William Smethergell (6 January 1751 - before March 1836) was an English composer and musician who lived and worked in London. Christened in the church of

St Peter le Poer St Peter le Poer was a parish church on the west side of Broad Street in the City of London. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt in 1540, and again in 1792 to a design by Jesse Gibson with a circular nave. It was demolished in 1907. Early histor ...

, after an apprenticeship of seven years (with the organist and composer Thomas Curtis), Smethergell became the organist of two London churches,

All Hallows-by-the-Tower All Hallows-by-the-Tower, at one time dedicated jointly to All Hallows (All Saints) and the Virgin Mary and sometimes known as All Hallows Barking, is an ancient Anglican church on Byward Street in the City of London, overlooking the Tower of ...

and

St Mary-at-Hill St Mary-at-Hill is an Anglican parish church in the Ward of Billingsgate, City of London. It is situated on Lovat Lane, a cobbled street off Eastcheap. It was founded in the 12th century as "St. Mary de Hull" or "St. Mary de la Hulle". It was se ...

, posts which he held simultaneously for fifty years. He was also the principal viola player at the

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens Vauxhall Gardens is a public park in Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, on the south bank of the River Thames. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, it is believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660, being m ...

. His surviving works include two published sets of overture-symphonies (Op. 2 and Op. 5),C L Cudworth.
The English Symphonists of the Eighteenth Century
, in ''Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association'', 78th Session (1951-1952), pp. 31-51 six harpsichord sonatas, seven keyboard concertos and a number of works for smaller forces. Timothy Rishton, writing about his life in 1983, notes that the early promise of his keyboard works, some of the first to be specified for

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 ...

, is not fulfilled, and for the last thirty years of his life he wrote little (at least which survives). According to Jürgen Schaarwächter, performances of Smethergell’s orchestral music were often heard in Vauxhall Gardens until the 1790s, when stylistic changes in Europe turned it unfashionable. The 12 overtures are (with the exception of Op. 5 No 4) all in three movements, and they are scored in eight parts, giving a fuller orchestral sound than the seven keyboard concertos. The first set were published in 1778 and the second set two years later - these proved popular enough with musicians (beyond the Vauxhall band) that a second edition was produced.Owain Edwards, revised Tim Rishton. 'Smethergell, William', in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001) The Op. 5 set has been recorded by Douglas Bostock with the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim.CPO 555 540-2 (2023), reviewed at ''MusicWeb International''
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smethergell, William English Classical-period composers English organists English male organists 1751 births 1836 deaths