Joseph Barnby was a quintessential Victorian church composer, if not even more a church composer than every other composer. He wrote almost exclusively sacred vocal works. I discovered recently this obituary from The Musical Times from March 1896 (he died in January of that year). Apparently the magazine had written only a brief notice before, and they were making up that with this longer one.
Barnby was a famous composer for his time; he composed the still well-known
Sweet and Low, with words by Tennyson.
He was even famous enough for a trading card for Wills's Cigarettes. How much more do we need?
His music, alas, is mostly forgotten today. Portions of it are quite bombastic to our modern ears, true; there is enough music left, though, which is still worth hearing.
Obituary from the Musical Times, March 1896.
We cannot be satisfied with the hurried words which
appeared in this journal last month having reference to the sudden removal of
Sir Joseph Barnby . Something more than the usual biographical details is
required in the case of any man who has occupied a prominent position and done
something which his contemporaries have recognised as a claim to honour and
gratitude. Such a man certainly was our departed friend, and in the columns of
The Musical Times that fact should be made prominent. All the world of music
knows that between Joseph Barnby and the conductors of this journal existed,
for many years, a close personal and business relationship. It is among their
happiest reflections that the house of Novello was the means, after he had left
his native city and settled in London, of extending to him material
encouragement. They recall, too, with peculiar pleasure the fact that through
the same agency opportunity was given for demonstrating and maturing in most
practical fashion their friend's exceptional qualities as a choir-trainer and
conductor, and for placing his merits as a composer in public sight.
Association so close and prolonged cannot lightly be treated when, in the order
of nature, the ties are broken, when voice no longer answers to voice, or hand
meets hand. At such a time, besides dwelling gratefully upon the past, the
lessons of a closed life may best be gathered up, and a character, forever
withdrawn into the serene region which lies beyond human passion and failing,
obtain the recognition which is its due.
To say that man is
determined by the circumstances of his environment is, perhaps, to underrate
the forces of human nature. The philosopher, indeed, tells us that we should
bend circumstances to our will, but, unhappily, philosophers are apt to take
upon themselves the privileges of the poet and create in fancy that which does
not exist in reality. Every day experience teaches us that some men are born to
good luck and others to luck that is bad; this being only another way of saying
that some have been fortunate, and others unfortunate in the conditions and
surroundings of their lives. In the matter of Joseph Barnby, it seems to us
beyond question that Providence was wholly kind. Born into a musical family,
with inherited musical tastes, he was like the seed that fell upon good ground.
All things were suitable to his development : the place readily found for his
boyish gifts in the choir of a great and solemn Minster, where, day by day,
" service high and anthem clear" brought him under the direct
influence of art in its most exalted application ; and, besides this, long,
steady, quiet training, at a susceptible age, in the finest and most fruitful
school which England can boast. Such an atmosphere every sensible man would
most readily choose for the development of youthful talent, and in it Barnby
received a first healthy, orderly impulse towards the career in which he was to
gain distinction. The impulse was, of course, general, in the direction of
music as a whole, but it was markedly particular from the very nature of the
case, and Barnby, as a Church musician, kept to the path wherein his early
steps were guided. Study at the Royal Academy did not divert him from what may
have seemed a natural and pre-destined road. Had it done so there would have
been no occasion for surprise, since we all know that the attractions of
secular art are great; and its ways obviously decked with lights and flowers -
with all the charms con- genial to youth. But, whether from force of early
training or from the shrewd common- sense which was his through life, Barnby
remained faithful to religious music, and, making a humble beginning as
organist and choirmaster, passed by decisive stages to one of the highest peaks
of his profession. We must respect and honour the qualities he evinced as a
conductor and head of a great school, but before and above everything else the
ex-chorister of York Minster was a servant of those great and solemn rites in
which, faith- fully carried out, there is more than enough to satisfy the most
craving soul. As may be supposed, we include here the work Barnby did as a
Church composer. That will remain, a permanent memorial when time shall have
effaced all recollection of triumphs at St. Andrew's, Wells Street, and
elsewhere. To it, therefore, one looks with particular interest, and to it we
must direct peculiar attention.
The complete list of
Barnby's writings, though it would not be specially remarkable as that of a
musician who restricted himself to composition, is a very striking monument of
industry in the case of a man constantly engaged with other branches of the
profession. Under the head of "Services," twenty-one works or
arrangements are mentioned. These include only one complete Service, but there
are two settings of the Te Deum, six of the Magnificat and Nunc
dimittis, four arrangements of the Preces and Responses, besides
chant forms of the Canticles, Offertory Sentences, &c. It is, however, when
we come to Anthems that Barnby's greatest strength and fecundity appear. This
part of the list contains forty-six numbers, and includes provision almost for
the entire round of the Christian year. There are Anthems for Advent,
Christmas, and Easter; for harvest celebrations and wedding rites; for St.
Michael's Day and Ascension; for Trinity and the Feasts of Apostles and
Martyrs, besides, of course, a large number for general occasions. From forty-
six Anthems to two Cantatas - "Rebekah" and "The Lord is
King" - is a great drop, suggesting that the composer recognised some real
or fancied limitations in that direction, though they do not appear in the
structure and character of either piece. A number of Hymn- tunes - not less
than 250 - thirteen Carols, nineteen Songs, thirty- two Four-part Songs,
composed or arranged ; five Trios for female voices, two Organ Pieces, and two
Piano- forte Pieces complete the roll ; looking into the details of which, one
is struck with the vast preponderance of religious music and the steadiness
with which Barnby kept mainly to the path of his early training and his
personal sympathies.
Concerning the merits of
Barnby's music, a precise opinion can only be formed after careful examination
and classification. But an important general remark is this - that the composer
showed himself in sympathy with the musical feeling of his day rather than with
the austere scholasticism of an earlier time. The fact might easily have been
different, since Barnby's most impressionable years belonged to a time in which
the older school of Church composers flourished and the era of free effects and
what was then looked upon as operatic sentiment had only just begun to dawn.
Barnby, how- ever, had few tastes in common with the contrapuntists. He was
essentially, if not assertively, a man of his own era. While shunning frivolity
and the undignified, he did not at all see why the Church should be closed
against musical developments in the direction of ornate or even pretty effects.
To this he gave practical expression in his works, but always with the prudence
and self-restraint which were conspicuous in his musical career. Hence the
popularity of his compositions as things having in them the modern spirit yet
not offensive to older tastes. We cannot forestall the judgments of the future,
and it remains to be seen whether Barnby's anthems, & c., will win for him
a lasting place among the finest masters of Church song ; but one would fain
believe, and can scarcely resist prophesying, that not a few of them will go
down to far distant posterity, and to that extent assure the fame of their author.
Next in importance to the
departed musician's various Church labours must be placed his work as a
conductor. This should be considered with reference to two distinct branches -
direction of choral compositions and of those exclusively orchestral. We employ
the word " distinct," because many of the qualities necessary in the
case of a choral conductor are independent of those essential to a chef
d'orchestre, and a man who fails in the one department may attain even to
eminence in the other. On the whole, and with regard merely to executive
success, the function first- named strikes us as more onerous than the second
and as demanding qualities wider in range, if not more profound. An orchestral
conductor has to do with comparatively few performers, all more or less
cultured and skilful, whom experience has made quick to understand and execute,
and who, moreover, cannot afford to trifle with their task or taskmaster. A
choral conductor, on the other hand, has to work upon a mass of amateurs,
unequal in attainment, varying in devotion, needing to be humoured, and
generally quick to resent what they regard as improper treatment. No doubt the
difficulties are less in some cases than in others, but we have indicated those
which, to some extent, are generally present. A choral conductor, there- fore,
needs the rare power of keeping men and women in good humour, while exacting
from them all the work that may be necessary and enforcing all the discipline
required.
As the conductor of an
orchestra running alone, and not merely in accompaniment, Barnby's
opportunities were few, save for a period during which he did work that has
largely escaped the notice of his biographers. We refer to his direction of the
daily orchestral concerts in the Albert Hall, through the season of 1873. The
repertory in this case is now before us, and contains eighteen symphonies,
forty-seven overtures, seven concertos, seven marches, and five works-
described as " miscellaneous." The daily con- certs given during the
winter of 1874-5 were more mixed and "popular," but the catalogue
contains, nevertheless, a long array of instrumental compositions. The support
given to these enterprises was scanty, and both Barnby and his orchestra strove
against depressing conditions; but the general merit of the performances was
surprisingly high. With characteristic shrewdness and self-knowledge, however,
the then rising musician saw where his chief strength lay. As a choral
conductor he felt in himself the power of supremacy and proceeded to develop it
accordingly. His great success all men know. It mattered not whether the music
was that of the oratorio, the secular cantata, or the madrigal. Wherever voices
were chiefly concerned, there he was master of the situation. Some excellent
choir-trainers were his contemporaries, but not his equals, much less his
superiors. In this respect his death involves an unqualified loss. Barnby's
compositions remain, but the qualities which made him a great choral conductor
have vanished with his life, and by so much is music in England the poorer.
Our friend had not
sufficient time given him to show his full resources as principal of a great
School, nor do we know the precise conditions under which he laboured during
the few years vouchsafed to him. But an indeterminate condition in this case
does not impair the value of his life and work. We could ill spare him, but
there remains to us the force of his example - the power of single-mindedness
which lies at the root of all distinguished achievement. For that let us
preserve his memory.
