1905, aged ninety-six, and was buried in the family vault at the cemetery of St. Francis, Crawley, Sussex. He was a staunch adherent of the Roman catholic church, for which community he built a school near Birmingham, and a church at East Grinstead.
On 18 Nov. 1834 he married Gertrude Frances, third daughter of William Charles Jerningham. She died on 9 Nov. 1907. Of his two sons and three daughters, he was survived only by his younger son, Henry Edmund Blount.
Two paintings of Blount, one by Ricart of Paris (circ. 1850–60), and the other by J. A. Vinter (1866), are at Imberhorne.
[Recollections of Sir Edward Blount, ed. Dr. Stuart J. Reid, 1902 (portrait); Debrett's Peerage; The Times, 16 and 20 March 1905; Men of Note in Finance and Commerce, 1900–1; Athenæum, 4 Oct. 1902.]
BLUMENTHAL, JACQUES [JACOB] (1829–1908), composer of songs, born at Hamburg on 4 Oct. 1829, was son of Abraham Lucas Blumenthal. Destined from youth for the musical profession, he studied under F. W. Grand in Hamburg and under C. M. von Bocklet and Sechter in Vienna. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1846, studying the piano under Herz, and also under Halevy. In 1848 he settled in London, becoming pianist to Queen Victoria and a fashionable teacher, and was naturalised as a British subject. He published numerous fugitive piano pieces and a very large number of songs, some of which, such as 'The Message' and 'The Requital' (1864) and 'We Two' (1879), achieved a lasting popularity. His more ambitious attempts at composition attracted no attention. A pianoforte trio and a 'Morceau de Concert for Piano,' both early works, were printed; but his published 'Albums of Songs' alone represented his characteristic work.
He died on 17 May 1908 in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. He married in 1868 Leonie Souvoroff Gore, leaving no issue. In accordance with his wish, his widow assigned the valuable copyrights of his songs to the Royal Society of Musicians. His portrait, painted in 1878 by G. F. Watts, R.A., was presented by his widow to the Royal College of Music.
[Grove's Dict.; Musical World, June 1908; Musical Times, June 1908; personal inquiry.]
BLYTHSWOOD, first Baron. [See Campbell, Sir Archibald (1835–1908).]
BODDA PYNE, Mrs. LOUISA FANNY (1832–1904), soprano vocalist, born in London on 27 Aug. 1832, was youngest daughter of George Pyne, alto singer (1790–1877), and niece of James Kendrick Pyne, tenor singer (d. 1857). She studied singing from a very early age under (Sir) George Smart, and in 1842, at the age of ten, made a successful appearance in public with her elder sister Susan at the Queen's Concert Rooms, Hanover Square. In 1847 the sisters performed in Paris, and in August 1849 Louisa made her debut on the stage at Boulogne as Amina in 'La Sonnambula.' Lablache offered to take her to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but she declined because the engagement would have involved her singing on Sunday, to which she had a strong objection. Some years later Auber made her an advantageous offer to appear at the Opera Comique in Paris, which she refused on the same grounds. Her first original part was Fanny in Macfarren's 'Charles II,' produced at the Princess's Theatre on 27 Oct. 1849. On 14 Aug. 1851 she performed the Queen of Night in Mozart's 'II Flauto magico' at Covent Garden, and during the season fulfilled many important oratorio and concert engagements. In August 1854 she went to America with William Harrison (1813-1868) [q .v.], and was received there with great enthusiasm, staying through three seasons. On her return to England in 1857 she went into partnership with Harrison, lessee of the Lyceum and Drury Lane Theatres, for the performance of English opera. The Harrison-Pyne enterprise was inaugurated with success at the Lyceum on 21 Sept. 1857, and was transferred to Covent Garden next year, where the performances continued each winter till 19 March 1862. No other undertaking of the kind lasted so long. Nearly a dozen new operas, by Balfe, Benedict, Glover, Mellon and Wallace were produced, but the success of the venture was not maintained. Pungent, not to say derisive, notices in 'The Musical World' finally assisted to kill the enterprise. Subsequently Miss Pyne transferred her services to Her Majesty's Opera House and the Haymarket. In 1868 she married Frank Bodda, the baritone singer. She then retired from public life and successfully engaged in teaching in London. Her husband died on 14 March 1892, aged sixty-nine. She received a civil list pension of 70Z. in 1896, and died without issue in London on 24 March 1904. Her sister Susan, who married Frank H. Standing, a baritone vocalist known as F. H. Celli, died in 1886.
