A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Walmisley, Thomas
WALMISLEY, Thomas Forbes, son of William Walmisley, Esq., Clerk of the Papers to the House of Lords, was born 1783. At an early age he was sent to Westminster School. At 14 he began his musical education, and studied the organ, piano, and counterpoint under Attwood. Walmisley achieved success as a musical teacher and glee-writer. Although the Part-song, made so popular by Mendelssohn, has to a great extent superseded the English Glee, some few good specimens of Walmisley's glees are still remembered. The 'Spectator' for Aug. 1830 thus characterises a volume of glees published by Walmisley at that time: 'These compositions, though displaying the attainments of a skilful musician, are not the dull effusions of a pedant. Though formed upon the best models, they are no servile copies, but the effusions of good taste matured and nurtured by study.' In 1810 Walmisley became organist at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, an appointment he held for a great number of years. His name appears on the list of musicians assembled at Weber's funeral in 1826. He died July 23, 1866.
The following printed works appear in the Catalogue of the British Museum, with dates of publication:—
Six glees, 1814. Round, Underneath this stone (Ben Jonson), 1815. Song, Taste life's glad moments, 1815. Trio, The fairy of the dale. 1815. Song, Sweet hope, 1817. Glee, From flower to flower, 1819. Canzonet, The soldiers, 1819. Glee, Say, Myra, 1822. Song, The wild hyacinth, 1825. A collection of glees, trios, rounds, and canons, 1826. Song I turn from pleasure's witching tone, 1827. Song, Home, dearest home, 1828. By those eyes of dark beauty, 1829. Glee, Bright while smiles the sparkling wine, 1830. Six glees, 1830. Six glees, 1830. Round, O'er the glad waters, 1835. Glee, I wish to tune, 1835. Glee, Thou cheerful bee, 1835. Song, To Zuleika, 1835. Three canons, 1840. Duet, Tell me gentle hour of night, 1840. Sacred songs, poetry by E. B. Impey, 1841. Glee, To-morrow. 1845. Glee, The traveller's return (Southey), 1858.
His eldest son, Thomas Attwood, was born in London Jan. 21, 1814. He showed at an unusually early age such a rare aptitude for music that his father secured for him the advantage of studying composition under his godfather, Thomas Attwood. The lad rapidly attained proficiency as a player, his early mastery of technical difficulties giving promise of that distinction which in after years was ungrudgingly conceded to so capable an exponent of Bach Fugues or Beethoven Sonatas. In 1830 he became organist of Croydon Church, and attracted the notice of Mr. Thomas Miller, who encouraged his literary tastes, and persuaded him to combine mathematical with musical studies. At this time an attempt was made by Monck Mason to secure him for English opera, but Walmisley decided to try his fortune at Cambridge. In 1833 he was elected organist of Trinity and St. John's Colleges, and composed an exercise, 'Let God arise,' with full orchestra, for the degree of Mus. Bac. He then entered Corpus Christi College, where he distinguished himself in the Mathematical Examinations. He subsequently migrated to Jesus College, and though unsuccessful as a competitor for the University Prize Poem, fully justified the wisdom of Mr. Miller's advice that his love of literature should not be entirely sacrificed to professional duties. The then system concentrated the duties of several persons in one, and the young organist submitted to a slavery which it is now difficult to realise. He took without any remuneration Mr. Pratt's duties as organist in King's College Chapel and St. Mary's, and his Sunday work deserves to be recorded:—St. John's at 7.15 a.m.; Trinity, 8; King's, .9.30; St. Mary's, 10.30 and 2; King's, 3.15; St. John's, 5; Trinity, 6.15. In 1835 he composed the Ode, written by the late Bishop of Lincoln, for the Installation of Lord Camden as Chancellor—a serious interruption to his mathematical studies. His election to the professorial chair of Music, vacated by the death of Dr. Clarke Whitfeld, took place in 1836; in 1838, he took his B.A. degree, and in 1841 his M.A. It twice fell to his lot to compose music for Odes written for the Installation of Chancellors of the University. In 1842, the words, in honour of the Duke of Northumberland, were written by the Rev. T. Whytehead; in 1847, for the Installation of the late Prince Consort, they were by Wordsworth, then Laureate. Poetry and music written for such occasions are seldom long-lived, but a quartet from the Ode of 1842, 'Fair is the warrior's mural crown,' would certainly be an effective concert-piece at any time. In 1848 he took the degree of Mus. Doc., and continued working at Cambridge until within a short period of his death, which took place at Hastings Jan. 17, 1856. [App. p.814 "Add that a tablet has recently (1888) been erected to his memory in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge."]
His intimacy with Mendelssohn was a source of great pride to him, though some advice offered to Walmisley on his asking Mendelssohn to look at a symphony written for the Philharmonic Society weighed unduly on his mind. Before he would look at the symphony, Mendelssohn asked how many he had written already. On hearing that it was a first attempt, 'No. 1!' exclaimed Mendelssohn, 'let us see what No. 12[1] will be first!' The apparent discouragement contained in these words was far more humiliating than the feeling of disappointment at the refusal even to look at the music, and he abandoned orchestral writing.
Walmisley was one of the first English organists of his day, and in a period of church music made memorable by the compositions of Wesley and Goss, his best anthems and services are little, if at all, inferior to the compositions of these eminent men. As instances of fine writing we may cite the Service in B♭, the Dublin Prize Anthem, his anthem 'If the Lord himself,' and the madrigal 'Sweet flowers,' a work which Mr. Henry Leslie's choir has done much to popularise. His position at Cambridge no doubt acted prejudicially. A larger professional area, a closer neighbourhood with possible rivals, would have ensured a deeper cultivation of powers which bore fruit, but promised a still richer harvest. In general cultivation and knowledge of musical history he was far in advance of most English musicians. He was one of the first to inaugurate the useful system of musical lectures, illustrated by practical examples. In a series of lectures on the 'Rise and Progress of the Piano-forte,' he spoke incidentally of Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor as 'the greatest composition in the world,' and prophesied that the publication of the Cantatas (then in MS.) would show that his assertion of Bach's supremacy was no paradox. It may be said confidently that the number of English musicians, who five-and-thirty years ago were acquainted with any of Bach's music beyond the 48 Preludes and Fugues, might be counted on the fingers, and Walmisley fearlessly preached to Cambridge men the same musical doctrine that Mendelssohn and Schumann enforced in Germany.
The volume of anthems and services published by his father after the son's death are a first-class certificate of sound musicianship. Amongst his unpublished manuscripts are some charming duets for pianoforte and oboe, written for Alfred Pollock, a Cambridge undergraduate, whose remarkable oboe-playing Walmisley much admired. To this day Walmisley's reputation as an artist is a tradition loyally upheld in Trinity College; and none that heard him accompany the services in chapel can wonder at the belief of Cambridge men that as a cathedral organist he has been excelled by none.
His published works in the Catalogue of the British Museum are as follows:—
Song, When nightly my wild harp I bring, 1835(7). Ode at the Installation of the Duke of Northumberland as Chancellor, 1842. Chants and Responses in use at King's, Trinity, and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge, 1845. Three anthems arranged from Hummel's Masses, 1849. Ode at the installation of Prince Albert as Chancellor, 1849. Attwood's Cathedral Music: 4 services, 8 anthems, etc., arranged by T. A. Walmisley, 1852. Two trios for trebles—1. The approach of May; 2. The mermaid, 1852. Choral hymn, 4 v. and organ. 1853. Four songs—1. Gay festive garments; 2. Sing to me then; 3. Farewell, sweet flowers; 4. The sweet spring day, 1854. Cambria, 1857. Cathedral Music, edited by T. F. Walmisley, 1857. Song, There is a voice, 1858.
- ↑ To understand the force of this we should remember that Mendelssohn's Symphony in minor, with which he made his début at the Philharmonic in 1829, though known as 'No. 1,' is really his 13th, and is so inscribed on the autograph. Had Walmisley been aware that Mendelssohn was merely giving his friend the advice which he had strictly followed himself, the momentary disappointment might have been succeeded by a new turn given to his studies.