Horsley, Charles Edward (EN)

Horsley Charles Edward, *16 December 1822 London, †28 February 1876 New York, English organist and composer, son of William Horsley, grandson of John Wall Callcott. He learned to play the piano from his father, and then from I. Moscheles. On the advice of Mendelssohn, who was a friend of the family, Horsley went to Kassel in 1839 to study with M. Hauptmann. In the years 1841–43 he stayed in Leipzig, where he remained in contact with Mendelssohn and became friends with L. Spohr. At that time he wrote many instrumental works, including Trio for piano, violin and cello, Symphony in D minor, and Overture, which was performed in Kassel in 1845.

After returning to London, he took up teaching music, gained recognition as a performer of piano and organ music, and continued composing. Around 1850 he moved to Liverpool. Commissioned by the Liverpool Philharmonic Society, he composed two oratorios: David (1848) and Joseph (1851), as well as the anthem I Was Glad for the consecration of Fairfield Church. He then returned to London, where from 1853 to 1857 he was the organist of St. John’s Church in Notting Hill. In 1856, supported by William S. Bennett, he unsuccessfully applied for a professorship at Cambridge. In 1860 he was asked to write music for the International Exhibition in London; for the festival in Glasgow he composed his third oratorio, Gideon.

In 1861 he emigrated to Australia; for half a year he was an organist at Christ Church, and from 1865 at St. Stephen’s Church in Melbourne. In the years 1862–65 he was the conductor of the Melbourne Philharmonic Society. On 7 December 1862 in Melbourne his cantata Comus was performed, and on 30 June 1863 the premiere of the oratorio David took place. In 1866, during the opening ceremony of an exhibition in Melbourne, Horsley organized a festival and conducted the staging of the lyrical masque R.H. Horne’s The South Sea Sisters, for which he composed the music. After the festival he declared financial bankruptcy and his intention to return to England. Before that, however, he went to Sydney, where he gave a recital for the opening of new organs at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. In 1870 he returned briefly to Melbourne, working as an organist at St. Francis’s Church. In April, commissioned by the mayor of Melbourne, he composed the cantata Euterpe, performed on 9 August at the opening of Melbourne Town Hall (and also in 1876 at the Crystal Palace in London). In May 1871 he gave a farewell concert, received with ovations. He briefly returned to England, where in Liverpool he founded The Ballad and Madrigal Troup. In 1873 he settled in New York, where until his death he was the organist at St. John’s Chapel and conductor of the Church Music Association. He wrote patriotic and sentimental songs. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

In Horsley’s work, now largely forgotten, clear influences of Mendelssohn are visible. Initially, Horsley composed mainly instrumental music: chamber works – including sonatas for flute, violin, and cello, duets, trios, string quartets, piano pieces – as well as orchestral works: symphonies, a piano concerto and a violin concerto, and overtures. In his later output, vocal-instrumental forms of a sacred character predominated, including oratorios, cantatas, choral hymns, and solo songs. His sacred music was the most highly regarded. The premiere of the Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 29 (1849) took place on 11 October 2016 in Fayetteville (Arkansas). During his stay in Melbourne, Horsley wrote extensive press commentaries on important musical events. He was the model for the composer character in E.S. Shepperd’s novel Charles Auchester (1853).

Literature: T. Radic Horsley, Cherles Edward(1822–1876), in: Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/horsley-charles-edward-3800/text6021; C. Brown Charles Edward Horsley, in: A portrait of Mendelssohn, New Haven 2003, pp. 261–266.