Regency Men: Henry Rowley Bishop, Esq

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HENRY ROWLEY BISHOP ESQ THIS eminent musical composer is a native of London and was at an early age placed as a pupil with the celebrated harmonist Francis Bianchi It was in the year 1806 that he commenced his musical career as a writer of operas by com posing part of the airs for a ballet performed at the King's theatre under the title of Tamerlane and Bajazet He af terwards contributed the music for another ballet called Nar cissus and the Graces His next work was Caractacus a grand ballet of action produced at Drury lane theatre in March 1806 His progress as a theatrical composer was sub sequently interrupted by the unfortunate destruction of the theatre which was burnt to the ground in February 1809 the very night after the first exhibition of his new opera intitled The Circassian Bride the music of which perished in the flames a circumstance much to be lamented as it had been received with great and deserved approbation Thus thrown out of employment at one theatre he turned his attention to the other and the proprietors of Covent gar den not insensible to his merits formed an engagement with him for three years to become musical composer and director to that house On this office he entered at the commencement of the season in 1810 The first piece he brought out at Co vent garden was a musical entertainment in three acts called The Knight of Snowdown the story of which was derived from Scott's Lady of the Lake In this piece the new composer VOL XXIII S I Dd

displayed talents which evinced a probability that he would prove a valuable acquisition to the theatre Before the term of his engagement expired he produced The Virgin of the Sun The Ethiop and The Renegade and the fine musical picture of a storm and an earthquake which the first of these operas exhibited will not readily be forgotten by mu sical amateurs He subsequently entered into a fresh engagement with the Co vent garden proprietors for the period of five years immediately after which he wrote his popular piece The Miller and his Men The next of his compositions was a melo drama which was also favourably received This was followed by a num ber of other productions well calculated to support the fame which he had previously acquired In 1818 he again made a contract to supply the music for operas at Covent garden and in 1819 he became a joint proprietor with Mr Harris of the Oratorios which were confided entirely to his direction In 1820 a separation of interests took place after which these performances were conducted entirely by Mr Bishop He had been invested with power to continue the management of Ora torios for seven successive seasons but he relinquished the con tract at the end of the first to devote himself to the more immediate duties of his station as a theatrical composer In the autumn of 1820 Mr Bishop made a visit to Dublin where he was received with public honours and presented with the freedom of the city When the Philharmonic Society was instituted he was chosen one of the directors and several times since he has held the same office He is also profes sor of harmony at the Royal Academy of Music He has been concerned in the production of more than seventy theatrical pieces of which at least half are of his own compo sition His other works such as songs duets glees & c are very numerous and many of them have great merit He like wise arranged the airs in the first volume of the Melodies of Various Nations and composed the symphonies and accom paniments for three volumes of National Melodies Mr Bisbop's last engagement at Covent garden having ter minated in 1823 he has since become composer of the music for operatic dramas at Drury lane and though he has had opposed to him the fame and science of those celebrated masters Rossini
and Von Weber he has supported with credit his own reputa tion and the character of our national music His latest pro duction is the opera of Aladdin exhibited on Saturday April 29th which has been well received and if not equal to some of his other pieces is by no means unworthy of his genius Ladies Monthly Museum, June 1826

Born in 1787 in London to a watchmaker and haberdasher, Bishop began his music publisher career at the tender age of 13.  After a brief foray in training as a jockey at Newmarket, he took further training in musical composition and began to write music. Most of his career was writing musical compositions, or operas, for the theatre; operattas, or light opera, were common from the theatre and came from the German style of opera that featured spoken dialogue, songs, dances, and shorter, lighter musical compositions — more burlesque than traditional Italian opera.

that colony Т Т BISHOP SIR HENRY ROWLEY musical composer was born in London on the 18th November 1786 He received his artistic training from Francisco Bianchi at whoseinstance probably he was employed to write his first work the ballet of Tamerlan et Bajazet produced at Covent Garden in 1806 This proved successful and was followed within two years by several others of which Caractacus a pantomimic ballet written for Drury Lane may be named In 1809 his first opera The Circassian's Bride was pro duced at Drury Lane but by a singular misfortune the theatre was burned down after one performance and the score of the work perished in the flames His next work of importance the opera of The Maniac written for the Lyceum in 1810 established his reputation and probably secured for him the appointment of composer for Covent Garden theatre The numerous works operas burlettas cantatas incidental music to Shakespeare's plays & c which he composed while in this position are now in great part forgotten The most successful were The Virgin of the Sun 1812 The Miller and his Men 1813 Guy Man nering and The Slave 1816 Maid Marian and Clari introducing the air of Home Sweet Home 1822 His English adaptations or rather mangled versions of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Figaro and Rossini's Il Barbiere and Guillaume Tell were certainly no true service to art It seems almost incredible that a man of Bishop's undoubted genius should have been so misguided as to suppress the incomparable Figaro overture of Mozart in favour of one of his own In 1824 Bishop was induced by Elliston to transfer his services from Covent Garden to the rival house in Drury Lane for which he wrote with unusual care the opera of Aladdin intended to compete with Weber's Oberon commissioned by the other house As was to be expected the result was a failure and with Aladdin Bishop's career as an operatic composer may be said to close On the formation of the Philharmonic Society 1813 Bishop was appointed one of the directors and he took his turn as conductor of its concerts during the period when that office was held by different musicians in rotation In 1841 he was appointed to the Reid chair of music in the University of Edinburgh but he resigned the office in 1843 He was knighted by the queen in 1842 being the first musician who ever received that honour In 1848 he succeeded Dr Crotch in the chair of music at Oxford The music for the ode on the occasion of the installation of Lord Derby as chancellor of the university 1853 proved to be his last work He died on the 30th April 1855 in impoverished cir cumstances though few composers ever made more by their labours Bishop's name will live in connection with his numerous glees songs and smaller composi Rich tions rather than with his larger works which are now seldom or never performed in their entirety His Shake
speare songs and glees are familiar favourites with vocalists and genius is discernible in not a few of them His melodies are clear flowing appropriate and charming and his harmony is always pure simple sweet He was a prominent example of both the strength the weakness of the native English school in which the of Purcell alone stands unquestionably higher than his BISHOP AUCKLAND a market town of England The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. (1878). United States: C. Scribner’s sons.

Bishop was knighted in 1842, the first composer to receive such an honor. Married twice, his second marriage was to singer Ann Riviere who was twenty-three years his junior.  Although the couple had three children, eight years after their marriage, Anna Bishop (as she was styled after her marriage) abandoned her family to run off with her lover and accompanist, composer and harpist Nicolas Charles Bochsa. Bishop himself would die in poverty in London, and his memory was commemorated on the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens among other influential composers, architects, poets, and artists.

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2 Responses to Regency Men: Henry Rowley Bishop, Esq

  1. Miriam green says:
    June 6, 2026 at 8:22 am

    Shades of Sir Elton John! Never say he was a jockey, It certainly must’ve been a brief episode

    Reply

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