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Scan 381
A dictionary of music and musicians, 1926
14 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 333. See the scan on archive.org.
1where, before becoming assistant stage-manager under Mapleson in London. He acted in various pieces in London, and in 1879 became lessee of Drury Lane, producing the annual melodramas and pantomimes which revived the vogue of that theatre. The annual visits of the Carl Rosa Company to Drury Lane, in 1883-87, gave Harris his first experience in operatic management, and in the latter year he started on his own account as an impresario, giving 'Aïda' with an amount of care in the production which surpassed everything hitherto seen on the English operatic stage. He introduced Mancinelli to English audiences, and the revivals of 'Lohengrin' and 'Les Huguenots' were among his great successes; the brothers de Reszke (Jean making his first appearance in England as a tenor) were the great attractions of the cast, and Mme. Nordica, Mlle. Minnie Hauk, Maurel, and others, were members of the company. In the following season, Harris began the enterprise at Covent Garden which brought back the fashionable world to the opera as a regular amusement. It is not necessary in this place to enumerate all the distinguished singers whom he brought forward, from Mme. Melba downwards. His qualities as a manager were very remarkable, he had all the astuteness of a keen man of business, and did not scruple to profit by the discoveries of other managers, whether in the matter of singers or of operas. He had a certain amount of musical taste, and his artistic conscience led him to present operas as far as possible in accordance with their composers' intentions. He also realised what seemed a hopelessly impracticable ideal of giving operas in different languages in the same season, presenting every opera in the tongue for which it was written. More than all this, he had the wisdom to see that it is wise to give the public, not the kind of entertainment that they are just beginning to get tired of, but that which is a little in advance of their taste. He knew what the public would like in a few weeks' time, and therefore secured its success, instead of struggling to preserve the popularity of what had begun to get unfashionable. He did much for the cause of Wagner's music in England, and the careful mounting which was characteristic of his management throughout, had something to say to the lasting popularity even of the later Wagnerian music-dramas with the fashionable audience. On occasions he managed a set of German performances at Drury Lane during the season of polyglot opera at Covent Garden. He revived the fashion of public fancy-dress balls, and the patronage of the wealthy classes was retained for the opera until his death, which took place at Folkestone on June 22, 1896. His career as a theatrical manager apart from opera does not concern a musical dictionary. He was knighted in 1891, having been sheriff of London in that year.
3HARRIS, JOSEPH JOHN, born in London in 1799, was chorister in the Chapel Royal under John Stafford Smith. In 1823 he was appointed organist of St. Olave's Church, Southwark. In 1827 he published 'A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, adapted to the psalms and hymns used in the Church of St. Olave, Southwark.' In Feb. 1828 he quitted Southwark to become organist of Blackburn, Lancashire; in 1831 was made 'lay precentor,' or choir master at the collegiate church (now the cathedral) at Manchester, deputy organist, and on March 25, 1848, organist. Harris composed some cathedral music and a few glees, songs, etc. He died at Manchester, Feb. 10, 1869. W. H. H.
5HARRIS, JOSEPH MACDONALD, was born in 1789, and at an early age became a chorister of Westminster Abbey under Richard Guise. On quitting the choir on the breaking of his voice, he became a pupil of Robert Cooke, then organist of the Abbey. Harris was employed as a teacher, and occasional conductor at minor concerts. His compositions are songs, duets, trios, and pianoforte pieces. He died insane in May 1860, aged seventy-one. W. H. H.
7HARRIS, RENÉ, or RENATUS, is the most celebrated member of this family of English organ-builders. His grandfather had built an organ for Magdalen College, Oxford; but his father, Thomas, appears to have emigrated to France, for Dr. Burney says that Renatus came to England with his father a few months after Father Smith's arrival (1660). To Smith, Renatus Harris became a formidable rival, especially in the competition for building an organ in the Temple Church. [SMITH, FATHER.]
9THOMAS HARRIS of New Sarum in 1666 contracted to build an organ for Worcester Cathedral. Renatus Harris in 1690 agreed to improve and enlarge his grandfather's organ in Magdalen College, Oxford. Rimbault gives a list of thirty-nine organs built by this eminent artist. He had two sons—RENATUS, jun., who built an organ for St. Dionis Backchurch, London, in 1724, and JOHN, who built most of his organs in conjunction with his son-in-law, John Byfield.
11The firm of HARRIS (JOHN) & BYFIELD (JOHN) carried on business in Red Lion Street, Holborn. In 1729 they built an organ for Shrewsbury, and in 1740 one for Doncaster, which cost £525, besides several others. V. DE P.
13HARRISON, J., a London music-publisher, originally a bookseller in Fleet Street, where he succeeded J. Wenman and published plays, novels, and essays. About the year 1779 he removed to 18 Paternoster Row and commenced the issue of musical works from engraved plates, including the ballad operas of the day and reprints of works by Handel, Arne, and Boyce, and others. In 1784 the imprints give 'Harrison & Co.,' and in 1788 they are in possession of an additional warehouse named 'Dr. Arne's Head' at 141 Cheapside. In 1796 they are issuing
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