William Christian Sellé, (1813–1898) was a Victorian doctor of music, composer and for forty years Musician in Ordinary to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

Biography

William Christian Sellé was born in

Benhall Benhall is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. Located to the south of Saxmundham, in 2007 its population was estimated to be 560, reducing to 521 at the 2011 Census. Geography Benhall is split into t ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in 1813. His parents were Elizabeth Underwood, from a farming family in Suffolk, and Christian Sellé, a musician who had left

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

with

Viotti Giovanni Battista Viotti (12 May 1755 – 3 March 1824) was an Italian violinist whose virtuosity was famed and whose work as a composer featured a prominent violin and an appealing lyrical tunefulness. He was also a director of French and Italia ...

, a celebrated violinist, to join the private band of the 15th

Light Dragoons The Light Dragoons (LD) is a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment has a light cavalry role and specialises in mounted and dismounted reconnaissance. The Light Dragoons recruit mainly in Northern England, from the counties of Northu ...

of Ernest Augustus

Duke of Cumberland Duke of Cumberland is a peerage title that was conferred upon junior members of the British Royal Family, named after the historic county of Cumberland. History The Earldom of Cumberland, created in 1525, became extinct in 1643. The dukedo ...

who was then living at the royal residence in

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

and was forming a band of mainly German musicians. Sellé was bilingual from an early age. Sellé began his musical education at a young age. He was placed under the tutelage of another of the Duke of Cumberland's musicians, a Mr Platt. At fifteen he became a pupil of

Cipriani Potter Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter (3 October 1792 – 26 September 1871) was an English musician. He was a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. After an early career as a performer and composer, he was a teacher in the Royal Academy of Musi ...

, at that time the principal of the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

where he specialised in

pianoforte The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. Early on, while he was under tutelage, Sellé demonstrated the ability to teach music and Potter trusted him enough to allow him to teach the other pupils. He was at the academy for about two years and then started a 70-year career as a teacher.Obituary in the ''

Richmond and Twickenham Times The ''Richmond and Twickenham Times'' is a weekly local newspaper that was established in 1873 and is published on Fridays. It covers the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south-west London and surrounding areas. It is delivered free to ...

'' by Samuel Hoskin, 19 November 1898 He was primarily a teacher of the piano and organ but was also a skilled violinist. Sellé recalled in 1878 in a letter to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' that he had befriended the young son of the Duke, Prince George of Cumberland (later

George V of Hanover en, George Frederick Alexander Charles Ernest Augustus , house = Hanover , religion = Protestant , father = Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover , mother = Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , birth_date = 27 May 1819 , ...

) following a serious accident in 1828 that caused a temporary loss of sight. He related that he was in constant attendance, providing support throughout the illness to Prince George who was his first royal pupil. Sellé composed a piece of music for the young prince,. This was probably his first published piece. "The Favorite Gallopade, with variations for the Piano Forte", a copy of which is held at The

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

.http://www.maryceleste.co.uk/famhist/selle/selle-print.htm, Information from The British Library listed in family archive. Sellé married Selina Daniel in Southwark in 1835, setting up home in

Richmond on Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

where he was to live for the remainder of his life. He spent the next years raising a family and developing his teaching career that included several members of the royal household. In 1845 he was appointed Organist of the

Chapel Royal The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the British Royal Family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also applie ...

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

, a prestigious role that he held for some 40 years. There is a record of him requesting the formation of a permanent choir at Hampton Court in 1853, the same year that he helped organise a concert at Hampton Court in aid of the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

Relief Fund. This took place in the Great Hall which was opened to the public for the first time. Sellé was awarded a Lambeth Music Doctorate by Archbishop Sumner in 1857. The 1850s to the 1860s were his most prolific as a composer. The British Library archive has around forty published pieces by Sellé and

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...

has eleven. The majority are from the middle decades of the century. They are relatively short pieces for the piano and organ. The piano compositions are light and easily accessible in style, essentially salon pieces. His work illustrates his love of the composers of the

First Viennese School The First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in Western art music in late-18th-century to early-19th-century Vienna: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Sometimes, ...

and places Sellé within the romantic tradition of English music. In 1886, he was commissioned by The Shelley Society to provide music for '' Hellas'', a lyrical drama by

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

. This was performed in October 1894 with the actress

Alma Murray Alma Murray (1854–1945) was an English actress. Life She was born in London into a theatrical family, the daughter of actors Leigh Murray and his wife Sarah Mannering.Eric Salmon, ‘Murray, Alma (1854–1945)’, Oxford Dictionary of National ...

in the lead role. The musical score came in for much artistic criticism but remains Sellé's best known score and is still available and in print.''Hellas, A Lyrical Drama'' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, edited by H Buxton Forman, choruses by W C Sellé,

Nabu Press BiblioBazaar is, with Nabu Press, an imprint of the historical reprints publisher BiblioLife, which is based in Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston C ...

(2010) Sellé's obituary mentions a love of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

whom he refers to as ’his dear master’. Sellé's inclination was to favour an establishment view of classical music reinforced by his known dislike of ‘modern music’. Throughout his career as a teacher Sellé maintained a close musical relationship with many of his pupils. He played the organ at the marriage of his former pupil Princess Mary of Cambridge and was by the accounts that still exist a convivial, loquacious man with a string of anecdotes that made him exceptional company. In later life he was to become a familiar character in his community with an affectation of wearing what was described as a 'sombrero'.Obituary in the ''Richmond Herald'', 12 November 1898 Sellé retired as organist at the Chapel Royal in 1886 at the age of seventy three. Harry Buxton Forman

A Liberal and supporter of Gladstone, Sellé was an active member of his community taking part in the issues of the day. He was a member of the Richmond

Select Vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

(Parish Council) from 1853 until his death. He also stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate when Richmond received its

Charter of Incorporation A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

. He made an unsuccessful attempt to bring about the opening of the Richmond Public Library for which he was a serving committee member. At the time of his death he left a widow and two adult daughters, one of whom was married to

Harry Buxton Forman Henry Buxton Forman (11 July 1842 – 15 June 1917) was a Victorian-era bibliographer and antiquarian bookseller whose literary reputation is based on his bibliographies of Percy Shelley and John Keats. In 1934 he was revealed to have been in a ...

, a leading bibliographer, rare manuscripts editor and scholar of all things Shelley. His only adult son Guarnerius (so-named after the Italian violin makers

Guarneri The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati an ...

) pre-deceased him by nine years as did two other daughters. William Christian Sellé died of a heart attack whilst drinking at The Greyhound Hotel in Richmond on 8 November 1898.

Bibliography

* ''Hellas, A Lyrical Drama'' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, edited by H Buxton Forman, choruses by W C Sellé,

(2010)

References

External links

* http://www.maryceleste.co.uk/famhist/selle/selle-print.htm Information from The British Library listed in family archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Selle, William Christian 1813 births 1898 deaths 19th-century British composers 19th-century British male musicians 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century English musicians Academics of the Royal Academy of Music British male organists Cathedral organists Composers for pipe organ English classical composers English classical organists English classical pianists English Romantic composers Holders of a Lambeth degree Male classical pianists Musicians from Suffolk People of the Victorian era Male classical organists 19th-century organists