William Shield
Encyclopedia
William Shield was an English
composer
, violin
ist and violist
who was born in Swalwell
near Gateshead
, the son of William Shield and his wife, Mary, née Cash.
-builder in South Shields
, continuing however to study music with Charles Avison
in Newcastle upon Tyne
.
He became a noted violinist in Newcastle's subscription concerts before moving to Scarborough to lead a theatre
orchestra
. In 1772, he was appointed by Felice Giardini
to play violin in the opera at Covent Garden
(now the Royal Opera House
), and from 1773 he was principal violist
there.
On 21 February 1776 he was in Durham, where he attended the meeting of the city's masonic lodge at the Marquis of Granby tavern. The lodge Minutes indicate that he was by this date already a member of the St. John's lodge in Newcastle. He later also became a member of the Sunderland Phoenix lodge. Details of the frequency of Shield's attendance at these north-east lodges is not yet clear, but can only have been occasional, given his career in London.
Shield also worked as a composer for Covent Garden and, in that capacity, he met Joseph Haydn
. In 1817, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick
. Like Haydn, not to mention several other composers of his time, Shield was a great plunderer of folk tunes (in his case mostly from his native Northumbria
).
Shield's works include a large number of opera
s and other stage works, including one on Robin Hood
, as well as instrumental music, but he is principally known for his light English opera Rosina
(1781). It was intended to be used as a light afterpiece to a more "serious" work sung in Italian. Such works were common at the time, although Rosina is the only one that has survived in the form of a complete score.
Rosina has a number of features associated with later English comic opera
, and even modern musical comedy
- including the use of English, spoken dialogue, lightness of theme, and the use of folk and popular medodies. At least to that degree, it may be regarded as one of the ancestors of the musical, and Shield as one of the first composers of musicals.
Victorian chroniclers skirted round the problem, but when the will was proved on March 6, 1829 the estate was claimed by, “Ann Stokes, alias Shield, Spinster, belonging to Marleybone.”
His favourite violin was given to King George IV, who insisted that the full value be given to Ann. Within six months she also sold his library of music, but nothing more is known of her.
Shield is buried, in the musicians section, (south cloisters), of Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey
. Surprisingly, it seems no marker of any kind was put in place at the time to show where he lay. There was quite a search made near the centenary of his death and eventually a small marble tablet was put as near the grave as could be ascertained.
John 'Mad Jack' Fuller
commissioned sculptor Peter Rouw (1771-1852), of Portland Lane, London, to create a memorial to mark the grave of his friend William Shield in Westminster Abbey
. The dean of the abbey, Dr Ireland is said to have refused permission for the tablet to be installed as he took objection to the word “gentleman” being used in its text. Fuller subsequently had the tablet installed at his home church, St Thomas à Becket, Brightling
, Sussex
where it remains. A medallion portrait of William Shield in profile is accompanied by this inscription:
A memorial cross was erected to honour Shield in 1891 at Whickham Church, his native parish. Near it is the oldest Shield grave. “Here lieth Peter Shield and Mary his wife, mother and children. Dep this life April Ye 8th 1747.”
In December 2009 Gateshead Council has erected a memorial to William Shield in Swalwell, Gateshead. It is close to the place where he was born, now a garage carrying out MOTs. In addition there is a room named the William Shield Room at the Gateshead Dryden Centre, home of the Gateshead Schools Music Service. The Gateshead Youth Orchestra regularly performs music by Shield, including the overtures to Rosina and The Travellers in Switzerland.
Public Library, while he was looking for new works for the town's youth orchestra. "I thought it was appropriate to look at the work of a Gateshead-born composer. I picked out Rosina by Shield," Mr Treherne said. "I started to copy out the score and hummed the tune as I was writing it down. I was coming to the end when I realized the tune floating through my head was Auld Lang Syne
." However, despite Treherne's rediscovery, Shield's use of the 'Old Lang Syne' melody had already been thoroughly debated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The melody
concerned (which exists as a brief quotation near the end of the Rosina overture
) - has been claimed to be the source of the tune to Robert Burns
' famous song, and Shield's own composition. Both claims seem to be highly unlikely, a very much more probable case being that both Shield and Burns independently borrowed the tune, or at least its general outline, from an old folk song.
Rather more likely, but just as liable to raise Scots hackles, is the possibility that the melody itself may be English (specifically Northumbria
n) rather than Scots! However, the original provenance of many British folk melodies is doubtful - and after all Northumbria and Lowland Scotland are contiguous, and have strong cultural affinities. Claims that the tune must be Scots because even its quotation in the Rosina overture imitates the drones of a bagpipe ignore the existence of the Northumbrian smallpipes
, which Shield very likely had in mind.
Incidentally, the theme from the Rosina overture is not identical to the melody to which Auld Lang Syne is sung - in fact it is closer, especially in tempo and rhythm, to Comin' Through the Rye
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
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...
, 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....
ist and violist
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...
who was born in Swalwell
Swalwell
Swalwell is a village in Tyne and Wear, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, in the United Kingdom.-History:On 27 August 1640, an encampment of soldiers was gathered in the fields north of Whickham church on the slope down to Swalwell. This was part of the Royalist army of King Charles I preparing to...
near Gateshead
Gateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
, the son of William Shield and his wife, Mary, née Cash.
Life and musical career
Shield was first taught music by his father but, after both he and his mother died while Shield was still a child, he was apprenticed to a shipShip
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
-builder in South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
, continuing however to study music with Charles Avison
Charles Avison
Charles Avison – 10 May 1770) was an English composer during the Baroque and Classical periods. He was a church organist at St John The Baptist Church in Newcastle and at St. Nicholas's Church...
in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
.
He became a noted violinist in Newcastle's subscription concerts before moving to Scarborough to lead a theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. In 1772, he was appointed by Felice Giardini
Felice Giardini
Felice Giardini was an Italian composer and violinist.Felice Giardini was born in Turin. When it became clear that he was a child prodigy, his father sent him to Milan. There he studied singing, harpsichord and violin but it was on the latter that he became a famous virtuoso...
to play violin in the opera at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
(now the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
), and from 1773 he was principal violist
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...
there.
On 21 February 1776 he was in Durham, where he attended the meeting of the city's masonic lodge at the Marquis of Granby tavern. The lodge Minutes indicate that he was by this date already a member of the St. John's lodge in Newcastle. He later also became a member of the Sunderland Phoenix lodge. Details of the frequency of Shield's attendance at these north-east lodges is not yet clear, but can only have been occasional, given his career in London.
Shield also worked as a composer for Covent Garden and, in that capacity, he met Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz 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...
. In 1817, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick
Master of the Queen's Music
Master of the Queen's Music is a post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The holder of the post originally served the monarch of England.The post is roughly comparable to that of Poet Laureate...
. Like Haydn, not to mention several other composers of his time, Shield was a great plunderer of folk tunes (in his case mostly from his native Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
).
Shield's works include a large number of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s and other stage works, including one on Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, as well as instrumental music, but he is principally known for his light English opera Rosina
Rosina
Rosina may refer to:*Rosina, Slovakia, a municipality in Slovakia*Rosina, Bulgaria, a village in Targovishte Municipality*Rosina Storchio, Italian soprano*Alessandro Rosina, an Italian footballer*a figure from The Barber of Seville...
(1781). It was intended to be used as a light afterpiece to a more "serious" work sung in Italian. Such works were common at the time, although Rosina is the only one that has survived in the form of a complete score.
Rosina has a number of features associated with later English comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
, and even modern musical comedy
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
- including the use of English, spoken dialogue, lightness of theme, and the use of folk and popular medodies. At least to that degree, it may be regarded as one of the ancestors of the musical, and Shield as one of the first composers of musicals.
Death and subsequent historical problems
William Shield died on Sunday, January 25, 1829 (the date celebrated as Robbie Burns Day) at his house at 31, Berners Street, London. His will (dated 29th of June 1826) left his worldly goods and a glowing testimonial ”to my beloved partner, Ann, Mrs. Shield”.Victorian chroniclers skirted round the problem, but when the will was proved on March 6, 1829 the estate was claimed by, “Ann Stokes, alias Shield, Spinster, belonging to Marleybone.”
His favourite violin was given to King George IV, who insisted that the full value be given to Ann. Within six months she also sold his library of music, but nothing more is known of her.
Shield is buried, in the musicians section, (south cloisters), of Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. Surprisingly, it seems no marker of any kind was put in place at the time to show where he lay. There was quite a search made near the centenary of his death and eventually a small marble tablet was put as near the grave as could be ascertained.
John 'Mad Jack' Fuller
John Fuller , better known as "Mad Jack" Fuller , was Squire of the hamlet of Brightling, in Sussex , and is well known as a builder of follies, and as a philanthropist, patron of the arts and sciences, and a supporter of slavery...
commissioned sculptor Peter Rouw (1771-1852), of Portland Lane, London, to create a memorial to mark the grave of his friend William Shield in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. The dean of the abbey, Dr Ireland is said to have refused permission for the tablet to be installed as he took objection to the word “gentleman” being used in its text. Fuller subsequently had the tablet installed at his home church, St Thomas à Becket, Brightling
Brightling
Brightling is a village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the Weald eight miles north-west of Battle and four miles west of Robertsbridge....
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
where it remains. A medallion portrait of William Shield in profile is accompanied by this inscription:
It is presumed that the words, “buried in Westminster Abbey” were inserted. DDD is an abbreviation for the Latin Dat, Dicat, Dedicat which can be translated to “ Gives, Devotes and Dedicates”.
Sacred to the memory of WILLIAM SHIELD esquire, master of His Majesty's band of music, who died January 25th 1829, aged 80 years, buried in Westminster Abbey, "This gentleman's name independent, of his high character and virtues, in private life has a claim to be enroll'd, among the most eminent musical, composers that have hitherto prov'd, an ornament to the British nation", John Fuller of Rose Hill Esq, DDD.
A memorial cross was erected to honour Shield in 1891 at Whickham Church, his native parish. Near it is the oldest Shield grave. “Here lieth Peter Shield and Mary his wife, mother and children. Dep this life April Ye 8th 1747.”
In December 2009 Gateshead Council has erected a memorial to William Shield in Swalwell, Gateshead. It is close to the place where he was born, now a garage carrying out MOTs. In addition there is a room named the William Shield Room at the Gateshead Dryden Centre, home of the Gateshead Schools Music Service. The Gateshead Youth Orchestra regularly performs music by Shield, including the overtures to Rosina and The Travellers in Switzerland.
The "Auld Lang Syne" controversy
The most recent revival of the "Shield wrote Auld Lang Syne" story seems to date from 1998, when John Treherne, Gateshead’s Head of Schools' Music Service, uncovered an original edition of the opera Rosina in the GatesheadGateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
Public Library, while he was looking for new works for the town's youth orchestra. "I thought it was appropriate to look at the work of a Gateshead-born composer. I picked out Rosina by Shield," Mr Treherne said. "I started to copy out the score and hummed the tune as I was writing it down. I was coming to the end when I realized the tune floating through my head was Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne
"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
." However, despite Treherne's rediscovery, Shield's use of the 'Old Lang Syne' melody had already been thoroughly debated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
concerned (which exists as a brief quotation near the end of the Rosina overture
Overture
Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
) - has been claimed to be the source of the tune to Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
' famous song, and Shield's own composition. Both claims seem to be highly unlikely, a very much more probable case being that both Shield and Burns independently borrowed the tune, or at least its general outline, from an old folk song.
Rather more likely, but just as liable to raise Scots hackles, is the possibility that the melody itself may be English (specifically Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
n) rather than Scots! However, the original provenance of many British folk melodies is doubtful - and after all Northumbria and Lowland Scotland are contiguous, and have strong cultural affinities. Claims that the tune must be Scots because even its quotation in the Rosina overture imitates the drones of a bagpipe ignore the existence of the Northumbrian smallpipes
Northumbrian smallpipes
The Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from the North East of England.In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to go farther than the...
, which Shield very likely had in mind.
Incidentally, the theme from the Rosina overture is not identical to the melody to which Auld Lang Syne is sung - in fact it is closer, especially in tempo and rhythm, to Comin' Through the Rye
Comin' Through the Rye
"Comin' Thro' the Rye" is a poem written in 1782 by Robert Burns . It is well known as a traditional children's song, with the words put to the melody of the Scottish Minstrel Common' Frae The Town...
.
Recordings
- Rosina (only complete recording) Margreta ElkinsMargreta ElkinsMargreta Elkins AM was an Australian mezzo-soprano of great renown. She sang at Covent Garden and with Opera Australia and other companies, but turned down offers to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, Bayreuth and Glyndebourne...
– The Classic Recordings ABC 461 922-2 (also includes Sea PicturesSea PicturesSea Pictures, Op. 37 is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar...
by Edward ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
and "The Altar is adorned for the Sacrifice" by Malcolm WilliamsonMalcolm WilliamsonMalcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
)
Further reading
- Peter Smith The Life, Times and Music of William Shield Gateshead Music Service. (£30 including p and p from J Treherne MBE, Dryden Centre, Evistones Rd, Gateshead NE9 5UR. Cheques should be made payable to Gateshead Council.)