A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Fisher, John

FISHER, John Abraham, Mus. Doc., was born at Dunstable, 1744. He became a student of the violin under Pinto, and made his first appearance in public in July 1765 at the King's Theatre, in a concert for the benefit of the Musical Fund. About 1770 he married a daughter of Powell the actor, and became, in her right, proprietor of a sixteenth share in Covent Garden Theatre. He composed for that and other theatres the music for the following pantomimes, viz. 'The Monster of the Wood,' 1772; 'The Sylphs,' 1774; 'Prometheus,' 1776; and 'The Norwood Gipsies,' 1777; and also music for the opening of 'Macbeth.' [App. p.636 "and the music to Craddock's tragedy 'Zobeide' (Covent Garden, 1771)."] On July 2, 1777, an oratorio by Fisher, entitled 'Providence,' was performed in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, and on the 5th of the same month the composer (as a member of Magdalen College) accumulated the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Music. His oratorio was performed in Freemasons' Hall, London, on May 28, 1778, for the benefit of the Middlesex Hospital, and again in 1780. On the death of his wife Fisher disposed of his interest in Covent Garden Theatre, and started on a professional tour through Russia and Germany. In 1784 he reached Vienna, where he induced the youthful Anna Selina Storace to become his second wife—contrary to the advice of all her friends. The union proved an unhappy one, and in a short time the parties separated and the wife never after used her husband's name. The Emperor, incensed at Storace's having had to submit to blows from her husband, ordered Fisher to quit his dominions. He then went to Dublin and gave concerts in the Rotunda. When or where his existence terminated is unknown. Besides the above-named compositions Fisher published some symphonies for orchestra.

[ W. H. H. ]