Joseph Augustine Wade (1796'c.1801' according to Lisa Parker: "Wade, Joseph Augustine", in: ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. H. White & B. Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), vol. 2, p. 1036 – 15 July 1845) was an Irish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and conductor. Wade was popular in his lifetime, and he was quoted in the 1919 ''

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'', often simply called ''Bartlett's'', is an American reference work that is the longest-lived and most widely distributed collection of quotations. The book was first issued in 1855 and is currently in its ninet ...

''.

Life and career

Wade was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

and worked as a

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

before moving to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1821. For a short period he was conductor at the King's Theatre. He had some success with his oratorio ''The Prophecy'' (1824) and the comic opera ''The Two Houses of Grenada'' (1826). Wade was known for his arrangement of ''Peter Gray'' as well as for popular songs that included ''I've Wandered in Dreams'', ''Love was Once a Little Boy'', ''A Woodland Life'', and his most famous, ''Meet me by Moonlight''.

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

referred to Wade, having his eponymous hero in ''Samuel Sensitive'' sing a phrase of Wade's ''Meet me by Moonlight''.Walt Whitman, Emory Holloway (ed.), ''The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman: Much of which Has Been But Recently Discovered'' (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1921). His son Joseph Augustine Wade jr. was also a composer.

Selected works

Stage * ''Two Houses of Granada'', comic opera (1826) * ''The Convent Belles'', comic opera (1833) * ''The Yeoman's Daughter'', musical play (1834) * ''The Pupil of Da Vinci'', burletta (1839) Vocal * ''Come Buy me Cherries'' (c.1820) * ''The Hermit of Killarney'', Irish ballad (c.1820) * ''The Prophecy'', oratorio (1824) * ''Hours There Were'', ballad (1825) * ''Where Stays my Lover's Barque'', ballad for 3 voices (c.1825) * ''Farewell Sweet Whispering Echo'', glee (c.1826) * ''Say Will Summer Roses Bloom'', duet (c.1828) * ''Meet me by Moonlight'', ballad (c.1830) * ''Shula Agra'', Irish ballad (c.1830) * ''The Faithless One'' (c.1830) * ''Polish Melodies'' (1831) * ''I have Fruit, I have Flow'rs'', cavatina (c.1840) Piano * ''A Grand Duet for Two Performers on the Piano Forte'' (1827)

Writings

* ''The Hand-Book to the Piano Forte'' (London, 1844)

References

External links

* * Works by J.A. Wade a
IMSLP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, J. Augustus 1796 births 1845 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Irish male musicians Irish classical composers Irish conductors (music) Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish opera composers Male opera composers Musicians from Dublin (city)