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Henry Chorley

August 28, 2023

Henry Fothergill Chorley (15 December 1808 – 16 February 1872) was an English literary, art and music critic, writer and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics.

Drawing of Chorley, 1841

Chorley was a prolific and important music and literary critic and music gossip columnist of the mid-nineteenth century and wrote extensively about music in London and in Europe. His opera libretti and works of fiction were far less successful. He is perhaps best remembered today for his lyrics to "The Long Day Closes", a part song set by Arthur Sullivan in 1868.

Life and career Edit

Chorley was born in Blackley Hurst, near Billinge, Lancashire, England. Chorley was the youngest of four children of Quaker parents, John Chorley (1771–1816), an iron worker and lock maker, and Jane Chorley, née Wilkinson (1779–1851). Chorley's father died, leaving his mother alone with young children. Jane Chorley moved her family to Liverpool to help take care of her half-brother, Dr Rutter, when he became ill. Chorley was educated by private tutors in Liverpool and then the school of the Royal Institution. His youth was shaped partly by spending time in the household of the wealthy and intellectual Mrs Benson Rathbone of Green Bank, and he became a close friend of her son Benson, who died in an accident in 1834.[1]

Journalism and non-fiction works Edit

He began working in merchants' offices, hoping to become a musician, but his uncle discouraged that as an impractical ambition. However, Chorley soon took to musical and literary criticism. He began to write for the Athenaeum in 1830 and remained its music and literature critic until 1868. While there, he reviewed approximately 2,500 books[1] and wrote reviews and musical gossip columns discussing composers and performers in Britain and on the European continent. In this position, he had much influence. He had strongly conservative views and was a persistent opponent of innovation, but was a lively chronicler of London life.[2] In 1850 and 1851, Chorley edited the Ladies' Companion, which covered fashion and domestic women's issues. In the Athenaeum and elsewhere, Chorley often criticised the music of Schumann and Wagner for what he called "decadence".[1]

In addition to criticism for journals, Chorley wrote voluminously on literature and art. His non-fiction books were widely read and included Music and Manners in France and Germany (1841), which includes a detailed description of contemporary opera in Paris and Felix Mendelssohn's career in Leipzig, Germany. He expanded the German section of this book and published it 1854 as Modern German Music.[3] His masterpiece was Thirty Years' Musical Recollections (1862), which covers, year-by-year, the opera seasons of European operas in London between 1830 and 1859. In the work, he blames the autocratic manager of Her Majesty's Theatre, Benjamin Lumley, for a decline in the quality of performances there. On the other hand, he praises the efforts of Giulia Grisi, Mario and Michael Costa, together with a group of journalists (including himself), for successfully creating the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden in 1847.[1] He also wrote the well-received Memorials of Mrs. Hemans (1836), Handel Studies (1859), an annotated edition Mary Russell Mitford's letters (2 vols., 1872) and The National Music of the World (1882).

Fiction and playwriting Edit

Chorley also wrote, with far less success, novels, stories, drama and verse, and various librettos. His works of fiction included Sketches of a Seaport Town (1834), a collection of stories, essays, and novellas related to Liverpool. The next year, he wrote Conti the Discarded. Neither of these achieved success. His plays, Old Love and New Fortune (1850) and Duchess Eleanour (1854), did not gain a following. He wrote two novels, Roccabella (1859), under the pseudonym Paul Bell and dedicated to Elizabeth Barrett Browning,[4] and A Prodigy: a Tale of Music (1866).[1] His libretti included The Amber Witch for composer William Vincent Wallace, The May Queen – A Pastoral (1858) for William Sterndale Bennett, and two for his friend Arthur Sullivan: The Sapphire Necklace and The Masque at Kenilworth.[5] He published an English version of Meyerbeer's Dinorah, and wrote the words for several well-known songs, including Gounod's "Nazareth",[6] Edward Loder's "The Brave Old Oak" and "The Three Ages", the English form of the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria", Sullivan's "The Long Day Closes", and the hymn "God, the Omnipotent!".

 
Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London
 
Detail of monument

Chorley wrote the English libretto for Gounod's Faust, for its first presentation in London in 1863 (at Her Majesty's Theatre). During rehearsals, it was found that the lines were unsingable. Both Sims Reeves and Charles Santley made strenuous and persistent complaints to Messrs. Chappell's, and new translations were made secretly, since no-one dared to tell Chorley. The first he knew of it was at the first performance. Chorley, as reviewer, waited to make his comment until the final announced performance, of which he wrote that it was "seriously imperilled by a singular translation". Unfortunately for him, the final performance in question had not taken place, so the Musical World was able to compliment him on his poetic imagination.[7] Nevertheless, Chorley's translations of several songs from Faust were published and widely performed, such as "The Flower Song", "When All Was Young" and "Glory and Love".[8] A similar Chorley effort, albeit of an obscure work, fared better: his translation of Mendelssohn's Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde, which Chorley rendered as "Son and Stranger," for the work's London premiere in 1851[9] is still heard today in that work's rare revivals.[10]

Personality and last years Edit

Chorley was considered eccentric and abrasive, but he was respected for his integrity and kindness. Chorley enthusiastically gave and attended dinner parties and was known as a big drinker. He cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mendelssohn, and later Charles Dickens, Arthur Sullivan and Charles Santley, among others. After the death of his brother, John Rutter Chorley (1806–1867), he inherited enough money to retire from the Athenaeum, although he continued to contribute articles for that paper and also for The Orchestra.

In spite of his efforts to promote the music of Charles Gounod in England, the composer disliked Chorley intensely. When Gounod lived in England during the early 1870s, he wrote a satirical character piece for piano that was intended to be a parody of Chorley's personality. It greatly amused Gounod's English patron, Georgina Weldon, who described Chorley as having a "thin, sour, high-pitched sopranish voice" and moving like a "stuffed red-haired monkey."[11] Gounod intended to publish the piece with a dedication to Chorley, but the latter died before this was possible. Weldon then invented a new programme for the piece, which was re-titled Funeral March of a Marionette. It became popular as a concert piece,[12] and in the 1950s, its opening phrases became well known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.[13]

Chorley died at his home in London in 1872, at the age of 63, and is buried there in Brompton Cemetery.[14] He left a very considerable estate of £45,000.[1] Fellow critic Charles Lewis Gruneisen wrote in the Athenaeum that Chorley's personality had impeded appreciation of his qualities.[1]

Notes Edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bledsoe, Robert. "Chorley, Henry Fothergill (1808–1872)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 6 October 2008, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5350
  2. ^ See Preface by Robin Gordon-Powell, Archivist & Music Librarian of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, to the score of The Masque at Kenilworth, published by The Amber Ring in 2002
  3. ^ "Modern German Music – Recollections and Criticisms", The Times review, 25 April 1854, p. 8, col. B
  4. ^ "Henry Fothergill Chorley", The Brownings' Correspondence, accessed 30 October 2022
  5. ^ "Birmingham Musical Festival", The Times review, 12 September 1864, p. 10, col. A
  6. ^ Songs with English lyrics by Chorley
  7. ^ C. Pearce, Sims Reeves – Fifty Years of Music in England (Stanley Paul, London 1924), pp. 241–42.
  8. ^ Translations of Gounod songs by Chorley
  9. ^ Aldrich, Richard. "Of Music and Musicians: Hugo Wolff, His Songs and His Admirers—Mendelssohn's 'Return of the Roamer' and Its Origin," The New York Times, 22 November 1903, accessed 23 November 2009
  10. ^ Programme notes for Concert Opera Boston performance of 15 March 2009, accessed 23 November 2009
  11. ^ Harding, pp. 179–80
  12. ^ Hale, Philip. Programme, Boston Symphony Orchestra
  13. ^ Frankel, Chris. "Jacopo Pontormo Tournament of Manners", #9 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, 1 July 2005
  14. ^ The Times, 21 February 1872, p. 5, col. E

References Edit

  • Harding, James. Gounod, New York: Stein and Day (1973)

Bibliography Edit

Further reading Edit

  • Bledsoe, Robert Terrell, Henry Fothergill Chorley: Victorian Journalist. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. ISBN 978-1-84014-257-0
  • Bledsoe, Robert Terrell. "Henry Fothergill Chorley and the Receptions of Verdi's Early Operas in England"], Victorian Studies, Summer 85, Vol. 28, Issue 4, p. 631
  • Lehmann, R. C. Memories of half a century (1908)
  • Marchand, L. A. The Athenaeum: a mirror of Victorian culture (1941)
  • Sanders, V. (ed.) Martineau, Harriet: selected letters (1990)

External links Edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Henry Chorley.
 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Author:Henry Fothergill Chorley
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henry Chorley.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chorley, Henry Fothergill" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 270.
  • Portrait of Chorley in the National Portrait Gallery, London
  • A literary review piece by Chorley
  • Old Love and New Fortune, a play by Chorley
  • Lyrics and translations by Chorley on IMSLP.ORG.

August 28, 2023
henry, chorley, henry, fothergill, chorley, december, 1808, february, 1872, english, literary, music, critic, writer, editor, also, author, novels, drama, poetry, lyrics, drawing, chorley, 1841chorley, prolific, important, music, literary, critic, music, gossi. Henry Fothergill Chorley 15 December 1808 16 February 1872 was an English literary art and music critic writer and editor He was also an author of novels drama poetry and lyrics Drawing of Chorley 1841Chorley was a prolific and important music and literary critic and music gossip columnist of the mid nineteenth century and wrote extensively about music in London and in Europe His opera libretti and works of fiction were far less successful He is perhaps best remembered today for his lyrics to The Long Day Closes a part song set by Arthur Sullivan in 1868 Contents 1 Life and career 1 1 Journalism and non fiction works 1 2 Fiction and playwriting 1 3 Personality and last years 2 Notes 3 References 4 Bibliography 5 Further reading 6 External linksLife and career EditChorley was born in Blackley Hurst near Billinge Lancashire England Chorley was the youngest of four children of Quaker parents John Chorley 1771 1816 an iron worker and lock maker and Jane Chorley nee Wilkinson 1779 1851 Chorley s father died leaving his mother alone with young children Jane Chorley moved her family to Liverpool to help take care of her half brother Dr Rutter when he became ill Chorley was educated by private tutors in Liverpool and then the school of the Royal Institution His youth was shaped partly by spending time in the household of the wealthy and intellectual Mrs Benson Rathbone of Green Bank and he became a close friend of her son Benson who died in an accident in 1834 1 Journalism and non fiction works Edit He began working in merchants offices hoping to become a musician but his uncle discouraged that as an impractical ambition However Chorley soon took to musical and literary criticism He began to write for the Athenaeum in 1830 and remained its music and literature critic until 1868 While there he reviewed approximately 2 500 books 1 and wrote reviews and musical gossip columns discussing composers and performers in Britain and on the European continent In this position he had much influence He had strongly conservative views and was a persistent opponent of innovation but was a lively chronicler of London life 2 In 1850 and 1851 Chorley edited the Ladies Companion which covered fashion and domestic women s issues In the Athenaeum and elsewhere Chorley often criticised the music of Schumann and Wagner for what he called decadence 1 In addition to criticism for journals Chorley wrote voluminously on literature and art His non fiction books were widely read and included Music and Manners in France and Germany 1841 which includes a detailed description of contemporary opera in Paris and Felix Mendelssohn s career in Leipzig Germany He expanded the German section of this book and published it 1854 as Modern German Music 3 His masterpiece was Thirty Years Musical Recollections 1862 which covers year by year the opera seasons of European operas in London between 1830 and 1859 In the work he blames the autocratic manager of Her Majesty s Theatre Benjamin Lumley for a decline in the quality of performances there On the other hand he praises the efforts of Giulia Grisi Mario and Michael Costa together with a group of journalists including himself for successfully creating the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden in 1847 1 He also wrote the well received Memorials of Mrs Hemans 1836 Handel Studies 1859 an annotated edition Mary Russell Mitford s letters 2 vols 1872 and The National Music of the World 1882 Fiction and playwriting Edit Chorley also wrote with far less success novels stories drama and verse and various librettos His works of fiction included Sketches of a Seaport Town 1834 a collection of stories essays and novellas related to Liverpool The next year he wrote Conti the Discarded Neither of these achieved success His plays Old Love and New Fortune 1850 and Duchess Eleanour 1854 did not gain a following He wrote two novels Roccabella 1859 under the pseudonym Paul Bell and dedicated to Elizabeth Barrett Browning 4 and A Prodigy a Tale of Music 1866 1 His libretti included The Amber Witch for composer William Vincent Wallace The May Queen A Pastoral 1858 for William Sterndale Bennett and two for his friend Arthur Sullivan The Sapphire Necklace and The Masque at Kenilworth 5 He published an English version of Meyerbeer s Dinorah and wrote the words for several well known songs including Gounod s Nazareth 6 Edward Loder s The Brave Old Oak and The Three Ages the English form of the Bach Gounod Ave Maria Sullivan s The Long Day Closes and the hymn God the Omnipotent Funerary monument Brompton Cemetery London Detail of monumentChorley wrote the English libretto for Gounod s Faust for its first presentation in London in 1863 at Her Majesty s Theatre During rehearsals it was found that the lines were unsingable Both Sims Reeves and Charles Santley made strenuous and persistent complaints to Messrs Chappell s and new translations were made secretly since no one dared to tell Chorley The first he knew of it was at the first performance Chorley as reviewer waited to make his comment until the final announced performance of which he wrote that it was seriously imperilled by a singular translation Unfortunately for him the final performance in question had not taken place so the Musical World was able to compliment him on his poetic imagination 7 Nevertheless Chorley s translations of several songs from Faust were published and widely performed such as The Flower Song When All Was Young and Glory and Love 8 A similar Chorley effort albeit of an obscure work fared better his translation of Mendelssohn s Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde which Chorley rendered as Son and Stranger for the work s London premiere in 1851 9 is still heard today in that work s rare revivals 10 Personality and last years Edit Chorley was considered eccentric and abrasive but he was respected for his integrity and kindness Chorley enthusiastically gave and attended dinner parties and was known as a big drinker He cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mendelssohn and later Charles Dickens Arthur Sullivan and Charles Santley among others After the death of his brother John Rutter Chorley 1806 1867 he inherited enough money to retire from the Athenaeum although he continued to contribute articles for that paper and also for The Orchestra In spite of his efforts to promote the music of Charles Gounod in England the composer disliked Chorley intensely When Gounod lived in England during the early 1870s he wrote a satirical character piece for piano that was intended to be a parody of Chorley s personality It greatly amused Gounod s English patron Georgina Weldon who described Chorley as having a thin sour high pitched sopranish voice and moving like a stuffed red haired monkey 11 Gounod intended to publish the piece with a dedication to Chorley but the latter died before this was possible Weldon then invented a new programme for the piece which was re titled Funeral March of a Marionette It became popular as a concert piece 12 and in the 1950s its opening phrases became well known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents 13 Chorley died at his home in London in 1872 at the age of 63 and is buried there in Brompton Cemetery 14 He left a very considerable estate of 45 000 1 Fellow critic Charles Lewis Gruneisen wrote in the Athenaeum that Chorley s personality had impeded appreciation of his qualities 1 Notes Edit a b c d e f g Bledsoe Robert Chorley Henry Fothergill 1808 1872 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press 2004 accessed 6 October 2008 doi 10 1093 ref odnb 5350 See Preface by Robin Gordon Powell Archivist amp Music Librarian of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society to the score of The Masque at Kenilworth published by The Amber Ring in 2002 Modern German Music Recollections and Criticisms The Times review 25 April 1854 p 8 col B Henry Fothergill Chorley The Brownings Correspondence accessed 30 October 2022 Birmingham Musical Festival The Times review 12 September 1864 p 10 col A Songs with English lyrics by Chorley C Pearce Sims Reeves Fifty Years of Music in England Stanley Paul London 1924 pp 241 42 Translations of Gounod songs by Chorley Aldrich Richard Of Music and Musicians Hugo Wolff His Songs and His Admirers Mendelssohn s Return of the Roamer and Its Origin The New York Times 22 November 1903 accessed 23 November 2009 Programme notes for Concert Opera Boston performance of 15 March 2009 accessed 23 November 2009 Harding pp 179 80 Hale Philip Programme Boston Symphony Orchestra Frankel Chris Jacopo Pontormo Tournament of Manners 9 Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine 1 July 2005 The Times 21 February 1872 p 5 col EReferences EditHarding James Gounod New York Stein and Day 1973 Bibliography EditChorley Henry Fothergill 1862 Thirty Years Musical Recollections Hurst and Blackett reissued by Cambridge University Press 2009 ISBN 978 1 108 00139 7 Chorley Henry Fothergill 1841 Music and Manners in France and Germany Longmans Orme Brown Green and Longmans reissued by Cambridge University Press 2009 ISBN 978 1 108 00203 5 Chorley Henry Fothergill 1854 Modern German Music Smith Elder reissued by Cambridge University Press 2009 ISBN 978 1 108 00158 8 Chorley Henry Fothergill 1880 posthumously published The National Music of the World Low Marston reissued by Cambridge University Press 2009 ISBN 978 1 108 00138 0 Chorley Henry Fothergill Autobiography Memoir and Letters edited by H G Hewlett 2 vols 1873 Chorley Henry Fothergill Thirty Years Musical Recollections Hurst and Blackett 1862 Available online hereFurther reading EditBledsoe Robert Terrell Henry Fothergill Chorley Victorian Journalist Aldershot Ashgate 1998 ISBN 978 1 84014 257 0 Bledsoe Robert Terrell Henry Fothergill Chorley and the Receptions of Verdi s Early Operas in England Victorian Studies Summer 85 Vol 28 Issue 4 p 631 Lehmann R C Memories of half a century 1908 Marchand L A The Athenaeum a mirror of Victorian culture 1941 Sanders V ed Martineau Harriet selected letters 1990 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Henry Chorley Wikisource has original text related to this article Author Henry Fothergill Chorley Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henry Chorley Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Chorley Henry Fothergill Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 6 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 270 Portrait of Chorley in the National Portrait Gallery London A literary review piece by Chorley Old Love and New Fortune a play by Chorley Lyrics and translations by Chorley on IMSLP ORG Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Henry Chorley amp oldid 1162528522, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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