Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (18 November 178730 April 1855) was an English composer from the early

Romantic era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. He is most famous for the songs "

Home! Sweet Home! "Home, Sweet Home" is a song adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera ''Clari, or the Maid of Milan'', the song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne. Bishop had earlier pub ...

" 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. Bishop was Knighted in 1842. Bishop worked for all the major theatres of London in his era – including the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...

at Covent Garden, the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

Vauxhall 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 ...

and the Haymarket Theatre, and was Professor of Music at the universities of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. His second wife was the noted soprano Anna Bishop, who scandalised British society by leaving him and conducting an open liaison with the harpist

Nicolas-Charles Bochsa Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (9 August 1789 – 6 January 1856) was a harpist and composer. His relationship with Anna Bishop was popularly thought to have inspired that of Svengali and Trilby in George du Maurier's 1894 novel '' Trilby' ...

until the latter's death in Sydney.

Life

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 Francesco Bianchi in London. In 1804 he wrote the music to a piece called "Angelina", which was performed at

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

. He wrote the music for a ballet, ''Tamerlan et Bajazet'', which opened in 1806 at the King's Theatre, Haymarket and led to a permanent post. His first opera, ''The Circassian Bride'', was performed at the

on 23 February 1809, but on the following night the theatre burned down, forcing him to re-write the score from memory. The

prima donna In opera or commedia dell'arte, a prima donna (; Italian for "first lady"; plural: ''prime donne'') is the leading female singer in the company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. ''Prime donne'' often had grand off-stage per ...

of that production, a Miss Lyons, became Bishop's first wife. After his second success on the stage with ''The Maniac'' (1810), Bishop became music director of Covent Garden for the next 14 years. In 1813, he was a founding member of the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

. In 1825 Bishop was induced by Robert Elliston to transfer his services from Covent Garden to the rival house in Drury Lane, for which he wrote, among others, the opera ''Aladdin'', based on the story from ''1001 Nights''. It was intended to compete with Weber's ''

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...

'', commissioned by the other house. ''Aladdin'' failed, and Bishop's career as an operatic composer came to an end. He did, however, rework operas by other composers. An 1827 Covent Garden playbill records a performance of the ''Marriage of Figaro'' with "The Overture and Music selected chiefly from Mozart's operas – the new music by Mr Bishop". It included an aria called ''Follow, follow o'er the mountain'', sung by Miss Paton. In 1841 he was appointed

Reid Professor of Music The Reid Professorship in Music was a position founded within the University of Edinburgh in 1839 using funds provided in a bequest from General John Reid. History On his death in 1807 General John Reid left a fortune of more than £50,000. Subj ...

in the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, but resigned the office in 1843. In 1848 he became

Heather Professor of Music The Heather Professor of Music is the title of an endowed chair at the University of Oxford. The post and the funding for it come from a bequest by William Heather (c. 1563 – 1627). Following the example of his friend William Camden who had left ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, succeeding

William Crotch William Crotch (5 July 177529 December 1847) was an English composer and organist. According to the American musicologist Nicholas Temperley, Crotchwas "a child prodigy without parallel in the history of music", and was certainly the most dist ...

, until 1853. According to William Denslow, Bishop was a freemason. Bishop was knighted in 1842, the first composer ever to receive that honour. Bishop's later years were clouded by scandal. He had married his second wife, the singer Ann Rivière, daughter of Daniel Riviere and sister of Robert Riviere, in 1831. She was twenty-three years younger than he, and they had three children.Norman Gilliland, ''Grace Notes for a Year: Stories of Hope, Humor and Hubris From the World of Classical Music'' (Madison, Wisconsin: NEMO Productions, 2002), p. 9. In 1839, Anna Bishop (as she was now known) abandoned her husband and three children to run off with her lover and accompanist, the harpist and composer

. They left England to give concert tours abroad until Bochsa died in Sydney, Australia, in 1856. Anna Bishop sang on every continent and was the most widely travelled opera singer of the 19th century. Sir Henry Bishop died in poverty in London, although he had a substantial income during his lifetime. He is buried in

East Finchley Cemetery East Finchley Cemetery is a cemetery and crematorium in East End Road, East Finchley. Although it is in the London Borough of Barnet, it is owned and managed by the City of Westminster.Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial, directly north of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens, London, was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Prince Albert, who died in 1861. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic R ...

in Kensington Gardens by a

relief sculpture Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

on the Frieze of Parnassus, which depicts influential composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors; he is the only 19th century British composer represented.

Music

Sir Henry Rowley Bishop by George Henry Harlow

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 The ballad opera is a genre of English stage entertainment that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier '' comédie en vaudeville'' and the later ''Singspiel'', its dist ...

genre, or with modern musicals, than the classical opera of continental Europe with full recitatives. His first opera, ''The Circassian's Bride'' (1809), had one performance at Drury Lane before the theatre burned down and the score was lost. Bishop reconstructed it from memory. Between 1816 and 1828, Bishop composed the music for a series of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an operas staged by

Frederic Reynolds Frederic Reynolds (1 November 1764 – 16 April 1841) was an English dramatist. During his literary career he composed nearly one hundred tragedies and comedies, many of which were printed, and about twenty of them obtained temporary popularit ...

. But these, and the numerous works, operas,

burletta In theater and music history, a burletta (Italian, meaning "little joke", sometimes burla or burlettina) is a brief comic opera. In eighteenth-century Italy, a burletta was the comic intermezzo between the acts of an ''opera seria''. The extended ...

s, cantatas, incidental music etc. which he wrote are mostly forgotten. Even his limited partnering with various composers including

Joseph Edwards Carpenter Joseph Edwards Carpenter (2 November 1813, London – 6 May 1885, BayswaterBoase, F., ''Modern English biography'', 6 vols, 1892-1921) was an English playwright, composer, and songwriter. In 1851, Carpenter moved from Leamington to London. He wr ...

Thomas Simpson Cooke Thomas Simpson Cooke ("Tom Cooke") (July 1782 – 26 February 1848) was an Irish composer, conductor, singer, theatre musician and music director – an influential figure in early 19th-century opera in London. Life Mostly referred to as "Tom Co ...

and Stephen Glover are often overlooked. The year 1816 also saw the composition of a string quartet in C minor. His most successful operas were ''The Virgin of the Sun'' (1812), ''The Miller and his Men'' (1813), ''Guy Mannering'' (1816), and ''Clari, or the Maid of Milan'' (1823). ''Clari'', with a libretto by the American

John Howard Payne John Howard Payne (June 9, 1791 – April 10, 1852) was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had nearly two decades of a theatrical career and success in London. He is today most remembered as the creator of "Home! Sweet Home ...

, included the song ''

'', which became enormously popular. In 1852 Bishop 'relaunched' the song as a parlour ballad. It was popular in the United States throughout the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

and after. According to music historian Anne Gilchrist: 'If a postscript by another hand may follow Mr. Frank Kidson's* most illuminating true story of the origin of Home, Sweet Home,' in the November number of THE CHOIR, musical readers may perhaps be interested to learn that the melody was vastly improved by compression in Sir Henry Bishop's later edition of it (the one now familiar). The original so-called 'Sicilian Air,' which Bishop - as Mr. Kidson has told - confessed to having written himself for lack of the required specimen of Sicilian melody, is a tedious affair, with much repetition. The first two bars (now counted as four) of the melody are sung, with the variation of a single note, four times, and after two bars of something a little different, a fifth time. It is as if one sang the strain, ‘ 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it never so humble, there's no place like home,’ twice over, then two bars of variation, then the music of the above two lines once more. There is as yet no refrain of 'Home, sweet home,' but instead, the strain belonging to 'There's no place like home, there's no place like home' is sung (except for one note) twice over, as a conclusion. The truth as it appears to me is that Bishop's notion of Sicilian music was exclusively derived from the hymn-tune 'Sicilian Mariners,' whose character he imitated as closely as prudence would allow.' Also of note is Bishop's 1819 musical comedy adaptation of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

The Comedy of Errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. ...

'', which included the popular coloratura soprano aria "Lo! Here the Gentle Lark."Naxos.com
/ref> Bishop's last work was the commissioned music for the ode at the installation of

Lord Derby Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869, known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley) was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ...

as chancellor of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1853.

Principal works

Stage works *''The Maniac, or The Swiss Banditti'' (1810), opera *''The Brazen Bust'' (1813), melodrama *''The Miller and His Men'' (1813), melodrama *''

Sadak ''Sadak'' () is a 1991 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film directed by Mahesh Bhatt. It stars Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt. The film is one of the highest-grossing movies of the year 1991. The film is also fondly remembered for the l ...

and Kalasrade, or The Waters of Oblivion'' (1814), opera *''Brother and Sister'' (1815), entertainment *''Guy Mannering'' (1816), musical play *''December and May'' (1818), operetta *''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' (1819), musical drama *''The Comedy of Errors'' (1819), musical comedy *''The Battle of Bothwell Brigg'' (1820), musical romance *''Henri Quatre, or, Paris in the olden time'' (1820), musical romance *''Clari, or the Maid of Milan'' (1823), opera *''As You Like It'' (1824), musical comedy *''Alladin'' (1826), opera *''Yelva, or The Orphan of Russia'' (1829), musical drama Cantatas/Oratorios *''The Jolly Beggars'' (Robert Burns) (1817), cantata *''Waterloo'' (1826), cantata *''The Seventh Day'' (John Milton) (1833), sacred cantata *''The Departure from Paradise'' (Milton) (1836), sacred cantata *''The Fallen Angel'' (1839), oratorio Instrumental music *''Grand Sinfonia'' in C major (1805) for orchestra *''Concertante'' (1807) for flute, oboe, bassoon, violin and double bass *String Quartet in C minor (1816) *''Overture (alla Irlandese)'' (1823) for piano *''A Lament'' (1829) for piano

Notes

References

*F. Corder: "The Works of Sir Henry Bishop", in: ''The Musical Quarterly'', vol. iv no. 1 (1918), pp. 78–97. *M. Faul:
Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, harpiste, compositeur, escroc"
(editions Delatour, France 2003) * Grove Music Online, ''Bishop, Sir Henry R(owley)''. *Kidson, F. 1900, ''British Music Publishers, Printers and Engravers from Queen Elizabeth’s Reign to George the Fourth’s'', Hill & Sons, London. *

External links

Musical Manuscripts Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

* * *
Henry R. Bishop recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, Henry 1786 births 1855 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century British composers 19th-century English musicians 19th-century British male musicians Academics of the University of Edinburgh Burials at East Finchley Cemetery Composers awarded knighthoods English classical composers English male classical composers English opera composers English Romantic composers Glee composers Heather Professors of Music Knights Bachelor Male opera composers Musicians from London