![Francis William Galpin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Francis_William_Galpin.jpg)
Francis William Galpin (December 25, 1858 December 30, 1945) was an English cleric and antiquarian
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
.
He was known as a collector of old musical instruments.
Life
Born in
Dorchester, Dorset
Dorchester ( ) is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport on the A35 trunk route. A historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome to the south of the Dorset Downs and north of the ...
, Galpin was educated at
Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. T ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, where he studied organ under
Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 18161 February 1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. At the age of ten Bennett was admitted to the London Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where he remained for ten years. B ...
. He was ordained in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
in 1883, became as a recent graduate of that year curate at
Redenhall with Harleston
Redenhall with Harleston is a civil parish in the South Norfolk, South Norfolk district of the English county of Norfolk, comprising the town of Harleston, Norfolk, Harleston and the neighbouring village of Redenhall. It covers an area of , and h ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
; and went on to be a curate at
St Giles in the Fields
St Giles in the Fields is the Anglican parish church of the St Giles district of London. It stands within the London Borough of Camden and belongs to the Diocese of London. The church, named for St Giles the Hermit, began as a monastery and ...
, London.
As vicar of
Hatfield Regis
Hatfield Broad Oak (also known as Hatfield Regis) is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. The village is approximately south-east of Bishop's Stortford. Near the church of St Mary the Virgin is former Benedic ...
in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
during the 1890s, Galpin organised concerts with instruments from his collection, including
recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
s,
lutes
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can refer ...
and
serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
s. Subsequently, he was vicar at
Witham
Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Chelms ...
, and then
Faulkbourne
Faulkbourne is a small settlement and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England, about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Witham. The population at the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of Fairstead. The name of the vill ...
.
Galpin also served as President of the
Essex Archaeological Society
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
.
His students included
Geneviève Thibault de Chambure
Geneviève, comtesse Hubert de Chambure Thibault (20 June 1902, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 31 August 1975, Strasbourg) was a French musicologist associated with the revival of interest in early music. She graduated from the Sorbonne in 1920 with a the ...
.
In 1946 the
Galpin Society
The Galpin Society was formed in October 1946 to further research into the branch of musicology known as organology, i.e. the history, construction, development and use of musical instruments. Based in the United Kingdom, it is named after the emin ...
was formed to further his work on musical instruments.
Collection
In 1916, Galpin sold his collection of over 500 antique musical instruments to William Lindsey, who donated them to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
in memory of his daughter Leslie Lindsey Mason.
Works
Galpin wrote:
*''Descriptive Catalogue of the European Instruments in the Modern Museum of Art'' (1902)
*''The Musical Instruments of the American Indians'' (1903)
*''Notes on the Roman Hydraulus'' (1904)
*''The Sackbut'' (1907)
*''Old English Instruments of Music'' (1910)
*''A Textbook of European Musical Instruments'' (1937)
*''The Music of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians'' (1937)
References
1858 births
1945 deaths
English antiquarians
English musicologists
People educated at Sherborne School
People from Dorchester, Dorset
19th-century English Anglican priests
20th-century English Anglican priests
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