ate Church, Manchester. He composed services and anthems, and an oratorio, 'The Fall of Egypt,' performed at Liverpool in 1780 and 1801. He died July 15, 1782.
Another son, Richard, born 1758, was organist of St. Ann's, Manchester. In Sept. 1782 he was chosen to succeed his brother, Robert, as organist of St. Peter's, Liverpool, which he afterwards quitted for the organistship of St. James, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, but in 1813 resumed his place at St. Peter's. He published a collection of hymn-tunes of his composition. His glee, 'Life's a bumper,' was very popular. He died Aug. 20, 1825. His execution was remarkable more remarkable perhaps than his taste. It was of him [App. p.814 "for him read Robartt, since Schnetzler's remark was made on him. See vol. iii. p. 542a."] that Schnetzler the organ-builder exclaimed, 'He run about the keys like one cat; he will not gif my pipes time to shpeak.'
A third son, William, was a singing man at the Collegiate Church, Manchester, and also a performer on the double bass, besides carrying on the business of music-selling in Manchester, in partnership with Sudlow. He died July 2, 1797.
WAITS, THE. A name given, from time immemorial, to the little bands of rustic Musicians who sing and play Carols, by night, in country places, at Christmas-time; and still very commonly applied to their less unsophisticated representatives, in larger towns, and even in London. The word is a very old one, and Bailey (Etym. Dict., 1790) defines it thus—'A sort of Musick, or Musicians [either of waiting, because they attend on Magistrates, Officers, etc., in Pomps, and Processions; or, of guet, a Watch, or guetter, to watch, Fr., because they keep a Sort of Watch a-Nights].' Mr. Skeat (Etym. Dict.) says that 'Wait' is identical with 'watch' and 'wake,' and that 'a wait' is one who is awake for the purpose of playing at night.'
The title of 'The Waits' has also been given, for reasons which no one has hitherto been able to ascertain, to a little Fa-la, for four voices, by Jeremy Savile, a Composer who appears to have been popular about the time of the Restoration, but is now known only by some Songs printed in Playford's 'Select Musicall Ayres and Dialogues,' in 1653, and the piece in question, which first appeared in 1667, in Playford's 'Musical Companion'—a new edition, with extensive additions, and a subsidiary title, of Hilton's 'Catch that catch can.'
The Madrigal Society concludes all its meetings with Savile's Fa-la; and the custom has been adopted by the Bristol Madrigal Society, and many other provincial associations of like character. The oldest mode of performance on record was that of singing the Music four times through; first f, then p, then pp, and lastly ff, always, of course, without accompaniment. Mr. T. Oliphant wrote some words to it, to avoid the monotony of the continuous Fa-la,—
Let us all sing, merrily sing,
Till echo around us responsive shall ring.
These words are now adopted by most Madrigal Societies; and, by advice of Mr. Oliphant, the piece is usually sung three times, instead of four.
WALDHORN (that is, Forest horn), Corno di caccia. The old 'French horn,' without valves, for which Beethoven wrote. The valve horn, necessary for the passages of modern writers, beginning with Schumann, is fast superseding it, and the French horn will soon be as much a thing of the past as a harpsichord; but its tones, and the contrast of its open and closed notes (adding another to the many human characteristics of the instrument)—as in the Allegretto of the Seventh Symphony or the Adagio of the Ninth—can never be replaced, and the want of them will always be a distinct and cruel loss to orchestral music.
WALDMÄDCHEN, DAS (das Stumme W. or das Mädchen im Spessartswalde). An opera in 2 acts; words by Ritter von Steinsburg, music by Weber. His second dramatic work; composed in 1800; produced at Freiberg, Nov. 24, 1800—not at Chemnitz in October [App. p.814 "for in October read until December"]. It was used up in Silvana das Waldmädchen, his sixth opera, 1810, and only three fragments are known. [App. p.814 "Concerning its being used up in 'Silvana,' see vol. iv. p. 412b."] Silvana was produced in English (as 'Sylvana') at the Surrey Theatre, under Elliston's management, Sept. a, 1828. It has been again revived, with a revised libretto by Herr Pasqué, and with 'musical amplifications,' at Hamburg and Lübeck in the spring of 1885.
WALDSTEIN, Count. One of Beethoven's earliest friends, immortalised by the dedication of the PF. Sonata in C, op. 53, now usually known as the 'Waldstein Sonata.' Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel was the youngest of the four sons of Emmanuel Philipp, Graf Waldstein und Wartemberg von Dux. He was born Mar. 24, 1762, just eight years before Beethoven, and his father died in 1775, leaving the property to the eldest son Joseph Carl Emmanuel. Ferdinand when of age (24 according to the German law) entered the 'German order' (Deutscher Orden) as a career; in 1812 however he obtained a dispensation from his vows and married, but, like all his brothers, died childless—Aug. 29, 1823—and thus with this generation the house of Waldstein von Dux became extinct. Count Ferdinand spent the year of his novitiate (1787–8)[1] at the Court of the Elector at Bonn, and it was then that he became acquainted with Beethoven. The nature of their connexion has been already stated. [See Beethoven, vol. i. 164 b, 165 b.] In 1791 or 92 Beethoven composed 12 variations for 4 hands on the PF. on an air of the Count's, and in 1804 or 5 he wrote the Sonata which has made the name of Waldstein so familiar. In this splendid work (published May 1805) the well-known 'Andante Favori' in F was originally the slow movement; but Beethoven took it out, as too long, and substituted the present Adagio for it. The Adagio is in a different coloured ink from the rest of the autograph. [See an anecdote about it, vol. i. p. 167 b.]
- ↑ Thayer i. 178.
