Full Description
The memoirs of the musician Charles Edward Horn (1786-1849) are published here for the first time, in a copiously annotated edition. They include an account of Horn's father, Charles Frederick Horn (1762-1830), who arrived penniless in London from Germany in 1782 and rose to become seven years later music master to Queen Charlotte and instructor to the royal princesses. Today he is most remembered for his pioneering publications of J.S. Bach's music in England. Charles Edward Horn's memoir of himself covers his activities in England and Ireland to 1818, with an epilogue describing events of 1827 when he made his first visit to America. His narrative describes his transition from a "serious" musician (he was deputy organist to Dr Charles Burney and sang in the first London performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni) to the stage where, as a member of the English Opera House, Drury Lane and other theatre companies, he became famous as a singer and composer of popular music. Horn's memoirs provide numerous details of English musical life in the Georgian era not previously known to scholars.They are supplemented in this book by transcripts of four other autobiographical accounts of the Horns, a summary of their extant correspondence and a chronology of their activities.
Contents
Charles Edward Horn's memoir of his father; Charles Edward Horn's memoir of himself; Appendices: Charles Frederick Horn's letter to the compiler of the Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1823); Charles Eward Horn's draft sketch of his own career (1828); Charles Edward Horn's account of his father in a draft letter to William Ayrton (1830); Charles Edward Horn's draft petition to King William IV (c.1830); The Horn family; Correspondence of the Horn family.
