Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 25 - Rimbault

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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Rimbault. — The Huguenot refugee family of Rimbault is associated with music. The first on record was a musical clock-maker of Great St. Andrew’s Street, near the Seven Dials, London. He principally traded to Holland and made (what at that time were called) Twelve-tuned Dutchmen-clocks which played twelve tunes, having moving figures in front, and landscape scenery behind. He gave employment to a German, Johan Zoffany, as a clock-face painter. Zoffany painted on canvas a portrait of Mr. Rimbault, which was most successful, and laid the foundation of that artist’s success and fame. Rimbault had an apprentice named Audinet, father of Mr. Philip Audinet, an esteemed engraver.^[1] A nephew of the clock-maker was Stephen Francis Rimbault, of 9 Denmark Street, Soho, organist of the Church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields for forty years; the date of his death was about 1834. His distinguished son, Edward Francis Rimbault, was born in Soho on 13th June 1816, and he at the age of sixteen became organist of the Swiss Church, Soho, where he imbibed his taste for ancient music. He was the pupil of his father and of Samuel Wesley. At the age of eighteen he undertook the support of his widowed mother and his younger brothers and sisters. At the age of twenty-two, i.e., in 1838, he came into public notice by a course of lectures on the History of Music in England. In the year 1840 he was chosen by acclamation to be Secretary, both of the Musical Antiquarian Society and of the Percy Society — both which societies were founded in that year with his active co-operation. In 1844 the Handel Society was founded, and he was placed upon its committee, and edited the oratorios of the “Messiah,” “Saul,” and “Samson.” About the same time he brought out numerous books of music for choral services in the Church of England. In 1842 he had become F.S.A. and Member of the Academy of Music at Stockholm. He arranged the collection of ancient music in the Music School of Oxford, and received the degree of LL.D. from that university in 1848. He was a member of the Council of the Camden Society.

Dr. Rimbault’s life was most industrious and serviceable. He was a teacher of music. He also occasionally ventured on musical composition. His song beginning:—

“Happy land! happy land! whate’er my fate in life may be,”

was for a long time “to be heard, sung and played, morning, noon, and night in every street in London.” He was a zealous contributor to Notes and Queries and to Leisure Hour. He was proficient not only in musical lore but also in general literature, and had a valuable library always at the service of students. He died after a lingering illness on 26th September 1876, aged sixty, and his widow did not survive for quite a year. Many well-known men had petitioned for a pension for Mrs. Rimbault, and a donation of £300 was granted by the Earl of Beaconsfield, which she did not live to receive. It was given to her son and daughter.

Dr. Rimbault’s publications were numerous.

1. Ancient Poetical Tracts of the Sixteenth Century (Percy Society, vols, v., vi., and ix.). 1842.
2. The Order of Chanting the Cathedral Service (a republication followed by similar ones, and by a volume of services never before published). 1843.
3. Who was “Jack Wilson,” the singer of Shakespeare’s Stage? An attempt to prove the identity of this person with John Wilson, Doctor of Music. 1846.
4. Memoirs of Musick, by Hon. R. North, Attorney-General, now first printed, with copious notes. 1846.
5. Bibliotheca Madrigaliana: a bibliographical account of the musical and poetical works published in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under the titles of madrigals, ballets, ayres, canzonets, &c. 1847.
6. Two Sermons preached by the Boy Bishop, edited by J. G. Nichols, with an introduction giving an account of the festival of the Boy Bishop in England. (Camden Miscellany, vol. vii.). 1847.
7. The Ancient Vocal Music of England [illustrations of Dr. Rimbault’s lectures at Liverpool and Edinburgh].
8. Musical Illustrations to Bishop Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a collection of old ballad tunes, &c, chiefly from rare MSS. and early printed books, 4to. 1850.
9. A Little Book of Songs and Ballads, gathered from ancient Musick Books, MS. and printed. With introduction and notes. 1851.
10. An entirely new History of the Organ, memoirs of the most eminent builders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and other matters of research connected with the subject. [Prefixed to “The Organ, its History and Construction,” by E. J. Hopkins.] 1855.
11. The Miscellaneous Works of Sir Thomas Overbury. (In the Library of Old Authors.) 1856.
12. The Pianoforte, its origin, progress, and construction, with some account of instruments of the same class which preceded it, viz., the claricord, the virginal, the spinet, the harpsichord, &c. To which is added a selection of interesting specimens of music by Blitheman, Byrd, Bull, &c. 4to. 1860.
13. The Early English Organ Builders and their works, from the fifteenth century to the period of the great Rebellion — an unwritten chapter in the history of the Organ; a Lecture delivered November 15, 1864.
14. A Catechism of the Rudiments of Music. 1870.
15. A Catechism of Harmony, adapted to the first requirements of a student. 1871.
16. A Catechism of the Art of Singing, with practical rules for the formation of the voice. 1871.
17. The Old Cheque-Book, or Book of Remembrance of the Chapel Royal from 1561 to 1744, edited from the original MS. preserved among the Muniments of the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace. 1872.
18. Gallery of German Composers, a series of portraits by C. Jäger, with biographical and critical notices by Dr. Rimbault, folio. 1873.
19. Musical Instruments [inserted in Bevan’s British Manufacturing Industries]. 1876.

(See the Musical Standard for 30th September 1876.)

1. Smith’s “Nollekens and his Times.”