A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Harmonious Blacksmith, The
HARMONIOUS BLACKSMITH, THE. Handel's variations on the air known in England as 'The Harmonious Blacksmith' were originally printed in No. 5 of his first set of 'Suites de Pièces, pour le Clavecin,' in Nov. 1720. As no name is there given to the air, and even down to the time of the late Robert Birchall it was still published only as 'Handel's Fifth favourite Lesson from his first Suite de Piéces,' it has been generally assumed to be Handel's composition as well as the variations. Upon this point, however, doubts have arisen since Handel's death, and various claims have been put forth, of which at least one still remains undecided. The first claim was in 'Anthologie Française, ou Chansons choisies depuis le treizième siècle jusqu'à présent' (Paris, 3 vols. 8vo, 1765). The editor of that work was J. Monnet, and, according to M. Fetis, 'ce recueil est estimé.' In the first volume are the following eight lines, printed to the air, and ascribed to Clement Marot:—
Plus no suis que j'ai été,
Et plus ne saurais jamaia l'être;
Mon beau priutems et mon été,
Ont fait le saut par la fenêtre:
Amour! tu as été mon maître.
Je t'ai servi sur tous les dieux:
Ah! si je pouvais deux fois naître,
Combien je te servirais mieux!
Although these lines might pass for one of the extravagant love-songs of Clement Marot in his earlier years, if we allow for their being presented in a modernized form, yet no trace of them is to be found in his published works, nor of any song like them. A thorough search has been made through the long poems as well as the short pieces, lest these lines should prove to be an extract. The name of Clement Marot is therefore an assumed one. The air itself is not at all like music of the 15th century. When therefore Professor J. Ella informed his readers in the 'Supplement to Programme of Musical Union,' June 6, 1865, that this melody 'was first published in a collection of French Chansons printed by Ballard in 1565 to words of Clement Marot, who died in 1545, there was some misunderstanding between his informant, M. Weckerlin, and himself. On writing recently to Mr. Weckerlin to inquire whether there was such a book in his custody, he being Librarian to the Conservatoire de Musique, in Paris, the writer was informed that nothing was known of such a work, and that the earliest French edition known to him was in the above-named 'Anthologie Française,' not of 1565, but of 1765. Professor Ella thought also that he had seen the melody in a French collection, a copy of which was sold in the library of the late Wm. Ayrton, F.R.S. On tracing it through the sale catalogue to its present resting-place in the British Museum, it proved to be 'Lot 38. Ballard (J. B. Chr.) La Clef des Chansonniers, on Recueil des Vaudevilles depuis cent ans et plus, notez et recueillis pour la première fois' (2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1717) Here we find the name of Ballard, suggested by Professor Ella, but not the melody in question.
The next claim is for G. C. Wagenseil, an eminent clavecinist of Vienna, who was born three years after Handel. The late Dr. Wm. Crotch, Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, informed the present writer that he had seen the air in a piece of music for the clavecin composed by Wagenseil.
Dr. Crotch made a similar communication to the late Richard Clark, adding that the volume in which he saw it was one in the possession of Dr. Hague, who was then Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge. In 1836, Richard Clark published a book in folio, entitled 'Reminiscences of Handel,' and in it he referred to the information he had received from Dr. Crotch and to the liberty given to him to use it (p. 65). Clark then published a new edition of the piece, giving to Wagenseil the credit of the air, and to Handel that of the variations. The difficulty in proving priority between the two contemporaries arises from the fact that published music was, and is, undated. We know the date of Handel's publication only from an advertisement by his publisher. In Vienna music was copied, not printed, even so late as 1772 or 1773, when Dr. Burney visited that capital.
'In his youth,' says M. Fétis, 'Wagenseil was the fashionable composer for the clavecin, and his music was much sought for long afterwards.' Wagenseil's op. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all sets of six pieces for that instrument, like Handel's two sets. But the circulation of Wagenseil's music was limited to manuscripts from the copyists of Vienna until he was fifty-two years old. His op. 1 was then first printed—not in Vienna, but at Bamberg—in 1740, when the copyright had probably expired. He wrote five other sets for the clavecin, of which manuscript copies were in the hands of Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig at the end of the last century. We know very little of Wagenseil in England—for Handel eclipsed all competitors—but he was highly esteemed on the continent.
As to the question of priority it is far more probable that Handel copied from Wagenseil than vice versâ, because Handel borrowed systematically from other authors, dead and living, whenever he found anything to suit his purpose. Dr. Crotch was an enthusiastic admirer of Handel, and yet he published a list of twenty-nine of the best composers from whom Handel 'quoted or copied,' with an et ceteris to indicate that he had named only the principal sources (Lectures on Music, 8vo, 1831, p. 122, in note).
The story of Handel's having heard the air sung by a blacksmith at Edgware, while beating time to it upon his anvil, and that Handel therefore entitled it 'The Harmonious Blacksmith,' is refuted by the fact that it was never so named during Handel's life. The late Richard Clark was the propagator, if not also the inventor, of this fable. In Clark's edition of the lesson he has gone so far as to print an accompaniment for the anvil, as he imagined Handel to have heard the beats. He states that the blacksmith was also the parish clerk at Whitchurch. A few months after Clark's publication the writer saw the late J. W. Winsor, Esq., of Bath, a great admirer of Handel, and one who knew all his published works. He told the writer that the story of the Blacksmith at Edgware was pure imagination, that the original publisher of Handel's lesson under that name was a music-seller at Bath, named Lintern, whom he knew personally from buying music at his shop, that he had asked Lintern the reason for this new name, and he had told him that it was a nickname given to himself because he had been brought up as a blacksmith, although he had afterwards turned to music, and that this was the piece he was constantly asked to play. He printed the movement in a detached form, because he could sell a sufficient number of copies to make a profit, and the whole set was too expensive. It is worth mentioning that Beethoven has taken the theme, whether consciously or unconsciously, for the subject of a two-part organ fugue published in the supplementary volume of his works issued in 1888.