete instrument yet erected in Scotland. Each manual has a range of five complete octaves, or sixty-one notes, extending from CC to C in alt, thus affording facility for the just execution of any known orchestral music, without the distortion, inversion, and consequently frequent mutilation, of its passages. The pedal clavier has a compass of two octaves and a third, and besides being capable of connection at will with any or all of the manuals, commands an in- dependent organ of its own. The general contents of the instrument are as follows : — Great, 15 Stops. Feet. 1. Bourdon 16 2. Open Diapason ... 8 3. Stopped Diapason . . 8 4. Gamba 8 5. Octave 4 6. Piccolo 4 7. Twelfth ..... 3 8. Fifteenth 2 Feet. g. Ottavina 2 10. Sesquialtera, III rks. 11. Mixture III rks. 12. Flute Harmonique . . 8 13. Flute Harmonique . . 4 14. Posaune . . . • . 8 15. Clarion .... .4 Swell, 16 Stops. Feet. 16. Bourdon 16 17. Open Diapason ... 8 18. Keraulophon .... 8 19. Stopped Diapason Bass 8 20. Clarionet Flute ... 8 21. Octave 4 22. Flute 4 23. Fifteenth 2 Feet 24. Flageolet 2 25. Sesquialtera, III rks. 26. Mixture II rks. 27. Contra-Fagotto ... 16 28. Cornopean 8 29. Oboe 8 30. Voix-Humaine 31. Clarion . . . 1 64 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Clioir, lo Stops. Fest. 32. Open Diapason (tin) . 8 33. Clarionet Flute ... 8 34. Stopped Diapason Bass 8 35. Salcional 8 36. Octave ... . . 4 Feet. 37. Flute 4 38. Fifteenth 2 39. Piccolo 2 40. Corno di Bassetto . . 8 41. YoLx-Celeste .... 8 Pedal, 6 Stops. Feet. 42. Contra Bourdon ... 32 43. Open Diapason . . .16 44. Bourdon 16 Feet. 45. Octave 8 46. Fifteenth . ... 4 47. Trombone 16 Coupling Stops, &c. 48. Swell to Great Manual, Unison. Swell to Great Manual, Super-Octave. Swell to Great Manual, Sub- Octave. Choir to Great Manual, Sub- Octave. 49. SO. SI 52. The Keeds and Harmonic Flutes of Great to Swell, Unison, by a Pedal. Swell Manual to Pedals. Great Manual to Pedals. Choir Manual to Pedals. " There is a tremulant in connection with, the swell, and six composition pedals for producing varied combinations of the great organ stops, besides two for the swell ; and the organ is further provided with the pneumatic lever for lightening the touch. The last four stops of the great (the harmonic flutes and reeds) are placed on a dis- tinct soimd-hoard, in order that they may be supplied with air at a higher pressure than that allotted to the rest of the great organ ; and this pressure is again increased in the three upper octaves of these stops. Furthermore, by a peculiar mechanical arrangement, these four stops can at LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 165 pleasure be thrown out of connection with the great organ keys, and placed under the command of the swell manual" Since this description was written, some additions and improvements have been made, which still further increase the value and utility of the instrument. The instrument was opened, or inaugurated, by Smart, on Tuesday, October nth, 1853, assi^ed by the Glasgow Musical Association, since called the Glasgow Choral Union. The following was the programme : — PART FIRST. 1. Organ Solo, . " Extempore." Mr. S. Smart. _ r,„ „„ I "Then round about the starry ) nw-j ; 2. Chokus, . . .| throne" (Samson). . . { ^"^"^^ 3. Organ Solo, . " Thou that tellest " (Messiah). Mandd. 4. Chorus, . " Let their celestial concerts " (Samson). SiwideZ. 5. Organ Solo, . "Luther's Hymn," arranged by J. S. Baeh. 6. Grand Chortts, "The heavens are telling " (Creation). Haydn. PART SECOND.— (Organ Soltjs). 1. Overture, .... " Der Freyschiitz." .... Weber. 2. Extempore, .... . Mr. H. Smart 3. Andante, . " F Major, from Symphony in C." Beethoven. 4. Aria, . . . "Oujus Animam" (Stabat Mater). . Bossini. 5. Overture, . " A Midsummer's Night's Dream." Mendelssohn, 6. Selection, From the Opera " Roberto il Diavolo." Meyerbeer. 7. Coronation March, . "IlProphete." .... Meyerbeer. It will be seen by the above that whilst Smart gave himself plenty to do, he did not include' in the 1 66 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. scheme a single organ composition by either Bach, Handel, or Mendelssohn, as would undoubtedly be the case if such an inaugural performance had to be given at the present time. But it must be remem- bered that the Glasgow folk knew little or nothing of organs or organ music in 1853, and probably would not have listened patiently to any solid works had Smart — at that time an enthusiastic admirer and performer of Bach — ventured to introduce any. The following account of the opening of this instru- ment, taken from the Glasgow Herald of October 14th, 1 85 3) "w^ill be read now with peculiar interest : — " At length there is an organ in the City Hall, and the expression of the mere fact is like the partial relief which a sigh brings to a burdened heart. It is a long time since the attempt was first made to introduce an organ into the service of the Established Church in Glasgow — somewhere, we beheve, about half a century ago. When the late Eev. Dr. Ritchie tried to have an instrument placed in St. Andrew's Church, he was met by such an amount of popular clamour, that the sinful ' kist fu' o' whistles ' had to be turned out of doors, and the print shops of the day exhibited the rev. gentleman in the guise of a street musician, with the offending instrument on his back. Times are much changed since then. At that period many things were law which have been repealed by the voice of the legislature, and others have become obsolete by the change which has come over the pubHc mind. . . . " Music was considered, if not sinful, at least not respect- able, and by consequence all music, saving a few hum- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 167 drum old psalm tunes, and a limited number of reels, strathspeys, and country dances, was next to proliibited. We do not know when this dark age of music first began in Scotland, nor is it of very much importance at the present time' to discuss to what it owed its origin, but this we do know, that the darkness was altogether- Cim- merian, and its thick murkiness threw a gloom upon all the arts for a very long time indeed. In former days Scotland was a musical country. There is sufficient his- torical evidence to prove that the art must have, at one time, been cultivated very extensively, and now we think that the dawn of a new era is apparent, and we fervently trust that nothing will interfere to check the movement which we know has begun throughout our native land. . . . " Many of our readers must be aware that the idea of having a city organ originated in the first place with a few members of the Glasgow Musical Association, and that idea, small though it was at the beginning, has effloresced into the most perfect and complete, if not the largest, organ in the kingdom. . . . " We will now say a few words anent the performances of Tuesday night last, on which occasion the grand instru- ment first sent its biUows of music athwart the wide ex- panse of the City HalL To many persons who were there when Mr. Henry Smart gave his first extempore performance, ' Adeste Fideles ' being the theme, the sen- sation must have been as unexpected as it was new. We do not mean to enter upon any review of the manner in which this gentleman displayed the various powers, ' now soft as lovers' whisperings, and now loud as Jove's thunder,' because he has a world-wide reputation, and no word of ours can do justice to his merits. Neither do we intend to speak of the quality of the organ itself i68 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. (its structure has already been described in this journal), because the musical dilettanti and the public generally must learn, by small degrees, to appreciate the marvellous combinations, the grace and the grandeur of expression ■which it is capable of giving ; but we cannot permit this opportunity to pass, without congratulating the Glasgow Musical Association on the circumstance, that they were so able to take their part in the inauguration of that instrument which sprung at first from themselves. Their singing was admirable. It was beautifully in tune. The lights and shadows, the various gradations pf tone and expression, were given in a style hitherto unheard, if not . unattempted, in Glasgow ; and the precision of the time was such that the pulsations of the voices and the organ were so exactly simultaneous, that they seemed to be only the result of one will, instead of upwards of an hundred voices and several thousands of pipes. "We must not omit to mention here that on Tuesday night, for the first time in Scotland, the treble part, which was sung by young women, was sustained throughout by themselves alone without the aid of a leader. And like thbroughly trained choristers they watched the minutest motion of the con- ductor's wand, and became piano or forte to a shade at the slightest sign. " Last night a second performance was given, which, like that of Tuesday, was attended by a large assembly of well-pleased auditors. There are to be two perform- ances on the organ to-morrow. The first performance, which will be given at two o'clock, will consist of the organ alone. The evening concert will be a selection from the programmes of Tuesday and Thursday, when the working classes will have an opportunity, at a cheap price, of hearing the best pieces of both the previous concerts.'' LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 169 The Glasgow Town Council consulted Mr. Smart as to the best man Glasgow could have as a city organist. Mr. Smart unhesitatingly, and in very strong terms, recommended Mr. Henry Albert Lambeth, of Portsmouth, whom he described as a young and most promising organist. The suggestion was at once carried out, and we therefore find an announcement made by the Glasgow Harmonic Society : — " City Hall, Organ Concert, Saturday, 26th November 1853, when the newly appointed organist, Mr. Lambeth, will have the honour of making his first appearance in Glasgow." The pro- gramme consisted of choral selections and organ solos, built on the same plan as those previously given by Mr. Smart. Mr. Lambeth has honourably held the important position of city organist from that time till now (1880), extending over a period of twenty-six years. It may be added that on the ist January; 1858, Mr. Lambeth appeared for the first time as conductor of the Glasgow Choral Union, a position he continues to hold. On that occasion the programme consisted of Mozart's 1 2th Service, and of miscellaneous selec- tions. Mr. Smart went all the way from London for that concert, in part, to play the organ accompani- ments, chiefly, however, to encourage his young friend and proteg^, Lambeth, in entering on a new and important department of the art, that of sway- 170 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ing the latioii over strong forces whicli numbered many hundreds. The Glasgow Choral Union, by an amalgamation of two societies (the Glasgow Musical Association and the Glasgow Harmonic Society), appeared under that name for the first time in Glasgow, on nth December 1855. The grand organ in the Town Hall, Leeds, next claims attention ; not only on account of its magni- tude, and the novelties introduced therein, but for the difficulties and anxiety Smart and myself ex- perienced before and after this now celebrated instrument was built and opened under our joint direction in 1858. Not long after the Glasgow City HaU organ was erected, when its usefulness and success were en- sured, and at the time the Leeds People's Concerts, given on Saturday evenings, were so crowded out in the Old Music HaE (the only room — holding rather less than eight hundred persons — then avail- able for concerts and other meetings in Leeds), Smart paid a visit to me, and I mentioned to him the evident necessity, and my own great wish for the erection of a large new hall, which should have a grand organ to be designed by ourselves, and possess all the requirements for mass meetings, musical festivals, &e. To use a familiar phrase, he "jumped at the idea," and said with enthusiasm. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 171 " My dear friend, go in for it with all your lieart and soul, and you may rely on it, as far as the organ is con- cerned, I will help you to get the finest instrument yet erected in this country." All this was easily said, but who could imagine that out of these few words ultimately rose up the magnificent Town Hall of Leeds, and its glorious organ ! But so it was. I lost no time in getting a meeting of the leading inhabitants in the Old Court House (now the Post Office), at which the late Mr. Darnton Lupton, and others, strongly recommended the formation of a company for the purpose of building a new public hall. The matter, however, was not supported so warmly as was expected, and the late Borough Trea- surer, Mr. Hepper, who was then an influential alderman of the Leeds Town Council, took up the question, and so successfully plied it at the Corpora- tion meetings, that the sums of money, starting with ;^20,ooo, and ending probably with ^150,000, were ultimately voted, and our much desired object was partly accomplished. As only one instance out of a number that could be adduced, in which the public appetite for a new hall was frequently sharpened in the Leeds newspapers (there being at that time only three, each published but once a week), the following letter will be of sufficient interest, especially to Leeds people, to warrant its insertion here — and to 172 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. the concluding paragraph of which I desire to draw especial attention : — Jenny Lind at Leeds. To the Editors of the "Leeds Mercury." Gentlemen, — A paragraph having appeared in our local papers intimating that Madame Jenny Goldschmidt was shortly ahout to give a concert in Leeds, and consider- able interest having, in consequence, been evinced in our town and neighbourhood at the probable visit of the world's most famous singer, I ask permission to state through your columns the fact that the arrangements, which had been concluded with Madame Goldschmidt to sing in Leeds, have been unavoidably abandoned. Last Thursday week, Mr. Mitchell (under whose management all the Lind Concerts have been given since her present stay iu England) came to confer with myself on Madame Goldschmidt's visit, and it was fixed, after a consultation with Mr. Hopkinson, that a concert should he given in our Music Hall, on Monday, April 7 th. "We personally applied for the room for that day, and understood from one of the clerks that it was disengaged. In the evening of the same day I was astounded by the receipt of the following note from Mr. Ainley, the agent to the Music HaU Proprietors : — "Leeds, 21st Feb. 1856. " Deae Sie,— I understand that you have called in my absence to engage the Music Hall for a concert by Jenny Lind. L however, must now inform you that if Jenny Lind comes to the Leeds Music Hall to perform she must come through Messrs. Clapham and Co., as I am under agreement with them not to let the room for any perform- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 173 ance by Jenny Lind, except through them. I lose no time in giving you this information, in order that you may be cautious in carrying out any arrangement for her coming to Leeds. — I am, yours truly, , " JnO. AiNIiBY. "Mr. Spark." I was unwilling at first to believe that this note could mean anything but a hoax, but I found, on application to Messrs. Ainley and Clapham, that such an agreement did exist, and that the hall could not be taken for the occasion except " through Mr. Clapham " (the lessee of the Leeds Eoyal Gardens), who required _;^i5 as a bonus to give up his claim to the room. A very few words wUl explain how " Messrs. Clapham and Co." obtained the power of precluding the public of Leeds from hearing the Swedish Nightingale without bribing them to relinquish a claim, the nature of which I will not trust myself to characterise. It appears that Mr. Clapham proposed to speculate on Madame Goldschmidt's performance in Leeds, but dis- covered that Mr. Mitchell, to whom all the arrangements for these concerts are confided, had decided, and very pro- perly, that they should not be made a matter of trafiGic, but in aU instances that he would make the engagements direct. Foiled in this direction, Mr. Clapham, aided by the representative of the proprietors of the Music HaU, adopted the course of securing the room for any appear- ance of Jenny Lind during the year, and thus raising a presumptive claim to a handsome compensation if he should forego it. He made an agreement with Mr. Ainley to give ;^3o for the hall for any concert in which Madame Goldschmidt might perform ; and that it should 174 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. not be let to any other parties for the same purpose, with the alternative that he would give the usual rent, £,(>, whether she appeared or not. On what principle of fairness such a concession of the right to exclude the inhabitants of Leeds from its largest public room, could be made, I am at a loss to conjecture. The result is that, for the present, we have no prospect of enjoying the high gratification of hearing again this Queen of Song in Leeds — for Mr Mitchell very properly refuses to bribe Mr. Clapham to forego his claim, or enter into any engagement for indemnifying the proprietors against any possible consequences that might result from violating the monopoly which, it is alleged, has been given to Mr. Clapham. It is, perhaps, too delicate a topic to expatiate upon, but I may at least allude to the fact that the great Swedish vocalist, to her honour be it said, has seldom quitted a town without leaving tokens of her charity, perhaps even more lasting than those made by her most tuneful strains. I do hope that it may yet be possible to obtain Madame Goldschmidt's services, and if the obstacle with regard to the Music Hall be removed, I apprehend it would yet be practicable. I will not add one word of comment to the above " plain, unvarnished tale," but leave it to the verdict of the music-loving public of Leeds, to consider whether it does not prove that it is high time we should have a hall adequate to the wants of the town, and under a manage- ment responsible to the townspeople themselves. — I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, Wm. Spark. II Pake Squaek, Leeds, March 3d, 1856. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 175 Difficult as it proved, even to the persevering Alderman Hepper, to obtain the sums required for the building of the structure which the genius of Cuthberfc Broderick had designed, it was found to be a still tougher business to get a generally unmusical Town Council to spend ;^50oo in the erection of an organ to place therein. Smart and myself had, however, set our minds on it, though we were stoutly opposed by both amateur and professional " organ fanciers." Fortunately we had several influential friends in the Corpora- tion who were equally resolved that, as far as they could secure it, we should at least have fair play. The Mayor (Mr. John Hope Shaw), Aldermen George, Kelsall, Botterill, and Kitson, Councillors Addyman, Carter (afterwards M.P. for Leeds), and Eagland, &c. (especially the latter), took a deep interest in "the organ question," and a sub-committee having been appointed, a prize of ;^iSO was offered for the best set of plans and working drawings of an organ suitable for the hall. Smart and myself had been engaged for many months previously in designing an organ, and there was nothing that he desired more than to have his working drawings submitted to the eyes of com- petent authority, and to be compared with any others that might be sent in. The organists and 176 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. their friends, all of wliom had their peculiar notions, combated the idea of professional gentlemen being able or willing to furnish " working drawings." They got up a lively correspondence in the papers, but never produced any "working drawings!" One amateur wrote to the papers to say that " the em- ployment of professional men in the construction of organs is not only perfectly unnecessary, but UTidesirable ; in fact, their interference in such matters may be looked upon as little else than an impertinent reflection upon the efficiency of the organ-builder, and, indeed, most professional men are too careful of their reputation and honour to compromise themselves by interfering where the motives are so liable to misconstruction." At the very time this was written. Smart had prepared a set of plans and drawings which have since been pronounced by Cavaille, and other eminent builders, to be equal, if not superior, to any similar work they had ever seen ! In a subsequent chapter Smart's skill as an engineer and a draughtsman will be specially pointed out and explained. Another letter which appeared in the Leeds Intelligencer, February 7, 1857, will show the feeling that prevailed at the time : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 177 The Town Hall Oegan. To the Editor of the "Intelligencer." "Sir, — The advertisement issued by tlie Town Hall Committee for plans and working drawings of an organ, was a novelty, and would necessarily deprive the Council of all aid from musicians of the highest celebrity, and confine the subject to the organ manufacturer exclusively. " It was framed, perhaps, merely in conformity with a prescribed form of advertisement where corporation con- tracts are concerned. At any rate, the members of Coun- cil should be informed that eminent musicians do not fur- nish working draioings of the instruments on which they perform, and to ask such parties for anything of the kind is to ignore their taste and judgment in matters where they could give information of the greatest importance. " The advertisement, sir, had very much the appearance of having been worded in conformity with the views of a gentleman of this neighbourhood, who lately addressed a letter to the Mercury on the organ subject, and who, it is said, would not be displeased to guide the Council in their decision about their organ. I enclose you a letter which I have received from Dr. S. S. Wesley, and am, sir, yours obediently, P. G. S. " Leeds." Dr. Wesley's letter was a defence of Ms scheme of tlie great Liverpool organ. Many sets of plans were sent in from organ- tuilders, all of which were minutely examined by the sub-committee (Messrs. Kitson and Eagland), aided by an experienced, disinterested organ-builder, M 178 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. and the result was the award of the prize of ^^ 1 50 for the best plans to Messrs. Smart and Spark. The next thing was the aU-important one of the builder. The specification contained every detail, from the scales, weight and character of metal and wood, voicing, wind pressures, size of sound-boards, posi- tion of the registers, pedals, &c., down to the springs, wires, buttons, &c. There was nothing left un- touched — nothing omitted or forgotten. Smart's soul was in the work; he knew his power, he fulfilled his naission, and all that pertained to his share of the work was thoroughly and conscientiously done. Several builders tendered, and, after careful con- sideration, the contract was let to Messrs. Gray and Davison, who in their turn were fiercely assailed and objected to in the papers by the friends of other organ factors. The Town Council having appointed Smart and myself to superintend the building of the organ, we were frequently together at Messrs. Gray & Davi- son's large factory in the Euston Eoad, London, in 1857-8, watching with deep interest the progress of every portion of the work. Indeed, Smart was incessant in his visits and in making experiments, suggestions, and trials, both with regard to the LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 179 mechanism — much of which was very complicated — and the tone of various pipes. It is true that many of his experiments were of rather an expensive character, as the builders found out ; but his combined faith, enthusiasm, and deter- mination overcame most difficulties, and when he was successful, his satisfaction and pleasure were expressed with gen,uine delight. When a goodly portion of the organ was ready, and curiosity was rife in Leeds as to the best mode of inaugurating the new Town Hall and the instrument, I submitted a letter to Smart, who heartily approved of the contents, which duly appeared in the local newspapers, and from which the following extract may here be made : — "And now, gentlemen, I wish most respectfully to ask "our spirited Mayor, the Members of the Corpora- tion, and the inhabitants generally, whether they in- tend to have their magnificent Town Hall and Organ opened with the enthusiasm and rejoicing which can alone find appropriate expression in a Grand Musical Festival, on a scale worthy of the metropolis of the West-Eiding, of the commercial eminence of our town, and its taste and patronage of music % I believe it only needs initiation to enlist universal sympathy and co- operation; but the necessary preparations should be commenced without delay, or it will be utterly impos- sible to assemble all the necessary elements of success. We must not trust to the 'chapter of accidents' for befriending us on such an occasion; we must be up i8o LIFE OF HENRY SMART. and doing, with the zeal of lovers of divine music, and the promptitude and forethought of men of business. " Although, in such a case, we can obviously command success by spirited and united action, I may remind my fellow-townsmen, that with scarcely a single ex- ception, all first musical festivals at the opening of large halls in this and other countries, have been most successful in a pecuniary point of view. I do not, there- fore, for a moment anticipate that one single farthing of the necessary guarantee fund will ever be required from those who may become subscribers. " The Birmingham Hospital is almost entirely sup- ported by the profits of the triennial Musical Festivals in that town ! Surely Leeds can show herself equally able to aid similar noble charities through the agency of musical gatherings. " Having obtained statistical information of the cost and expenditure of nearly all the great festivals in England, — it will be my pride and delight as a towns- man to place it at the disposal of any Committee that may be appointed to take the matter into consideration. As a professional man, I do not wish to undertake any work which may not be considered indispensable for the realisation of the whole scheme. "The Town Hall exists as an embodied answer to the demand for means of doing justice to the musical taste earnestly craving gratification among all classes in Leeds ; and if these facts and suggestions help to accelerate action in the musical inauguration of this magnificent edifice and its noble organ, no one will rejoice more heartily than, gentlemen, your most obedient servant, " Wm. Spakk." LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i8i The Mayor (Alderman James Kitson) took the matter up with admirable spirit and earnestness — the .result being a splendid Musical Festival, of ■which, however, more hereafter in its proper place. Before the organ was removed from the manu- factory to Leeds, one very novel meeting was held which excited considerable attention and amuse- ment. Smart suggested that as the swell-box was probably the largest ever made, we should have a dinner therein, and invite as many friends as it would comfortably seat for that purpose ! And this was duly accomplished. To be sure, it was a sort of pic-nic business, but it was none the less enjoy- able on that account. One sent a fine salmon, another some choice entries from Gunter's, somebody forwarded a splendid haunch of venison, this friend contributed a dozen of " sparkling," that one six bottles of '34 port, and so on. But, better than all these very nice comestibles and beverages was the intellectual feast — ^the feast of reason and the flow of soul. There were ten of us: — J. W. Davison, George Cooper, Howard Glover, George Lake, Frederick Davison, J. G. Kershaw, George Case, Tom Bing- ham, Henry Smart, and myself. Just one-half of these have gone to their final rest ! J. W. Davison ;(the eminent musical critic) and Smart were the life of the company. We had jokes about the 1 82 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. "box" we had got into, the "swells" that occupied it— greater than any swell that would ever come out of it, — our crescendos and diminuendos, the clearing our pipes, and a hundred other /ew d'esprits, bon mots, &c., referring to the organ and the occasion. Lake, who was then editor and proprietor of " The Musical Gazette," wrote the following amusing account, which was published in his serial, Peb. 27th, 1858:— A DINNER IN A SWELL BOX. " We know not whether it is peculiar to Englishmen to seek their food in the most out-of-the-way places, but cert^s we have abundant examples of this odd propen- sity. In the joyous summer-time we call our friends and neighbours together, decide upon a place of rendez- vous, pack up five times as much prog as can possibly be consumed in one day, and travel in a promiscuous manner to some sequestered spot where sunbugs, field- mice, and water-wagtails abound. There folks do eat in the most astonishing manner, in spite of the disad- vantages under which the edition of the meal is accom- plished, sans table-cloth, to say nothing of sans table, sans .sedentary anchorage, save that afforded by terra firma — Anglice, Mother Earth — and sans many other comforts and conveniences; with a few such inade- quacies as two forks between three people, one glass between four, or, on a hot day, when thirst is par- ticularly prevalent, between six choking denizens of this enlightened hemisphere. There, and under these extraordinary circumstances, do they ' munch, and LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 183 munch, and munch,' like any sailor's wife at her chest- nuts, and consider the prandial enjoyment far greater than when they are snugly ensconced at home, with their legs tucked under choice mahogany, and a proper complement of forks and glasses to each feeder. There certainly is a great mania for peculiarities of this order. We happened to find ourselves last summer at Eyde, and were not a little astonished to find that ' quadrilles at 9 ' were perpetrated on board the Commodore's yacht, ' The Brilliant,' riding at anchor in the calm waters of the Solent. Eyde has a pier of no incon- siderable length, and it puzzled us to know how ladies in full dress could be transported from their peaceful habitations to the aforesaid yacht, and we were curious to know the effect of the Terpsichorean exercise com- bined with the gentle heaving motion of a boat riding at anchor. A little observation revealed to us that the ladies proceeded to the pier-head in Bath chairs, and were taken by instalments in small boats to the place of meeting. Now, a sovrie dansante in a heaving house might be all very well with those accustomed to the ' rolling wave,' but with fair ladies, whose health gene- rally failed them on leaving the shore, it would natu- rally be very ill ; and, when we heard of some of the helles turning qualmish before the yacht was gained, wishing the Solent, the moonlight, the gondoliers, and all the romantic concomitancies, at Halifax, New York, Jericho, Bath, Old Boots, or any other place of fashion- able resort to which disagreeable people and things are often mentally (and verbally) consigned, and of their being in a downright state of indisposition when they got on board, we must say we were not all surprised. " Such of our readers as are not acquainted with the i84 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. internal economy of an organ will begin to think that a ' swell box ' is a sort of slang term for a construction (such as a yacht) likely to be affected by the undulatory character of the ocean, and that we are about to report terrible cases and harrowing details of sea-sickness (si sic omnes). No such thing. The pipes belonging to the upper row of keys (in organs with two or three manuals) are enclosed in a box, and the pipes in the aggregate, or even the manual, are called the ' swell,' because the box has Venetian shutters in front, which are opened by the pressure of a pedal spring, the most gradual crescendo being thereby produced. This box, in the magnificent organ now in course of construction by Messrs. Gray & Davison for the Leeds Town Hall, is naturally of very large dimensions, and it was deter- mined by the builders to hold a dinner therein. This novel entertainment, almost as eccentric in its way as the sunbuggy, fieldmousy, watery-wagtailish recreation afore-mentioned, or the qualm-provoking festival subse- quently commented upon, came off on the 13th inst., when a dozen hungry celebrities assembled at 370, Euston Road, to discuss a genuine mahogany dinner. The table was not of mahogany, it is true, but we mean that the meal was of that complete and com- fortable character to which we have already referred in contrast with the peculiar incompleteness and discom- fort of ' pic-nic ' arrangements. ' Success to the Leeds Town Hall organ,' and the healths of Messrs. Smart and Spark (the designers of the instrument), and the emi- nent builders, were, of course, drunk with enthusiasm. Messrs. Smart and Spark were present, and two or three gentlemen came from Leeds expressly to assist at ths LTFE OF HENRY SMART. 185 " The * swell box ' by no means presented the bare appearance that such pipe-cages generally wear. It was gaily decorated with Union Jacks and other banners, with devices regal, patriotic, or eccentric. One little flag in particular caused cachinnation, and thereby pro- moted digestion. It bore the figure of a lion, and was the most fabulous depictment of the king of beasts that we ever gazed upon. The Leeds Corporate Arms occu- pied a conspicuous position, and they are funny enough. An owl rampant, surmounting the shield, an owl rampant on the dexter side, and a third owl, likewise rampant, on the sinister (the latter twain looking most despe- rately knowing). The only remaining portion of the device we can call to mind was a sheep defunct, sus- pended; emblematic, we imagine, of hung mutton, which is a fine thing, and in which every Corporation delighteth. Touching the decoration of the interior of this novel dining-hall, some one happened to remark that it resembled a ^ship's cabin, upon which Mr. Geo. Cooper (of .St. Sepulchre's, St. Paul's, and the Chapel Koyal) said, ' Of course. It's going to be a organ.' With this ready and legitimate joke we must close our ' notice ' of the ' Dinner in a Swell Box.' " It is now time to give a description of this instru- mentjVnot only for information concerning its size, construction, stops, &c., but for the interesting fact that the following was written by Smart only a few years before his death, and affords an instance of his clear, plain, and forcible literary style : — 1 86 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. In giving a description and history of the Grand Organ which stands in the Leeds Town Hall, the bare facts only are stated. After the foundations of the Town Hall were laid, some private gentlemen, amateurs in music, formed themselves into a committee, for the purpose of raising funds sufficient to build an organ worthy of the town of Leeds and of the Hall, which promised to be one of the finest in the kingdom. In this stage of the proceed- ings a plan (including drawing and specification) for an organ of considerably greater dimensions than that at present existing in the Hall was prepared by Mr. Henry Smart of London, and Mr. William Spark, of Leeds, and was oifered for adoption to this committee, by whom, after close examination, the proposal was very favourably re- ceived. But it being found impossible to induce the authorities to commence such a work without the advan- tages of public competition, the following resolution was ultimately adopted by the Town Council at a special meeting held on Monday, September 29, 1856 : — " That the Council be recommended to grant a sum not exceed- ing ;£^Sooo for the erection of an organ in the Town Hall." Acting upon this resolution, the Council adver- tised for " plans and specifications for an organ, to be erected in the Town Hall, and an estimate of cost not exceeding ;;^4ooo, exclusive of the case, with a full set of detail drawings necessary and sufficient for letting the work by contract." The Council agreed to give a prize of_;^iso for the best set of plans, which were to be sent in by the 31st day of January 1857. On Monday, the 12th July, the committee of the Leeds Town Council met for the purpose of receiving and deciding upon the reports of the sub-committee LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 187 appointed to examine the plans sent in. Eight sets of plans were submitted. The sub-committee reported their recommendation that those bearing the motto, " Semper Fidelis," should be adopted. The committee then resolved, " that _;^i5o should be paid to the authors of those plans, provided they could succeed in making a contract for the completion of the organ according to the specification of material and workmanship satis- factory to the Organ Committee, and for the stipulated sum of _;^4ooo." The sealed envelope bearing the motto, " Semper Fidelis," was then opened, and it was announced to the committee that these plans had been sent in by Messrs. Henry Smart of London and William Spark of Leeds. Tenders for the erection of an organ according to the plans and specifications which had obtained the prize were then advertised. On Monday, August 24th, a meeting of the com- mittee was held for the purpose of opening the tenders which had been sent in from the five following firms : — Messrs. Gray & Davison, London ; Messrs. Hill & Son, London : Messrs. Bevington & Son, London ; Mr. Holt, Leeds; and Messrs. Forster & Andrews, Hull. After some discussion, the tender of Messrs. Gray & Davison was accepted. The organ was immediately commenced by Messrs. Gray & Davison, but was not completed when the Town Hall was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in Septem- ber 1858, though part of it was available during the Musical Festival which followed. The organ was entirely finished a few months later, and inaugurated by Messrs. Henry Smart and William Spark, on the 7 th April J 859, by two public performances. The case was designed by Mr. Broderick, architect of 1 88 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. the Town Hall ; the lower part, which is of oak, was made in Leeds by Messrs. Thorp & Atkinson. The ornaments are all of carved wood, and are exceedingly- well executed by Mr. Matthews, also of Leeds. In referring to the drawing, it will be seen that there are four towers, which contain pipes belonging to the 32-feet pedal stop, " Sub Bass." All the front pipes are illuminated in gold and colours, by Mr. Grace of Lon- don, who also carried out the decoration of the Hall. The organ occupies the north end of the Hall, and is a very appropriate ornament to the magnificent room in which it is placed. It is upwards of 50 feet high, about 47 feet in width, and 25 deep in the centre, and weighs nearly 70 tons. The total cost, including the case and hydraulic engines, was about ;^6ooo. The organ has four manual claviers, the compass of each from CO to in altissimo, 61 notes, and a pedal clavier from CCC to F, 30 notes. The Orchestral Solo Organ (Uppermost Clavier), contains the' following stops : — By Pipes on Sound Boards. I. Bourdon . 8 Feet 6 I Pipes 2. Concert Flute Harmonic . 8 „ 42 » 3. Piccolo Hai-monio . 4 ,. 49 ,, 4. Ottavina Harmonic 2 ,, 61 „ 5. Clarinet 8 „ 61 „ 6. Oboe 8 „ 49 „ 7. Cor Anglais and Bassoon (free reed) 8 „ 61 „ 8. Tromba 8 ,. 61 „ 9. Ophicleide . . 8 „ 81 „ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. By Mechanical Combination. 10. Clarinet and Flute, in Octaves. 1 1. Oboe and Flute, in ditto. 12. Clarinet and Bassoon, in ditto. 13. Clarinet and Oboe, in ditto. 14. Oboe and Bassoon, in ditto. 15. Flute, Clarinet, and Bassoon, in Double Octaves. 16. Flute, Oboe, and Bassoon, in ditto. The Swell Oroan (Second Clavier), contains the fol. lowing stops : — I. Bourdon . 16 Feet 61 Pipes 2. Open Diapason . 8 „ 61 „ 3. Stopped Diapason (Treble) . 8 „ 49 it 4. Stopped Diapason (Bass) 8 „ 12 >) S. Keraulophon* 8 „ 49 6. Harmonic Flute 8 „ 49 7. Octave 4 „ 61 J 8. Gemshorn . 4 ,, 61 9. "Wood Flute 4 ,, 61 10. Twelfth 3 ,. 61 II. Fifteenth . 2 ,, 61 12. Piccolo 2 >. 61 13. Sesquialtra 4 Ranks 244 14. Mixture 3 ,. 183 15. Contra Fagotto 16 Feet 61 16. Trumpet 8 „ 61 17. Cornopean . 8 „ 61 18. Oboe 8 „ 61 19. Vox Humana 8 „ 61 20. Clarion 4 » 61 , * This stop, invented by Messrs. Gray & Davison, was first in- troduced in the organ built by them for St. Paul's, Wilton Place, in 1843. It was also in their organ in the Great Exhibition of 1 85 1, and for which a Council medal was awarded. 1 90 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The Great Organ (Third Clavier) contains, in reality, tWo complete and distinct organs, of different powers and qualities. One, called the "Front Great Organ," contains the following stops : — I. Double Diapason (open metal) 16 Feet 61 Pipes 2. Open Diapason 8 „ 61 , 3. Spitz Gamba 8 „ 61 , 4. Stopped Diapason . 8 „ 61 , 5. Octave 4 .. 61 , 6. Wald Flbte 4 „ 61 , 7. Twelfth . . 3 „ 61 , 8. Fifteenth . 2 „ 61 , 9. Quint Mixture 4 Ranks 244 , 10. Tierce Mixture 5 „ 305 . II. Trumpet . 8 Feet 61 , 12. Clarion 4 „ 61 , We contents of the " Back Great Organ" are as follow : — 13. Bourdon . . . .16 Feet 61 Pipes 14. Flute a PaTillon . 8 „ 61 , 15. Viola 8 „ 61 , 16. Flute Harmonic . 8 „ 61 , 17. Quint 6 „ 61 , 18. Octave 4 .. 61 , 19. Flute Octaviante , 4 .. 54 , 20. Piccolo Harmonic . 2 „ 6i , 21. Cymbal 3 Ranks 183 , 22. Furniture . 4 .1 244 , 23. Contra Trombone . 16 Feet 6i , 24. Trombone . 8 „ 61 , 25. Trumpet Harmonic 8 „ 61 , 26. Tenor Trombone 4 „ 61 , The Choir Organ (Lowermost Clavier) contains the following stops : — 1. Sub-dulciana . . .16 Feet 61 Pipes. 2. Open Diapason . . . 8 „ 61 ,, 3. Rohr Flute (metal) . . 8 „ 12 „ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The Choir Organ — continued. 191 4. stopped Diapason (Basa) wood 8 Feet 49 Pipes. 5. Salcional . 8 „ 61 „ 6. Viol da Gamba 8 „ 49 „ 7. Octave 4 >. 6t » 8. Suabe Flute 4 ,. '49 ,. 9. Flute Harmonio 4 ,. 49 ■, 10. Twelfth 3 ., 61 „ 11. Fifteenth. . 2 „ 61 „ 12. Ottavina (wood) 2 ,. 6i „ 13. Dulciana Mixture . S Ranks 30s „ 14. Euphone (free reed) 16 Feet 61 „ 15. Trumpet 8 „ 61 „ 16. Clarion 4 „ 61 „ The Echo Organ * (which can be played on either the Solo or Choir Clavier) contains the following stops : — 1. Bourbon (wood) . . .16 Feet 2. Dulciana (metal) 3. Lieblich Gedacht (wood) 4. Flute Traverso (wood) 5. Flute d' Amour (metal) 6. Dulciana Mixture (metal) 7.1 Carillons t . 8 „ 4 .. 4 „ 4 Ranks 49 Pipes. 49 6i 61 61 244 Tenor F to C in alt. The Pedal Organ contains the following stops : — 30 Pipes. 1. Sub Bass (open metal) 2. Contra Bourbon (wood) 3. Open Diapason (metal) 4. Open Diapason (wood) 5. Yiolin (wood) 6. Bourbon (wood) 32 Feet 32 16 16 16 16 30 30 30 30 30 * The Echo Organ was added in 1865 ; it formed part of the original plan, and was only omitted at first' on the score of + Presented by the Alderman Marsden in 1874, during the first year of his Mayoralty. 192 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The Pedal Organ — continued 7. Quint (open wood) . 8. Octave 9. Violonoello . 10. Twelfth 11. Fifteentli . 12. Mixture 13. Contra Bombard (free reed) 14. Bombard 15. Fagotto 16. Clarion 12 Feet 30 Pipes 8 „ 30 8 „ 30 6 „ 3° 4 M 30 5 Ranks 150 32 Feet 30 16 „ 30 16 „ 30 8 „ 30 The Coupling Stops are as follows : — 1. Solo Organ to Great Clavier. 2. Great Organ to Solo Clavier. 3. Solo Organ Super Octave (on its own Clavier). 4. Solo Organ Sub Octave (ditto). 5. Swell Organ to Great Super Octave. 6. Swell Organ to Great tTnison. 7. Swell Organ to Great Sub Octave. 8. Swell Organ to Choir Clavier. 9. Choir Organ to Great Unison. 10. Swell Organ to Pedal Clavier. 11. Choir Organ to ditto. 12. Great Organ to ditto. 13. Full Pedal Organ. 14. Solo Organ to Pedal Clavier. 1 5. Echo Organ to Solo Clavier. 16. Echo Organ to Choir Clavier. 17. Tremulant to Echo Organ. The Pedals, &c., for various purposes of mechanical adjustment, are as follows : — 1. Swell Pedal. ' 2. Swell Pedal for Solo Organ. 3. Swell Tremulant Pedal. 4. Pedal admitting wind to the Back Great Organ. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 193 Pedals, &e. — continued 5. Pedal coupling the Back Great Organ to Swell Clavier. 6, 7, 8, 9. Composition Pedals. 10. Crescendo Pedal. 11. Diminuendo Pedal. 12. 13, 14, 15. Indexes to Composition Pedals. 1 5 and 17. Wind Couplers to Composition Pedals. Summary of Draw Stops, &c. :- Solo Organ, .... Combination Solo Organ, . Swell Organ, .... Great Organ— Front, 12, Back, 14, Choir Organ, .... Echo Organ, .... Pedal Organ, .... Coupling Stops, Making a total of . . Besides 17 Composition and other Pedals for various movements, making altogether I3S- 9 7 20 26 16 7 16 17 118 Stops. MARY OF riPE S: — Solo Organ, . 506 Swell Organ, . 1440 Great Organ, 2311 Choir Organ, 1123 Echo Organ, 520 Pedal Organ, 600 Total, . 6500 These tabular statements shew the Leeds organ to be, at least, one of the largest in Europe. But, large as it is, its claims to notice depend less on its size than on its completeness, and the facilities it offers to the N 194 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. skilful performer for the execution of "all styles oi ■with just effect. Whilst other organs may cont^Wa larger number of actual pipes than the Leeds inswu- ment, it will, nevertheless, be evident to any person inspecting the peculiar construction, and the number of mechanical contrivances for increasing the variety of effects, especially in the Solo Organ, that, in an almost unlimited change and degree of tone, as well as in in- tensity of power and orchestral combinations, this organ stands unrivalled. No stop belonging to the Solo Organ has any refer- ence to those massive or " full " effects, which properly are the province of the other portions of the instrument. Every stop (except the "Bourdon") is simply what it pretends to be — a solo stop — having the nearest attain- able relation with its orchestral prototype. Further, to increase the practical usefulness of this relation, all the stops are placed horizontally — a position which, by care- ful experiment, has been found to add between twenty and thirty per cent, to their ordinary intensity of tone, and to meet this unusual position the sound-boards are placed vertically instead of horizontally. Furthermore, the first eight stops in the list are supplied with a high pressure of wind (six inches for the bass and tenor, and seven inches for the middle and treble portions of their compass), and are enclosed in two swell-boxes, having Venetian shutters above, below, and in front. The ninth stop (ophicleide) stands, or rather lies, below the rest of the Solo Organ, and is supplied with ten inches air pressure throughout. The great peculiarity of this Solo Organ, however, is found in the stops numbered from 10 to 1 6, which, by means of a number of me- chanical contrivances (simple in themselves, but almost LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 195 ...iuap^ible to describe clearly without tlie aid of dia- ' grams), enable the performer to play certain of the stops Staves to each other, while merely touching single on the clavier. Thus, for example, on drawing Istop (No. 15) labelled "flute, clarinet, and bassoon, Saouble octaves,'' and pressing down the middle C of 5e solo clavier, the result will be, the tenor C of the lor Anglais* the middle G of the Clarinet, and C above of the 8-feet Flute Harmonique, sounding simultaneously. Similarly, any of the stops numbered from 10 to 16 will place at the performer's disposal the combinations with which they are labelled. The operation of these stops for " mechanical combination," it will be perceived, is totally different to that of any " movement " whereby ordinary stops of different pitch are drawn together. For example, the effect produced by combining the 4-feet flute and the 8-feet " cremona " of an ordinary choir organ, will no more resemble that resulting from the stop No. 10 (which places the middle C of the 8-feet clarinet, and the C above of the 8-feet flute, on the same key), than will the effect of the sounding octave, result- ing from the combination of an open diapason and principal, compare with that of an octave actually played on the open diapason alone. By these contrivances, then, a very accurate imitation of almost all the ordinary wind combinations of an orchestra is placed easily within grasp of one of the performer's hands, leaving the other free for any of those purposes of florid accom- paniment in which the modern race of players are so proficient. By the use, again, of Nos. 3 and 4 of the * The best imitatiye Bassoon that organ-building skill has ever arriyed at. 196 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " coupling stops," a different class of effects is presented. A melody, for example, played in unison on the " ophi- cleide," can be accompanied in the octave above and below it by any or all of the other stops of the Solo Organ, and this merely by playing single notes on the clavier. On the whole, it may be said that this Solo Organ more nearly fulfils the objects implied in its title than any yet constructed. In the Great Organ there are some excellent features of arrangement. The idea of dividing the Great Organ into two distinct masses is certainly not altogether novel ; a similar distribution has been at least hinted at in two or three continental examples. In the present instance, however, the principle has been developed, and the various resources it affords have been made available to a far greater extent than appears to have been contemplated in any other case. The twelve stops placed on the " front " sound-boards are calculated to form a comparatively light, though powerful and bril- liant organ, while the remaining fourteen stops placed on the "back" sound-boards, comprising some of the strongest members of the flue-work — the flute k pavil- ion,* the viola, and the harmonic series of 8, 4, and 2 feet pitch, together with the quint, the large mixtures, and the heavy reeds, will form a ' band ' entirely dif- ferent to the foregoing in amount and quality of force. There is a pedal, numbered " 4,'' in the list of pedals for " mechanical adjustment," which operates on stop-valves placed in the wind trunks of the " back " sound-boards, * The stop is of French origin, and its name has once or twice been Anglicised into " Bell Diapason." It is one of the most powerful stops of the flue kind. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 197 or, in other -words, discharges the functions of what the Dutch and German builders call a " wind-coupler." So long as this pedal remains "hitched down," all the twenty-six stops are at the performer's disposal on the Great Organ clavier; while the act of releasing this pedal instantaneously cuts off the wind-supply from the stops of the " back " sound-boards, and thus sever them from the control of the keys. Hence, then, by the use of this pedal, all or any of the stops of the " back " sound-boards may be instantaneously added to the whole or any part of the " front " Great Organ : thus providing — (besides numerous other effects depending on the stops at the moment in use) — the most rapid and perfect sforzando possible. There is, besides, another pedal, numbered " 5," in the same list, the operation of which, on being " hitched down," is to disconnect the stops of the " back " sound-boards from the great, and couple them to the swell clavier, thus rendering the two portions of the Great Organ separately disposable on different claviers, and suggesting a host of novel combinations, of which the modern race of organists will not be slow to avail themselves. We may close this account of the mechanical arrangements of the Great Organ by stating that its twenty-six stops are disposed on nine sound-boards of ample dimensions ; and that the wind with which they are supplied is increased in pressure twice in the range of the compass, namely, at fiddle G sharp, and again at D sharp, the twelfth above ; while the pressure of wind supplied to the four reed stops of the " back " sound-boards, increasing at the same points, has a higher initial pressure than that allotted to the flue-work. The tone-composition of the Great Organ is also igS LIFE OF HENRY SMART. worthy of remark; Taking the proportions of the flue- stops alone, they stand thus : Two stops of 1 6 feet, six of 8 feet, one of 6 feet, four of 4 feet, one of 3 feet, two of 2 feet, and sixteen ranks of mixtures. To this, add the reeds, namely : One of i5 feet, three of 8 feet, and two of 4 feet ; and the total statement will be, three stops of 16 feet, nine of 8 feet, one of 6 feet, six of 4 feet, one of 3 feet, two of 2 feet, and, as before, sixteen ranks of mixtures. Throughout all this, there are no " vain repetitions " of similar scales and qualities. For example, the six stops which compose the 8 feet pitch of the flue-work, are an o-pen diapason (of the Old English class), a ganiba (of the conical description), a bourdon, a flute & pavilion (previously described), a viola (the largest and most powerful of the German kind known as " string-toned stops "), and & flute harmonique. The same care is exercised throughout the remainder of the flue- work, not omitting the four mixture stops, the scales and compositions of which are studiously varied with reference to the particular part contemplated for each in the general effect. In the reedwork, also, of this manual, a similar variety is observed. The trumpet and clarion of the " front " Great Organ are intended to foUoW'as nearly as possible the model of that brilliant clangy description of reeds which Byfield made so de- servedly famous — a quality, by the way, far too much neglected of late years in this country ; while in the " back" Great Organ the modern English stjde of reed- work has been adopted for the contra trombone, trombone, and tenor trombone; and the most successful achievement of the French school has its representative in the harmonic trumpet. Under all these circumstances, then, of quan- tity and variety, there can be no doubt that, as a LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 199 single manual, this Great Organ has very few rivals in Europe. Having gone somewhat into detail in describing the Great Organ, it is needless — beyond stating that similar principles are observed throughout the instrument — to do more with regard to the Swell and Choir Organs, than refer to the list of their registers as amply repre- senting the qualities of these manuals respectively. In one respect, however, the arrangements of the Swell Organ diifer from those usually adopted. Having its twenty stops disposed on four sound-boards, the two front sound-boards, containing all the reed work, are supplied with wind at one inch greater pressure than that allotted to the others. The Echo Organ* constitutes a complete little organ of six stops, the pipes of which have their own sound- boards placed within the box of the Swell Organ. It can be played on either the solo or choir claviers, by drawing the coupling stops, Nos. 15 and 16. All the pipes are of a small scale, and voiced upon an extremely light pressure of wind. There is a convenient mechanical arrangement in the Pedal Organ which obviates most of the difficulty sometimes complained of in manipulating a large num- ber of pedal stops. Next to the coupler " Great Organ to Pedals" is placed a draw stop, which controls the admission of wind to all the Pedal Organ, except only the molin and bourdon. As both these stops can be easily drawn or returned simultaneously, the full Pedal * The softness and delicate character of this part of the organ is intended, when used in contrast with the other parts of the instrument, to represent the effect of distance. 200 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Organ may be reduced to soft i6 feet stops by the same action whicb detaches the Great Organ keys from the pedals. The pneumatic action is applied to all the claviers, so that the touch, which would otherwise be very heavy on so large an organ, is extremely light. The touch of the Choir Organ is the lightest, being lighter than the touch of some pianofortes. That of the Great Organ is the heaviest, though not any heavier than that of most church organs, and even when the five couplers are used, no difficulty is experienced in playing the most rapid passages. The claviers project over each other, so that the distance from the player to the solo clavier is materially less than it otherwise would be. The draw-stop action is -arranged on the right and left, and in front of the performer. On the right is the draw-stop action of the Great, Solo, and Pedal Organs ; on the left, that of the Choir, Swell, and Echo Organs, and of the solo combination stops. In front of the performer and over the solo clavier are arranged the coupling stops. In order as little as possible to complicate the ope- rations of the performer, there are but four (double action) composition pedals for the whole instrument. These, however, by an instantaneous adjustment (Nos. 1 6 and 17) act, as the player requires, on the Swell Organ alone, or on the Swell, Great, and Pedal Organ simultaneously, or on the two latter only. Further- more, each of these four composition pedals is capable of effecting three different combinations (the changes ex- tending, as before-mentioned, to the Swell, Great, and Pedal Organs, or either of them), the modus operandi, so far as the performer is concerned, being simply the LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 201 setting of an index (Nos. 12, 13, 14, and 15, one of which appertains to each of the composition pedals), to the number indicating the required combination. The Crescendo and diminuendo pedals (Nos. 10 and 11) act on the Swell and Great Organ combined, or on each sepa- rately, in the manner as mentioned of the composition pedals j and in all these cases the pneumatic action has been applied, so that only a slight pressure of the foot is required to produce its motion, and the pressure of the foot and the motion of the draw-stop action is almost instantaneous. The mechanism, pipes, &c., are placed upon four floors. On the first, or ground floor (which is the top of the Orchestra, and 16 feet from the floor of the Hall), is arranged the greater part of the mechanism ; on the second floor are arranged the Great and Pedal Organs ; on the third floor are the Swell and Choir Organs ; and on the fourth floor the Solo Organ in two separate boxes. The pipes are distributed over several sound- boards, so that the tuner experiences no difficulty in getting to any part of the organ. The non-musical reader may be amused to learn that the largest of the metal pipes in front, standing on the first tower to the right of the keyboards, is 36 feet in length, with an internal diameter of 21 inches; while among its 6500 pipes is found every variety of dimension, from the largest just mentioned to the smallest, the length of which is but three-quarters of an inch, with a diameter scarcely exceeding that of a straw. The difficulty (always experienced) of supplying oro^ans of the largest class with an adequate quantity of wind has, in this instance, been overcome by the em- ployment of hydraulic engines. Five of these most 202 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. simple macMnes are attached to a like number of bellows placed in the basement of the building, and the wind supply thus procured is thence distributed to the various departments of the instrument, through the intervention of twenty-seven reservoirs, so weighted as to give the desired varieties of pressure. The united power of these hydraulic engines (equal to eight-horse power), is capable of supplying one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air per second if necessary ; and it is impossible to speak too highly of the accuracy and precision of their action. Unfortunately for all parties this great instru- ment was obliged to be used in a most unfinished and incomplete state when, to quote the language of the Times, " the new and truly magnificent Town Hall was so auspiciously inaugurated by the presence and sanction of Her Majesty the Queen," on Sep- tember the 7th, 1858. Sufficient there was, how- ever, to enable Smart to pour forth a torrent of tone in the National Anthem when the exciting moment arrived for the entrance of the procession, which included the Queen, the Prince Consort, the late Earl of Derby (then Prime Minister), the Arch- bishop of York, the Bishop of Eipon, the Vicar of Leeds (Dr. Hook), the Mayor (Alderman, afterwards Sir Peter Pairbairn), &c. The Musical Festival followed on the three suc- ceeding days, and in almost every respect proved to be an unqualified success. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 203 Many of the greatest artistes of the age were engaged. The principal singers included Clara Novello, Piccolomini, Madame Weiss, Mrs. Sunder- land, Helena Walker, Alboni, Miss Palmer, Miss Dolby, Sims Eeeves, Giuglini, Wilbye Cooper, Weiss, Winn, Santley, &c. The band was that of the London Philharmonic Society (at that time un- rivalled), aided by several talented local players ; and for the rest of the harmonious force, I may here again c[uote the Times: — "The chorus consists of 250 fresh and vigorous Yorkshire voices,* to strengthen and support, and, in their own way, rival the splo singers ; the whole, too, under the direction of a musician of such great acquirement and expe- rience as Professor Sterndale Bennett (himself a Yorkshireman). " The new organ, built at the expense of the Leeds Corporation, though not finished, wiU doubtless prove alike a credit to the Leeds Town Hall and to the eminent London firm of Gray & Davison, to which the organ- world owes so many fine works; but of this we shall be enabled to judge in the course of the morning performances, when the designers, Messrs. Henry Smart and William Spark — the former, one of the most accomplished living * These were trained, and admirably trained too, by Mr, E, S. Burton, organist of the Leeds Parish Church. 204 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. professors of the instrument — will alternately test its powers." Smart and myself presided on alternate days, playing the organ part in the oratorios, and each giving a solo. Of Smart's performance on Thurs- day, September loth, the Times' critic wrote: "Be- tween the first and second parts Mr. Henry Smart delighted the audience with an ingenious and mas- terly improvisation on the new organ, and the general admiration was divided between the capa- bilities of the instrument and those of the per- former." But, notwithstanding this well-deserved tribute to his genius, Smart was not in his hest form. He was vexed at the non-completion of the work; he was angry first with the builders, then with the workmen, and his mind was not otherwise easy in remembering that he had thrown away a chance of appearing at the Festival in all his strength as a composer, the only emanation from his pen in the Festival programme being his short but beautiful part-song, " Spring." However, the great " music meeting " over, we set to work to get the instrument completed and pro- perly displayed, but this was not accomplished before April 7th, 1859, seven months after the opening of the Town Hall. I shall content myself here with the mere official LIFE OF HENRY .SMART. 205 announcement of tlie event by the Town Clerk in the local newspapers : — LEEDS TOWN HALL. Opening of the Organ. The Grand Organ, one of the largest in Europe, built by Messrs. Gray & Davison, of London, and erected in the Victoria Hall, being now completed, wiU be opened with TWO PUBLIC PEEFOEMANCES ON THE MoKJJiNQ AND Evening of Thtjesdat, 7th Apkil, 1859. Mk. HENEY smart, of London, and Me. SPAEK, of Leeds (the designees of the instrument), Will preside, and perform a Selection of Organ and other Music. PBOGRAMME. MOENING PEEFOEMANCE. Pakt 1. . . . Me. Heney Smaet. 1. Extempore. 2. Air ... He layeth the teams 3. Overture . . . Jessonda .... Spohr. 4. Fugue . . . C-Minor . . . f. S. Bach. 5. Marche du Flamheaux Meyerbeer. Paet II Me. Spaek. SAir . . .If with all your hearts Fugue . . . G-Major 2. Operatic Selection . Lucrezia Borgia 3. Prelude and Fugue . B-Minor . 4. Concerto in F . . (ist Movement) 5. Chorus . . The horse an,d his rider . . Handel. God Save the Queen. /. S. Bach. Rink. 2o6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. EVENING PERFORMANCE. Paet I Me. Spark. 1. Grand Offertoire . . . (No. 3) . . . L. Wdy. 2. Operatic Selection . Don Pasquale . . Donizetti. 3. Fantasia colla Fuga W. Spark, 4. National Englisli Airs, varied extemporaneously. 5. Chorus . . .To thee, Cherubim . . Handd. Paet II. . . . Mr. Henry Smaet. I. 2. 3- 4- 5- Chorus . . Wretched lovers . . . Handd. Larghetto in E-flat From Symphony . . . SpoKr. Fugue .... A-Minor . . . J. S. Bach Chorus . . . Let no rash intruder . . Handd, God Save the Queen, extemporaneously varied. Morning Performance to commence at Twelve o'clock ; Evening Performance at Eight o'clock. Admission : — One Shilling, Sixpence, and Threepence. (By Order) JOHN A. IKIN, Town Cleric. Leeds, March ^ist, 1859. " These performances," said the Zeeds Intelli- gencer, " were attended by numerous and highly respectable audiences, including members of the Corporation and well-known families of the town, and a considerable number of amateur and profes- sional musicians What we should regard as the prevailing characteristic of the organ is its brilliancy. The articulation is clear and decided, the tone throughout the whole range of each register is equable and accordant in quality, and the variety LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 207 of voice in different stops is well marked. Such is the excellence of the mechanism, and the ease and sweetness of the touch under the performer's hands, that there is no limit to the rapidity of his execu- tion hut that of his own ahUity; and, hy the apparatus for quick and varied combinations, he has the resources of the instrument admirably under command. No organ that we have heard approaches so nearly in its capabilities to a substitute for the various and mingled tones and expression of an orchestral band. The most decided success, we think, is in the reeds ; the solo stops are very fine ; the vox humana and the oboes are especially sweet, and the great tuba speaks forth with firm and im- pressive tone." The Zeeds Mercury also closed a flattering article on the organ in the following words : — " The town may justly feel proud of this new and artistic work. Leeds has now secured an organ worthy of her reputation and position, and the world has obtained another great instrument ; for our Town Hall organ is not merely a constructive curiosity, or a gigantic piece of furniture ; it is the scientific embodiment of discoveries as grand and noble as they are humanising and elevating." Such were the independent opinions of the very able men who contributed the musical criticisms at that time to the, two leading newspapers of the North 2o8 IIFE OF HENRY SMART. of England ; and such were the views also' of many eminent musicians. " I declare to you," said Molique (one of the most distinguished composers and performers of this century), after he had been listening to the organ for an hour, " the loudest power of that instrument is all tone, to my ears, and it is more varied than anything I have ever heard." Adelina Patti would deviate a journey on purpose to have a quiet hour or two listening to the organ; Titiens was always enthusiastic in her expressions about it; Giuglini affirmed that the accompaniments on it in the Miserere scene of II Trovatore (which Titiens and himself had so often sung in the Town Hall with sublime effect), were more effective than with the Opera Band; Thalberg played upon it, wrote and spoke about it, with stimulating delight ; Sterndale Bennett said that "he had never heard an organ mix so well with a band, and that its rich pervading tone was of great value in the oratorio choruses." To return for a few moments to Smart's playing at the formal opening of the organ on April 7, 1859. He was then in the healthy possession of all his faculties, and could see well with the aid of his powerful spectacles. He was in fine form, and played magnificently. His rendering of his two favourite fugues in C, and A-minor, by the immortal John Sebastian Bach, was something to be remem- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 209 bered, not altogether from its perfect manipulation, but for the poetic feeling and the intellectual reading he infused into these fine inspirations of the grand old Leipsic Cantor. Still greater was he in his extemporaneous variations on " God save the Queen." Whether any part or parts of- this piece had been " thought out/' I cannot say ; but, in any case, it was one of the most remarkable achieve- ments of the many remarkable extemporaneous outpourings I have yet ' heard, whether from the cunning hand of my old master. Dr. Samuel Sebastian Wesley; the subtle craft of Professor Haupt, in Berlin ; the brilliant fancy of Lef dbure Wely ; the graceful melodies of Edward John Hopkins ; or the thoughtful imagery of Alexandre Guilmant. The variations did not include one with the customary scale and arpeggio passages, but all were in due form and proportion — imitative, brilliant, diatonic, chro- matic, canonic, choral, and fugal. At the close Smart was greeted, with enthusiastic applause, and on my congratulating him, he said, " Well, thank goodness ! the organ is all right up to now ; and I tell you what, the sooner we get up to Bolton Bridge the better." I had arranged' that we should go off for a short holiday as soon as the organ was really finished and opened ; and Smart was delighted to find that the spot I had selected was Bolton, a place he used 2IO LIFE OF HENRY SMART. to tell his family when he returned to town was " a little heaven upon earth." It was early spring — the sun shone out brightly — the air was clear and bracing. In our drive towards Bolton from Ilkley, where the scenery becomes so beautiful and interesting, and the river Wharfe is surrounded by high hills and richly- foliaged woods, the poet-musician became quite excited with delight, and said, " Isn't it lovely ? What tints of green ! What grand trees ! What a charming river ! " Friends as we were in most matters, we were rivals in our love and admiration of nature. Knowing as I do, from the exercise of my little hobby — fly-fishing for trout — almost every nook and corner between Kilnsey and Tadcaster, on the river Wharfe, I felt a pardonable pride in being able to indicate the chief points in the scenery to my distinguished friend, who, on his part, was only too ready to acknowledge and appre- ciate them. Arrived at the famous Devonshire Hotel, where Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were then the attentive host and hostess, we most thoroughly enjoyed a charming little dinner, and afterwards walked out of the French window of the apartment on to the velvet-clad lawn, where there is such a pretty view of the river, Beamsley Beacon, and the Bridge, Smart was delighted ; he lit up the fragrant weed, sat down on one of the garden seats, and LIFE OF HENR V SMAR T. 211 looked, and no doubt felt himself to be, as bappy and independent as any monarch on the face of the earth. The scene was certainly onB of unusual beauty. The sun was going down and shedding his golden light on the opposite woods ; the throstle, the linnet, the wren, and the dear little robin were each in their turn singing their sweet and thrilling even- ing songs, — sometimes alone, and then anon in a grand united chorus of joy and happiness. No won- der the musician then formed such a love of Bolton Bridge that it became an institution with us to revisit the spot annually ; and we did so for many years, every Whitsuntide, to celebrate the erection and opening of the Grand Organ in the Leeds Town HaU. The next great instrument in the designing of which Smart took a prominent part is the fine organ in St. Andrew's Hall (at first named the Public Halls), Glasgow. To those who take an interest in these matters the following descriptive sketch, written probably by one of the committee, will be read with much pleasure : — Early in the progress of their work the directors of the Glasgow Public HaUs Company determined that the great haU would, as a music-room, be incomplete without an organ, on such a scale of completeness as would fully equip it, not only for the accompaniment of oratorios, but for 212 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. every variety of those solo performances which of late years have become so popular and instructive in Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, and some other places. With this view Mr. Henry Smart, of London, and Mr. W. T. Best, of Liverpool, were commissioned to prepare the specification of an organ fitted in every way for the pur- poses contemplated. Tenders were subsequently invited from M. Cavaill6-Coll, of Paris, Messrs. Foster & An- drews, of HuU, and Messrs. T. C. Lewis & Co., of London, for the construction of an organ on the designs so pre- pared. The tender of the last-named firm was ultimately accepted, and the result is the grand instrument which now crowns the summit of the orchestra at the southern end of the great hall. As the visitor's attention is naturally first attracted by the appearance of the instrument, it wiLL not be out of place here to give some description of its exterior or " case," as it is teclmically termed, and this will perhaps be best done by an extract from the Glasgow Herald of the 9th November, 1877, to which it need only be added, that the design was prepared by Messrs. Campbell Douglas & Sellars, the architects of the building : — " Meantime we direct our attention to the case which contains the instrument. It is totally unlike any other case which we have ever seen. Usually, such structures are made up of little more than rows of pipes arranged in more or less artistic form, and held together by a slight frame-work of wood ; but here we have a grand architec- tural composition, in which the pipes hold but a very subordinate place. It is, of course, open to discussion which kind of organ case is the best in a musical sense, but we think there cannot be two opinions as to the style LIFE OF HENR Y SMA RT.\ 213 adopted here being tlie best from an arcbitectural point of view. It might be said that a case in which so much wood is used would have a tendency to muffle the sound, but we understand that the builder of this instrument has expressed his perfect confidence that his organ will be heard with fuU effect, as the case has been so designed as to leave plenty of free space where it is required. The extreme width of the case is about 46 feet, and it is over 40 feet high; Its depth averages about 20 feet. It has been designed in thorough harmony with the style of the building, but with a greater amount of freedom as to its ornamental detail than is observable in other features of the building. The same may be said as to its painting, which is less severe and in a much brighter key than the walls of the building. The pipes, so far as they are seen, are entirely gilt, and gold leaf is also used most profusely over the whole case. Two colossal female figures, repre- senting Music and Poetry, and a seated figure of Fame, form part of the design, and there are besides two friezes surrounding the ' Towers,' each containing groups of youths bearing musical instruments. The whole effect of the design is striking and unique." Of the interior of this instrument it would be difficult to give any description at once adequate and popular, since the majority of listeners at an Organ Eecital can scarcely be expected to have such an amount of technical knowledge as would enable them to take interest in the costly and complicated mechanism employed in pro- ducing the tones which delight them. However, some account of the mechanical and musical contents of the instrument seems absolutely requisite, and this may per- haps be most conveniently given by quoting modified 214 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. extracts from the specification, with such comments as appear necessary. The Organ has four manual claviers, acting respectively upon the Solo, Swell, Choir, and Great Organs — and one pedal clavier. The compass of the four manual claviers is five octaves, or sixty-one notes, from CC to C — the pedal clavier ex- tending from CCC to G, being a compass of two octaves and a-half, or thirty-two notes. LIST OF THE STOPS. SOLO ORGAN. The fourth, or highest, clavier acts on the Solo Organ, which contains the following stops : — No. No o£ Pipes I. Tuba, metal. 8 feet. 61 2. Tromba, metal, 8 feet, 61 3. Harmonic Flute, wood and metal, 8 feet. 61 4. Octave Flute, . wood and metal, 4 feet. 61 5. Cor Anglais, metal, 8 feet, 61 6. Oboe, metal, 8 feet. 61 7. Clarionet, . metal, SWELL OEGAN. 8 feet, 61 The third clavier acts on the Swell Organ, and contains the following stops : — No. No. of Pipes I. Bourdon, olosed wood, 16 feet, 61 2. Open Diapason, metal, 8 feet, 61 2. Spitz Flote, . metal, 8 feet, 61 4. Viol de Gambe, metal. 8 feet, 6 1 5. Voix Celeste, . metal, 8 feet, 6 1 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 215 No. Nc . of Pipe 6. Flauto Dolce, . . wood and metal. 8 feet. 61 7. Octave, . metal. 4 feet. 61 8. Suabe Flute, . . wood, 4 feet. 61 9. Nazard, . metal, 2| feet, 61 10. Fifteenth, metal, 2 feet. 61 II. Full Mixture, . four ranks. ... 244 12. Echo Dulciana Cornet, six ranks. 366 13. Contra Fagotto, . wood. 16 feet, 61 14. Trumpet, metal. 8 feet. 61 15. Cornopean, metal. 8 feet, 61 16. Oboe, metal. 8 feet. 61 17. Clarion, . metal. 4 feet. 61 fl CHOIR ORGAN. Tlie second clavier acts on tiie Choir Organ, and con- tains the following stops : — No. No of Kpes I. Lieblich Bordon, closed wood. 16 feet. 61 2. Violin Diapason, metal. 8 feet, 61 3- Dulciana, metal. 8 feet. 61 4- Flauto Trayerso, wood and metal, 8 feet. 61 S- Lieblich Gedact, closed wood. 8 feet. 61 6. LiebHcb Flbte, closed wood. 4 feet. 61 7- Gemshom, metal. 4 feet. 61 8. Piccolo, . wood and metal. 2 feet. 61 9- Vox Humana, . metal, 8 feet, 61 10. Clarionet, GI metal, lEAT ORGAN, 8 feet, 61 The first and lowest clavier acts on the Great Organ, and contains the following stops, comprising two com- plete organs of difi'erent qualities of tone : — 2l6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. FRONT GREAT ORGAN. So. I. Double Open Diapason, metal, 2. Open Diapason, 3. Open Diapason, 4. Rolir Flbte, 5. Octave, . 6. Twelfth, 7. Fifteenth, 8. Sesquialtera, 9. Trumpet, (large) metal, (small) metal, wood and metal, metal, metal, metal, four ranks, metal, 16 feet, 8 feet, 8 feet, 8 feet, 4 feet, 2| feet, 2 feet, 8 feet, No. of Pipes. 61 6l 61 61 61 61 61 244 61 BACK GREAT ORGAN. No. 10. II. 12. 13. Bourdon, Viola, ; Hohl Flbte, . Harmonic Flute, 14. Octave Viola, . 15. Mixture, 16. Double trumpet, 17. Trombone, 18. Clarion, . closed wood, metal, . wood, wood and metal, metal, . five ranks, metal, metal, metal, 16 feet, 8 feet, 8 feet, 4 feet, 4 feet, 16 feet, 8 feet, 4 feet, No. of Pipes. 61 61 61 61 61 305 "61 61 61 PEDAL ORGAN. The Pedal Organ contains the following stops : — No. 1. Double Open Diapason, 2. Open Diapason, 3. Open Diapason, 4. Violon Dulciana, 5. Quint, 6. Octave, 7. Violoncello, wood, wood, metal, wood open, wood open, metal, metal, No. of Pipes, 32 feet, 32 16 feet, 16 feet, 16 feet, 12 feet, 8 feet, 8 feet. 8. Grave Mixture, metal, two ranks, 6 feet and 4 feet, 32 32 32 32 32 32 64 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 217 No. 9. Trombone, . 10. Contra Fagotto, 11. Trumpet, 12. Clarion, metal, wood, metal, metal. Total numlDer of sounding stops ; Solo Organ, . Swell Organ, Choir Organ, . Great Organ, Pedal Organ, Total number of Total numlDer of pipes Solo Organ, Swell Organ, Choir Organ, Great Organ, Pedal Organ, No. of Pipes. 16 feet, 32 16 feet, 32 8 feet, 32 4 feet, 32 7 17 10 18 64 427 1525 610 1525 416 4503 All these stops extend through the entire compass of their respective claviers. Besides these sixty-four sounding stops there are fourteen other stops called " couplers," the office of which is to unite the different claviers ia various combinations. These are placed in front of the player, immediately above the solo or highest clavier, in a horizontal row. Their names, uses, and order of position, commencing from " left to right," are as follows : — No. 1. Pull Pedal Organ : — when not drawn cuts off the wind from aU the Pedal Organ stops, except those numbered 4, 7, and 10, in the list of pedal stops. 2. Great clavier to pedal. 2i8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. No. 3. Choir Clavier to Pedal. 4. Swell Clavier to Pedal. 5. Solo Clavier to Pedal. 6. Swell to Great, in sub-octave. 7. Swell to Great, in unison. 8. Swell to Great, in super-octave. 9. Choir to Great. 10. Swell to Choir. 11. Solo to Great. 12. Great to Solo. 13. Solo, in sub-octave ;' on its own clavier. 14. Solo, in super-octave ; on its own clavier. In addition to the pedal-board (the keys of which act upon the notes of the Pedal Organ), there are thirteen other pedals, arranged above it for various purposes of " mechanical adjustment," and four coupling pedals — two within convenient range of the right foot, and two within convenient range of the left foot. The uses and order of position of the thirteen pedals placed above the pedal-board, commencing from "left to right,'' are as follows : — No. '• ) 2. > Combination pedals for the Swell Organ. 3- ) 4- 'I Combination pedals for the Great and Pedal Organs. 8. Choir ' ' crescendo " Pedal. 9. Swell " crescendo " Pedal. 10. Solo "crescendo" Pedal. 11. Ventil Pedal, admitting wind to the stops of the "Back Great" Organ. 12. Tremulant to^Choir. 13. Tremulant to Swell. The "four coupling pedals" afford the player an LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 219 additional means of actuating four of tlie coupling stops placed in front of the " Solo '' Clavier, when it may be more convenient to employ the right or left foot than to take either hand off the keyboards during the actual pro- gress of the music. No. 1. Solo to Pedals, > _ , , . 2. Great to Pedals, fO'i*^^ 1^^*- 3. Solo to Great I On the rigW. 4. Swell to Great, i ° To all this it is only necessary to add, that the ap- paratus called the " Pneumatic Lever " is used for all the claviers, both manual and pedal, and for aU the draw-stop movements throughout the instrument, thus securing the least possible amount of exertion to the performer. The curious in such matters may be interested to know that the sounding pipes of this instrument vary in size from the lowest note of the Pedal Organ, with its actual length of 30 feet and sectional area of 418 inches, to the smallest pipe of the " mixture " stop, having a length of less than one inch, with a sectional area of less than a quarter of an inch, and that to aU. the vast assemblage of pipes, of every variety of size and shape, between these extremes, the compressed air necessary for their speech is supplied by three bellows, having an aggregate surface of 240 square feet, placed in the basement of the building, and wrought by hydraulic power. To those who compute the size and value of an organ by the common and generally most delusive test of the number of its stops and pipes, the instrument here de- scribed will at once appear much smaller than those in the Albert Hall and Alexandra Palace, London, and the Town Halls of Liverpool and Leeds. 220 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Mere magnitude and noise, however, have not been the aim of the designers. They have sought rather to combine all that was necessary in power with every modem improvement, both tonal and mechanical, so as to place at the performer's disposal one of the most complete instruments attainable ; and while it is at once conceded that the Glasgow organ yields to several of its rivals in magnitude, it is at the same time contended that it is not excelled either at home or abroad, iu beauty of tone or perfection of workmanship. Of course, the last three paragraphs of this description must be accepted cum, grano salts. That it is a magnificent fine-toned instrument, no one who has heard it can doubt, and as to the inside work, not even Cavaille-Coll has ever executed anything more satisfactory. Smart brought to it his usual enthusiasm, and he was determined that (as at Leeds), so far as his own superintendence went, nothing should be left undone to make it at least the grandest organ ever erected in Scotland. During its progress at the manufactory of Messrs. Lewis and Co., I had the pleasure more than once of examiaing with him every portion of the work, and it was astonishing to observe how accurately the blind musician described all that others could see — from the size of the pipes, the purity of the metal, their weight, the finish of the wood pipes, and a hundred other things pertaining to a large organ. In proof of his earnest, conscientious, thorough LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 221 mode of doing whatever work lie entered upon, I am here able, by the courtesy of J. Stillie, Esq., Glas- gow, who took a prominent part in promoting the erection of the public halls, as well as the building of the organ, to give four out of a large number of interesting letters Smart wrote to that gentleman respecting the erection of the instrument : — " 30 Kins Henry's Koad, August I'^th, 1877. "My dear Stiliie, — I am delighted to hear we have made a start at last in Glasgow. You will remember that I warned you months ago about the mess that was likely to take place in getting the bellows in. However, 'all's well that ends well,' and so as long as they are in never mind the rest. Now, my dear Stillie, don't forget to give me a line, by return of post, to say positively the day when you will arrive in London. I am a good deal knocked up, far from well, and longing for sea air ; but I cannot stir until I have seen you, and seen the organ, at aU events, pulled down and on its way for packing. Now, if you are coming up this week, I shall, on both these accounts, be able to start about the middle of next week ; and so, may it please your Eoyal Highness, not to keep me in town longer than the aforesaid. — And with kindest regards, believe me yours very sincerely, Hbnet Smart, « T. L. Stillie, Esq." 222 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " 30 King Heney's Eoad, AugvM 16, 1877. " My deae Stillie, — Many thanks for your note, which, with such beautiful indefiniteness, fixes the time of your arrival here. However, as you are certain to be here on Monday evening, please oblige me, if possible, by so arranging that I may see you on Tuesday, for I want to go out of town on "Wed- nesday morning, and I must see you on several matters before I go. I am glad to say the organ is being rapidly pulled to pieces for packing, so that no time will be lost here. I will keep the whole of Tuesday next at your disposal, so please let me know as soon as you can at what hour I shall call on you at the Tavistock or elsewhere. — With kindest regards, I am sincerely yours, "Henkt Smart. " T. L. StUlie, Esq." "30 King Hbnet's Road, Avgust 9, 1877. " My deae Stillie, — I am most happy to teU you that Lewis's foreman of joiners arrived in Glasgow yesterday, and is by this time, no doubt, puzzling his head how he shall get his job done ; and am still much more gladder to say that the bellows (and be blowed to them) left London yesterday, and, ' weather permitting,' will be landed in Glasgow sometime to- morrow. So much for that, and it will now be for LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 223 you to put the spur on to Messrs. Forrester to get the engines as soon as possible. All the manual por- tion of the organ will, I hope and believe, begin to leave Lewis's place at the end of next week, so that you need have no qualms of apprehension about the finishing of the job. I am thinking of going with all my people to Berwick-on-Tweed, of all places on earth, for some sea-air, in a week or two, and from thence shall run over to Glasgow to see how things are going on ; and you may depend shall pour out all the thunders of my vocabulary upon whatever recreants, idlers, and the like, that I may find who are unwilling to do at least six hours' work a- day. And so, for the present, my dear Stillie, with kindest regards, fare-ye-well. — From yours ever sincerely, "Heney Smaet. «T. L. StiUie, Esq." " 30 King Henet's Road, Sept. 29, 1877. " My deak Stillie, — Many thanks for your note, which came to me at Whitby, and which I was glad to receive, as it relieved a considerable part of my anxiety. But your work is not over yet as to these engines and bellows, and I want you to see that the following programme is carried out while the masons are repairing the Ashler blocks for the engine beds (which wiU take a couple of days). Hurry on Lewis's men in fixing the main wind 224 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. trunks from the big bellows up to the organ. Mean- while, pray satisfy yourself that the water for the engines has been laid down into the bellows room, and also that a way has been opened into the drain- age of the hall for the escape of waste water when it has done its work. Next, after Eait's men have fixed the engines, they must be instructed to make the necessary connectiotis with the pipes for the supply and escape water. But, above all things, keep up an incessant worry about the iron work for transmitting the power to the bellows until you get it delivered at the hall, and until Lewis's people, assisted by Eait if necessary, have fixed all its parts in their proper places, and connected them with the engines. Lastly, Lewis's men will have to fix the gear to the bellows for regulating the speed of the engines; and all this having been done, it will be the business of Eait's people to start the engines and see that they do their work correctly. Now all this, my dear Stillie, when done simply means getting the wind into the organ, which is the first thing that has to be attended to, as it will be necessary for Lewis's men to try all the pneumatic actions, get them pro- perly in order before the pipes come into the organ, so as not to cause interruptions afterwards ; and I much wish I could have stayed in Glasgow to see all this myself, but as that could not be, I am quite happy to leave this plan of operations in the hands LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 225 of so terribly energetic a man as yourself, as I know you will either see everything carried outj or else bang all the people's heads together. As you see, I am now at home again to get a week's work done for myself, and shall take care to go over to Lewis on Monday to drive him forward with the Pedal Organ. I shall again be at Glasgow, I suppose, on October 8th, for Belhaven, but will write you again as to this. — With kind regards, I am, dear Stillie, very sincerely yours, Henky Smaet. " T. L. Stillie, Esq." Interesting as these letters are, there is one other about this great Glasgow Organ, written by Cavaill^- CoU, of Paris, to Smart, from which I make the following extract : — " Pakis, U JuHlet, 1875. " A Monsieur Henry Smart, i Londres. "Cher Monsieur, — Maintenant, cher Monsieur, permettez moi de vous parler un peu de votre grand travail de la specification. J'ai lu tres-attentive- ment, aprSs une traduction lit^rale faite par mon neveu, Mr. Gabriel Eeinburg et par ma fiUe, votre plan d'orgue; je vous avou que j'ai 6t& tres 4tonne que vous ayez pu vous rendre un compte exact de tout ce que vous demandez sans avoir au pr^alable fait un plan exact de I'ensemble et des dispositions sp^ciales de la construction de I'instrument. 226 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. "J'ai une fois seulement dans ma vie, lors du concours de I'orgue de la Madeleine k Paris, fait une ^tude analogue pour ^tablir un devis d^taille comme vous le faite avant I'ex&ution; mais j'ai passe 3^4 mois de mon temps sans compter les aides dessinateur, pour faire les plans de detoutes les parties de I'orgue et en sp^ciiier la disposition. J'admets trfes bien que votre grande experience vous ait permis de faire la composition des jeux, de de- mander les conditions et les dispositions des rdgistres et des p^dales d'accouplement et de combinaison ; mais ce qui me surprend le plus c'est que vous soyez entrd dans des details de f acture qui ne peuvent ^tre bien de- termines qu' apr^s I'etude des plans de construction. "Ce que vous'dites des diapasons des jeux de differentes pressions de vent, des reservoirs rdgula- teurs, de la soufflerie alimentaire, des sommiers, etc. Je dois reconnaitre que tout cela m'a paru tr^s- exact et conforme aux regies de I'art ; nous n'avons pas en France un seul organiste qui saurait dtablir une semblable specification ou tout est prevu jusqu'aux moindres details. "Quoi qu'il en soit je puis vous dire en toute sinc^rite que j'ai trouv^ votre specification aussi complete que possible inais, permettez moi d'aj outer que vous avez tailM au facteur qui sera charge de I'execution une grande besogne et beaucoup de probldmes dif&oiles ci resondre. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 227 " Je serais charm^ par amour de I'art de faire ce travail sous votre direction, mais si je consid^re I'affaite commercialement parlant, je ne regretterais pas qu'un autre facteur en fasse 1' experience. "Adieu, cher Monsieur Smart, je suis heureux que cette circonstance m'ait permis de m'etretenir un moment avec vous anjourd 'hui. J'aurai le plaisir de vous adresser prochainement une ^tude d'un projet colossal du quel je m'occupe en ce moment. " Veuillez en attendant me rappeler au bon sou- venir de votre aimable famille et agrder les bien sinc^res salutations de votre d^vou^ serviteur, "A. Cavaill]5-Colle.'' i To Henry Smart the music-loving people of Glas- gow — and their name is legion — owe respect and gratitude for the possession of two magnificent organs, which are happily presided over by two of the ablest and most courteous organists of our day, Mr. Henry Lambeth and Dr. Albert Peace, whose devotion to the art is sure to produce the best results in spreading a taste for the highest order of music, from whatever quarter of the globe it may emanate. There is yet one other organ of which it is neces- sary to say something, — that in St. Pancras Church, Euston Eoad, London, — upon which Smart poured out such grand voluntaries for so many years. 228 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The instrument was originally built by Messrs. Gray & Davison for the Birmingham Music Hall, but was subsequently taken back to London, and erected in the fine church of St. Pancras, about the time Smart became the organist in 1864. It has three manuals (CC to A),, and pedals (CCC to F). The following is a list of the stops, &c. : — GKEAT OKGAN. Double Diapason, Open Diapason, . Stopped Diapason, Gamba, Harmonic Flute, . Harmonic Flute, . Octave, Feet. 16 8 8 8 8 4 4 Twelfth, . Fifteenth, . Sesquialtra, 3 ranks Mixture, 3 ranks. Posaune, Clarion, Feet. 2| 2 8 4 CHOIR ORGAN-. Salcional, Voix Celesti, C, Stopped Bass, Concert Flute, Gemshorn, Flute d' Amour, 8 8 8 4 4 Piccolo, .... Clarinet, 8 Composition Pedals, Pneumatic action to Great Organ, and Couplets 2 8 SWELL ORGAN. Bourdon, Open Diapason, Stopped Diapason, Octave, . Fifteenth, . 16 8 8 4 2 Sesqnialtra, 3 ranks. Cornopean, Oboe, .... Clarion, .... Tremulant. 8 8 4 PEDAL ORGAN. Contra-Bourdou, Open Diapason, Bourdon, Octave, , . 32 . , 16 . 16 8 Fifteenth, Trombone, Trumpet, 4 16 8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 229 COUPLERS. Swell to Great Unison. Swell to Great Sub-octave. Swell to Great Super-octave. Swell to Choir. Swell to Pedal. Great to Pedal. Choir to Pedal. And here I cannot do better than give a short quota- tion, from a little hrocJiure I published * three years ago, entitled " A Week's Music in London during the Handel Festival, 1877." With Sunday came my visit to two representative churches — St. Pancras, Euston Road, in the morning, for the Evangelical " followers," and All Saint's, Margaret Street, in the evening, for the liitualistic adorners. My observations, however, will not be on doctrines or for-' mulas, but respecting the music used, and the impression it made on my mind. The service at St. Pancras commenced at eleven, and precisely at that hour Mr. Henry Smart, the premier organist of London, played a beautiful, impressive, extemporaneous voluntary, in E-flat, on Gray & Davi- son's fine-toned organ. The responses, versicles, cfec, were made by the large congregation (upwards of 2000 persons), led by a clerk (a character I thought that had long ago vanished), in tones loud and clear (probably from practice severe), in the natural speaking voice. The well-known double chant, in A, by Goss, transposed into G, was sung to Venite Exultemus by the school chil- dren and the whole congregation with a heartiness and exactness deeply religious and impressive. There is no * At Metzler's. 230 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. choir. The congregation form one vast choir. No one seems to " put in a second," or attempts to do a bit of harmony on his own account, but all sing the melody — and a grand unison it is ! If the Daily Psalms had been given in a similar way, that would have been a great and elevating act of worship ; but they were read throughout, and thus nullified the injunction and invitation implied in Ve,n%te ExvUemus, "Oh come, let us sing unto the Lord." The canticles were all sung to double chants, and well sung too, by " the people." The rest of the music was confined to hymns and organ voluntaries. And here let me say at once that in no church that I know (I have been to a large number) can you hear these two important adjuncts to divine service rendered more impressively, more devotionally, and more artisti- cally than at St. Pancras' Church. The manner in which Dr. Dyke's tune to the Trinity Hymn, "Holy, holy, holy ! " was given out, is a thing to be remembered — our modern organists can't do it; at least but few of them. Both the singing of this and the grand hymn, "Nun danket alles Gott" ("Now thank we all our God"), as well as the organ accompaniment, cannot easily be erased from the memory. May it live in mine for ever ! And then there was another display of genius in the extempore voluntary at the close of the service — a masterpiece of skill and true musical feeling. Young organists, let me advise you to get an early oppor- tunity of hearing Henry Smart play the organ at St. Pancras' Church, before it is too late, or else the finest genius of the organ living may have passed away. Long distant may the day be when this calamity befals us!" But this calamity has befallen us, and that, too, LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 231 nearly a year before the next Handel Festival came round again ! The instrument is there, and like the one in St. Thomas's Church, Leipsic, upon which the immortal Bach played sublime fugues and colossal harmonies, will ever be associated with Smart's name and fame. His body is buried in peace, but his spirit liveth evermore ! The man, the composer, the virtuoso, are each and all embodied in power, naturalness, and genius in his imperishable Organ Works. It is true that Smart did not give us preludes, fugues, or concertos, like Bach; nor did he essay sonatas of the Mendelssohnian type ; but when we regard the quantity, quality, and variety of his organ compositions, there should be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable critic, that had he set himself to write grand fugues and lengthy sonatas he would have been as near to Bach and Mendelssohn as Gustav Merkel, the present Hof-Organist in Dresden, whose productions for the organ are among the fiaest specimens of the present century. Indeed, in accordance with my often expressed wish that he would write a sonata for The Organist's Quarterly Journal, Smart would certainly have gratified my desire had he lived longer ; and I have 232 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. no doubt in my own mind that his last composition for his favourite instrument was intended as the iirst movement of one.* Its form, length, and cha- racter plainly indicate as much ; and yet he merely termed it a " Postlude." But let us see of what sort of material this and other similar pieces are made. The key, a favourite one with the composer, is E-flat ; the time Andante lento. The introduction commences ia this quiet dignified way : — i t ^1^ ± i^ Gt. Org. up to 2 ft. Sw. with Heed (8). I ! I , I I I I ?^m^^mmM i6 coupled to Gt. Uncouple. BEE iS ^^3E After fifteen bars more in a similar manner, the fallowing fine, though rather Mendelssohnian theme, leads the way to a series of effective passages and lovely harmonies which are intensified as the work goes on : — * Part 43. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Allegro. J = 120. ^E ^-.'-J=^- 233 :*S--!L-< §1^^ .1 Gt. Org. S ft. coup led to Sw. 8 S 4 ft. ass^Srjg; k I r -»-^i :^ V-T^t q^^^t BIS :?^^ SE I I I I , V 4- =!? f=i^0^ I I I 35S EE eI -t=t:=f ^ ai=E I Efe=fc I«Zlt =E Suddenly, after some iDrilliaiit strains in D-major, we hear a quiet chorale-like phrase ; the answer being given in the tenor to an effective, flowing ac- companiment in the upper parts : — 234 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Choir. '^^^^^f^±=^ t t^ iiiJii 3:B=; m =pif=t rt=t =«: rs* ei3=3E ii s aa t i^SE^z And then we have the following bold subject treated f ugally with great contrapuntal skill : — -^--^^ I ± k^ FuU Gt. Org. .^tt ■•-f^irw?-«-FT^^5 \ — • F I — r-"l — H-l — I — ^- EHS EE LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 235 |g J] asE -•-B-»-P:5=Pi !^?:Ff:lr:f: -•-F-f^f-*- nnn E!Es^s=S II i I ML, i £:^^S Fr^E^^ BiS^ y^=5— -1- rs?— «a.- 1- ' -^=H- M. — 1 "• — ^ 1 4 1 r i .4. -^=r- ' t^ " — p^, As if once more to afford contrast and variety, we come upon the following charming phrase, which the composer lovingly dwells upon and develops in different ways : — Prepare Gt. Org. or Solo Harmonic-Flute, 8 ft. I 5; zE ^* Full SweU. as5 E£ ■i^^^£^Mi=^- t=x aiS ±EE^z 236 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. i^-ggg^^^^ EEE 3i=^ :1= S: The return to the initial subject is soon made, with still larger change and elaboration, and the whole movement is brought to a triumphant close with twenty-four bars commencing in this grand style : — Poco memo Allegro. J = 96. Gt. Org. h-^- I z^l i^ ■■^^-F— • — is=ft Jp -9- t: JoJ. .d 3I=E q^ ^^, ^^ s4d=m ^ Can there be two opinions that this fine work would have made a really splendid first movement of a sonata ? And how easily the whole might have been completed — less intermezzi, or connecting links, after Mendelssohn's happy manner — by adding one of our own composer's lovely andantes, such, for in- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 237 stance, as the "Evening Prayer" in A-flat; and for the finale, the " Grand Solemn March" in E-flat. Another favourite posthcde (also written for The Oi'ganist's Quarterly) would undoubtedly have made a glorious first movement of a sonata. I mentioned this to Smart after my first performance of it, and he replied with his usual modesty, " Most certainly it would as to length and form." One or two quota- tions from this genuine piece of organ music may here be made, to show how worthy it was to have formed the first or last movement of even a so- called " grand sonata." The opening phrase is fuU of dignity and power : — Allegro pomposo. S^ 3^p! f= F=t Full. Gt. Org. coupled to Full Swell throughout. asfca =t=:t 4- M \ \ h a;-^ ^ -t— ^ Ji=»- :3: SweU. z5=l- 238 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. U-N N w& EBt, ■»- -»■ -» — •— =^: m^^m^m m. 1= s ^^^^^ ^ The manner in which this initial phrase is varied with rolling, continuous quavers in the pedal part, must be heard on a large grand organ to be properly- understood and appreciated. With that happy way which forms an essential part of Smart's organ writing, we are then given (in the dominant) the following sweet passage — treated with such changes, both of key and registering, as to remind one of the varied tints in the best paintings by the best artists : — Choir, 8 St. il SEE LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 239 ?H •-•^==i= WE^^^ d3=^^U :S=:=s^-=::^S=:iS 4i^S m-- '^ •^1— -ff—i 1 — \ — ^• :?o. E31 lE There is yet another subject which, after some development on its own account, is made to do duty as an accompaniment to the original theme. It is worth quoting : — (*i— ■(— I— 1 #1 1 : — *^-S m, B Tp^gg^g^ S Bziizi^zzzi^ =«i^ =1-F- 240 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The ingenious device of introducing the first theme with the minor third, and in other ways, gives inte- resting variety : — Gt. Org 8 ft. Interrupted cadences, like the close of this last quotation, are, as in a number of instances in the works of the great masters, made often to do good service by Smart, LIFE OF HENR Y SMA RT. 341 What can be sweeter than this phrase ? — i ijzj^nt V Swell. ^ 3^i^= -F— F- T — F — F- i giS ~j. r ^^s =E=i ^^^ t^E^I al :t fe 22Z When listening to the sunshine of strains like this, we are insensibly reminded of our great poet, when he says — " Here will we sit, and let the sound of music Creep in our ears." The beauty of the more tender and expressive parts of this composition finds a fitting contrast in the vigour, power, and force of the concluding twenty-one bars with which Smart brings to a 242 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. dignified ending one of the best, as it is deservedly one of the most popular, of all his numerous organ works : — I Pi W- %-^^-=r=^. iiE::;!!S: I \- \ I J: SiiiE^EEtEEt E^EEEE I — -«~r---\—t-\—r-\-+^ — ^ W ! r I ~^^ ft-u-fl ^ J — I-i. %=SeB tt=t=t:= p« « •- m- m ^ -hf^-^-—J-- fe- i iEE3 eit: e .-l-L-J— (-- 1— I- ?-i:zi^=^ m -Jt=i=x=ss. iMzi-i EM3^r: ^E^ il^ j-v .1 ..1 .1 J. J. 4. \ ■e- r^ ^: ^E ^i^^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 243 lEEt a^i ft* 1=1 -t- r I o -v 1 — : — — *3— Bit ^ \- ■^H=- Smart had written but little organ music when I proposed to him, in the autumn of 1867, to join me in producing, under our united editorship. The Organist's Quarterly Journal. I suggested that it 244 UFE OF HENRY SMART. should contain only original compositions, no " ar- rangements," and that we should seek the aid and co-operation of the first organists of the day — foreign and English. " Capital idea," he said with some warmth ; " and now we shall see of what stuff we are all made. I will help you all I can to make the work a success, but you must pardon me for declining to take any editorial responsibilities." He nobly kept his word, and up to within two or three months of his death in 1879, he continued to write, and altogether pro- duced no less than twenty-four original com- positions, of a style and character now so well known, and of which I have already given two specimens. Though he did not take any official responsibility, still he was much interested in the MSS. which I frequently submitted and played over to him for his opinion, — especially when he was visiting me at Leeds. This over-hauling, and occasional " slaughter of the innocents," was not only useful, but often extremely amusing to me. He would light his pipe, seat himself comfortably by the fire in his favourite chair in my study at Springfield, and then say with a sort of mock im- portance, " Now then, Caro Dottore, let us hear what these gentlemen have to say." First, I take a piece already rejected, merely for LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 245 the sake of hearing his opinion, which I knew was a foregone conclusion. After playing about twenty bars, he cried out, " Stop, stop, fhat won't do ; never heard such rub- bish in my life. The fellow hasn't anything to say, and if he had, he wouldn't know how to say it ! He's a fool ! " After this explosion, I thought I would play him something I liad, accepted and felt sure he would like. I began with Gustav Merkel's first contribution to the Quarterly, the lovely 'pastorale, in G : — i fi: i==t: -&. =tiiat=t Smart put his chin into his left hand, a favourite posture of his, and listened with all his ears until I had finished. "Ah!" he said, "that is charming, and quite different from the ordinary run of modern German organ music, which consists chiefly of old chorales, with variations of a stiff, dry, and antiquated cha- racter. Merkel, my dear Bottore, has something to say, and knows how to say it." And then I played him pieces by other composers, foreign and English, — Silas, Macfarren, Stewart, Batiste, Steggall, Prout, Guilmant, Tours, Wesley, and many others who have contributed to the Quarterly, and of whose 246 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. pieces Smart delivered himself generally in -warm encomiums. His first contribution to this work is worthy of especial notice, not only on account of its excep- tional merits, but from the fact that on my visit to the leading North German organists and composers in the summer of 1 870, just at the time when the Franco -German war broke out, I played it fre- quently as an example of English, organ music. Said an eminent musician to me in Leipsic, " We have been assured that these organ pieces (showing me two or three rather dry preludes and fugues and some light marches) are the best works of the kind produced in England. " Indeed," 1 replied, " then have you heard nothing of the works of Henry Smart, the Wesleys, Edward Hopkins, and other leading English organists ? " " No, we have never heard of them," was the answer. I then proceeded to give these gentlemen, who were so supremely ignorant respecting English organs and organ music (a subject upon which they have since learnt to change their minds), Sebastian Wesley's Andante, in F-niajor, commencing : — and then followed with Smart's Postlude in C :- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 247 =Jd!5:x:i a-r-JZX-, I i^ I i f I i -»- r Gt. Org. full, (with Swell coupled throughout). I III »-»•- -•— ©- i?^ 1^1 .^.HHi^ J.; Hi B 35= -*-•■ Si^i^g^l g^ i ^^— l-T ^z m ^^S^3= E^ After developing this bold theme, and a counter- subject, we have the following fine passage : — ■ The closing eight bars, with the unexpected ap- pearance of the chord of B-flat, afford one more proof of Smart's power and skill as a composer of sterling organ music : — 248 i LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ,1 ,1 ! UJ -I- PW S=PE ifejiat I W^=f- Bffi S ffi 3^i -*^JrJ: " That is really fine — quite like Bach ! " exclaimed one of the greatest of German composers after I had finished playing it on the grand organ in the church of St. Nicholas, Leipsic. I was charmed to find hoth on this, and several other occasions, such a ready acknowledgment of Smart's genius from those who were able to appreciate it. And how much greater would have been their expressions of admira- tion could our Teutonic brethren have seen the score, and heard the music of " The Bride of Dun- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 249 kerron " and " Jacob." They would then have learnt that there was another man in England, as well as Sterndale Bennett (for whose works the Leipsic musicians have very justly the highest opinion), who could write for the orchestra with great power and originality. Smart's earlier organ works were of a more free, a more orchestral character, than his later efforts. One or two quotations, from what I think was the first piece he published, will clearly show this. It was in the year of the Great Exhibition, 1851, when he was living in Eegent's Park Terrace, that he showed me the manuscript of this piece, and asked me to try it over with him on the pianoforte. Many would have termed it a i^antasia, but it merely bears the simple title of " Con Moto." The first four bars are sufficient to indicate its character : — Con Moto. i t: Gt. Organ 16 and 8 feet. seb; -a. J-J. F-fBE Pedal 1 6 feet, and coupled to Gt. Manual. ai=£ BE 250 'LIFE OF HENRY SMART. The second subject is especially symphonic, and could be scored effectively for a band : — u J^ocopiH ammatOj quasi AVegro. ^^ 4r_ Add 4 and 2 feet. Poco pib, animato. Q. UAirA^ =[:: aE=E Poco piu animato, C[uasi Allegro. The following phrase might have been written by Beethoven : — SweU with 8 ft. Reed. a^ "l-Gt. Organ 8 feet. ^ LIFE OF HENRY SMART, 25t The orchestral style of the whole movement is maintained throughout, even to the close : — n L -^_ -Q- ^ 1 >' o 6 y-''^---' -° (.> ) u o Ci- c yj. -^fj ^C V , ^'o; f p li- 1. L* !!i •1 -~v ' / C/ It may interest those who never heard Smart ex- temporise on the organ, toremark here, that this con moto piece in B-flat is not at all unlike what I have often heard him bring forth from his fertile imagination, and play spontaneously without any apparent effort, or pre-meditation. The publishers wished Smart to compose twelve of these pieces — but unfortunately he never got 252 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. beyond five — the following being their title and description : — "A Series of Organ Pieces, in various styles. No. I, Con Moto, in B-flat. No. 2, Moderato Con Mo to (a Three-part Study), in E. No. 3, Allegro Maestoso (Fantasia with Choral), in G. No. 4, Allegro Moderato, in A. No. 5, Con Moto Moderato (En forme d'Ouverture), in D-minor ; dedicated to his friend Dr. Spark. London, Ashdown & Parry." The Fantasia with Chorcjl (No. 3), and the Overture (No. 5), may be classed among the most beautiful and effective of modern organ pieces. Wishing to give as much variety as possible to The Organist's Quarterly, I suggested in 187 1 to some of my best contributors — to wit. Smart, Macfarren, Silas, Guilmant, Charles Horsley, and Archer, that they should each furnish a March for the organ, to be published simultaneously iu one of the forth- coming numbers. The idea could only be partly realised. All composed excellent Marches at dif- ferent times ; their publication, however, was any- thing but concurrent. The first organ march Smart produced was, of course, melodious and effective; but it certainly is not equal to his subsec[uent efforts. The opening theme is very much like Beethoven in the C-minor symphony : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Allegro moderaio epommoso. 253 i=;=3: rttzt J=5-r-J^ 1=^ =e= -•— m T f^- FvXi, Ot. Org. coupled to Swell. :st=Ez i EBi ■^ 1 v^j^ -q- f-=F =?== :s=5: :BE5 aE^i Mucli more Smartean is the Trio in C-major, which follows the first part, and commences in this happy way:— J 1 J-i- *rt ^^ -□~t \ FuU Swell closed. aE£ s=^ -■-F- IHE £ itE: :*z£ One regrets that this cheerful vein was not con- tinued longer. The final return to the initial theme, and the chords at the close, are remarkable for their dignity and true organic effect. But the one particular march — the Festive March 254 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. in D — which Smart wrote subsequently, is probably the most popular work of its kind yet known to players on the king of instruments. It is not only constructed in a succinct and sym- metrical manner, but it breathes a spirit of happy, genial melody, and fine, telling harmonies. There is an originality, too, in the manner of lead- ing up with the following introductory bars : — Allegro moderato. EBE ieEE^= Swell Flue Worh up to 4 ft. with Oboe. ^■Sr ^^= ^4 M I^^SE ?==^ EEEf^ m soft 16 (& 8 ft. i^=SE -^B =1= sempre stacc. s^ipi^^^ -A — J— + — s a — « 1 »^- I I 1 1— -B^-^B- ^13= Biip^^ 3^- =t3 The trumpets then enter with pageantic effect, and the march proper is fairly started with this strongly- marked theme : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 2S5 isa AJh^I^ ^^^ ' r^ Gt. Org. Full. I , — , 1 I g^F :r=t :t=t =pi=lr: =|::=:p ea Ie -•-i^ After considerable development, the first subject gives way to a plaintive trio in the relative minor : — 6t. Org. soft 8 ft. with Swell Heed coupled in unison and octave. --ft 1 a^l* -f— F- Ohoir soft ?,&.ift. m. i And then, farther on, there is a second trio in the subdominant, commencing with this captivating melody : — 256 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. nSolo Clarinets _e_ ^ -J . i -^—p~ m 2^n- p=ff ^=^^ y-Fl=F-r-[-F— — ^^ f-F^- Choir. ^■ ^ ^ H^-F- Itt ^t The return to the initial theme is managed with the skill of a master, and the whole work is wrought out with wonderful fancy and ingenuity. The " Grand Solemn March " in E-flat is pro- bably more powerful and dignified, but it is also much more difficult, and will probably be confined to fewer executants. There are one or two things more connected with Smart's work for the organ which should here be mentioned. First, there are his arrangements of Handel's Choruses,— by far the best I know, — and yet but comparatively few organists are acquainted with them. They were published about fifteen years ago, by LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 257 Messrs. Duncan Davison & Co., the following being the list of all Smart had time to finish : — No. I. Fixed in His everlasting seat, " Samson." 2. The horse and his rider, " Israel in Egypt." 3. They loathed to drink, " Israel in Egypt." 4. Hallelujah, "Messiah." 5. Let us break their bonds, " Messiah." 6. And the glory of the Lprd, " Messiah." 7. Let their celestial concerts, ' ' Samson." 8. But as for His people, " Israel in Egypt." 9. The King shall rejoice, " Coronation Anthem." 10. From the censer, "Solomon." 11. For unto us a Child is born, " Messiah." 12. He smote all the first-born in Egypt, " Israel in Egypt." 13. O Father, whose Almighty Power, " Judas Maccabaeus." 14. "We worship God, " Judas Maccabaeus." 15. Sing unto God, " Judas Maccabaeus." 16. Thus rolling surges rise, " Solomon.'' 17. All the earth doth worship Thee, " Dettingen Te Deum." 18. May no rash intruder, " Solomon." 19. "Worthy is the Lamb, " Messiah." 20. Amen, Sequel to ditto. 21. Zadok the Priest. Then there are also Eossini's three favourite Sacred Choruses (all of course arranged with pedal obbligato) : — No. I. Faith, " La Fede— La FoL" 2. Hope, " La Speranza — L'Espdrance." 3. Charity, "LaCarita — La Charity." And Handel's celebrated fugue in E-minor from the great master's " lessons." These are the only "arrangements" I believe 258 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Smart ever made, but they taught other " arrangers " most valuable lessons, which they were not slow to avail themselves of, but not to acknowledge. I remember his saying to me just after the first six of his Handel Choruses were published, " So far as I have seen, no former arrangement of these for the organ is satisfactory — they are either for piano- forte or organ, with I6ts of lumpy chords in the bass, and a great gap in the middle parts, or they are mere transcriptions from the score unadapted to the genius of the instrument, and, moreover, unneces- sarily difficult, especially in the pedal." It will be easy to prove the soundness of Smart's opinion on this most important matter by com- paring, as I have done, other arrangements with his ; i.e., with those published (having a pedal obbli- gato) before his own were issued. The following wiU be found, I believe, to be a complete list of all Smart's works for the organ : — 1. A Series of Organ Pieces in Various Styles, 5 numbers. (Ash- down & Parry.) 2. 24 Pieces for Tlie Organises Quarterly Journal. (Novello, Ewer, & Co.) 3. Original Compositions for the Organ, 13 numbers. (Uovello and Co.) 4. Three Andantes, intended as Introductory or Middle Volun- taries, No. I in A, No. 2 in F, No. 3 in 0. (Ashdown and Parry.) LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 259 5. Henry Smart's Organ Book, containing 12 Pieces of various kinds. (Boosey & Co., Eegent Street.) 6. Henry Smart's Choral Book, containing a Selection of Tunes (about sixty), employed in the English Church, newly har- monised for Voices and Organ. (Boosey & Co., Regent Street.) 7. Andante in A, posthumous work, No. i. (Augener & Co.) 8. Handel's Choruses, with Pedal Obbligato, 21 Numbers. (Dun- can Davison & Co.) 9. Rosini's Three Choruses, " Faith, Hope, and Charity." (Dun- can Davison & Co.) 10. Handel's Fugue in E-minor. (Duncan Davison & Co.) 11. The Organ Student, 12 Short and Easy Pieces, intended as First Lessons on the Obbligato Pedal, (Boosey & Co.) From this latter small but most useful little work, I extract the following characteristic preface, and with which I conclude my chapter on Smart's organ works : — " All young students of the instrument soon discover that the acquirement of the obbligato pedal is the chief characteristic difficulty of the organ. This difficulty does not consist, as is generally supposed, in the mere playing of passages with the feet ; since a very mode- rate amount of practice will soon convince the student that even rapid and intricate successions of notes may be thus played (so long as the feet are alone employed) with ease and certainty. The real difficulty lies in the fact that this use of the feet must always be accom- panied in organ music with a different and often opposed motion of the hands. The numerous complexities thus arising are often puzzling enough to make the young pupil regard the organ works of the great classic writers as nearly impracticable, and so to content themselves 26o LIFE OF HENRY SMART. with poor and feeble arrangements, specially made easy to attract them. But while the obbligato pedal is con- fessedly a difficulty, it is certainly a necessity if the organ is to be played as it only should be. Without it, the instrument becomes uncharacterised at once ; since it alone can render practicable those dispersions of har- mony, those contrasts of tone, and that flow and inter- twinement of parts which form the peculiar prerogative of the organ, and have long since conferred on it its regal title. Somewhat to smooth this difficulty in the student's path by enforcing the use of the obbligato pedal, at no oppressive cost of labour, is the object of this little book. That something of the kind was necessary, as a small training towards the immortal compositions that have been written for the organ, my own experience has shown me : but as I have never met with precisely the thing needed, I have here endea- voured to supply it. " In practising the contents of this little book (and, of course, I am writing only for beginners), I recommend that at first a very slow time should be adopted, and continued until a perfectly regular movement of hands and feet be accomplished. At first, the pupil may ex- perience considerable trouble in compelling his left hand to maintain its own path, especially when its motion is not exactly parallel to that of the feet. For instance, it is much more difficult to play the scale of E-major with the left hand and feet in tenths than in octaves, simply because, in the former case, the sharps do not occur in the two parts simultaneously. Wherever this species of awkwardness is much experienced, I recommend that the left hand and feet be sufficiently practised together before the right hand be added to them. As these LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 261 pieces are intended almost solely for practice, I have not thought it necessary to encumber them with any direc ■ tions about the use of stops, &c. Thus, as exercises, they are available for the pedal pianoforte or harmonium as well as the organ. Further than this — except that all the pieces can be played on a single manual, although two of them (the ' Song for Soprano ' and the ' Song for Tenor ') will only yield their proper effect when their melodies are brought out by some quality of tone dis- tinct from the accompaniment ; and that the pieces are not placed in any precise order of difficulty — no other remark seems necessary. " To those who may adopt this little book for prac- tice, I know its contents will prove useful, and, I trust, not so disagreeable as to weary the student's patience." 262 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. PSALMODY. ' Smart preferred the old word " Psalmody " to the more modern term, " Hymnody." One need not go far for the reason. The former appellation was associated in his mind with the old lines, the grand old tunes sung with heart and spul and fervent devotion by our forefathers. According to Master Mace, five thousand voices poured forth their praises to God in one mighty strain of melody and harmony at Paul's Cross in the seventeenth century, "with measured step and slow," in the fine, stately, dig- nified rhythm of the old psalm tunes. This was, as it jvere. Smart's text from which he preached on this most important branch of worship music. He disliked weakness and effeminacy in any shape or form. He would build up the superstructure on the grand pillars of a solid foundation. Nothing puerile, nothing childish, ever met with his approval, " The favourite tunes," he used to say, " which find the most favour now-a-days are those which best please the ladies ; and the ladies, I hold, are not the best judges of what is sound and good in psalmody.'' Most admirably has Smart enunciated his own views in the following preface which he wrote to his work entitled, " A Choral Book, containing a Selec- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 263 tion of Tunes employed iu the English Church, newly harmonised for Four Voices and Organ, and dedicated to his friend Thomas Clough, Esq. of Black- burn, by Henry Smart. Boosey & Co." "Although but to-day oifered to the public, this little work is, in fact, more than eight years old. At the commencement of the year 1848, the congregation of St. Luke's Church, desirous of some better performance of the musical portion of the service than is ordinarily found in the parish churches of London, instructed me to take the necessary steps towards the formation of a choir. A very early question for my decision was as to the amount and kind of music to be sung under this state of things. It seemed to me that, although the service might be, to a great extent, what is termed ' choral,' it should not, on that account, cease to be con- gregational. We might, for instance, advantageously adopt much of the cathedral usage — such as singing the responsive parts of the service, and chanting the Can- ticles and Psalms of the day — in which the cengrega- tion would speedily learn to take part ; and we might even have an anthem in the place allotted to it in the Prayer-Book ; but we must, notwithstanding, retain the Metrical Psalmody, if we would not both destroy a cha- racteristic feature of the Parochial Service, and deny to the people a kind of music which, according to my experience, and in spite of some modern notions on the subject, they certainly sing, when favourably circum- stanced, with more zeal and effect than any other. Having decided on the maintenance of Metrical Psalmody, my great difficulty was in selecting an arrangement' of tunes for the "use of my choir. I may 264 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. have been fanciful or hypercritical, but I confess that, after making an extensive acquaintance with books of the sort, I found none entirely to suit my purpose. Most, doubtless, had merits to recommend them for their peculiar objects; but it was not in accordance with the vieiys I have always held on the matter, to . adopt either the pretty glee-like harmonisation of some, or the Gothic severity of ' note against note ' — both tiresome to the singer, and not necessarily of a devo- tional character — found in others. I therefore, as many have done before me, determined to arrange a Tune- Book for myself, and hoped — as, doubtless, did my pre- decessors — to advance Parochial Psalmody one step, at least, in the right direction. " The same reasons which induced me to undertake the work — added to the kind solicitations of many friends, amateur and professional — have now led to its publication. The style of the vocal arrangement answered my expectation. The choir sang their parts with spirit and satisfaction ; the congregation speedily ceased tp find any difficulty in bearing their share in the general harmony ; and I trust and believe that similar results will follow wherever it is adopted. " Having thus given the history of this little book, it is necessary to say something as to its contents. The object has been, not to accumulate the greatest possible number, but to present a fair selection of ordinary and useful tunes, put into the best shape I could devise for choral and congregational purposes. Many of the melodies have been, probably, much corrupted by long use. The extent to which they are impure, however, would now be very difficult to ascertain ; and I have therefore, taken the least -objectionable versions I could LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 265 procure, that were at the same time at all reconcileable with the prevailing traditional habit of singing them. There are also several melodies in this collection of which I by no means approve; but since, in spite of their demerits, it seems probable that they will always continue in congregational use, I thought it best to admit them — clothed, however, in such a style of harmony as might, in some degree, compensate for their original meanness or triviality of character. The number of absolutely new tunes is very small, being limited to two composed by a former pupil of mine, Mr. Aspinwall, of Bolton (and which, for their musical merit, and the scarcity of good tunes in their peculiar metres, are well worthy a place in any collection), and two or three contributions of my own, composed to metres at present very scantily provided with appro- priate melodies. The tunes marked as Qerman Melodies are taken — with certain slight, though necessary, altera- tions — from the 371 vierstimmige Ghoralgesange of Sebas- tian Bach. " Several of the tunes are harmonised in two different ways. Their use, at the organist's discretion, will be found of service in the progress of a long psalm, not only as affording relief to the ear, but as a means of following, in some degree, such variety of sentiments as may exist in the words. A few of the melodies appear in a third shape — namely, sung in unison and octave by the choir, and supported by an independent organ- part ; and from this mode of treatment, judiciously applied, the choral will be found to yield some of the finest pffects of which it is capable. It would have been impossible to have given this triple form to every tune (even if all were properly susceptible of it) with 266 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. out unduly swelling the bulk of the volume. The ex- amples given are, therefore, rather offered as practical hints to organists who may feel disposed to carry out the suggestion. With the same view I have inserted, at the end of the book, an example of four methods of ' giving out ' a psalm-tune ; — the object in all being to keep the melody palpably distinct, under whatever form of accompaniment. " The organ-part throughout, it will be seen, is not simply a compression of the vocal score. It will serve as a guide to the less experienced class of organists as to what additional notes can be advantageously intro- duced in accompaniment without damage to the pro- gress of the vocal harmony. No further explanation is necessary as to this organ-part, except that the pedals are to be employed throughout, either as an inde- pendent part (as happens in a few places) or in doubling the lowest notes of the bass staff. " It would certainly never have occurred to me to un- dertake the defence of anything in such very general use as Metrical Psalmody, but for the violent attacks latterly made on it in many clerical quarters, and with, I fear, no very honest intention. A contemporaneous publica- tion, for instance, rejoicing in all the mediaeval bar- barism of the four-line staff and diamond note, makes its appearance on the assumption (contained in its advertisement) that Metrical Psalmody 'is found no lopger to satisfy either the spiritual wants or musical tastes of Christians.' What may be the ' spiritual wants ' of the Christians here alluded to, it is needless to inquire ; but there can be no diflBculty in deciding that ' musical taste ' must be indeed at the lowest ebb in any who can really prefer the meaningless and un- couth ' plain song of the church ' to any other combi- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 267 nation of sound whatever. Few who have listened to a ' choral ' in the liUtheran churches of the continent will have failed to notice the zeal and earnestness with which it is sung, or the grand and solemn effect it pro- duces J and, although the music used in the Dissenting chapels of this country is too commonly of a trivial and even vulgar description, it is invariably sung with suffi- cient of energy and good-will to show both the hold Metrical Psalmody has on the affections of people habituated to sing, and the large musical effect it would yield under the corrective discipline of good taste. " English Psalmody has, undoubtedly, many faults ; but I hold it to be the far wiser course to endeavour to correct these by narrowing the selection of tunes and imparting a more vigorous tone to their harmonisation than to attempt to supplant it by a style of music utterly barbarous in itself, antagonistic to the gram- matical structure of our language, and so wholly opposed to the feeling of the people that it can never come into general use, except on the incredible supposi- tion of a second universal ascendancy of the church which invented it." It seems to me to be essential, in tracing Smart's varied handiwork, that the manner in which he produced different harmonies to about fifty different tunes published in this work should here be given ; and I am sure that, to the church organist at least, the following extract (" London New " being the fine old tune) will be received with much interest and advantage, especially by those who have no personal knowledge of his mode of playing and accompanying psalm-tunes : — 268 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. liONDON NEW. CM. (No. i.) Teeblb. ill '^..Alto. 5 » BEg: •5 »H 1 "H- S Tenok. i' s =i=P- EEEE Bass. ^1 ^=\^- =5=i= lOE :si: I fe Ibe :^c Okgan. SIffi iii ■p A-- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 269 fi s^ 3E » ii ^ 13: I2i: aiis I2t =i=r CS— I- :t=dz 3i: ■^" EiiiB=| .^24^5^; — ,?^- atii ^ a«i 1 'l^ ifczt If^i 270 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. LONDON NEW. (No. 2.) Life of henry smart. 271 ^- gBi=g^ fc -F-^»- =F=5=q= IS fp a^ -p-^» 1=^,7^^^^^^ 't:±=^ :e£ ^ i =«^fl-^ aii ^^^^ ^S Id: felfefi I ^4 at ^^^ ■y^= :=:t tZHt feS 272 LIFE OF HENRY SMART.. Unis. f LONDON NEW. (No. 3.) te *# i^ m "' — -p =+^ m BE =S=:3^ SI mi -s^- |;be --1 'a- 3-=^a= ±=-Jz 'ffsfl =^ I •-»-»-*-l— F* SUP ^ -b-i-i-r- .^JttS ;i P-T»:« :e^e ^i lintSz e i^= Ml :*=rS= Z]SZ 1=--=±=} ■S- -«3, -I— ^— 4- »-p- »-*— -— a — -» *- ^a^JESE^ T^r T f=^t^q^ i LIFE OF HENRY SMART 273 i Si i^-= :£5: n 3^;; -iw=^-- i^ruG' "^^-m^-^-^lil \ i pa 3!l 5^-2 S?!t:l= K an; i.^ fea- f EriH BEE itit* ^^^•^d^F^-^ 274 LIFE OF HENRY SMART, Of the character and effect of this treatment of the tunes sung at St. Pancras Church, where, as already intimated, Smart was for so many years the esteemed organist, I have already given my own im- pression of one of the last visits I paid to him* And here I am able to give, through the courtesy of " our mutual friend, " Mr. J. Spencer Curwen, the following most interesting and admirably written article on his interviews with Henry Smart, and their conversation respecting Psalmody : — " Before a snug fire in the workroom of his house on Primrose Hill, Mr. Henry Smart discourses to us on congregational music in general, and that of St Pancras Church in particular. " How far," we ask, " does the service at St. Pancras represent your idea of music in worship, and how far have you merely fallen in with the custom of the place % " " That, you see, is the question," he replies. "The church is about sixty years old. At first the service was of the usual old- fashioned sort — a few charity children sang to a con- gregation who did not join. Then Henshaw was the organist, and I was at St. Luke's, Old Street. Later on there was a competition for the place of organist at St. Pancras, and I was asked to be the judge. I gave the post to Craddock, who was a clever player. He had hardly been there a year when he left, and the trustees asked me to take the organ. It was a pleasanter place than Old Street, so I did. Mr. Weldon Champneys, afterwards Dean of Lichfield, was vicar then, and the * Published by Metzler & Co. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 275 first thing we did on my appointment was to have a talk about the music, ^ere we to have a choir service, or a congregational service ? Mr. Champneys said the congregation were more apt to listen than to sing \ but as he read the prayer-book, he thought it was intended that there should be common praise, just as there was common prayer — praise which was to be joined in by all, just as the prayers were. Cathedrals, he said, were originally the private chapels attached to monasteries, and the common people attended the services on suffer- ance. But the parish church belongs to the people of the parish, and no one can keep them out. ' Well,' I replied, ' I will have a choir service, if you like, or a congregational service. But if I have a choir it must not be a voluntary one. I will not be subject to the whims and fancies of the singers, or liable to have all the tenors absent, or all the altos. If I have a choir, it must be a paid one, whose services I can commMid. And if I have a choir of this sort, I must ask you to request the congregation to be quite silent while they sing, for I cannot have my music spoiled by people singing what they call " seconds " a third below the air all the time.' 'Oh!' said Mr. Champneys, 'but I cannot do that.' ' Well,' I replied, ' a service must be either strictly choral or strictly congregational. Sup- pose we make it congregational, what ^re we to do ? Are the people to practise? The thing is impossible. Out of 1000 perhaps 200 are able to read music, and how are we to secure a proper representation of the four parts ? The only part singing I understand is when the parts are balanced. To attempt to make the congregation sing in harmony is only to magnify the haphazard of a voluntary choir. The proper way of 275 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. treating the congregation is the old way, the way of the Germans and the Dutch, whose countries are the home of the chorale, — to make them sing in unison, or in octaves, which is musically the same thing. This, again, is not enough. In a hymn of six or eight verses the same harmony repeated gets tiresome, and if the organist is what he should be, he will vary the harmonies accord- ing to the verbal expression, keeping them ecclesiastical in style.' " We set to work on these principles. Craddock was a much better player than I, as far as notes go, because he was always up in practice, and I haven't touched the organ, except on Sundays, for years ; yet in his time there was no singing. How it was I don't know, but we had not been at work long before the volume of sound doubled. I encouraged the timid by playing out boldly, and in a short time nine-tenths of the congrega- tion sang. At the present time I think there is no church in London where the singing is heartier. In the evenings it is sometimes magnificent. I do as I like now ; there is no need to play loudly unless the senti- ment requires it. If the hymn is jubilant, I pile on the tone at the last verse to any extent, but the people are always above it. Or, if the words suggest, I go down to a diapason on the swell shut. When I vary the quantity of tone, the congregation imitate perfectly. If I increase it, out they come, or in a ralhntando they are with me exactly. We never had any congregational practices. What the people do they have picked up. I don't know any congregational singing in London so good as ours at St. Pancras. I went to Mr. Spiirgeon's a year or two ago, and found the singing very indiffer- ent. There were twelve sorts of bass going. The boys LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 277 who sit round the organ are taken from the National School. There are about twenty of them. They prac- tise with me once a week or once a fortnight. If there is anything new I go and try it over with them. " Of course, some of the people don't like it. They want a choir, and would like to sing the tunes fast. Now I wovHt play the tunes fastj and 1 tell them why. First, because it is vulgar ; second, because it is musi- cally wrong (for all music has its proper time) ; and third, because there is no authority for fast playing. ' Oh,' they say, ' don't you know that and -- — - take the tunes fast ? ' And who are these % They are men altogether too young to be quoted as authorities. Those who have had the longest experience, — such, for instance, as Goss, Hopkins, and the late George Cooper, — are the authorities, and they take the tune slowly. Often you will find that this quick singing is the act of the clergy, and not of the organist. Sometimes I am told that the congregation would like to sing more quickly, but I answer that I am the best judge of their inclinations, and I have a good deal of trouble to keep them up to their present speed. We do not believe in notes of double length at the beginning's of lines. They are ugly. But we make a slight pause between each line." We ask Mr. Smart whether he finds that the louder he plays the more heartily the people sing, and he re- plies : — " Well, that may be carried too far. When I began, with only a handful of people singing, they were timid, and it helped them on for me to play out. But an organist may make such, a noise that everybody is deafened and disgusted, and that will not encourage anybody. In my accompaniments, having been an orchestral as well as a vocal writer all my life, I know 278 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. what notes to double. I am free to harmonise as I like, bound only by a sense of propriety. I don't con- sider the congregation. They .have become so accus- tomed to me that they go on whatever I do. Here is a fine effect in the last verse of ' Hanover ' — With the organ full to mixtures the E sings out very finely. Or, take the looth Psalm; if the counterpoint is florid they go on ; nothing disturbs them : — y- 1 ^ I I :t=:t ^fefc ;az f-». ailil F -•- =B^ zsizz I r it^ Or take the last line of the same tune, with Sebastian Wesley's harmonies in the old church style : — LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 279 Ei "^=T =1- A- In reply to the question 'whether he is not limited in the choice of tunes, Mr. Smart says : — " No, we have a great many. When a new tune has to be learnt I gene- rally manage to bring it in on four consecutive Sundays. The first time it is sung it is interesting to hear more and more voices joining in each verse as we go on, until at the last there is quite a respectable sound. The prelude that I sometimes play before giving out a tune is very short ; never more than three bars. I will tell you the story of these preludes. Henshaw, the first organist, had an interlude at every verse. This was the old custom, and in the hands of Wesley, Jacobs, Thomas Adams, and such, the interlude was looked upon as a great treat. The way that some men did it was this. They would hold on a chord in the left hand, and run up the scale and down again, generally ending on the wrong note. In course of time, at St. Pancras, the interlude was omitted from all verses except the last. Even there Mr. Champneys did not like it, as it often interrupted the sense of the words. We gave it up, and our doing so caused a, sensation. There were great complaints from the congregation, so we reinstated it. Afterwards it occurred to Mr. Champneys to substitute for this interlude an introduction to the hymn before the sermon, lasting all the while that he was chang- ing his gown. We keep this up still, and I take care 28o LIFE OF HENRY SMART. that it shall be an introduction to the tune and contain phrases of it. .When the minister reaches the pulpit I begin to play over the tune. I do not, as you say, adopt the G-erman style entirely, in the interludes between the lines, for example. When these interludes interrupt the flow of the tune they are objectionable. They should never last longer than the natural pause between the lines. On several other matters we ask Mr. Smart's opinion. He doubts if England can be said to have a school of psalmody, as so many of our old tunes have a foreign origin. He objects greatly to the vulgarity of Miles' Lane and its class. His definition of vulgarity in a hymn-tune is a jigging motion in the rhythm, and com- monplace phraseology. Not necessarily that the con- struction is slight, or the harmony changed but once or twice in a measure. That would not make a tune vulgar. Some of our native hymn-tunes he considers very fine, especially those of the two Wesleys. Do you know Sebastian Wesley's " Harewood " ? Take his tune to " God, the Rock of Ages.'' It is as good. I am not very fond of Dr. Dykes's tunes. To my mind they have generally an effeminacy of character which is not appropriate. There is too much of this kind of thing — l&E ^- -^^- Bi 5EBi We take down a metronome, and Mr. Smart goes to the pianoforte, while we try to fix his time for one or two LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 281 standard psalm-tunes. After several attempts he is satisfied when the index stands at 45 for the Old Hun- dred, at 60 for Hanover, and at 48 (to a seraibreve, or two beats to the measure) for his own tune, " The pilgrims of the night." Speaking of this last tune, he says, " I have heard it rattled off like a jig. To think that people who call themselves musicians can't feel a thing better than that ! This fast singing is the essence of vulgarity." " One thing," he adds, " you may notice : I seldom play the tunes in the keys in which they are written. I nearly always lower them, for I endeavour never to go above Eb in the melody.'' " I must confess to you," says Mr. Smart, in winding up his observations, " that I don't think the St. Pancras service would do everywhere. Good taste is a quality not so universally distributed that we may rely upon finding it in every church, and my plan leaves much to the judgment of the organist." Mr. Smart is quite right. The rank and file placed in his position would be either monotonous or irreverent. It needs a man with Mr. Smart's freshness and fertility with his ready command of the key-board, and his knowledge of the various harmonies of which a given melody is suscep- tible ; it needs, more than all, a man with his sense of historical and artistic fitness and his sober judgment to accompany as he does. His fancy is always busy with the melodies, and he harmonises them as he goes along. A happy example of this faculty occurred one Sunday when the present writer was at St. Pan- cras. The Advent hymn, " Lo ! He comes," was being sung to the old tune " Helmsley." We all know the line : — 282 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ii^=i!^Sis^^-s3 ^ a3£l3: F -T' -U- ^ Mr. Smart played the first verse with the common harmonies ; the second, which has at this point the words, " Deeply wailing, deeply wailing," came out with delightful surprise and touching pathos in this form : — ) ^W- ^. -^= — > ^- F^ -f^ z^a -» — -M — ^- — p- -ft— i ~tzz 1 "* • r < r 1 The St. Pancras service is, in fact, sui generis ; moulded after Mr. Smart's taste for the massive and colossal in church music. In the full stream of sound that issues from the vast congregation it reminds us of a Lutheran service, but it differs from that in the sympathetic and artistic way in which the organ is made to express the meaning of the words. Since this sketch was written, Mr. Smart has died. A few additional notes of intercourse with him may therefore be of interest. On one occasion he invited me to sit with him on a Sunday evening in the roomy organ pew at St. Pancras Church. Mr. Smart was so companionable and chatty that he liked to have friends LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 283 with him at his organ, and indeed I believe he was seldom alone. Mr. Smart's enthusiasm for the broad voice of the congregation was unbounded. As the service opened he beckoned me to come and sit on the stool beside him. At the " Cantate Domino " the people began to make themselves heard. " Do you hear that \ " he said, as the sound rose from nave and gallery, " that, to my mind, is finer than any choir." And he played away, revelling in the massive unison which he was accompanying. He managed to give expression to the hymn in this way. The youth who was his amanuensis and companion would read the words to him, while he listened with head bent, drinking in, as it were, the spirit of the poet. Then when the time came for sing- ing he was ready. But now and then in the progress of the hymn he would forget and ask, " What's the next verse about ? " changing the character of his ac- companiment to suit the words. " Hark at that," he said to me as he played an old tune which he admired, " there's a fine line. Eegular German that. Could you take that faster." This last reference was to the pre- vailing custom of quick singing. It was the accompaniments and the extemporising of Mr. Smart that attracted so many musicians to the St. Pancras service. Extemporising is generally form- less and lackadaisical, but Mr. Smart's was rhythmic and thematic. He kept up whatever time he adopted until he came to a change of rhythm and style. He extemporised three times — before and after service, and before the sermon. The opening voluntary was gene- rally a caniabile, or slow movement, expressive of sweet- ness rather than power. The sortie, as the French organists call it, was generally marked by spirit and motion, and a sustained development and form that 284 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. made it hard to believe that it was not premeditated. The voluntary before the sermon filled up the time ■while the minister was changing his gown, and was of a meditative kind, always ending in the playing over of the hymn-tune that was about to be sung. It lasted three or four minutes. When the clergyman had reached the pulpit the youth I have beforementioned touched Mr, Smart's shoulder, and he began to work back towards the key of the hymn-tune. I remember that at the moment he was recalled from his delicious wanderings he was in Db, and he had to get to D. The masterly way in which he modulated through related keys, using sequence and figures, until he reached the goal, almost made one hold breath with interest.'' Smart did not compose many hymn tunes, but he made up in quality what was wanting in quantity. The two most popular are undoubtedly that called " Lancashire " — -A-. -s-j-ei — © — © — ©-i-©- _ I I I I I I ' From Greenland's i • cy mountain, From 1 I :^'=^=tj: is^ac -o o-a- =8? ^^^^=^-^^^. I I I In - dia's CO - ral strand : I I I I SI- w I s C2. St- — --:X =^=.te ittiz # and that most touching and never-to-be-forgotten tune, " Pilgrims." But there are many others which bear the unmis- takable impress of his skill and power; such, for LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 285 instance, as "Brightly gleams our banner" {Vex ilium) ; " Light's abode, celestial Salem " {Regent Square) ; " Paradise ! Paradise ! " {Paradise) ; " Just as I am, without one plea " {Misericordia) ; and an admirable tune — a favourite with the com- poser — entitled Troi/, to the hymn " Eock of Ages," it being called after an American city, for an inha- bitant of which he composed it. In 1875 Smart was requested by an influential body of ministers and laymen in Edinburgh, who were named "The Psalmody Committee of the United Presbyterian Church," to revise the har- monies of " The Presbyterian Hymnal," to contri- bute new tunes and sentences, and to assist them generally in the production of that excellent and useful work. Notwithstanding that he was in poor and enfeebled health during the time of his labours, he brought to bear much of his old enthusiasm and earnestness, and the book duly made its appearance in print in 1 877. At the end of a short preface we find the following generous appreciation of Smart's exertions : — " The committee beg to tender their thanks to Mr. Smart for the care and attention he has bestowed on the work, and also for the valuable counsel and aid he rendered the Committee in the progress of their labours." His original contributions consisted of four hymn tunes (" Theodore," " Ashgrove," " Morediin," " Beth- 286 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. esda "), the music to two Doxologies, and four Scrips ture sentences. There is a remarkable originality and beauty in the following extracts from two of these " sentences," some of which are really worthy of being called short anthems : — I . 1 \ Y ^ ;S-I-p:=*ETr-#=I— I h :»z. on the sides of the north, on the eitjfc sides of the north, the ci ty of the great king, God, is known. I 1 J^^^^SZJ^ ■©--©--SI- -©©- ".S5Z =:t: king B^ii I I II I 1 |- Who shall not fear, shall not] fear I I I J ,.! ! -©- -•- -•- J -I ^d. J. ^ ^ ^—£5= -x^ Thee, O Lord, and . — « > T — =3 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 287 — 'a mr T -t- -4^m ri - fy Thy name, I and glo - ri fy Thy ^ 1± l-i it=t 4:^ ^^=^ I I name. For Thou ail# ■± J- A A. '/ 1/ I ly art lio I , I ISSI opi^zzK -^iJ— 1 /--»i ttW — '1 ^~i ^~1 — h ■ —7= a^___ . ras^Li-g !— I- .-Q-i-d — sL ?3 " ?3 ..Ci.. ._Q ,. on ly art ho - - ^ 1 ^v. ly, art ho ly. 1 J-J^:^ r :-®_, ^5:: fi? Cj m 'f ,1 r f c^ c^ 0( ■1 1 J v_ _> ^ ■^ 1 288 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. ENGINEEEING— ANECDOTIANA. It has been already intimated that Smart possessed great ability as an engineer and mechanic, the many instances in which he showed this being neither few nor far between. None of his acquaintances had a better opportu- nity of appreciating his talents in this way than our old and mutual friend, Lieut.-Colonel Wilkinson, J.P., the present Mayor of Stockport, who himself possesses musical knowledge and critical acumen of no mean order, besides being a generous host, and a liberal patrbn of our art. To him I am indebted for the following interesting notice of Smart's engineer- ing skill, &c. : — " It was about the year 1852 that I first became per- sonally acquainted with Henry Smart. He had just returned from a visit to Paris, where the newest im- provements introduced into organ-building (in which art I had always myself taken much interest) by Cavaillfe - Coll were eagerly examined by him, and brought over to England to be used in his own organ at St. Luke's Church, Old Street, London. In company with the late George Cooper and Tom Bingham, two mutual friends, we went together to the church to examine the novelties, and we were greatly charmed with the new and striking eifects he produced with the sub- aud super-octave coupler from the great to the LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 289 swell organ, and especially delighted with some aston- ishing orchestral effects he brought out in Mendelssohn's overture to ' A Midsummer's Night's Dream.' " The party being afterwards my guests at dinner, I had an opportunity of observing Smart's powers of con- versation, and the quickness with which he adapted himself to any new phase of fact or opinion. He soon discovered that I knew something of mechanics as well as music, and we were quickly plunged into a long and lively discussion respecting the various pressures of wind for the different kinds of stops (reeds, &c.), and even to the adaptation of the principle (as was the case afterwards in the Leeds organ) to different portions of the manuals. I well remember that our contention was more about the mechanism than the principle — whether it would be more economical in power, and convenient in arrangement, to supply the whole of the air required at the higher, and let it follow to the lower pressure in various bellows until the lowest weight was reached, and then any surplus could escape ; or either to have a separate supply for each pressure by its own bellows and feeders. This friendly argument excited in me great respect for Smart's mechanical and structural knowledge, and this was afterwards considerably in- creased by finding that he was equally well versed in engines and engineering generally. " Some time after this Smart visited me at Stockport, and I took him to the largest cotton manufacturing establishment in the town or neighbourhood, and where the owners had recently applied M'Naught's improve- ments for the compound working of high and low pressure. To the astonishment of the proprietor and the working engineer, it was found that Smart knew 290 LIFE OF HENR Y SMART. much more about the matter than they did who were continually working and observing the new process. He made several useful suggestions, and the engineer came quietly round to me and asked in a whisper, 'What is the name of the great engineer you have brought ? ' " "When visiting the Great Exhibition in London in 1862, Smart took me specially to look at the engines made by Penn & Co. for H.M.S. 'Black Prince,' and which he greatly admired as models of simplicity and exact adaptation to the objects for which they were required. A Frenchman, whom he had taken to see them a short time previously, exclaimed, with the real shrug of his Gallic shoulders, ' Why, man cher monsieur, there is nothing in them ! ' ' Exactly,' replied Smart, 'that is just what constitutes their beauty and value: had a French engineer made them, he would have put in no end of rods, levers, cranks, &c., running it into a complicated machine, without in the least adding to its efficiency.' " Only three or four years before he died, when his sight had quite failed him, I was particularly struck with his lucid description of a steam-steering apparatus for vessels, which he said he had been to see. So clear a knowledge had he obtained of it by touch and inquiry, that I was enabled to follow his description easily, and to acquire real and accurate information respecting the machine. And I may here add, that although music and mechanics were congenial topics to both of us, he always seemed more disposed and gratified to talk of the latter than the former. " Another remarkable instance of his quick intelligence occurred only in 1878, when, with several friends, Smart LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 291 rambled about the Thames Embankment, and sought for every piece of information he could obtain respecting new improvements, &c. We were all especially desirous of seeing the Obelisk, which was then in the course of erection, and nearly completed. The main particulars of the mode of raising it had been duly read to him, and these being added to by some intelligent workman — a foreigner — with whom he conversed, he was enabled to give me a most lucid description of the position of that curious relic of the past, and of all the appliances which had been used in raising it to the position it now occupies. " From the . Thames Embankment we visited the National Gallery — forgetting for a moment that our eminent friend could not possibly enjoy its beauties, or properly appreciate its treasures ; but, to my astonish- ment, he described to me the best paintings, and where to find them. I remember with pain, that it was then, for the first time since his loss of sight, that I ever heard him repine, or grieve at his affliction. With a deep sigh, and sad expression of countenance, he said, in his old familiar way to me : ' How strange it is, Sam, that I who have in times gone by had such great delight in the pictures of this place, should now be deprived by my loss from ever again enjoying" the pleasure of seeing them ! ' "During our many years of friendly intercourse, I frequently met Smart by appointment at G-ray and Davison's Organ Manufactory in the Euston Road, where we had long talks about organs, and what possible mechanical or other improvements could be introduced into them. On one occasion he was most earnest about carrying out some idea he had of equalling, and perhaps superseding, the pneumatic lever which had been intro- 292 LIFE OF HENRY SMART: duced into French and, subsequently, English organs, by Barker ; and I believe that an experiment was made in an instrument at Wolverhampton — but of this I am not at all sure. " Smart was equally able to furnish plans, drawings, and a specification for a ;£^Sooo organ, or for a steam engine of the same value ; and as a finish to my small contribution to your biography, I may say that I believe, taking Smart altogether, ' we shall never look upon his like again.' " There were two other friends for whom Smart enter- tained a great respect and affection, and who, after his blindness had come upon him, used constantly to take him out and explain to him anything that was at all novel in either music or mechanics; I allude to Mr. Thomas Bingham, the London stockbroker, who, with his brother Daniel, were ever found among our com- poser's warmest friends and admirers, and whose congenial tastes and habits so exactly suited Smart. He always spoke with gratitude of their attention, and it is pleasing to record it. As affording another instance of the variety of his information, I remember on one of his latest visits to me at Leeds, how interested he became in a descrip- tion of some new tackling for a yacht, which was given to him by Mr. Tom Brown, of Headingley, who, to use Smart's own words, showed such a keen knowledge and appreciation of yachting, as to bring vividly to his LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 293 imagination his own former delights as a yachts- man. In 1857-58, during the erection of the Town Hall organ. Smart was a frequent visitor to Leeds; he had then good health and spirits, could see toler- ably well — in fact, he could see much further than many other folks whose visual organs were stronger than his own — I mean intellectually and metapho- rically. In the week of the first Musical Festival (which I have previously dwelt upon) there were plenty of festivals, dinner parties, &c., going on, and I need scarcely say that Smart was a wel- come guest whenever we could spare time to accept the numerous invitations we received as soon as he had got fairly installed in my domicile in Park Square, where I then resided. Wishful that we should have at least one gathering worthy of the event we were celebrating, I invited to dinner, on the third festival day, the best people I could get together, including . Professor Sterndale and Mrs. Bennett, the Town Clerk (Mr. Ikin), Mr. and Mrs. Dibb, several clergymen, and others. It so happened that, on receiving from one of the expected guests an excuse at the last moment, I met a young and ardent "Puseyite curate'' (as they were then called), and as he expressed a strong wish to meet Mr. Smart, I asked him if he would supply the 294 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. vacant place at table. This turned out to be a most unfortunate mistake, for I bad not only for- gotten for the moment Smart's old antipathy to Eitu- alism and Gregorianism in almost ever shape and form, but I actually placed him next to the bold young cleric, vi^ho, with a great deal of self-import- ance and pertinacity, insisted on contradicting. Mr. Smart respecting the rightful position, value, and use of Gregorian chants in the services of the Church of England ! The guests, who were rather quiet and stiff during the early part of the dinner, heard the storm brewing; and when the curate folded his hands spirally, saying to the distinguished organist in rather a loud tone of voice, "I am strongly of opinion, Mr. Smart, that there is a fine ecclesiastical, devotional character with Gregorian tones, which no other music possesses, and, therefore, I go in warmly for that kind of thing," poor Smart lost his temper entirely. It was more than he could stand any longer. So he pushed his chair back half a yard, pulled his fine, stalwart frame together, and with a signi- ficant, dramatic gesture said : " Now, look here ! this won't do; who asked your opinion, sir, upon a musical question of which you evidently know absolutely nothing ? You may rely on it, that some day when you and your friends are shouting those ugly Gregorian chants. Heaven will punish you,, and LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 295 rain down "bags of crotchets upon your heads, and pre- vent you from ever singing them again ! " > After the astonished guests had recovered slightly from their surprise, there arose a burst of hearty laughter, and the hitherto somewhat cold gathering warmed into the happiest and joUiest of evenings. As for the young " Puseyite," he shortly af terwatds asked the hostess to excuse him — he was " not well," &c. ; he slipped away, and was never again heard of from that day to this ! Some of the congregation of a chapel in Leeds, where there is supposed to be a fine organ, pressed Smart frequently to go and try their "beautiful instrument," and after some persuasion he went. Carefully he played through the flue work, which we perceived he didn't like, but when he got to the reeds, he uttered a very significant " bah ! " One of the company said, " Now, Mr. Smart, those are fine reeds, I think ; " whereupon the irate organist said, with that little nasal twang he put on occasionally when his equilibrium was disturbed : " Fine, indeed ! are they ? The only sort of sounds I can liken 'em to, is what I have heard in cottages when they're frying sausages ! " Apropos of his dislike to Gregorian chants, Smart 296 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. used to tell a story of an American who had shown one of our own clergymen hospitality and attention in the land of Columbus, and who was very pro- perly asked, when he came to this country, to return the visit. The Yankee went to the rectory to stay from Saturday until Sunday, the good parson having assured him he would hear " the best of music, well done." After the Sunday morning service, the musical portion of which was all Gregorian, the visitor went back to the rectory and was asked how he liked the music. " Some of it," said Jonathan, with his nasal twang, " some of it is rather tart — no tune much — made by your village organist, I guess ! " The rector replied solemnly : " My dear sir, the music we have been singing this morning is thought to be by many the purest and the most church-like chants we have; indeed, it is now pretty well ascertained that these Gregorian tones are identical with the Hebrew melodies which King David himself used to sing and play upon the harp, and which have come down to us so wonderfully from generation to generation." " Well, now," said the Yankee, " I am very glad indeed, sir, to hear this, because it clears up in my mind a little difficulty I have experienced in reading the Bible (and this I have done from kivver to kivver), as to the real reason why Saul threw the javelin at David when he LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 297 was a trying to soothe his royal master of a rayther awkward temper with those ancient ditties ! " When among genial friends — those who appre- ciated his talents and listened to his improving con- versation — very few men could equal him either in argument or in general knowledge. The truth is, he retained in his memory nearly all that he read and heard, and ^ould bring out from his mental storehouse a fund of information at the right moment. Such a person is, indeed, not met with every day. He was, in truth, a man of giant intel- lect and giant powet'. There were no friends he more highly valued, and whose society he more thoroughly enjoyed when at Leeds, than the heads and families of the well- known and greatly-respected solicitors, Messrs. Dibb, Atkinson, & Piper. At Little Woodhouse, the residence of Mr. Dibb, his annual dinner was always anticipated with pleasure,— the good hostess, Mrs. Dibb, being ever alluded to by Smart with gratitude and respect. Mr. J. W. Atkinson, a true friend and a great admirer of Smart's music, was scarcely ever absent from our dinners and happy gatherings during the visits of the composer of " The Bride of Dunkerron." Alas ! that those happy days should have passed away — " the days we never more shall see." 298 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. There was no domestic anecdote Smart told with greater unction than that which had reference to one of his sons when he was first sent to a boarding- school. The lad was eagerly asked in the usual boys' way, " Well, and what is your father ? " " Oh, my father," said the son hesitatingly — " Oh yes, my father — ^he's an Organ man I " On musical criticism, and the peculiar style of many provincial, and even some metropolitan critics, he was wont to be very pungent and humorous. He would quote the manner in which they got out of the difficulty of expressing any decided opinion on a work, or a performer, with such phrases as — " It was very well received ; " " This piece seemed to be so much to the liking of the audience that they desired to have it repeated ; " " Madame sang with her usual ability " (whatever that might mean) ; " Mr. much gratified the audience in his accustomed manner," and a hundred other ways in which incompetent writers shielded themselves behind an inexpressible lot of nonsense, even when artists of great talent had shown their power and ability. But Smart's ineffable enjoyment in the way of musical criticism was to have read to him the following wonderful notice by a local critic of a ■ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 299 Grand Miscellaneous Sacred Concert, at the School-room, Ironbridge. "This concert, got up by the Pain's Lane Choral Society for the benefit of distressed members of the choir, was well and respectably attended, the room being filled almost to an overflow, as there are few families of any note in the vicinity who withheld their patronage and presence. The conductor was F. B. Johnson ; the leader and first violin. Ball ; the double bass, Mr. Moreton, from Birmingham; and the prin- cipal vocalist, Mrs. Johnson. The band consisted of six violins, two violoncellos, double bass, flute, trumpet, and from twenty to thirty vocalists. All the voices and instruments were in chord and time, and the whole per- formance, from the first touch to the close, was, in short, a two hours' harmony, in some points almost seraphic, if such an idea can be conceived by human capacity. The first overture from Handel showed' at once the excellency of the instruments ; and though some strings afterwards snapped from the heat of the room, the defect thereby occasioned was not per- ceptible to the audience. Johnson, with his baton, kept time with vivacious and masterly alacrity ; and Moreton touched his enormous instrument with a delicate sensibility which hummed forth some really astonishing notes. The overture was loudly ap- plauded on its termination, which showed that the performers were not deficient in tact, nor the hearers in taste. 300 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " Chorus from Haydn, ' Hallelujah to the God of Israel.' — Splendid from the- start throughout. Every voice struck off in chord, and kept up its dignity and sentimentality to the end. This was really a rich treat, and especially to novices, — such as we must really con- fess that we are, in such a maze of harmony as this. " Solo by Johnson, from Handel, ' Thou art the King of Glory.' — .The conductor at once turned round, made his how, and hegan. There was a freedom of tone and a degree of self-possession which gave ease to his un- dertaking, though totally unassuming, but decorous and chaste. " Chorus from Purcell, ' Great and marvellous.' — The high tenor notes were particularly conspicuous and clear. It was evident that the rehearsal had not been neglected, as the singers were decidedly learned and judicious. " Song from the same author, by Briscoe, ' Just and Righteous.' — Voice, a high tenor — sweet and plaintive, and on the sharps elegant. Nothing in profane music can equal this soft solo, which affords scope to versatility and design. Deservedly and rapturously applauded. " Chorus from Purcell, ' We shall not fear thee.' — Very short but perfect. Struck off in a full, magnificent swell, which was uncompromisingly sustained. "We had not half enough of this. "Trio from Vernon, 'Sing unto the Lord and praise His name,' by Fletcher, Jones, and Johnson, in a high key. — Johnson's bass was beautiful ; Fletcher's counter-tenor the same; violins tying well. While listening alternately to Fletcher and Johnson, we neglected Jones, and mean no disparagement to that gentleman ; indeed, some say his was the finest voice LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 301 and best managed of the three, which is a point not easily decided by any but critics of iirst eminence. Allowed by all to be the best piece yet. "Chorus from Vernon, 'Break forth into joy.' — As usual, but of course better. " Air from Handel, ' Angels ever bright and fair,' by Mrs. Johnson. — Rather disappointed at the outset, and there appeared a faintness in her ' Take, oh take me,' arising from no other cause than diffidence. She is cer- tainly a sweet singer, and mistress of her subject. But why was she afraid ? An Ironbridge audience will take liberties, and the conscience must be steeled beforehand to withstand affronts which are never meant. " Chorus from Fawcett, ' Blessed be the name of the Lord.' — A most excellent chorus, and applauded beyond any of the preceding ; here was nothing for ears to do but listen and admire. Reynolds, the trumpeter, was heard to very great advantage in this piece. " Song from Handel, by Mrs. Johnson, ' Holy, holy, Lord God.' — Voice, tone, judgment, and chastity clearly developed and freely exercised. Our notes say equal to Stephens, and superior to Catalain ; at all events, the lady is a first-rate performer, and whatever pain she or othei's might have suffered from her first song, was here compensated by the reiterated plaudits of an over- enthusiastic assembly. "Chorus from Handel's 'Te Deum,' ' To thee, cherubim and seraphim.' — Some young tenors performed most efiiciently in this chorus, and neighbour Wallet dis- tinguished himself by a most brilliant exhibition of his powers in alt. " This ended thefirstpart of the performance, and was not, in our estimation, sufficiently well received. Per- 303 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. haps this ■was because people had stamped with applause either till their legs were tired, or till they were fearful of injuring the joists under the floor. " Second Pakt. — Overture from Handel. The taste- ful manner in which Moreton handles his hord, reminds one of that lecturing genius from the Isle of Man, who played off his pranks among us a short time ago ; only the one is completely in place, and the other was far out of it. The overture, which was a pretty light thing, scarcely sacred, was played with exquisite skill. "Chorus from Vernon, '0 be joyful.' — Should like to hear the whole jubilate thus performed j it is at once rousing and devout. " Song from Vernon, ' For be ye sure,' sung by Palmer as a substitute for minor. — A quite correct tenor singer, but his voice was hardly clear enough for the occasion. ' Chorus from Vernon, ' be joyful in the Lord, fill His courts.' — In consequence of some accident, a pause was made in the middle of this composition, which afterwards proceeded with vigour and terminated satis- factorily. " Air from Vernon, ' Jesus the Friend of sinners,' by Mrs. Johnson, who began in good heart, and kept up well, though, perhaps, occasionally a little nervous. She certainly is a sweet songstress, and deserves very high commendation. The words ' darkness ' and ' dying breath,' in semitone, were truly delicious. " Chorus from Vernon, ' He reigns, for ever reigns.' — Very cleverly run through. " Song from the same composer, ' But oh ! we cannot faintly show,' by Fletcher. — Well done, Fletcher. Sweet and plaintive is his strain, and his appogiaturas are beautifully run. LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 303 " Chorus, Vernon, ' If every stone was far more bright.' — In the 'Hallelujah' of the last verse the trebles were particularly sweet and clear. One young woman in particular, named Eigby, was most feelingly melodious. The finish to this chorus was superb, and was most deservedly applauded. " Song, Vernon, ' Thou shalt bring them in,' by Briscoe, in a high counter-tenor, or, rather, what may not improperly be termed a demi-treble voice, not initially pleasing, but the song was well and musically sung, and he was very fine in his depths, especially where he trills upon ' Lord.' Great applause followed his performance. " Chorus, Handel, ' He gave them hailstones.' — A masterpiece, and, as was fully expected, furious, terrific, and sublime, shaking the very ceiling. It was loudly encored by the whole audience, and sung better than ever, tenor and bass giving full mouth and string, and the trumpet sounding majestically, the violins being in full theatrical play. One of the young tenors in front was so absorbed with his subject that he involuntarily beat time with his fingers, linked in oddfellow style, and evidently felt it all over him — not the fire and hailstone, but the pleasure of singing. "Trio, Handel, 'Lead us, Lord,' by Fletcher, Davis, and Wallet. — They had not much to do, but their voices were good and in good keeping. The old adage says, ' Once well done is twice done ; ' and so it was here. " Chorus, Vernon, ' For the righteous shall inherit.' — A famous hold of trebles and counters, and afterwards a general one, told well in this, as did the warblings of the trebles in ' Hallelujah.' 304 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. "Eecitative, King, 'The archangel now to Paradise descended.' — Excellently sung by Mrs. Johnson, but not so much admired as the following air, 'Must I leave thee, Paradise ? ' from the same author, which she also sang, and was repeatedly cheered, which at the con- clusion increased. Her voice was full, clear, and rich, and she showed a delicacy of tone not to be surpassed. The words, ' Native soil, happy walks and shades,' were delivered with a pathos peculiarly elegant and striking, and the most rapturous applause, thrice repeated, fol- lowed her second exhibition. " Chorus, Vernon, ' Holy, holy, holy,' a gospel piece, excited universal admiration ; and lastly, Handel's grand ' Hallelujah ' chorus was given with a sublimity which it is not possible properly to describe, and the applause at the conclusion was tremendous. Many a loud encore was vociferated, but the majority of the audience felt that the whole choir had done their duty well and nobly already. Some person then called for a solo violin from Ball, to which the company responded, and Ball, though not in character with the performances of the evening, promptly complied." .... I need not, I hope, make any apology for intro- ducing here an account I wrote in a little brochure (already alluded to) entitled, " A Week's Music in London during the Handel Festival, 1877,'' of a day I had with Smart inspecting organs — notably the more modern erections of Mr. Lewis ; an event which I remember with mingled feelings of pleasure and sorrow : — " In the afternoon we inspected a recently-built organ LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 305 ■by Lewis, in the fine church of St. Mary's, Newington. It'has three manuals and about forty stops, including a most telling pedal organ. The flue work has a gran- deur and purity of tone not often met with, especially in the great organ ; the lighter stops, such as the sali- cional, salicet, vox angelica, and gedacts, are exquisitely voiced, and the reeds, with the exception of the clarinet, which I' do not like, are smooth and even. The touch, general workmanship, and indeed the whole of the mechanism, cannot be surpassed, thus enabling the per- former to play in great comfort with no fear of stick- ings, cypherings, buttons falling, and a hundred other evils and miseries to which organists are but too often subjected in the use of a badly-constructed and ill-made instrument. "Mr. Smart and myself having had one of those long, quiet, alternate playing and listening days, so well known and enjoyed by enthusiastic lovers of organs and organ music, we took sweet counsel together and asked that important question with all true Britons in good health : ' Where shall we dine ? ' Having decided in favour of Gravesend, we wired the once famous tenor singer, Charles Lockey, now mine host of the New Fa,lcon — ' Please order dinner for three at half-past six ; leave it to you.' I am thus particular to give the exact telegram, because the last four words, ' leave it to you,' produced a result I can never forget, and if repeated, it will become indispensable that I should previously arrange all my worldly affairs, and be well prepared for. a total physical collapse ! It is generally considered stupid and commonplace to order a dinner in this way and leave it to the manager, as a fish dinner provided by the house is always excessive, if not in price, at least U 3o6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. in the incredible and wearying number of dishes. But, in this case, there were no mediocre concoctions, but- a succession of good things which are better ' down the river ' than anywhere else. " After a delicious vegetable soup, there followed a souchel of flounders, turbot, salmon, stewed eels, smelts, whiting pudding, curried shrimps, and then, the chief object of the dinner, whitebait, plain and devilled, the latter slightly. Whitebait, sodden and stale, as but too often presented to you in town, are very different from the fresh, genuine article served, as in this instance, near their native home. ' Quantum sufficit,' I cried. But our genial host appeared and assured us that we had ' left it to him,' he must be permitted to work out his carte blanche. And so we pulled ourselves together, and proceeded but very gently, with sweetbreads, cutlets and tomatoes, ducks and green peas, orange fritters, devilled haddocks, Italian cheese, rose water (which we did not drink, as a town councillor once did at a public dinner), coffee, avec petit mrre de cognac. Of course, with all this, there were the usual wines, which, in this instance, were of the choicest description. And then we have a pleasant chat with the original singer of the tenor music in ' Elijah,' our host, Mr. Lockey, who shows us, among his thousand other curiosities, some original letters of Mendelssohn to him, written after the first performance of the world-renowned oratorio at the Birmingham Festival in 1847. Still more interesting was the original music of a recitative which Mendelssohn had hastily written at the same festival to supply a lost one in an oratorio by Handel, and which Mr. Lockey sang. After a little conversation with Mrs. Lockey, wee Martha Williams, in her boudoir, the charming contralto LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 307 (the Mdme. Patti of her day), we took our way to town, and soon found ourselves once more in the midst of the incessant noise of the great metropolis." Shortly after the Leeds Town Hall organ was finished, it was subject to much criticism, and the late Mr. Jeremiah Eogers, the well-known organist of Doncaster, once caused much amusement to Smart and others by saying, of the twenty-six magnificent reed stops in the instrument, " Oh yes ! no doubt there were a few good reeds, but then reeds were altogether vulgar ! " This singular expression from one vrho not long before boasted (as well he might) of the beauty of the reeds in the organ — the united work of the younger Harris and Byfield — which was the glory of the old parish church of Doncaster before destroyed by fire, elicited from Smart, or some one to whom he related the conversation, the foUowiDg nonsensical rhymes, which appeared in the " Musical World " :— " There was a Great Organ at Leeds, Which was famed for its high-pressure reeds, Gray and Davison's praises, The awful-clyde blazes, Loudest spoken of high-pressure reeds. " These reeds in the side of old Rogers (Most artful of all artful dodgers) Were a terrible thorn, But he laughed them to scorn. Saying, ' Reeds are quite vulgar,' old Rogers. 3o8 ' LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " His ideas Eogers soon put into train, Trying how he might good reeds obtain, But our organist, Spark, Cries, hitting the mark, ' Your grapes still quite sour remain.' " When in the company of a few genial friends, no one surpassed or perhaps equalled Smart in brilliancy of conversation or anecdotical power. It was not more than three years before he died that I was present with him at a dinner, given by Mr. Wm. Powell of Leeds (a warm-hearted amateur), at the Portland Hotel in London, when the clever actor Mr. Fred. Maccabe, and Mr. George Metzler, the late lamented publisher, were also of the party. Smart told us two comical stories on that occasion, which I think are worth recording. " I was in the habit," he said, " of goiag occasion- ally to a barber in the Euston Eoad, who used to teU some funny tales in his own odd style about his customers, &c., whilst he was pursuing the bent of his calling upon my head or face, as the case might be. Said the barber once, I used to have a great dandy here often — he would be nearly sixty — ^to have his grey hair and whiskers dyed black, but he did not always pay, and at last owed me just a sovereign. For nearly a year he avoided paying; and at last I hit upon an expedient which compelled him to settle with me straight off. I washed his hair and dyed one side of the head and whiskers, LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 309 leaving the other half quite white. ' Now, sir,' I said, ' look in the glass and see how well I have done one side.' The gentleman was pleased, and said, ' Very- good, indeed, very good ; but now be quick and get the rest of it done, as I have to meet some ladies in the Park.' 'Not if I knows it,' says the barber, ' you've owed me a sovereign for a long time, and I don't mean to touch the remainder of your hair and whiskers until you pay me ! ' Here was a dilemma. The swell protested that he had but a few shillings in his pocket ; but the barber was inexorable, and the dandy seeing this, sent a special messenger into the city to obtain the required amount of a friend, and then the deep old shaver consented to finish him off by dyeing the rest of the hair, and releasing his perplexed and defeated customer ! " " I was down at a village in Hampshire not long ago," said Smart, "where I was told that on the preceding Sunday the new vicar had preached his first sermon, and that it had been so eloquent, pathetic, and touching, as to move nearly the whole congregation, especially the feminine portion, to tears. One particular exception there was, however, in the shape of a burly farmer, who had come from the next parish to visit his sister, and who was looking about the -church during the discourse in the most iadif- ferent if not irreverent manner. In going out of church, his sister was heard to say to him, ' What 310 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. a beautiful sermon we have had from our new vicar ; it has brought tears into all our eyes ; but yov, alone seemed to be quite untouched and unconcerned.' 'Well,' said the farmer, 'I like that uncommon fine idea ; you forget, my dear, that / helong to another jparish ! ' " Mr. Berthold Tours, the highly talented musican and composer, arranged the Intermezzo from " The Bride of Dunkerron " for two hands, from the com- poser's duet for pianoforte (four hands) ; and Smart was so much pleased with it that he asked Mr. Tours to undertake the arrangement of the pianoforte accompaniments from the full score of " Jacob." As a matter of course, this led to numerous inter- views, and Mr. Tours tells me that he was frequently astonished with Smart's powers of memory. If there was any doubt as to the accuracy of a passage, or chord. Smart would intimate at once where it was to be found in the score, and play it over cor- rectly on the piano. Sometimes Mr. Tours would venture to remark that a certain phrase was very much in the manner of Spohr. " So it may be," said Smart ; " I like it, and I'll leave it so." Smart's correspondence was always most interest- ing — and it is much to be regretted that but little of it has been preserved. Two or three characteristic LIFE OF HENR Y SMAR T. 311 letters have been already introduced, and a few- others and extracts may here be introduced, from ■which it will be seen that he always says the right thiag in the right place, and generally in the best possible way. In 1863, when the great organ by Schultze had been built for, and erected in, Doncaster parish church, Smart and myself went to visit the organist, Mr. Eogers, and to see, hear, and examine this fine instrument for ourselves. Shortly afterwards there appeared in a London musical serial a series of articles on the organ, which I felt sure could only have emanated from the pen of Smart himself; and it would appear, from the following valuable letter in his own remarkable handwriting, that my conjectures were right : — "London, Bee. 14, 1863. " Be Doncaster Organ. " My deak Spark, — " r. The articles you speak of were of my writing, and I am honoured by your approval thereof. " 2. I don't doubt your disagreeing with me as to some parts of them, but I can't help that. Mean- while, I shall be glad to discuss the points of differ- ence, par preference, over a glass of your old port, instead of on an empty stomach. 312 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. " 3. ' Flue-work ' — not ' Flute-work,' if you please — at least in England. You don't seem to be aware that English organ-bmlders have always used the term 'Flue-work,' it being derived from the 'flue/ i.e., the narrow passage for the wind between the languid and the lower lip of the pipe. Somewhere or other Mrs. Trimmer says, ' Those who aspire to correct the mistakes of others should take care to be better informed themselves.' " Be Town Hall Organ. " I am glad to hear you like your organ better every day. I never had but one opinion about it, which is that, taken for all the uses for which it was designed and of which it is capable, it is by far the finest and most complete instrument in Europe; and I regard with supreme indifference, not to say contempt, the ignorant and partisan criticism which it has, from some quarters, received. Indeed, it would be amusing, if it were not provoking, to hear the lot of self-complacent chatter uttered by pro- fessors and amateurs aboiit organs, while I Well know that if ninety-nine hundredths of the gentry were shut up in a room with pens, ink, and paper, they could not give a defined or intelligible account of any one feature of their subject. Depend on it, I shall not lose many opportunities of showing up this pretentious kind of humbug as it deserves. LIFE OF HENR V SMAR T. 313 " I don't think it at all unlikely you may see me in Leeds about Christmas-time ; and, with kindest regards to your wife and self, I am, my dear Spark, very sincerely yours, Heney Smakt. "Dr. Spark.^' The following letter is not only racy, but contains maxims which a young composer can scarcely lay too much to heart. It was written to a musician who asked Smart's opinion on an anthem which had been severely criticised by the editor of a serial in which it was proposed to insert it : — " London, Friday, 1864. " My dear Sir, — I return your anthem by this post. I think the criticisms are hypercritical, and do not point out any special faults, while it is certainly gross rudeness to disfigure your MS. by writing remarks on it in inh. I must be candid enough, however, to teU you that I do not much like your anthem as a whole, and that I think you could and ought to do better. The kind of fault I am disposed to find with it is very different from 's style. " The whole manner of the anthem is not, to my thinking, sufficiently elevated ; and, as an instance, there is a passage on page 2 which I have marked in pencil, which has a modern littleness about it that annoys me. Also on pages 6 and 7, all that to the 314 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. words, ' The Lord Almighty/ is in iAr«e-bar phrases, which destroy the rhythm. Moreover, for such a short piece there is too much unison for my taste. You asked for my opinion, and you have it. " I am quite sure I am right in telling you that if you aspire to distinction as a composer, you w/nst le very careful what you do. There are very veey few men ever born in the world who can afford to write themselves down on paper without a great deal of thought and labour. Of course, au contraire, there are a great many donkeys in the world, but if I thought you one of these, I shouldn't take the trouble to give you six words of advice. " Eemembee always that a thing's being little is no excuse for its being lad; and the attention to this golden fact is one great secret of success. " Your ' Eev. Friend ' wrote to me for an anthem some time since, but, as he seemed to request a gratuitous contribution, and as I didn't either like that or the general style of his note, I took no notice of the gent. I don't see the fun of giving my talents (such as they are) to make somebody else's money and reputation. — Truly yours, " Heney Smaet. " To , Esq." During the year the Shah was in London I wrote to Smart at the end of the over-busy season, and LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 315 invited him to leave the smoke and dirt of town and go off •mUh myself into rustic quarters for a little pure air and relief from toil. This was his characteristic reply : — " 30 King Henry's Road, Jnm 24. "My deak Spaek, — I should have replied to your jolly invitation some days since, and have only delayed in the hope of being able to run down to Leeds on a sudden and take you at your word. I find, however, that I shall still be obliged to keep my nose to the grindstone for some weeks to come, though nothing would have suited me better than paying you such a visit as you propose, as I am sadly in want of rest and change. This, however, cannot be for the present. As soon as I find myself absolutely ' master of the situation,' I will do myself the pleasure of running down to you for a week, and promise myself immense benefit therefrom. Every- body in London except myself is Shah mad just now, and as I find my own business rather more addled than is customary, I will just stop here and say good-bye for the present. — Sincerely yours, "Heney Smaet. " Dr. Spark." The following, written the day after my birth- day, when I had invited him to join our usual 3i6 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. happy circle, is characteristic of the man and his naturally kiad disposition : — "30 King Henry's E9AD, Oct. 29, 1870. "My dear Spaek, — First of all, many happy returns of yesterday, when no doubt you celebrated your twenty- fifth birthday with aU due honours ! I hope everything went off to the complete satis- faction of yourself and friends, — the 0. P. included, of which latter I imbibed sundry glasses in your honour. Neither Clara nor I have been in first-rate condition since our return. The change from your keen northern air, which I so greatly enjoy, to the abominable muddle of south-west winds and drizzling rains which prevails here, has altogether knocked me over, and I shall have to get thoroughly acclimatised before I am better. — I am, dear Spark, sincerely yours, Heney Smart." Smart was again unable to visit me the Christmas following, and the reasons are given va. an amiable letter, dated " 30 King Henry's Road, Dec. 31, 1870. " My dear Spark, — I know you have had a merry Christmas, because you always have one, so I don't wish it you, specially since it is over ; but I do most heartily and sincerely wish a happy and prosperous New Year to you and all yours. LIFE OF HENR Y SMAR T. 317 " Ever since I have left Leeds I have been out of sorts and poorly one way or the other, and not been able to do anything worth speaking of. I am one of those people who can only work well when thor- oughly in the humour ; and therefore when not so I leave all serious work alone, as the wisest course, and rest and take physic till I am better. Out of all this comes the fact that your postlude and anthem are not yet done, but they soon will be. " Clara joins me in kindest love, and believe me sincerely yours, Henry Smaet." It will be seen from the epistle which follows how highly Smart approved of Lewis's work in the build- ing and result of the organ in St. Andrew's Hall, Glasgow : — " 30 Kino Henry's Road, N.W., Jan. 23, 1878. "My dear Spark, — I am very glad to have heard from you, for I too had begun to think that you never meant to write again. Of course you know of old that I am a bad correspondent, but I really had intended to have returned your Christmas card, and specially asked Mrs. Smart to procure one for the purpose, but somehow or other it became forgotten from day to day, until at last it was too late to remember it. " I am surprised that you have heard nothing of 3i8 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. the Glasgow organ from some source or other, though it really looked as if all the London musical papers had combined together to stifle any notice of it. But there the organ is, and unquestionably one of the finest in the world. I have never heard such flue-work in my life anywhere, and the reeds are magnificent throughout; the tuboe and clarinet of the solo organ especially are the finest I ever heard. The mechanism, and the way the whole thing works under the player's command, are absolute perfec- tion ; while the solidity of the general structure seemed to defy all likelihood of those perpetual derangements which are the curse of most large organs. " You must go and see it for yourself. The only vexatious part about the whole organ busiuess, to my mind, is, that poor Lewis is likely to lose a large sum by it, which is indeed but a poor reward for the artistic skill and honesty which is expended on every part of the work. " Have you played my new March at the Town Hall yet ? I think it would have a capital effect there. George Tetley writes me that he is about to give a performance of my ' King Eene's Daughter.' I am glad that this is at last to be heard in Leeds, for it always has been a favourite with me. " I was very sorry to be obliged to be away in Glasgow when you were iip here playing at the City LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 319 Temple. What is your candid opinion of that organ ? " With best love to all at home, believe me very sincerely yours, Henry Smaet. " Dr. Spark." From the succeeding letters it will be noted that, in the latter part of 1878, Smart's health had begun to give way seriously, and there is no doubt that at this time he suffered acute pain from the action of the malady which afSicted him, but which he bore, as he did his blindness, with absolute heroism — never grumbling or repining at his fate, but assuring his family and friends, that, " please God, he would be aU right again by and by." "61 Moray Place, GLAsaow, Nov. 24, 1878. " My dear Spaek, — I am still here notwithstand- ing the paragraph in the ' Musical World,' which positively located me in Leeds the week before last ; the fact, being that I have still some business here about an organ for the Cathedral, which I must complete before I leave, which I expect to do on Thursday next. We must go to Blackburn, as I have to leave Clara there, but I cannot stop there more than a day or two, as my time is nearly exhausted. I will take care to give you two or 320 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. three days' notice of my coining to Leeds ; but it must be remembered that all these arrangements must depend on the state of my health, which is now in a very ticklish condition, and may compel me to go right up to town after merely using Black- burn as a one day's break in the journey. I hope not, however, as I shall very much enjoy spending a few days with you. Mr. Callcott is delighted with the reception he got at your hands at Leeds ; and I must add that I feel personally obliged to you for your attention to him. Best love to all. — I am, dear Spark, sincerely yours, Heney Smart. "Dr. Spark." " King Henry's Egad, London, i2ih Bee 1878. " My dear Spark, — I am very sorry to say that, although much unproved in health, I am by no means yet well ; and not being at all satisfied about myself, have made an appointment to see Sir James Paget to-morrow morning. I cannot venture out at nights, so that I am sorry to say I shall not be able to meet you either on Friday or Saturday evening. I am vexed about this, as I should have much liked to hear you play the march on the Bow and Bromley organ, although this will do much better, as a matter of course, when I next come to Leeds. " I have had a letter from Fred about -the cantata for the next Festival, but am at present puzzled how LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 321 to answer it, as all must depend, of course, on the full and general recovery of my health. — With kindest regards to all, very sincerely yours, "Henry Smart. " Dr. Spark." The Provisional Committee of the Leeds Musical Festival (1880), as early as 1878 sought to obtain a cantata from Henry Smart, and the honorary secre- tary wrote to him in that year as follows : — "Leeds, Bee. 2, 1878. " Dear Mr. Smart, — The committee for 1880 held a meeting last week to consider the subject of new works. Your name again came before us, and a general wish was expressed that you will be able to complete the secular cantata which you began, or intended to begin, for our Festival last year. Can you give us any hope that you will complete the work for our next Festival ? . . . . — I am, very truly yours, " Fred. E. Spark, Eon. Sec. « Henry Smart, Esq." 'The following was the reply : — " 30 King Henkt's Road, London, N.W., 12th Dec. 1878. " My dear Fred, — I am sorry to have kept you so long waiting for an answer, but the fact is, that the X 322 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. very queer state of my health at present makes me uncertain of everything where hard work is con- cerned. " I am going to consult Sir James Paget to-morrow morning, and what with the benefit of his advice and taking care of myself I hope to be all right by the end of this year. Should that be so, there will be no obstacle, I trust, to my giving you a distinct promise as to the cantata for your next Festival. I must, however, wait until I see myself completely on the road to recovered health before I can engage myself for any serious work. — With kindest regards, always sincerely yours, Henet Smaet. « Fred. R. Spark, Esq." As no further reply was received from Mr. Smart, the honorary secretary again wrote to him in March 1879, to which the following letter was an answer : — "April 5, 1879. " My deak Peed Spaek, — I am very sorry indeed to have kept you so long waiting for an answer to your letter. The fact is, that I have been so ex- tremely unwell for the last six months that I have been quite unable to do any serious work, and am consequently in the greatest difficulty about giving an immediate answer to your question. If, however, you will kindly give me a line to tell me the date LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 323 of the Leeds Festival (for I have quite forgotten whether it will be this year or next), I faithfully promise you that you shall have an immediate reply about the cantata. — Sincerely yours, " Henby Smaet. "Fred. E. Spark, Esq." Shortly after this the honorary secretary had a personal interview with Mr. Smart at his residence' in London, and the following letter to him will ex- plain the Festival Committee's desires : — "Leeds, A^ril 19, 1879. " My deah Me. Smaet, — At a meeting of the Pro- visional Committee I related the result of my inter- view with you recently, and stated that you would undertake to complete the secular cantata, already begun by you, for performance at the Leeds Musical Festival, to be held about the month of August 1880. " The committee were much pleased to hear of your improved health, and of your promise to com- plete the cantata. They wish now to know if you can undertake that the band parts shaU be supplied to them not later than May i, 1880, and the chorus parts by March i, 1880? These conditions are con- sidered necessary owing to the hurried and unsatis- factory rehearsals of some new works at previous 324 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. festivals, and to the determination of tlie committee to produce no new works the music of which cannot he supplied sufficiently early to allow of adequate practising. " A reply at your early convenience will ohlige, yours very truly, Feed. E. Spark, Hon. Sec. " Henry Smart, Es^." My hrother Frederick had an interview with Smart shortly before his death; he was then very sanguine as to his recovery, and anxiously desirous to write the cantata. His face beamed as he spoke of the work, and he said, " Fred, I intend this to be the best thing I have ever written ; indeed, it shall be my magnum opus." Alas ! the doomed and gifted composer never wrote a note of the work after this. The last letter I ever received from my dear friend was the following, when he enclosed me the copyright receipt for the fine Fostlude in E-flat, the piece which he wrote for Part 34 of The Organises Quarterly — his last composition : — " 30 King Henry's Eoad, N.W., May i^th, 1879. "My dear Spark, — I have been so unwell for a long time with rheumatism, which completely cripples me, that I have not been able to attend regularly to business. LIFE OF HENR V SMA RT. 325 " On the other side I send you my copyright receipt for the last organ piece, of which, by the way, I have been some time expecting to receive proofs. Please do not omit to send me these, and with kind regards, believe me, dear Spark, sincerely yours, "Henry Smart. "Dr. Spaik." 326 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. CONCLUSION-. HIS LAST ACTS — DEATH — BTJEIAL — HONOUES. Eaely in the year 1878 Henry Smart had been requested hy the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, to examine the organ of that building, and to decide whether it was sufficiently good for its position in the magnificent edifice iato which the dingy old church had been transmuted by the princely munificence of its re- storer, Henry Eoe, the distiller. It was summer before leisure was found to comply with their request, and on July 22nd he left London for Dublin, accom- panied by Mrs. Smart. Although already attacked by the premonitory symptoms of the malady which was to prove fatal before that day and month should return again, he bore the long voyage remarkably well, enjoying the crossing from Holyhead, and, much invigorated by the " salt sea breezes," he sat on deck, and insisted on being taken to the engines, that he might observe by hearing what he could not by sight. Nothing about him was more remarkable than the power he possessed of grasping every detail of his LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 327 surroundings, whether novel or familiar, and on this visit it was specially notable. On arriving at his daughter's* house, he asked to be taken over it as a preliminary step, and never afterwards required any assistance or showed any hesitation in finding his way about it; and through the strange city he walked with as much confidence as though in London, recognising any street or square he might come upon a second time, speedily having mapped out the whole town in his mind. His professional business occupied the greater part of his time. He had to examine the organ exhaustively, and then handed the authorities a written report upon it. His great love for, and knowledge of organs, made the first part of his task a most enjoyable one, but the latter part was very onerous, entailing no less than three processes, each occupying a considerable time. The rough copy he insisted on writing himself ; this had then to be deciphered, and finally copied under his supervision. Until his work was finished, he declined seeing any of his musical friends, lest any suspicion should' arise that he was influenced by them — the diffi- culty of driving a straight line through the nume- rous cliques into which a provinbial town is split up, without offence, being no slight one. Once it * Mrs. Browning. 328 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. was completed, he gave himself up for a few days to the social gatherings with which that con- genial city abounds, enjoying heartily the jovial spirits and racy humour of his Hibernian friends and acquaintances. At one of these meetings, a dinner at the Eoyal Irish Yacht Club at Elingstown, it chanced that during the evening experiments with the electric light were being made on the opposite shore of Howth, at the Bailey Lighthouse. Henry Smart immediately assumed, so to speak, the role of showman of the party — one which, in most societies, he was pre-eminently fitted to filL He explained the construction and working of the machine — the power necessary for the transmission of the spark they were watching — all its disadvan- tages and advantages; no point was left undis- cussed or unexplained to the men who listened with astonishment to the hoards of knowledge he produced from his capacious and well-stored mind. And this, be it remembered, was about an instru- ment which he had never seen, as it had been in- vented long after the loss of his sight. One of the last visits paid during his sojourn in Dublin was to this lighthouse. He was conducted through every chamber, clambered up into the lantern, examining, with his facile finger-tips, the construction of lamp, of glass, of every instrument, electric and otherwise, contained in the place. It LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 329 was a glorious summer day, and tlie weird beauty of the spot, a rock standing boldly up many hundred feet out of the sea, which, even on that calm day, dashed up its surface almost to the top, was strongly felt by him — a day for ever to be remembered by those who were with him, for before its anniversary both he and the grandchild who was his companion there as everywhere during those short three weeks, were lying in their graves — both dying on the same day. On his way home from Ireland, Henry Smart and Mrs. Smart broke their journey by spending a few days with a daughter and her family at Penmaenmawr, in North Wales ; but the visit was but brief, as the anthem he was then writing for the London Church Choir's Annual Festival was waiting completion in London, and time was running short. It was, however, ready; and was performed in St. Paul's on the day required, with the greatest success. Unfortunately he never heard this, his last anthem- work of any importance ; for though just able to go to the rehearsal, he was quite unable to face the fatigue of the whole festival. Over- worked and strained, he left London on the 20th of September to recruit his strength by a short stay at Westgate, but only remained there a few days, the disease which had been undermining his health for so many years suddenly assuming a virulent 330 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. form. From that time, with scarcely any intermis- sion, he suffered the most excruciating pain ; but his fortitude and natural spirit so sustained him as to deceive his friends, who, whilst recognising serious illness, could not believe in a fatal termination. In the spring of '79 he rallied so much as to be able to go to two Philharmonic Concerts, and on Easter Day played the morning and evening service at St. Pancras. The last time that he led the service there was in April, for the end was rapidly approaching ; and though battling, with the indomitable will of the strong man, against sickness, he was forced to succumb at last. On the 1 8th of June he consented to remain in bed to breakfast for the first time in his life, and though he struggled up for a few hours later in the day, was fain to return to the bed which he never afterwards left. , Extreme weakness and opiates induced almost constant wandering, at which tunes, always coherent, were yet strangely ludicrous. As one who knew him well said, "■ His nonsense is as superior to every one else's nonsense, as his sense always was." His two delusions were that he was at sea, and that he was in India. How powerful his memory remained to the last during his few lucid intervals, the following curious anecdote will show: A street organ was playing some popular airs from " La Fille de Madame Angot." LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 331 " Call tliat new, indeed I " he said ; " why, in the year 1780, or thereabouts, an Irishman named Kelly wrote an opera of ' Bluebeard ; ' " and then he related the whole story down to Sister Anne's second visit to the tower, when she exclaims, — singing the words to the identical air, — " I see them coming — see them coming ! " &c. With this one exception, and another very singular one, he never alluded to the ruling passion of his life — music. A few days before his death he suddenly exclaimed, "Why, there is Beethoven in the room ! " to which his wife replied, " No ; there is no one here but me." " Yes," he said, " there is ; I see him in that corner." " Ko," she repeated, " there is no one but me. Do you know who I am ? " " Of course," he replied ; " you are my wife, — but there is Beethoven." That same night his son heard him say, waving his hand as if greeting some one, " Hi ! John Sebastian Bach ! " Who shall say that the two great souls had not come to receive their brother ? As soon as Smart's last serious illness became known in June 1879, there was a universal cry from a great number of the musical portion of Great Britain, that the composer had not been appreciated or rewarded in accordance with his great talents and merits. Something akin to indignation was expressed 332 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. that he had not even had the honorary degree of Doctor in Music offered to him by either of our Universities. The editor of TJie Musical Staridard had an able article on the subject, which elicited many sympa- thetic observations and suggestions. I ventured myself to send the following letter,- ^hich appeared in the issue of July 5 th : — " To the Editor of ' The Musical Standard.' " Leeds, July ist, 1879. " Sir, — All musical England will applaud the leading article in your last issue respecting Mr. Henry Smart, and the advisability — nay, I had almost said the neces- sity — that the public wish should be granted, and an honorary degree of Doctor of Music conferred upon him without further delay, by not only one but by the com- bined Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dubhn. " Surely Henry Smart's transcendent talents are appreciated by such learned and amiable men as Professors Macfarren, Ouseley, and Stewart. I most fervently hope that these highly-esteemed musicians — personal friends for whom I entertain profound respect — will give us an early assurance that they will recom- mend the respective Senates of their Universities to confer an honorary degree of Doctor of Music on Henry Smart — one of the finest organists and composers Eng- land has ever produced. "I hope I may be pardoned for speaking somewhat warmly ; but, having enjoyed a close, uninterrupted, LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 333 and delightful friendship with Henry Smart for more than thirty years — and having during that long period heard him frequently perform on the organ and piano- forte in his grandest and happiest moments of inspira- tion, as well as made myself acquainted with his numer- ous lovely compositions — I am naturally deeply wishful that such a man should, in the serious illness with which he is now unfortunately afSicted, receive all the honour and consolation his anxious friends and appreciating fellow-countrymen can bestow upon him." John Turner Hopwood, Esq., J.P., of Ketton Hall, Northamptonshire, and formerly of Blackburn, an amateur of high musical attainments, took the matter up warmly, and through his representa- tions, perseverance, and earnest endeavours. Lord Beaconsfield, then Prime Minister, recommended Her Majesty to grant Henry Smart ;£'ioo per annum from the Civil List in recognition of his services to music. Not only the musical papers, but a large number of the daily London and provincial press, recorded the fact with unusual pleasure and satisfaction. But, as with poor Tom Hood — the recognition and reward came "too late!" It was only the day before he took his bed that Mr. Hopwood called to teU him of Her Majesty's favours, and his only reply was, "I am. too iU to thank you sufficiently; but God bless you." After this Mr. Hopwood wrote to me, saying, " I 334 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. have the worst accounts of poor Smart, and I fear any day we may hear of his death. It will, how- ever, be a source of the greatest satisfaction to me to know that even at this late hour his great talent has met with so distinguished a recognition." He grew gradually worse, but, against all remon- strance, determined once more to go into his study — his "workshop," as he sometimes called it — and correct the proofs of the Organ Postlude in E-flat (it has been already described), and, though suffering poignant pain, his intellect was as bright as ever. He detected the smallest error and corrected it, and then said to his amanuensis, with a kindly, beaming smile, "I had no idea it would have come out so well ; " and this was the last bit of work this truly wonderful man ever did. But the end drew near. The medical men who attended him found that the disease (cancer on the liver) from which he was suffering was absolutely incurable, and that all they could do was to endea- vour to alleviate the acute pain which he suffered, but of which he never complained. On June i6th his eldest daughter, Mrs. Browning, wrote to me : "I am sure you wiU be shocked to hear that my poor father is lying so iU that we are daily expecting he will be taken from us. Your letter of congratulation" (alluding to the Queen's favour) " was read to him, but he could hardly com- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 335 prebend it. The honour paid to him has, alas! arrived too late to be of any benefit to him, and scarcely any pleasure." On the 1 8th he rallied, and Mrs. Smart wrote to me the following reassuring letter : — " 30 King Henry's Eoad, N.W., June 19, 1879. "My dear De. Spakk, — Thank you very much for your letter and kind inquiries, I am thankful to say my dear husband has rallied, and is rather better to-day, though still in a very precarious state. After a time of great prostration this morning, he suddenly woke up, and we told him of the nice article written of him by you in the Yorkshire Post, and he wished to have it read to him, and then he seemed to appreciate your kindness. Excuse more at present, and with best love from all, believe me, dear Dr. Spark, yours very sincerely, " Julia Smaet." But this faint hope was no sooner raised than it was once more extinguished. The poor suffering patient grew worse, and ultimately died without a perceptible pang, in the presence of his sorrowing wife and family, on Sunday evening, the 6th of July 1879, at the age of 67. He was buried at Hampstead Cemetery, Pinchley 335 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. Eoad, London, on Friday, July ii, and those who followed him to the gravQ, besides his wife, were Mr. and Mrs. Callow (his sister), Mr. Henry Joachim (his son-in-law), his daughters, Mrs. Browning and Mrs. Unwin Sowter, Henry and Edgar Smart (his two sons), and other members of his own family ; a great many personal friends and eminent musicians, the latter including a deputation from the College of Organists, as well as from Trinity College. Numerous beautiful wreaths were thrown on his cof&n by those who loved him ; and at the moment the mourners were about to leave the grave, the sun, which had been obscured all the day up to that time, burst forth in all his warm and glorious rays, lighting up the scene as with the magic wand of the enchanter. His daughter Clara was c[uite overcome. She came up to where I stood, casting a last look into the grave, and with deep emotion said, " Oh ! isn't this wonderful, — ^just what he would have liked him- self, the sun bursting out in such a grand light, as if its rays would catch up his spirit and bear it away to the realms above." This was indeed most touch- ing, and almost more than I could bear. A thousand thoughts crossed my mind in rapid succession as in a dream. I thought of his wisdom, knowledge, and power, — of the many, many delight- ful hours we had spent in the enjoyment of sweet music and pleasant conversation, — of his kind con- LIFE OF HENRY SMART. 337 sideration for others, his trials and bodily sufferings ; his naturally generous heart and hand, his honesty and straightforwardness, — and, above all, his faith and wonderful patience ; and then the thought flashed across my mind of the resemblance of the sun's rays shining direct on his grave to the scene, the dream in his oratorio " Jacob," where the angels ascend and descend the ladder to the strains of his heavenly music. Is it not possible, I thought, that the angels are really there, and that communion with the saints in heaven has been already vouch- safed to the departed; and, as "Waller has finely expressed it — " The Cliurch. triumphant and the Church below, In songs of praise their present union shoTv : Their joys are full, our expectation long ; In life we differ, hut we join in song ; Angels and we, assisted by this art, May sing together, though we dwell apart." And yet one word more : May we not hope and believe that we shall meet again, — meet in the realms above, where, even " with archangels and all the company of heaven," we may all join in chant- ing among other hymns and anthems Henry Smart's undying strain : — 338 LIFE OF HENRY SMART. P m/. 3 ^ ^i^zrci: I --° r - 1 i - - [Hark, hark, my soul ! an gel ic songs are swell - ing, n ri d_ O.J I I -e- -o- Siill irJz ja_ 1^ 3^=155= 1—1 1- isl Pfc ^ aiE? I I I O'er earth's green fields and o S#H I I I I ■ cean's wave - beat shore : I I I . m l~k=^ 11 d=i =r^ I I How sweet; the truth those tiles - sed strains are tell - ing SitJ A_-^^ I ^ I W _S-p=f \ \ V 41 m ^E^ :s3 I I i -| I ~| W Of that new life when sin shall be no more. Biiiij W I I I - Organists' Qua/rterly Journal) ; Pughetta in C (No. 12 of No. 13). Even. : Voluntary, No. 10 of No. 13. Leicester {St. Mary's Chwrch). — Org., H. B. Ellis. Mom. : Voluntaries, Opening Voluntary in B flat, and Allegro Pomposo in G. Even. -. Voluntaries, Prelude in A, and Grand Solemn March. Liverpool {St. John the Baptist, Tue Brooh). — Org., Wm. Ridley. Morn. : Voluntaries, Allegretto Grazioso in E flat. Con moto in B flat, Te Deum in F. Even. : Voluntaries, Grazioso in F, Evening Prayer; Tune, "Pilgrims;" "Dead March" (Handel); Marziale in C major. Liverpool {Dr. Eaffles's Chapel). — Org., H. Grimshaw. Morn.: Voluntaries, Andante in E, Postlude in E flat. Even.: Volun- taries, Andante Grazioso in F, Evening Prayer in A, Prelude and Fughetta. Liverpool {St. Margaret's, Prince's Road). — Org., Horace A Branscombe. Grand Solemn March, Air, vpith finale, Fugato in A major. Long Sutton {St. Mary's Church). — Org., E. Winter. Mom.: Andante TranquUlamente, Con moto moderate. Afternoon : An- dante Keligioso, Andante moderate. Even.: Prelude, Allegro moderate. Loughborough Parish Cliarch. — Org., C. H. Briggs. Morn.: 36o COMMEMORATION SERVICES. Con moto in B flat, Whitfield in E, Hymn 322, A. & M., " Light's abode, celestial Salem," Hymn 293, "See the Conqueror mounts in triumph," Voluntary, Postlude in C, Con Spirito, ma Moderate. Afternoon : Voluntary, " I know that my Redeemer liveth," Bennett in F, Hymn 321, "Stars of the morning," Hymn 324, "0 Paradise," Choral Hymn, "In Memoriam," L. S. Even.: Andante Grazioso in G, Whitfield in E, Hymn 384, "Brightly gleams our Banner," Hymn 378, "Hark, the sound of holy voices," Hymn 325, " Hark ! hark, my soul," Concluding Voluntary, Post- lude in D, Allegro Pomposo. Louth Parish Church. — Org., George H. Porter. Morn.: Volun- taries, Grand Solemn March in E flat, Andante Grazioso in D (Village Organist), Andante Grazioso in G (vol. i. Organists' Quar- terly Journal), Postlude in C (vol. i. Organists' Quarterly Jowmal), Andante in P (No. 2), Festive March (vol. v. Organists' Quarterly Journal. It is rather curious that on the day of Mr. Smart's death, July 6th, the following were played by Mr. Porter : — Allegro Mode- rate {Org. Book), Postlude in E flat (vol. yi. Organists' Quarterly Journal), Song for Soprano {Org, Student), Allegro Pomposo {Org. Student). Lowestoft {Chwrch of St. John's). — Org., J. Macrone. Mora. ; Introductory Voluntary, B flat, Festive March. Even. : No. 12 Interlude, No. 366, Biokeisteth's Hymn Book (Pilgrim), Postlude inC. Macclesfield {Christ Chwrch). — Org. and C. M., Hugh Ford. Morn. : Voluntaries, Con moto in F major ; Con moto moderato in D major. Even. ; Voluntaries, Andante Grazioso in G major ; Postlude in C ; Smart in D major to Magnificat. Macclesfield {Unitarian Chapel, King Edward Street). — Org., C. Shuttleworth. Morn. : Opening voluntary, Song for soprano in F ; Interlude, Andante Eeligioso in G (No. 4) ; concluding voluntary, Song for tenor. Malvern Wells {St. Peter's Church).— Org., F. F. Rogers. Morn. : Andante Grazioso, Andante, E minor. Evening Prayer, Allegro Pom- poso (Organ Book). Manchester {Holy Trinity Church, Eusholme). — Org., Saml. Green. Morn. ; Voluntary (Choral), Double Chant in D, with variations. Even. : Voluntary (Choral), Double Chant in B flat, with variations. Manchester {Union Chapel, Oxford Road). — Org., W. Loekett. Morn. : Voluntaries, Andante con moto in A (No. 3, Book 8) ; Soprano melody (Book 11) ; Poco Adagio in D (Book 7). Even. ; Voluntaries, Con moto moderato in D (Book 8); Andante tran- COMMEMORA TION SER VICES. 36 1 quillo in G (Book 11) ; Con moto moderato in D minor (en forme d'ouverture) . Manchester {Emmanuel Cliurch, Ba/rlow Moor, Didsbwy). — Org., Greorge Lomas, Mus. Bao., Oxon. Morn. : Voluntaries, Grazioso in F, Moderato con moto in A minor. Manchester (Christ Oltwch, Moss Side). — Org., W. A. Wrigley. Morn. : Voluntaries, Pastorale, Con moto, March in D ; Te Deum in F ; Tunes, "Regent Square," "St. Leonard." Even.: Volun- taries, Adagio, Allegretto, Postlude; Tunes, "Paradise," "Pil- grims." Manchester (St. Stephen's Church, Chorltorirupon-MedlocJc). — Org., E. Hilton. Morn. : Voluntaries, No. J, 2, and 6, Te Deum, Double Chant in B flat (Joule's Coll.). Even. : Voluntaries in G (bk. 12), Postlude in C (bk. i SparFs Quarterly), Magnificat, Double Chant in D (Joule's Coll.). Manchester (New Church, Chorlton-cum-Bardy). — Org., Albert Pierson. Morn. : Voluntaries, Adagio in D, Andante in F ; Tunes, " Heathlands," "Trisagion." Even. ; Voluntaries, Andante in A, Andante in E flat; Tunes, "ilegent Square," " Misericordia," "Paradise." Merthyr-Tydfil (St. David's Church). — Org., Edward Lawrence. Mom. : Voluntaries, Grazioso in F (No. 9), Andante in E minor (No. 3) ; Tune 321, "Trisagion." Even.: Voluntaries, Andante Solennelle (No. 10), Evening Prayer in A, Grand Solemn March in E flat; 'Tunes, 322,"Eegent Square," 325, "Pilgrims." Middlesborough (St. Paul's Church). — Org., Charles Bradley. Morn. : Voluntaries, Andante in B flat, and Postlude in C ; Hymns, 218 and 300. Even.: Voluntary, Evening Prayer; Magnificat in G; NuncDimittis in G; Hymns, 255, 232, and 234. Monmouthshire (Christ Church, Ebhw Yale). — Org., J. W. Wall. Morn. : Andante Grazioso in G, from Organists' Quarterly Journal, part vii., page 124 ; Postlude in D, from Organists' Quarterly Jour- nal, part xii., page 62 ; Hymn Tune, "Eegent Square," 322, A. & M. Even. : Voluntaries, Prelude in A, from Organists' Quarterly Journal, part ii., page 21 ; Postlude in C, from Organists' Quarterly /owmoi, part i., page 7 ; Hymn Tunes, "Paradise," No. 324, "Vox Angelica," No. 325, A. & M. Northwich, Cheshire (Parish Church).— Org., George W. Marple. Morn,: Voluntaries, Andante con moto in Eflat ; Con moto mode- rato in F. Even. : Voluntaries, Andante con moto quasi allegretto in A ; Marche pomposo in G. North Tawton Parish Church (Devon).— Org., G. J. Robertson. 362 COMMEMORA TION SER VICES. Morn. : Voluntaries, Con moto moderato in E flat, Allegro Maes- toso in C. Even. : Voluntaries, Andante tranquillo in Gr, Postlude in E flat (part 43 Organists' Quarterly Journal). Norwich (^St. Peter's Church, Hungate).- — Org., Jacob Goose. Morn. : Prelude in A ; Tunes, " St. Leonard," No. 300, "Trisagion," No. 423, "Heathlands," No. 218, Hymns A. & M., Postlude in C. Even. : Andante Grazioso in G, Tunes, " Miserioordia," No. 25S, " Rex gloriae," No. 397, " Kegent Square, " No. 232, Grand Solemn March. Nottingham {St. Mary's Parish Church). — Org., Arthur Page, F.C.O. Mom. : Voluntaries, Andante Grazioso in F {No. i). Andante Grazioso in G, Allegro Pomposo in G. Even. : Andante in A (No. 3), Evening Prayer in A, Grand Solemn March. Oldham [St. James's Church). — Org., Joseph Clafton. Morn. : Opening voluntary. Andante Grazioso in G ; Chants to Psalms and Canticles by Smart; Hymn Tunes, "Lancashire" and "St. Leonard ; " Anthem, " Grant, we beseech Thee," concluding voluntary, Maroia in G. Even. : Opening voluntary. Adagio in D ; Chants to Psalms and Canticles by Smart ; Hymn Tunes, "Miserioordia" and "Pilgrims ;" Anthem, "The Lord hath done great things ; " Concluding voluntary. Grand Solemn March. Pemlerton, near Wigan (St. John's Parish Church). — Mom. : Voluntaries, Andante con moto in D, Molto Moderato in A; Tune, "Eex Gloria;" Chant in B flat. Even. ; Voluntaries, Andante in F, Allegro Pomposo in 6 ; Tune, "Kegent Square; " Chant in D. Poole (St. James' Church). — Org., J. Smith. Mom. : Volun- taries, Andante in F, and Postlude in D ; Tunes (Hymns A. and M.), "Everton," (419); " Heathlands," (218) ; " Misericordia," (255); "Eegent Square," (232, ii.). Even. : Voluntaries, Andante in C, and Grand Solemn March; Tunes, "A few more years; (MS.) "St. Leonard's" (300, ii.); "Paradise," (234, i.) ; "Pil- grims," (233, ii,). Portsmouth Parish Church. — Org. and C. M., A. Godwin Fowles, F.C.O. Tunes, "TrLsagion," " Eegent Square," and "Pilgrims;" Voluntaries, Andante eon moto in A, No. 8 of Original Com- positions, Grand Solemn March. Even. : Voluntaries, Andante in F, No. 2 of Three Andantes dedicated to Best, Con moto moderato, en forme d'ouverture, dedicated to Dr. Spark. Bawtenstall (/St. Mary's Church). — Org., Frank Holt. Morn. ; Voluntaries, Andante in A major. Offertory Andante in E minor ; Tunes, " Heathlands," " St. Leonard's." Even. : Voluntaries, COMMEMORATION SERVICES. 363 Aiidante in G major, Grand Solemn March ; Tunes, " Regent Square," "Paradise," "Pilgrims." Seading [St. John the Evangelist). — Org., Eiohmond L. Eeed. Morn. : Service, Prelude, Molto Moderate in A ; Andante Grazioso in G ; Tune, " St. Leonard." Even. : Service, Introductory voluntary, Con moto in B flat ; Postlude in C ; Tunea, " Miseri- cordia," "Gloria," "Lancashire." s Redhill (St. Matthew's Church). — Org., H. T. Pringuer, B. Mus., P. CO. Voluntaries, Andante con moto quasi Allegretto, bk. 12, No. 7, Air vpith variations and Finale Pugato. Even. : Evening Prayer, Grand Solemn March. Meigate (St. Mark's Church).— Org., John W. Gritton, P.C.O. Morn. : Voluntaries, Grazioso in P (Original Composition, bk. 13, No. 9), JPostlude in C (Organists' Quarterly Journal, part i.). Even. : Quasi Pastorale in G (original composition, bk. 12), Con spirito in D (original composition, bk. 9, No. 6). Richmond (Parish Church, Tories). — Org. and D. of C, Jas. H. Rooks. Morn. : Voluntaries, Andante (No. 3, of Three Andantes) ; Hymn, from the Hymnary (No. 609) ; Con moto moderate (en forme d'ouverture). Even. : Voluntaries, Allegro moderate in A ; Hymn, Gloria (436, Hymns A. and M.) ; Hymn, Paradise (234) ; Fantasia, with Chorale. Stevenage (Parish Church). — Org., William Wurr. Morn. ; Voluntaries, No. 3 of Twelve Pieces (Andante Tranquillo) ; No. i of Six Pieces (Poco Adagio). Even. : Voluntaries, No. 2 of Twelve Pieces (Con moto moderate) ; No. 5 of Six Pieces (Allegro maestoso). StocTcwell, S. W. (St. Michael's). — Org., W. Venning Sonthgate. Morn. : Voluntaries, Prelude, Con moto in D (No. 8) ; Postlude, Allegro Pomposo (No. 12). Even. : Voluntaries, Andante con moto in A (No. 8) ; Postlude, Con spirito in D (No. 9). Sunderland Congregational Church, Fawcet Street. — Mom. : Service, Andante in E minor (Smart's No. 6) ; Postlude in C. Even. -. Service, Andante in A (Smart's No. i) ; Postlude in D. Teibury (St. Mary's Church). — Org., Walker E. Bartlett. Morn. : Voluntaries, No. 2, Andante in F ; No. I, Con moto in B flat ; Tunes, " Regent Square " and Gloria, Hymnal (Monk). Even. : Voluntaries, No. I, Andante in A, No. 5, Con moto moderate in D minor (en forme d'ouverture); Tunes, "Paradise" and " Pilgrims" (Monk's Hymnal). Thrapston (St. Mary's Church, Titchmarsh). — Org.,T. Emberto , A. Mus. Morn. : Voluntaries, Prelude, Postlude in D (Organists' 364 COMMEMORATION SERVICES. Quarterly Jov/rnal, vol. ii.). Even. : Voluntaries, Postlude in F, Allegro Pomposo (Organists' Quarterly Journal, vol. ii.). Vjrper Street, Islington, N. (Unity Church). — Org., Walter W. BobinsoD. Morn. ; Introductoiy Voluntary, Andante in D (No. 4) ; offertory voluntary, soprano melody ; concluding voluntary, * March in G. Even. -. Introductory voluntary, Andante in A (No. 7 ); offertory voluntary. Andante in F (No. 9) ; concluding volun- tary, Fughetta in C. Wanstead (Asylum Ohapel). — Org., Mrs. Thomas Perry. Morn. : Voluntaries, Andante in G, March in D, Andante (Evening Prayer), No. 12, Andante (No. 3) in E minor, Gloria, Gospel, Chant ; Hymn Tunes, "Bethany," "Lancashire." Wanstead (Congregational Church). — Org., Frank S. Wykes. Morn. : Introductory Voluntary, Andante in G, Hymn ; Tune, "Regent's Square," Chants, Anthem, Hymn; Hymn Tune, "St. Leonard's," Grand Solemn March in E flat. Even. -. Andante in E minor, Postlude in E flat. Waterford (St. Michael and All Angels' Church). — Org., P. Raymond Dare. Morn. : Voluntaries, Andante Grazioso in F (No. 1), Prelude and Fughetta in C (Nos. II and 12) ; Hymns (Revised Edition, Ancient and Modern) 300, tune ii., 232, tune ii., 21 S. Even. : Voluntaries, Andante tranquillo in A (No. 3), Evening Prayer (Andante Solennelle) ; Hymns 255, 234, tune i., 362. Warrington (Bold Street Wesleyan Church). — Org., Jas. M. Muir. Morn. ; Con motto moderate in D, No. 4, Grand Solemn March. Even. : Introductory Voluntary in B flat. Minuet inC. Wellington, Somerset (St. John's Church). — Org., John R. Toms, A.C.O. Morn. : Voluntaries, Andante Grazioso in G ; Fantasia vpith Choral in G ; Chants and Tune (Bethany). Even. ; Volun- taries, Prelude in A, and Postlude in D ; Chants and Tune (Paradise). Weymouth (Holy Trinity Church). — Org., G. Thorne, A. Mus. Andante in F (No. 5, book 12), Allegretto in A (No. 7, book 12), Andante con moto in F (part 14 Org. QMart. Journal), Andante in D (No. 8, book 12), Pastorale in G (No. 6, book 12), Andante in F, Postlude in D. Yorh (St. Helen's Church). — Org., G. H. Simpson. Mom. : Voluntaries, Con moto in B flat and Andante in A major ; Tunes, " Everton," " Paradise," and "Regent Square." Even. : Volun- taries, Con moto in F major and Fughetta in C major ; Tunes, " Misericordia," Gloria, "Pilgrims." ( 365 ) LIST OF HEISTEY SMAET'S WOEKS, chiefly compiled from the Music Catalogue of the British Museum. Original Compositions for the Organ. London (1869, &c.), obi. folio. Twelve Sacred Duets. Chappell's Musical Magazine. No. 16. (1861, &c.), 4to. "The Abbess," — Song (begins "Through the chapel win- dow"). Words by W. H. Bellamy. (1870), folio. (Davison & Co.) "After Parting," — Song (begins "When lovers"). Words by F. E. Weatherly. (1873), folio. Three Andantes for the Organ. Three Nos. (1863), folio. The Angelina Polka. For Pianoforte. (1851), folio. An Old Lover's Song. Words by Wellington Guernsey. (Metzler & Co.) The Angel of Home — Song (begins "What can equal"). Words by James Brougham. (1865), foUo. (Davison and Co.) The Angel of Sleep — Song (" From forth the forest glades "). Words by G. J. Graham. (1871), folio. Ave Maria. Adapted to Latin words by C J. Hargitt. (1869), 4to. Ave Maria. Part-Song. Words by E. M. S. The Singer's Library, Secular. No. 10. (1859), 8vo. A Star shone o'er the Sea. Words by F. Enoch. Autumn Song (" A Little Bird "). Words from the German. (1869), folio. Song. (Ashdown & Parry.) A Spanish Serenade. Words by Fred. Enoch. (Ashdown and Parry.) The Autumn Violet— Terzette ("The llowers are here"). 366 LIST OF WORKS. Words by F. Enoch. (1865), folio. No. 6 of " Draw- ing-room Trios." Autumn Winds — Duettino (" Chill autumn winds "). Words by 0. J. Rowe. (1871), folio. Behold where Laughing Spring — Part-Song. Words by E. M. S. Singer's Library, Secular. No. 74. (1859, &c.), 8vo. Bells— Song. Words by H. M. Burnside. (1871), folio. Beneath the Waves — Song. (1872), folio. Berta, (" In vain I would forget thee ") — Ballad. Words by E. Fitzball. (1855), folio. (Chappell k Co.) ' Do. The merry bells (" Methinks I hear the merry bells"). Words by E. Fitzball. (1855), folio. Do. Oh ! it is not a pleasant thing ?— Aria. Words by E. Fitzball. (1855), folio. Do. Oh ! what a happy life — Song. Words by E. Fitz- ball. (1855), folio. Do. Sad was the hour— Ballad. Words by E. Fitzball. (1855), folio. Do. Scenes of yesterday depart — Ballad. Words by E. Fitzball. (1855), folio. Do. (See Glover, C. W.) Gems of the opera of Berta. (By H. S.) Arranged for Pianoforte, &c. (1855), folio. Beside the Old Corn Mill — Song (begins " I know a little story"). Words by S. Gray. (1873), folio. Bessie Bell ("The bonny bird ")— Ballad. Words by F. Enoch. (1868), folio. (Ashdown & Parry.) Bessie Bell, "In Hanover Square." No. i. (1867, &c.), 8vo. The Bird at Sea. Trios for equal voices. No. 6. Bird of my Heart— Song. Words by F. Enoch. (1866), folio. (Ashdown & Parry.) Bird of my Dwelling — Song. Words by F. Enoch. Bird of the Morning— Canons. Words by W. H. Bellamy. (i860), folio. The Birds were telling one another— Song. Words by F. Enoch. In A-flat. (1870), folio. (Cramer & Co.) LIST OF WORKS. 367 Bloom fairy Eose— Song. Words by F. Enoch. (Duncan Davison & Co.) Do. In F. (Duncan Davison & Co.) Blue Eyes (" There's the violet sky")— Ballad. Words by F. Enoch. (1864), folio. The Bride of Dunkerron. A dramatic cantata. The verse by F. Enoch. Tlie arrangement for the Pianoforte by E. Nordmann. London (1866), folio. (Novello & Co.) Do. The full moon is beaming — Air. (i866), folio. Do. Hail to thee, child of the earth ! — Trio. ( 1 866), folio. Do. Hark ! those spirit voices — Duet. (1866), folio. Do. Here may we dwell — Duet. (1866), folio. Do. Intermezzo arrangement as a Pianof ore duet. ( 1 866), folio. Do. Our home shall be in this bright isle — Air. (1866), folio. Do. The sea rules all — Air. (1866), folio. Do. (See Fontaine, C). The Bride, &c., Transcription for the Pianoforte. (1866), folio. Bright and fair as a Star — Song. Words by F. Enoch. (Metzler & Co.) Bright be her Dreams— Song. Words by F. Enoch. (1863), folio. A Brownie wooed a Fairy — Duet. Words by F. Enoch. (1870), folio. The Butterfly (" Light-hearted, wandering, wavering thing"). Words by W. H. Bellamy. Chamber trios, No. 66. (1844, &c.), folio. By Babylon's Waters — Sacred Duet. Words by W. H. Bellamy. (1850), folio. By the Blue Sea— Song. Words by F. Enoch. (1862), folio. The Carnival— Trio. S. S. B. Folio. (Novello & Co.) Charge, Chester, Charge ! Marmion's last war-cry (begins "Upon the field"). Words by H. Farnie. (1865), folio. The Choice ("Tell me, maiden"). Words by J. E. Car- penter. (1869), folio, (WiUey&Co.) 368 LIST OF WORKS. Choral Songs for S.A.T.B. Six Nos. (1864), folio. Pub- lished by Novello. No. I. Consolation ("If life were fair"). Words from the German of La Motte Fouqu6. „ 2. Good-night, thou glorious sun. Words by W. S. Passmore. „ 3. Hunting Song (" Waken, lords and ladies "). Words by Walter Scott. „ 4. " Lady, rise, sweet morn's awaking." Words by W. S. Passmore. „ 5. Sweet summer morn. Words by W. S. Pass- more. „ 6. The sea-king ("Come, sing; come, sing"). Words by Barry Cornwall. Can't you put your spinning by? — Song. Words by F. Enoch. (Metzler 3 1) 4- )) 9- » )> » S » °- „ 10. Air with Variations and Finale Fugato. „ II. Twelve Short and Easy Pieces in various styles, Nos. I to 4. „ 12. Twelve Short and Easy Pieces in various styles, Nos. 5 to 8. ,, 13. Twelve Short and Easy Pieces in various styles, Nos. 9 to 12. ,,14. Prelude in A, and Postlude in C. „ 15. Prelude in Eb ; Introductory Voluntary in Bb ; Andante Grazioso. „ 16. Postlude in D. „ 17. Twelve Short Interludes. „ 18. March in G. „ 19. Easy Preludes : No. i, in F; No. 2, in G. „ 20. Minuet in C. „ 21. Festive March in D. „ 22. Postlude in E-flat. Nos. 14 to 22 from The Organist's Quarterly Journal. (NoveUo & Co.) There is an unpuhlished MS. Eomanza, for Pianoforte, Violin, and Violoncello, in my possession, which may shortly be pub- lished.— W. S. THE END. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON