A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pearsall, Robert
PEARSALL, Robert Lucas, born at Clifton, March 14, 1795, of an old Gloucestershire family. He showed much talent for poetry and music at an early age, but was educated for the bar, to which he was called in 1821, and at which he practised till 1825. He then left England for the continent, and after some time settled at Mayence, where, during four years he took a brilliant part in literary, artistic, and archæological life, including music, in which he was the pupil of Panny, whose instructions in composition he pursued with characteristic ardour. In 1829 he returned to England, but after a year went back to the Continent and settled with his family at Carlsruhe, he resuming his intellectual pursuits, and composing and practising much music. The next few years were spent in travelling to Munich, Vienna, Nuremberg, and other towns, for musical and archæological purposes. In 1836 he revisited England, and hearing, apparently for the first time, some madrigals sung at London and Bristol, was so much inflamed by this new experience as to write a treatise on that style of music, which he published in Germany. A year later he sold his family property of Willsbridge, and again quitted England for Wartensee, on the Lake of Constance, where he purchased the castle. In 1847 he returned for a short visit, and then left his native country for the last time. Thenceforward till his death, Aug. 5, 1856, he resided at his castle en grand seigneur, eager to the last on all intellectual and artistic subjects, but especially on music. He wrote a great number of psalms, motets, anthems, and other church music, amongst them a Requiem, on which he set much store, treatises on music, and a 'Catholisches Gesangbuch' (1863), founded on that of St. Gall, and still in use. The bulk of this is however still in MS. His published works contain 47 Choral Songs and Madrigals, for 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10 voices, including 'The Hardy Norseman,' and 'Oh, who will o'er the downs so free'—the fresh and spirited strains of which will keep Pearsall's memory green for many a long year among the part-singers of England. But besides these well-known songs the collection embraces madrigals such as 'Great God of Love,' and Lay a garland,' both for 8 voices, which may be pronounced to be amongst the most melodious and pure specimens of 8-part writing ever penned by an Englishman, and certain to be popular abroad if published there.
In the latter part of his life Pearsall was received into the Roman Catholic Church, and he added a 'de' to his name, calling himself De Pearsall. Had he made music his exclusive pursuit there is little doubt he would have risen to a very high rank.