![The singer David Kennedy by George Webster, 1885, Perth Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/The_singer_David_Kennedy_by_George_Webster%2C_1885%2C_Perth_Museum.jpg)
David Kennedy (1825–1886) was a Scottish church musician and concert giver.
Life
Born in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
on 15 April 1825, he was son of a weaver who was also precentor of the
United Secession Church
The United Secession Church (or properly the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church) was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination.
The First Secession from the established Church of Scotland had been in 1732, and the resultant "Associate Pre ...
there. At 16 he was apprenticed to a painter, while also being trained by his father in music, and in 1845 became precentor of the South Kirk, Perth. During 1848 he worked at his trade in Edinburgh and London, and returned to Perth to set up in business.
Kennedy then obtained a precentorship in Edinburgh, and in 1859 began there a series of weekly concerts. Short concert tours in Scotland followed in 1860 and 1861, and in 1862 he made his first appearance in London, at the
Hanover Square Rooms
The Hanover Square Rooms or the Queen's Concert Rooms were assembly rooms established, principally for musical performances, on the corner of Hanover Square, London, by Sir John Gallini in partnership with Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedric ...
. Between December 1862 and May 1863 he gave a hundred concerts in the
Egyptian Hall
The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, was an exhibition hall built in the ancient Egyptian style in 1812, to the designs of Peter Frederick Robinson. The Hall was a considerable success, with exhibitions of artwork and of Napoleonic era re ...
; and in 1864 and 1865 he was again in London, singing and reading parts of ''
Waverley Waverley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott
** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel
* Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...
''.
In 1866–8 Kennedy made a professional tour through Canada and the eastern sections of the United States, with his eldest daughter as his accompanist. In 1869 he went to San Francisco, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The
First transcontinental railroad
North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...
was opened while Kennedy was at San Francisco, and he sang ''
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
'' at the inaugural ceremony. After spending three years at home, in 1872–6 he made a tour round the world with his family, visiting Australia and New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland. From 1876 to 1879 he was engaged in tours in England, Scotland, and Ireland, including two seasons in London; in 1879 he visited South Africa, and in 1879–80 India. On his way home he spent time in Italy, where some of his children were studying.
In 1881–2 Kennedy was again in Canada and the United States, in 1883–4 in Australia and New Zealand. In March 1886 he appeared in London for the last time, and then left for Canada.
![The Kennedy-Fraser grave, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/The_Kennedy-Fraser_grave%2C_Grange_Cemetery%2C_Edinburgh.jpg)
He died at
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River within Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a 2016 population of 31,465 in a land area of . Stratford is the seat of Perth County, which was settled by English, Irish, Scottish and German im ...
, 12 October 1886. His body was returned to
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
for burial. He is buried with his wife and children against the southern wall of
Grange Cemetery
The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hil ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
.
Two of his children wrote a biography ''David Kennedy, the Scottish Singer'' (Alexander Gardner, 1887). In 1887 the Edinburgh Burns Club began to raise funds for a monument to three Scottish vocalists,
John Templeton
Sir John Marks Templeton (29 November 1912 – 8 July 2008) was an American-born British investor, banker, fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1954, he entered the mutual fund market and created the Templeton Growth Fund, which averaged grow ...
,
John Wilson, and Kennedy.
Portrait medallions were placed on
Calton Hill
Calton Hill () is a hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, situated beyond the east end of Princes Street and included in the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site. Views of, and from, the hill are often used in photographs and paintings of the ci ...
.
Family
With his second wife, Elizabeth Fraser, Kennedy had 11 children, including the singer and folk-song collector
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1 October 1857 – 22 November 1930) was a Scottish singer, composer and music teacher and supporter of women's suffrage and pacifism. According to Ray Perman, Kennedy-Fraser "made a career of collecting Gaelic songs in ...
(who married the mathematician
Alexander Yule Fraser
Alexander (Alec) Yule Fraser (1857–1890) was a Scottish mathematician, one of the founders of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society.
Life and work
Fraser studied at the University of Aberdeen where he graduated in 1881. After that, he was app ...
).
David's youngest daughter, Jessie Henderson Kennedy (d. 1937), married the pianist and composer
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay (19 February 185815 December 1945) was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.
Biography
Matthay was born in Clapham, Surrey, in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised Brit ...
.
[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., 1954, Vol. V, p. 632] In 1881 Kennedy's son James and daughters Kate and Lizzie (baritone, contralto and soprano respectively) died in the burning of the
Théâtre municipal of Nice, France.
His grandson was the psychologist
David Kennedy Fraser
David Kennedy Fraser FRSE FEIS (10 February 1888 – 26 August 1962) was a Scottish psychologist, educator and amateur mathematician. He was an author of several books looking at the education of the handicapped and was closely associated with th ...
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
named in his honour.
Notes
Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, David
1825 births
1886 deaths
Burials at the Grange Cemetery
19th-century Scottish male singers
Scottish Presbyterians
Musicians from Perth, Scotland