of great pride to him, though some advice offered to Walmisley on his asking Mendelssohn to look at a symphony written for the Philharmonic Society weighed unduly on his mind. Before he would look at the symphony, Mendelssohn asked how many he had written already. On hearing that it was a first attempt, 'No. 1!' exclaimed Mendelssohn, 'let us see what No. 12[1] will be first!' The apparent discouragement contained in these words was far more humiliating than the feeling of disappointment at the refusal even to look at the music, and he abandoned orchestral writing.
Walmisley was one of the first English organists of his day, and in a period of church music made memorable by the compositions of Wesley and Goss, his best anthems and services are little, if at all, inferior to the compositions of these eminent men. As instances of fine writing we may cite the Service in B♭, the Dublin Prize Anthem, his anthem 'If the Lord himself,' and the madrigal 'Sweet flowers,' a work which Mr. Henry Leslie's choir has done much to popularise. His position at Cambridge no doubt acted prejudicially. A larger professional area, a closer neighbourhood with possible rivals, would have ensured a deeper cultivation of powers which bore fruit, but promised a still richer harvest. In general cultivation and knowledge of musical history he was far in advance of most English musicians. He was one of the first to inaugurate the useful system of musical lectures, illustrated by practical examples. In a series of lectures on the 'Rise and Progress of the Piano-forte,' he spoke incidentally of Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor as 'the greatest composition in the world,' and prophesied that the publication of the Cantatas (then in MS.) would show that his assertion of Bach's supremacy was no paradox. It may be said confidently that the number of English musicians, who five-and-thirty years ago were acquainted with any of Bach's music beyond the 48 Preludes and Fugues, might be counted on the fingers, and Walmisley fearlessly preached to Cambridge men the same musical doctrine that Mendelssohn and Schumann enforced in Germany.
The volume of anthems and services published by his father after the son's death are a first-class certificate of sound musicianship. Amongst his unpublished manuscripts are some charming duets for pianoforte and oboe, written for Alfred Pollock, a Cambridge undergraduate, whose remarkable oboe-playing Walmisley much admired. To this day Walmisley's reputation as an artist is a tradition loyally upheld in Trinity College; and none that heard him accompany the services in chapel can wonder at the belief of Cambridge men that as a cathedral organist he has been excelled by none.
His published works in the Catalogue of the British Museum are as follows:—
Song, When nightly my wild harp I bring, 1835(7). Ode at the Installation of the Duke of Northumberland as Chancellor, 1842. Chants and Responses in use at King's, Trinity, and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge, 1845. Three anthems arranged from Hummel's Masses, 1849. Ode at the installation of Prince Albert as Chancellor, 1849. Attwood's Cathedral Music: 4 services, 8 anthems, etc., arranged by T. A. Walmisley, 1852. Two trios for trebles—1. The approach of May; 2. The mermaid, 1852. Choral hymn, 4 v. and organ. 1853. Four songs—1. Gay festive garments; 2. Sing to me then; 3. Farewell, sweet flowers; 4. The sweet spring day, 1854. Cambria, 1857. Cathedral Music, edited by T. F. Walmisley, 1857. Song, There is a voice, 1858.
WALOND, William, Mus, Bac., was admitted to the privileges of the University of Oxford June 25, 1757, being described as 'organorum pulsator' (whence we may suppose him to have been organist or assistant organist of one of the churches or colleges at Oxford), and on July 5 following took his degree as of Christ Church. About 1759 he published his setting of Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, believed to be the only setting of that poem in its original form. [See Greene, Maurice.] William Walond, possibly a son of his, about 1775 became organist of Chichester Cathedral, which post he resigned in 1801. After his resignation he resided in Chichester in extreme poverty and seclusion (subsisting upon an annuity raised by the sale of some houses, and being rarely seen abroad) until his death, Feb. 9, 1836. Some fragments of church compositions by him remain in MS. in the choir-books of Chichester Cathedral. Richard, son of William Walond of Oxford, born 1754, matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, July 14, 1770. He was a clerk of Magdalen College, Oxford, from March 24, 1775 until 1776. On March 14, 1776, he took the degree of B. A. as of New College, and was subsequently a vicar choral of Hereford Cathedral. George, another son of W. Walond of Oxford, was a chorister of Magdalen Coll., Oxford, from April 13, 1768 until 1778.
WALPURGISNIGHT, the night (between April 30 and May 1) of S. Walpurga or Werburga, a British saint, sister of S. Boniface, on which a Witches' Sabbath is supposed to be held in the Harz Mountains. 'The First Walpurgisnight, Ballad for Chorus and Orchestra, the words by Goethe, music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, op. 60,' is a setting of a poem of Goethe's, which describes the first occurrence of the event in an encounter between old heathens and Christians.
The intention to compose the poem probably came to Mendelssohn during his visit to Goethe in 1830, and he announces it as a Choral Symphony.[2] He began to write it in April 1831, and by the end of the month speaks of it as practically complete. On July 14, at Milan, however, he is still tormented by it, and the MS. of the vocal portion is dated '15th July, 1831.' The Overture—'Saxon Overture' as he calls it—followed '13th Feb. 1832,' and the work was produced at Berlin, Jan. 1833. Ten years later he resumed it, re-scored the whole, published it, and
- ↑ To understand the force of this we should remember that Mendelssohn's Symphony in minor, with which he made his début at the Philharmonic in 1829, though known as 'No. 1,' is really his 13th, and is so inscribed on the autograph. Had Walmisley been aware that Mendelssohn was merely giving his friend the advice which he had strictly followed himself, the momentary disappointment might have been succeeded by a new turn given to his studies.
- ↑ Letter to Klingemann, Nov. 1840. The idea of a choral symphony was carried out in the Lobgesang.
