Holmes, for pianoforte, and Cipriani Potter for composition, and one Smithies for trombone, an instrument which he undertook, in accordance with the Academy rules, as a second study.
In September 1830 his first important orchestral work, a symphony in C, was produced at an Academy concert, and was followed in December 1831 by another in D minor. For the opening of the Queen's Theatre in Tottenham Street, under his father's management in 1831, Macfarren wrote an overture in D, and in 1832 the music to a piece entitled 'The Maid of Switzerland.' On 26 June 1833 another overture by him was played at the Royal Academy two days after its author had received the bronze medal for composition and improvement in piano-playing. On 17 July in the same year a 'grand overture' was produced at Paganini's concert at Drury Lane Theatre, and on 24 May 1834 an 'Incantation and Elfin Chorus' were given for the first time.
In 1834 Macfarren made his first attempt at dramatic composition, writing a large portion of an opera on the subject of 'Caractacus,' for which his father furnished the libretto. This work was, however, never performed in public, the censor of plays, T. J. Serle, condemning it on the score of historical inaccuracy. At the first concert of a recently formed society of British musicians, 27 Oct. 1834, a symphony in F minor by Macfarren was produced (Atheæum, 2 Nov. 1834), and a year later, 2 Nov., W. H. Holmes played Macfarren's pianoforte concerto in C minor at one of the same society's concerts; the overture to the 'Merchant of Venice ' also dates from this period (ib. 22 Oct. 1835). In 1836 Macfarren wrote in a single night his overture 'Chevy Chase,' as a prelude to a play by J. R. Planche. This work was the means of introducing Macfarren to continental audiences, and Mendelssohn subsequently produced it at one of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts in 1843.
On quitting the Royal Academy in 1836, Macfarren became music teacher in a school in the Isle of Man, but there practically his sole opportunities for obtaining musical practice were occasional performances in private of Bach's organ fugues on the piano, the pedal parts, being played by a retired naval officer on the contrabass! He devoted much of his spare time, however, to composition, and set to work upon an opera, called at first 'Craso, the Forlorn,' a title afterwards changed to 'El Malechor,' when the opera was enlarged to two acts; for this also his father wrote the libretto. 'El Malechor' was a very ill-fated work; it was accepted for performance by Bunn at Drury Lane in 1839, by Barnett at the St. James's, and by Balfe at the English Opera House in 1840, but as each of these managers became bankrupt before the work could be produced, it never obtained a hearing, only one song being at any time performed in public.
In 1837 Macfarren resigned his post in the Isle of Man, and composed a farewell overture for all the available orchestral resources of the island. The piece was written for sixteen flutes, one clarinet, one violoncello, and some ten or twelve violins — as difficult an orchestra to write for as could well be imagined. On reaching London in 1837 Macfarren was appointed to a professorship of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, and about the same time wrote the overture to 'Romeo and Juliet.' To the year 1838 belong the conception, composition, and production (13 Aug.) within a month of the 'Devil's Opera,' one of Macfarren's best dramatic works (cf. Banister, Life, and Musical World, 16 Aug. 1838, and Athenæum, 18 Aug. 1838). A jubilee performance of this work was given at Taunton under T. Dudeney in 1888. Later in 1838 the first part of Mr. W. Chappell's 'Collection of National English Airs . . . harmonized by W. Crotch, G. A. Macfarren, and J. A. Wade,' was issued; the whole of the musical part was entrusted to Macfarren.
On the occasion of the queen's marriage in 1840, the Macfarrens, father and son, wrote an 'Emblematical Tribute' for Drury Lane, and in the same year Macfarren joined the council of the newly established Musical Antiquarian Society. For this society he edited Purcell's 'Dido and Æneas,' and several other works by old English composers, and also arranged a pianoforte score of this opera and of the same composer's 'Bonduca.' The former work, however, was subsequently discovered to have been edited from incomplete manuscripts.
In 1844 the Handel Society was founded by Macfarren, in accordance with a suggestion of his father, who died a year earlier. Of this society Macfarren was secretary, and for it he edited 'Belshazzar,' 'Judas Maccabeus,' and 'Jephtha;' it ceased in 1848, owing to want of support.
In January 1845 Macfarren became conductor at Covent Garden, where, under Laurent's management, he produced the 'Antigone' with Mendelssohn's music; on 9 June his C sharp minor symphony, which was composed some years previously and dedicated to Mendelssohn, was given by the Philharmonic Society. In 1846 Macfarren completed an opera on the subject of 'Don
