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Scan 487
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1904
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 434. See the scan on archive.org.
1we recollect that Gluck was no contrapuntist, and that Waltz must have been a considerable musician to take such parts as he did at Handel's own choice.
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3WAMSLEY, WALMSLEY, or WARMSLEY, PETER, one of the best English luthiers of the 18th century. He worked in London, from about 1720 to 1760, becoming renowned for his excellent violoncellos and altos, which he made upon the Stainer model. His workshop was in Piccadilly in 1727, at 'Ye Golden Harp,' a sign that was subsequently changed to 'The Harp and Hautboy.' He used a yellowish-brown varnish, and often drew lines round his instruments, after the manner of Jacobs of Amsterdam, instead of inlaying purfling. Wamsley sought to age his instruments artificially by making the plates too thin, and the wood he employed has consequently not always lasted well. See article VIOLIN FAMILY (London Makers); Hart, The Violin; Meredith Morris, British Violin-Makers; Heron-Allen, Violin-Making; Von Lutgendorff, Die Geigen und Lautenmacher. E. H-A.
4In 1741 his business in Piccadilly was carried on by Mrs. Walmsley (old newspaper advt.), which points to Peter being dead. His name as 'P. Warmsley at Ye Harp in Piccadilly' is on the imprint of 'the Songs in Hurlothrumbo' [1729]. In 1741 De Fesch's 'Eight Concertos' are advertised as sold by him. He appears to have been in business relations with John Barrett, who worked at the Harp and Crown also in Piccadilly as a violin-maker and music-seller at a contemporary date; also with William Smith the music-engraver, as the three names are frequently conjoined on imprints of works issued about 1720-30.
5It is stated that Walmsley was succeeded at the 'Harp and Hautboy' by Thomas Smith, a pupil, some of whose labels bear the date 1756.
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7WANDERING MINSTRELS. An amateur orchestral society, founded in the year 1860. It was probably the only purely amateur full orchestra in existence at its date in this or any other country. Capt. the Hon. Seymour J. G. Egerton, 1st Life Guards (afterwards Earl of Wilton), was the first president and conductor, which post he held until 1873, when he was succeeded by Lord Gerald Fitzgerald, who in 1881 resigned in favour of Mr. Lionel Benson. The Society devoted its efforts chiefly to charitable objects in various parts of the country, a net sum of £20,000, the result of concerts, having been handed over to various charities during its existence. The meetings of the Society for the first twenty years took place at Lord Gerald Fitzgerald's house, to which he added a concert room with orchestra for the exclusive use of the Society. The first 'smoking concerts' in London were instituted by the Wandering Minstrels. The Society ceased to exist in 1898.
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9WANHAL — in English publications VAN-HALL — JOHN BAPTIST, a contemporary of Haydn's (1732-1809), was of Dutch extraction, but born at Nechanicz in Bohemia, May 12, 1739. His instructors were two local worthies, Kozák and Erban, and his first instruments the organ and violin. His early years were passed in little Bohemian towns near the place of his birth. At one of these he met a good musician, who advised him to stick to the violin, and also to write for it; both which he did with great assiduity. In 1760 he was taken to Vienna by the Countess Schaffgotsch, and here his real progress began; he studied (under Dittersdorf), read all the works he could get at, played incessantly, composed with great enthusiasm, and what was then thought extravagance, and was soon taken up by many of the nobility. One of these, the Freiherr Riesch, sent him to Italy for a long journey, of which he took full advantage. On his return to Vienna he fell into a state of mental depression, which for some time affected him greatly. It was thus that Burney found him in 1772 (Present State, etc., p. 358). Life in Vienna then was very much what it was fifty years later, and Wanhal's existence was passed, like Beethoven's, or Schubert's, in incessant work, varied by visits to Hungary or Croatia, where the Count Erdödy, the immediate predecessor of Beethoven's friend, received him. He died in Vienna, Aug. 26, 1831. Though somewhat younger than Haydn, his music arrived in England first. Burney mentions this fact (Hist. iv. 599) and speaks of his symphonies as 'spirited, natural, and unaffected,' and of the quartets and other music for violins of this excellent composer as 'deserving a place among the first productions in which unity of melody, pleasing harmony, and a free and manly style are constantly preserved.' Burney's expressions about Haydn in the next paragraph show, however, how far higher he placed him than Wanhal or any other composer of that time. It would seem, from the fact that some of his compositions were published at Cambridge, that he may have visited England. Further information concerning such a visit is not forthcoming.
10The list of his works is enormous. Dlabacz, the author of the Dictionary of Bohemian Musicians, gives no less than 100 symphonies, 100 string quartets, 25 masses and 2 requiems, 30 Salve Reginas and 36 offertories, 1 Stabat Mater, 1 oratorio, 2 operas, and many other works. [See also the list in the Quellen-Lexikon.] His sonatas were often met with in our grandmothers' bound volumes, and Crotch has given two pieces in his Specimens of Music. Many of the symphonies and sonatas were produced a dozen at a time, a practice to which Beethoven gave the death-blow. They must not therefore be judged of from too serious a point of view.
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