18th Century Musicians ~ Henry Bishop~ 1786 - 1855
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop
by Isaac Pocock (died 1835)
Given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1869.
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Henry Bishop
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (18 November 1786 — 30 April 1855) was an English composer. He is most famous for the songs 'Home! Sweet Home!' and 'Lo, Hear the Gentle Lark'. He was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramatic works, including 80 operas, light operas, cantatas, and ballets. Knighted in 1842, he was the first musician to be so honoured.
Bishop was born in London, where his father was a watchmaker and haberdasher. At the age of 13, Bishop left full-time education and worked as a music publisher with his cousin. After training as a jockey at Newmarket, he took some lessons in harmony from Francisco Bianchi in London. In 1804 he wrote the music to a piece called 'Angelina', which was performed at Margate.
Bishop's 'operas' were written in a style and format that satisfied the audiences of his day. They have more in common with the earlier, native English ballad opera genre, or with modern musicals, than the classical opera of continental Europe. His first opera, The Circassian's Bride (1809), had one performance at Drury Lane — then the theatre burned down and the score was lost.
In the years between 1816 and 1828, Bishop composed the music for a series of Shakespearean operas staged by Frederic Reynolds. But these, and the numerous works, operas, burlettas, cantatas and, incidental music which he wrote are mostly forgotten.
His most successful pieces were The Virgin of the Sun (1812), The Miller and his Men (1813), Guy Mannering (1816), and Clari, or the Maid of Milan. The latter's libretto and lyrics were written by the American John Howard Payne, whose poem and song Home! Sweet Home! (1823) became wildly popular. In 1852 Bishop 'relaunched' the song as a parlour ballad. It was popular in the United States throughout the American Civil Warand after.
Bishop worked for all the major theatres of London in his era — including the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Vauxhall Gardens and the Haymarket Theatre, and was also Professor of Music at Oxford University. In 1841 he was appointed to the Reid Chair of Music in the University of Edinburgh, but he resigned the office in 1843.
This text is based on
material in The Encyclopædia Britannica
(1911)
(Eleventh ed.), now in the public domain, and other sources available on line.
Works by Henry Bishop
Opera and Operetta
The Maniac, or The Swiss Banditti, 1810
Sadak and Kalasrade, or The Waters of Oblivion, 1814
December and May, 1818
Clari, or the Maid of Milan, 1823
Alladin, 1826
Melodramas
The Brazen Bust, 1813
The Miller and His Men, 1813
Entertainment
Brother and Sister, 1815
musicals (plays, dramas, comedies and romances)
Guy Mannering, 1816
The Heart of Mid-Lothian, 1819
The Comedy of Errors, 1819
The Battle of Bothwell Brigg, 1820
Yelva, or The Orphan of Russia, 1829
Sacred Cantatas
The Seventh Day, 1833