Callcott, John Wall (EN)

Callcott John Wall, *20 November 1766 Kensington (now London), †15 May 1821 Bristol, English composer, organist and music theorist. He acquired his musical knowledge under the tutelage of H. Whitney, the organist at Kensington, and in 1782 also under S. Arnold and B. Cooke, who engaged him as an oboist for concerts at the Academy of Ancient Music in London. In 1783, Callcott became assistant organist at Bloomsbury; in 1785, he was awarded a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Oxford for his Ode to Fancy. In 1787, together with S. Arnold and others, he founded the Glee Club in London. Between 1789 and 1802 he served as an organist in London churches; in 1791 he took several composition lessons with J. Haydn. In 1800, he took his degree of Doctor of Music at Oxford for the cantata Propter Sion non tacebo; at this time, he ceased composing, devoting himself to music theory. In 1807, he succeeded W. Crotch as a lecturer at the Royal Institution, but later that year a nervous breakdown forced him to withdraw from all his activities; he returned to it briefly between 1812 and 1816 during a remission of his illness. Callcott’s compositional output was partly published by his son-in-law, W. Horsley. 

Callcott is regarded as the most outstanding composer of English glee, alongside B. Cooke, S. Paxton and S. Webbe. Callcott’s glees, written in the traditional style for a male choir or – a novelty at the time – for two sopranos and a bass, were characterised by a simple texture and expressive melodics, thus providing an excellent repertoire for domestic music-making. In some works of this type, Callcott added piano accompaniment or completely altered the instrumentation, employing more sophisticated techniques (e.g. the double fugue in his glee O snatch me swift from these tempestuous scenes for soprano, alto, tenor and two basses, which is considered his greatest work). Callcott’s instrumental works are of little significance. As a theorist, Callcott primarily focused on issues of harmony, drawing on W. Boyce’s unpublished Treatise on Harmonic Theory; he also compiled a substantial amount of material for A Dictionary of Musicians, but only completed part of it.

Literature: D. Baptie Sketches of the English Glee Composers, London 1895; E.R. Jacobi Harmonic Theory in England after the Time of Rameau, “Journal of Music Theory” I, 1957.