James Hook (1746-1827) - Great Britain Triumphant (1794)

James Hook (1746-1827) - Great Britain Triumphant (1794)

Performers: Caroline Schiller (soprano); Stefanie True (soprano); Mária Zádori (soprano); Zoltán Megyesi (tenor);

Reid Spencer (baritone); Capella Savaria; Mary Térey-Smith (conductor)

Drawing: James Gray Mayhew (1771-1845) - A project for a Triumphal Archway with classical figures in foreground

Further info: Great Britain Triumphant

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James Hook

(Norwich, 3 June 1746 - Boulogne, 1827)

English composer and organist. Born with a club foot (later corrected somewhat by surgery), he showed remarkable musical talent at an early age, being able to play the harpsichord at the age of four and performing concertos in public at six. For a time he was taught by Thomas Garland, the Cathedral organist, and before he was eight he had composed songs and his first opera. This was considered by connoisseurs as an ‘extraordinary instance of infantine genius’, but the music is lost. From 13 November 1756 fairly regular advertisments appeared in the Norwich Mercury for concerts at which Hook performed concertos, many of which were benefit concerts. Hook employed his talents in various ways at this time, including teaching, composing, transcribing music and tuning keyboard instruments. By 1763 he had moved to London, where his prowess on the instrument led to employment as a soloist in the Marylebone Gardens public concerts. On 29 May 1766 he married Elizabeth Jane Madden (?-1805) at St Pancras Old Church. In May 1767 he had applied unsuccessfully for the post of organist for the united parishes of St Matthew Friday Street and St Peter Westcheap, but before 6 September 1772 he had been appointed organist of St Johns Horselydown, Bermondsey. In 1768 he was appointed organist and composer to Marylebone Gardens. From 1774 to 1806 he also performed regularly at the Vauxhall Gardens and participated in the English opera at Covent Garden. On 18 October 1805 Hook’s wife died, and a year later, on 4 November 1806, he married his second wife, Harriet Horncastle James (?-1873). It is not known why he suddenly left his position at Vauxhall after almost a half century of service there. As a composer, he wrote over 2000 songs (including catches and glees), as well as 52 operas-stage works, 21 concertos, 40 odes (and an oratorio), and a large number of sonatas. His musical style was at once progressive and reflective of European continental trends. His son Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841) was a writer, intellectual, prankster and civil servant, mainly known for his practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1810.

MUFFAT, Georg (1653-1704) - Suite a molti stromenti (1682)

Georg Muffat (1653-1704) - Suite a molti stromenti aus

'Armonico tributo, cioè sonate di camera commodissime a pocchi, o a molti stromenti' (1682)

Performers: Gradus ad Parnassum; Wien Ton Kοοpman (conductor)

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Aria Allegretto

Further info: Armonico tributo cioè Sonate di camera commodissime a pocchi, ò a molti stromenti

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Georg (Georgio) Muffat [Mouffat]

(Mégève, bap. 1 June 1653 - Passau, 23 February 1704)

German composer and organist of French birth. He studied with Jean-Baptiste Lully and his contemporaries in Paris from 1663 to 1669. He returned to Alsace to become a student, first at the Jesuit college at Séléstat in 1669, then in 1671 at a similar institution at Molsheim, where he was appointed organist to the exiled Strasbourg Cathedral chapter. Then he held posts in Prague (1677), and Salzburg, where he was appointed organist and chamber musician to the Archbishop Max Gandolf in 1678. In the early 1680s, he was granted leave to study in Rome, where he met Arcangelo Corelli. He returned to Salzburg in September 1682. In 1690, he became Kapellmeister for Johann Philipp, bishop of Passau in a post he held the rest of his life. As a composer, his 15 orchestral suites model the French manner, while the 12 concerti grossi (1701) bring out the typical Corellian textures and contrasts of small and large groups. He also composed 5 sonatas for strings and continuo, a single violin sonata, 3 lost operas, and a volume of organ music containing 12 toccatas, a chaconne, a passacaglia, and an aria with variations. His 1699 treatise, the 'Regulae Concentuum Partiturae', is one of the best on continuo playing. He considered himself a German, although his ancestors were Scottish and his family had settled in Savoy in the early 17th century. He was a prominent composer of instrumental music who was particularly important for the part he played in introducing the French and Italian styles into Germany. Three of his sons worked at the Hofkapelle in Vienna: Franz Georg Gottfried Muffat (1681-1710), Johann Ernst Muffat (1686-1746) and Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770).