In 1834 he was organist at the Westminster Abbey festival, at which his daughter Clara sang some of the soprano music. He occupied a similar post at the first performance in England of Beethoven's Grand Mass in D in 1846. In a letter concerning the former festival Charles Lamb says: ‘We heard the music in the abbey at Winchmore Hill, and the notes were incomparably soften'd by the distance. Novello's chromatics were distinctly audible.’ In 1834 the Novellos went to live at 69 Dean Street, whence they removed, first to Bayswater, and subsequently to Craven Hill. From 1840 to 1843 Novello was organist of the Roman catholic chapel in Moorfields. In 1848 Mrs. Novello went to Rome for the benefit of her health, and later to Nice, where her husband joined her in the following year. There they lived in retirement until 25 July 1854, when Mrs. Novello died of cholera.
For some years prior to his own death Vincent Novello suffered from periodical attacks of illness, thought to have originated in his grief for the loss of his third son, Sydney. He died at Nice 9 Aug. 1861, within a month of completing his eightieth year. In 1863 a memorial window, having for its subject St. Cecilia playing an organ, was placed in the north transept of Westminster Abbey.
Novello was of medium height and somewhat stout. The best extant portrait is a life-size oil-painting by his son Edward, which has been engraved by W. Humphreys. It is now in the possession of Novello's daughter at Genoa.
On 17 Aug. 1808 Novello married Mary Sabilla Hehl, whose father was German and whose mother English. By her he had eleven children, of whom the daughters Mary (afterwards wife of Charles Cowden-Clarke, q.v.), and Clara were held in high esteem in the worlds of literature and music; and the son Joseph Alfred, known as his father's successor in the publishing house of Novello & Co.
Novello's claim to a permanent place in the history of music in England is founded rather upon the excellence of his editions and arrangements of the works of others than upon his own compositions. By his labours and publications he improved public taste. His artistic aim was high, but he committed some errors of judgment—for example, the addition of extra voice-parts to such national monuments as Wilbye's madrigals. His original compositions testify to a considerable command over the intricacies of counterpoint, but they are academic rather than the spontaneous utterings of genuine inspiration. He was deficient in the critical faculty; and of the eighteen masses said to be by Mozart which he published, no less than seven have been declared by Kochel to be either spurious or extremely doubtful. As an organist he rose to eminence at a time when skilful players were comparatively rare, and instruments vastly inferior to what they now are.
In the British Museum Music Catalogue twenty-five pages are devoted to Novello's works. Among these are, in addition to the works mentioned:
- ‘A collection of Motetts for the Offertory,’ &c., in 12 books.
- ‘Twelve easy Masses,’ 3 vols. fol. 1816.
- ‘The Evening Service,’ 2 vols., 18 books, 1822.
- A collection of masses by Haydn and Mozart found in the library of the Rev. C. I. Latrobe.
- ‘Purcell's Sacred Music,’ originally published in five large folio vols., 1829, but subsequently reissued in 4 vols. by J. A. Novello. The manuscript copy of this work was presented by the editor to the British Museum.
- Immense collections of hymn-tunes, kyries, anthems, &c., by various composers.
- ‘Convent Music,’ for treble voices, 2 vols., 1834.
- A song, ‘The Infant's Prayer,’ is worthy of mention because of the enormous popularity it once enjoyed, one hundred thousand copies of it having been sold.
- ‘Studies in Madrigalian Scoring,’ 8 books, London, 1841.
- Editions of Haydn's ‘Seasons,’ ‘Creation,’ ‘Passione,’ &c.; of Handel's ‘Judas Maccabæus,’ with additional accompaniments; of masses and other works by Beethoven, Spohr, Weber, Cherubini, &c.
- Pianoforte arrangements of Spohr's ‘Jessonda,’ ‘Faust,’ ‘Zemire,’ &c.; Mozart's ‘Idomeneo’ and ‘Figaro.’
- Three principal sets of organ works, 3 vols.; cathedral voluntaries, &c.
[Authorities quoted in the text, Georgian Era (1838), iv. 529; Grove's Dict. of Music; Athenæum, No. 1764 (1861), p. 226; Gent. Mag. 1861, pt. ii. p. 338; Hist. of Cheap Music, London, 1887, pp. 3, 9, 11, 23 et seq.; Musical Times; Hogarth's Musical History, 1835; Dict. of Music, 1824; Mary Cowden-Clarke's Life and Labours of Vincent Novello; private sources.]
NOWELL, NOWEL, or NOEL, ALEXANDER (1507?–1602), dean of St. Paul's, second son of John Nowell, esq., and eldest son of his father's second marriage with Elizabeth, born Kay, of Rochdale, Lancashire, was born in his father's manor-house, Read Hall, Whalley, Lancashire, in 1507 or 1508 (Churton, Life of Nowell, p. 4; according to Whitaker, History of Whalley, p. 460, in 1506; to Fuller, Worthies, i. 546, in 1510; to Wood, Athenæ, i. col. 716, in
