Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Barnett, John
BARNETT, John, musical composer, was born near Bedford, July 15, 1802. His father was a native of Hanau, in Prussia, and his mother an Hungarian. At the age of ten, being possessed of a wonderful contralto voice, he was articled to Mr. Samuel James Arnold, manager of Drury Lane, and sang in the "Shipwreck," and many other pieces, being alternately at that theatre and at Covent Garden for five successive years, and appearing in the company of the elder Kean, when the latter made his debut in "Macbeth." After the changing of his voice Mr. Barnett devoted himself exclusively to the study of the piano and composition, under Ferdinand Ries (the favourite pupil of Beethoven), Sento Perer, Kalkbrenner, William Huxley, and Xarcier Schneider. His operas are: the famous "Mountain Sylph" (produced at the Lyceum in 1834, and being the first real English opera); "Fair Rosamond" (a grand historical opera produced in 1836); and "Farinelli" (produced in 1839). In addition to these important works, he is the composer of a large number of once eminently popular vaudevilles, such as "The Pet of the Petticoats," "The Carnival of Naples," "Before Breakfast," "Mr. Mallett,"and "Win and Wear Her." His various canzonets and ballads number, perhaps, a thousand, amongst which figure the familiar titles of "The Light Guitar," "Rise, Gentle Moon," and "Not a Drum was Heard." He became director of the Olympic Theatre in 1832, under the management of Madame Vestria. In 1839 he married the youngest daughter of the late celebrated violoncellist, Robert Lindley, after which he retired to Cheltenham, where he has resided for many years, turning his attention to the study and cultivation of the voice, upon which he has published an important volume.