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Scan 695
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 682. See the scan on archive.org.
1LESLIE, HENRY DAVID, born in London, June 18, 1822, commenced his musical education under Charles Lucas in 1838. For several years he played the violoncello at the Sacred Harmonic Society and elsewhere. In 1847, on the formation of the Amateur Musical Society, he was appointed its honorary secretary, and continued so until 1855, when he became its conductor, which post he retained until the dissolution of the Society in 1861. The choir which bore his name was actually formed by Mr. Joseph Heming, in 1853, and conducted at first by Frank Moir; Leslie undertook the leadership in 1855, and the first concert took place in 1856. At first the number of voices was limited to about sixty, but afterwards it was increased to 240, so that a large work could replace the madrigals, for the sake of which the choir was originally founded. In 1878 it gained the first prize in the International competition of choirs at Paris. In 1863 Leslie was appointed conductor of the Herefordshire Philharmonic Society, an amateur body at Hereford. In 1864 he became principal of the National College of Music, an institution formed on the principle of the foreign conservatoires, which, however, not receiving adequate support, was dissolved in a few years. In 1874 he became the director and conductor of the Guild of Amateur Musicians. In 1880 his choir was broken up; it was subsequently reorganised under Signor Randegger, and in 1885-1887 Leslie resumed its management. Henry Leslie's first published composition—a Te Deum and Jubilate in D—appeared in 1846. He produced a Symphony in F, 1847; a festival anthem, 'Let God arise,' for solo voices, chorus and orchestra, 1849; overture, 'The Templar,' 1852; 'Immanuel,' oratorio, 1854; 'Romance, or, Bold Dick Turpin,' operetta, 1857; 'Judith,' oratorio, produced at Birmingham Festival, 1858; 'Holyrood,' cantata, 1860; 'The Daughter of the Isles,' cantata, 1861; 'Ida,' opera, 1864; besides instrumental chamber music, anthems, songs, duets, trios, pianoforte pieces, and a large number of part-songs and madrigals composed for his choir. In addition to a wide range of madrigals, motets, and unaccompanied music of all ages and countries, the following are among the larger works which were performed by this excellent choir: Motets for eight voices by Bach and Sebastian Wesley; Mendelssohn's Psalms and motets, and his 'Antigone' and 'Œdipus'; Gounod's motets and Messe Solennelle; Carissimi's 'Jonah'; Tallis's Forty-part song; Bourgault Ducoudray's 'Symphonie Religieuse' (unaccompanied). Leslie died at Llansaintfraid, near Oswestry, Feb. 4, 1896. W. H. H.
3LESSEL, FRANZ, one of Haydn's three favourite pupils, born about 1780, at Pulawy on the Vistula, in Poland, his father, a pupil of Adam Hiller and Dittersdorf, being Musik-director at the neighbouring castle of Prince Czartoryski. In 1797 he came to Vienna to study medicine, but the love of music proved a great distraction. Haydn eventually took him as a pupil, a service he repaid by tending him till his death with the care and devotion of a son. In 1810 he returned to Poland, and lived with the Czartoryski family, occupied entirely with music. After the Revolution of 1830 had driven his patrons into exile, Lessel led a life of great vicissitude, but being a man of varied cultivation always managed to maintain himself, though often reduced to great straits. In 1837 he was superseded in his post as principal of the gymnasium at Petrikau on the borders of Silesia, and feeling a presentiment of approaching death, he composed his requiem, and shortly after (August 1838) expired of the disease commonly called a broken heart. He left songs, chamber music, and symphonies; also church music, specially indicating gifts of no common order. Among his effects were some autographs of Haydn presented by himself. Some of his works were published by Artaria, Weigl, and Breitkopf & Härtel, among them being three sonatas for PF. (op. 2), dedicated to Haydn; fantasia for PF. (op. 8), dedicated to Clementi; another fantasia (op. 13), dedicated to Cecily Beidale; a piano concerto, etc. [See Quellen-Lexikon.] Lessel's life was a romantic one. He was believed to be the love-child of a lady of rank. Mystery also enveloped the birth of his first love, Cecily Beidale, and he discovered that she was his sister only just in time to prevent his marrying her. One of his masses—'Zum Cäcilientag'—was composed in all the fervour of this first passion.
5C. F. P.
7LESSON, or LEÇON, a name which was used from the beginning of the 17th century to the close of the 18th, to denote pieces for the harpsichord and other keyed instruments. It was generally applied to the separate pieces which in their collected form made up a Suite. The origin of the name seems to be that these pieces served an educational purpose, illustrating different styles of playing, and being often arranged in order of difficulty. This is borne out by the fact that Domenico Scarlatti's 'Forty-two Lessons for the Harpsichord, edited by Mr. Roseingrave,' are in the original edition called 'Esercizi—xxx. Sonatas per Gravicembalo,' though they have little of the educational element in them, and by the following extract from Sir John Hawkins's History of Music (chap. 148: he uses the word 'lessons' for 'suites of lessons'): 'In lessons for the harpsichord and virginal the airs were made to follow in a certain order, that is to say, the slowest or most grave first, and the rest in succession, according as they deviated from that character, by which rule the Jig generally stood last. In general the Galliard followed the Pavan, the first being a grave, the other a sprightly air; but this rule was not without exception.' Rameau's Lessons for the Harpsichord, opp. 2 and 3, are not
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