Joseph Augustine Wade was an Irish

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...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

. Wade was popular in his lifetime, and he was quoted in the 1919 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

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...

.

Life and career

Wade was born in Dublin and worked as a surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 before moving to 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...

.

Wade was known for his arrangement of "Peter Gray," as well as 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

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman 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 the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...

referred to Wade, having his eponymous hero in "Samuel Sensitive" sing a phrase of Wade's "Meet me by Moonlight."

His son Joseph Augustine Wade was also a composer.

Selected works

• Two Houses of Granada (1826)
• Pupil of Da Vinci
• Prophecy (1824)
• Polis Melodies (1831)
• Songs of the Flowers
• Child's First Quadrilles

External links