W. S. Rockstro
William Smith Rockstro(5 January 1823 – 1 July 1895) was an English musicologist, teacher, pianist and composer. He is best remembered for his books, including music textbooks, music history and biographies of famous musicians.
Life and career
[edit]Rockstro was bornWilliam Smyth RackstrawinNorth Cheam,Surrey.(He adopted an older form of his family name from 1846).[1]He studied composition and piano withWilliam Sterndale Bennett,organ withJohn Purkis,and from 1845 to 1846 he studied at theLeipzigConservatory underFelix Mendelssohn(composition and piano). His contemporaries there includedJoseph JoachimandOtto Goldschmidt.[2]After his studies in Leipzig, Rockstro established himself as a teacher of piano and singing in London, and he secured a regular appointment as an accompanist at a recital series. In the early 1860s he moved to theWest Country,where he lived for nearly 30 years.[1]
Rockstro was an enthusiast for early music. In 1885 he conducted a concert of sacred music of the 16th and 17th centuries at theRoyal Albert Hall.His own compositions, conservative in style, include operatic fantasias, short piano pieces, and songs.[1]In 1886, he conducted his oratorioThe Good Shepherdat theThree Choirs Festival,though it was not considered a success.The Timespraised its obvious sincerity but complained of its conspicuous debt toMendelssohnand its lack of good tunes.[3]
Together with his former pupilJ A Fuller Maitland,[4]Rockstro collaborated on a collection,English Carols of the 15th Century(1891). As an editor of music of earlier centuries he was far from scholarly in his changes:The Timescommented that his edition of theSt Matthew Passion"introduced marks of expression in a wholesale fashion not likely to meet with the approval of purists".[5]In 1891 he moved from the West Country back to London, where he taught both privately and at theRoyal Academy of Musicand theRoyal College of Music.[1]
Rockstro's later years were marred by ill health, but his death at the age of 72 was nonetheless sudden and unexpected.[1]His brother wasRichard Shepherd Rockstro(1826-1906), professor of flute at theGuildhall School of Musicand author ofA Treatise on the Flute(1890).
Publications
[edit]Rockstro is best known for his books. Books about musical practice wereA Key to Practical Harmony(1881),Practical Harmony: a Manual for the Use of Young Students(1881), andThe Rules of Counterpoint Systematically Arranged for the Use of Young Students(1882). His books on musical history wereA History of Music for the Use of Young Students(1879) andA General History of Music from the Infancy of the Greek Drama to the Present Period(1886). He published biographical studies of Handel (1883) and Mendelssohn (1884) and two books aboutJenny Lind,Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt: her Early Art-Life and Dramatic Career, 1820–1851(with H.S. Holland, 1891) andJenny Lind, her Vocal Art and Culture (1894).[1]
In the originalGrove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansRockstro contributed 240 articles, including those on "Mass", "Monteverdi", "Motet", "Opera", "Oratorio", "Orchestra" and "Plainsong". Two articles by Rockstro remained, with revisions, in the online edition of Grove at May 2012: those on "Cadence"and"Aevia"(a technical word used in mediaeval service books).[1]
Notes
[edit]- ^abcdefgWilliamson, Rosemary."Rockstro, W.S.",Grove Music Online., Oxford Music Online, accessed 12 May 2012(subscription required)
- ^"Obituary: William Smyth Rockstro",The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular,Vol. 36, No. 630 (August 1895), p. 549(subscription required)
- ^"The Gloucester Music Festival",The Times,9 September 1886, p. 6
- ^Dibble, Jeremy,"Maitland, John Alexander Fuller (1856–1936)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2009, accessed 16 May 2012(subscription required)
- ^"The Bach Choir",The Times,27 March 1884, p. 6
External links
[edit]
- 1823 births
- 1895 deaths
- Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
- Academics of the Royal College of Music
- English composers
- English music critics
- English writers about music
- English musicologists
- Musicians from Surrey
- People from Cheam
- Pupils of Felix Mendelssohn
- University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni
- 19th-century British composers
- 19th-century English musicians
- 19th-century British musicologists