Charles Frederick Horn
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with few possessions and no knowledge of the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, yet rose to become a music teacher in the Royal Household
Royal Households of the United Kingdom
The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the organised offices and support systems for the British Royal Family, along with their immediate families...
. As an editor and arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, he helped introduce the music of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
to England.
Life
Born in NordhausenNordhausen
Nordhausen is a town at the southern edge of the Harz Mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Nordhausen...
, Germany to John Wolfgang Horn and Sophia Dorothea Shenaman, Charles Frederick Horn was the third of their four children. According to the memoirs of Charles Frederick's son, Charles Edward Horn
Charles Edward Horn
Charles Edward Horn was an English composer and singer. He was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London to Charles Frederick Horn and his wife, Diana Dupont. He was the eldest of their seven children. His father taught him music; he also took music lessons briefly in 1808 from singer Venanzio...
, John Wolfgang wished for his son to become a surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
. Horn would often furtively practice music instead; when his father found out, he destroyed the family's clavichord
Clavichord
The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...
in the hopes of preventing his son from becoming distracted from his studies. This, though, did not dissuade Horn from taking music lessons from Nordhausen organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
Christoph Gottlieb Schröter.
On Schröter's death in 1782, Horn decided to move to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to try a living as a musician. He left his home with little money and a suitcase of clothes. En route to Paris, he encountered a stranger in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
by the name of Winkelman, who persuaded the impressionable Horn that London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
would better serve the aspirations of a young German musician than France. Winkelman accompanied him to London, but upon arriving, stole almost all of Horn's money and disappeared. Destitute and knowing no English, he wandered the streets of London before encountering a German-speaking Irishman
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, who sympathized with his plight. The man took Horn to the piano shop of Longman and Broderip at Cheapside
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Mansion House Street. To the east is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and the major road junction above Bank tube station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St...
, where Horn played the piano for its co-proprietor, Francis Fane Broderip. Impressed, Broderip introduced Horn to the Saxon
Electorate of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...
ambassador John Maurice de Brühl. de Brühl recommended Horn to Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford
Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford
Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford PC , known as Viscount Trentham from 1746 to 1754 and as The Earl Gower from 1754 to 1786, was a British politician.-Background:...
, who hired him as his daughters' music teacher.
The appointment meant that Trentham Hall, Leveson-Gower's estate in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, became Horn's new residence. There, he met and fell in love with Diana Dupont, the French tutor of Leveson-Gower's daughters. The two married on 28 September 1785, and subsequently moved to London, where Dupont gave birth to the couple's first child, Charles Edward Horn, on 21 June 1786. Horn published his first composition, Six Sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
s for the Piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, Violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, and Violincello (Op
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
. 1), earlier that year in May. Subscribers to the work included such luminaries as Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...
, Johann Peter Salomon
Johann Peter Salomon
Johann Peter Salomon was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario.-Life:...
, George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
(then the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
), and Lady Caroline Waldegrave. The latter introduced Horn to Queen Charlotte
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the Queen consort of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George III...
, who appointed him as her personal music tutor; he instructed the Queen twice a week from 20 October 1789 to 9 October 1793. While in her service, he maintained two homes, one in London and the other in Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
. He was also engaged from June 1789 to October 1812 to teach music to the royal princesses. During his employment in the royal household, he composed a set of three Sonatas (Op. 2), which he dedicated to the Queen.
Horn continued composing numerous pieces, but he is perhaps best known for his work in arranging
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
and editing music—in particular, the works of Bach. In 1807, he published an arrangement for two violins, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, and cello/piano for 12 of Bach's organ fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s. The next year, he met Samuel Wesley
Samuel Wesley
Samuel Wesley was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart and was called by some "the English Mozart."-Personal life:...
, with whom he would collaborate in editing, arranging, and publishing the first ever complete edition of Bach's six organ trios (1809) and the first English edition of the Well-Tempered Clavier (1810). Horn, whom Wesley described as "indefatigable", had plans to publish all of Bach's works, but this never came to fruition.
In June 1824, King George IV appointed Horn as organist of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. He stepped down after King George's death on 26 June 1830, and died shortly after in Windsor. He was buried at St George's Chapel. Horn was survived by his wife, with whom he had seven children.
Compositions
- Six Sonatas for the Piano, Violin, and Violincello (Op. 1, 1786)
- Three Sonatas for the Piano Forte or Harpsichord, with an Accompaniment for a Violin or a Flute (Op. 2, 1791)
- Three Sonatas (Op. 3, 1794)
- Twelve Country Dance for the Piano Forte (1796)
- A Collection of Divertimentos (1804)
- The Boatman (1817)
- Themes with Variations (cCircaCirca , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
. 1823)
Arrangements and editions
- A Favorite Overture – Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
(1786) - Sinfonia for a Grand Orchestra – Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
(c. 1790) - Celebrated Concertante – Ignaz PleyelIgnaz PleyelIgnace Joseph Pleyel , ; was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.-Early years:...
(c. 1790) - (with Samuel Wesley) A Sett of 12 Fugues Composed for the Organ by Sebastian Bach arranged as Quartettos – Johann Sebastian Bach (1807)
- (with Samuel Wesley) A Trio composed originally for the organ by John Sebastian Bach and now adapted for 3 hands – Johann Sebastian Bach (1809)
- (with Samuel Wesley) New and correct edition of the Preludes and Fugues of John Sebastian Bach – Johann Sebastian Bach (1810)