His works were too much in accordance with the taste, albeit the best taste, of the day to survive. He drew up a catalogue of them in 1818. They comprise 5 Masses, a Requiem, 3 Te Deums, and several smaller church works; 4 oratorios (including 'La Passione di Gesu Christo,' performed by the Tonkünstler Societät in 1777); 1 French, 3 Italian, and 2 German cantatas, and 5 patriotic part-songs; several instrumental pieces; 3 operas to French, and 33 to Italian words; 1 German Singspiel, 1 German opera ('Die Neger'), and numerous vocal pieces for one or more voices, choruses, canons, fragments of operas, etc.
SALMON, Eliza, whose maiden name was Munday, was born at Oxford in 1787. Her mother's family had produced several good musicians; her uncle, William Mahon (born 1753, died at Salisbury, May 2, 1816), was the best clarinetist of his day; her aunts, Mrs. Warton, Mrs. Ambrose, and Mrs. Second, were excellent singers of the second rank. She was a pupil of John Ashley, and made her first appearance at Covent Garden in the Lenten concerts given by him under the name of 'oratorios,' March 4, 1803. About 1805 she married James Salmon, and went to reside at Liverpool, where she became distinguished as a concert singer, occasionally appearing in London, and rapidly attaining the highest popularity. In 1812 she sang at Gloucester Festival, and in 1815 at the Concert of Ancient Music. From that time to the close of her career her services were in constant request at nearly all the concerts, oratorios, and festivals in town and country. Her voice was a pure soprano of the most beautiful quality, of extensive compass, very brilliant tone, and extraordinary flexibility. She excelled in songs of agility, and was unsurpassed for the rapidity, neatness, and certainty of her execution, and the purity of her taste in the choice of ornament. In the higher and more intellectual qualities of singing, expression and feeling, she was wanting. But she extorted admiration, even from those most sensible of her deficiencies, by the exquisite loveliness of her voice and the ease with which she executed the most difficult passages. She unfortunately acquired the habit of intemperance, which eventually occasioned derangement of the nervous system, and in 1825 she suddenly lost her voice. She visited the continent, hoping by change and rest to recover it, but in vain; the jewel was gone never to be regained. She endeavoured to gain a livelihood by teaching singing, but, although she was well qualified for it, the ignorant public concluded that, as she herself had lost the power of singing, she was incapable of instructing others. She re-married a Rev. Mr. Hinde, who died leaving her totally destitute. A concert was given for her relief, June 24, 1840, which proved a complete failure. She gradually sank into a state of the greatest poverty, and was dependent upon the bounty of those who had known her in prosperity for subsistence. In 1845 an effort was made to raise a fund to purchase an annuity for her. but it was only partially successful. She died at No. 33 King's Road East, Chelsea, June 5, 1849. Her death was registered in the names of Eliza Salmon Hinde.
Her husband, James Salmon, son of James Salmon (gentleman of the Chapel Royal, Nov. 30, 1789, vicar choral of St. Paul's, and lay clerk of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, died 1827), received his early musical education as a chorister of St. George's, Windsor. In 1805 he was appointed organist of St. Peter's, Liverpool, and was in much esteem as a performer. In 1813, having fallen into embarrassed circumstances (by some attributed to his wife's extravagance, and by others to his own irregularities), he enlisted as a soldier and went with his regiment to the West Indies, where he died.
William, another son of James Salmon, sen., born 1789, was also a chorister of St. George's. He was admitted a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, May 28, 1817, and was also lay vicar of Westminster Abbey and lay clerk of St. George's, Windsor. With an ungrateful voice he sang with much taste and expression, and was an excellent singing master. He died at Windsor, Jan. 26, 1858.
SALO, Gasparo di, a celebrated violin-maker of Brescia, probably born at Salo, a small town on the lake of Garda. The date of his birth is unknown, but he is supposed to have worked during the latter years of the 16th and earlier years of the 17th century. Gasparo di Salo was one of the earliest makers of stringed instruments who employed the pattern of the violin as distinguished from that of the viol. His works are of a primitive pattern, more advanced than that of Zanetto and other old Brescian makers, but totally different from that of the contemporary Amati family. The model varies, being sometimes high, sometimes flat: the middle curves are shallow, and the sound-holes straight and angular. The wood is generally well chosen, and the thicknesses are correct; and the tone of the instrument, when of the flat model and in good preservation, peculiarly deep and penetrating. The pattern of Gasparo di Salo was partially revived in the last century, owing no doubt to its great tone-producing capacity, by the celebrated Joseph Guarnerius (see that article), and to a less extent by some of the French makers. As a maker of tenors and double-basses Gasparo di Salo has never had an equal, and his instruments of these classes are eagerly sought after. The objection to his tenors is their great size, but their effect in a quartet is unrivalled. The two finest specimens known, formerly in the possession of Dr. Steward of Wolverhampton, are now in the collection of Mr. John Adam of Blackheath. Gasparo's violins, which are mostly of small size, are not in request for practical purposes.
SALOMON, Johann Peter, a name inseparably connected with that of Haydn, born
at S. Stephen's, he is now practising under me, to that degree that I predict a result not inferior to that of his celebrated father. Antonio Salieri, principal Maestro di Cupella of the Imperial Court of Vienna. Vienna, March 30, 1807.'
