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02/05/2018 |
The Forgotten Scottish Composer
It's
an unlikely story – a Jacobite earl’s son from Fife, who introduced a
modern Classical music style to Britain in the mid-18th Century, gained
notoriety for his rakish lifestyle, died at age 49 in Belgium and who
was then largely forgotten – until a manuscript was discovered in a
Highland castle 200 years later. However, this is an apt summary of the
life of Thomas Alexander Erskine, the 6th Earl of Kellie (Kelly), Lord
Pittenweem, Viscount Fenton or 'Fiddler
Tam', as he was known to many.
Born at Kellie Castle, Fife, on 1 September 1732, Thomas Erskine was the
first-born child to Alexander Erskine, 5th Earl of Kellie, and his
second wife, Janet Pitcairne – the daughter
of renowned physician, poet and Jacobite sympathizer Dr Archibald
Pitcairne. The 5th Earl was generally
thought of as a fool and an alcoholic. He was also a Jacobite supporter
who tried and failed to raise a regiment to support Prince Charles when
he landed in Scotland in 1745. It was reported that his regiment
consisted of four people: himself, his manservant, his chaplain and an
old lieutenant colonel. Although titled, the family were rather poor.
At an early age, Thomas developed a passion for music and began to learn
to play the violin. His first lessons were likely given by the family
chaplain, Samuel Thom, before he was later under the tutelage of the
well-reputed violinist Thomas Pinto, who regarded Erskine as an
unpromising student at this early stage. It is thought that the young
boy later studied violin with William McGibbon,
the Scottish composer and violinist.
Thomas Erskine attended the Royal High School, Edinburgh, for two years
but his education ended with the 1745 Jacobite Uprising. His father had
fought with the Jacobite army at Preston, Falkirk and Culloden.
Captured, while hiding in a tree on his estate, he was never tried but
was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, in fairly comfortable conditions,
until his release in 1753, having been deemed not to be a threat.
Musical activities and composition benefited from the more stable social
and economic situation during 18th-Century Britain, which resulted in
the widespread founding of musical societies and the promotion of
concerts. Many major cities saw the influx of foreign musicians; Handel,
Mozart, and then Haydn were all resident in Britain at some point during
the 18th Century. Edinburgh was no different and also attracted foreign
musicians, especially Italians such as Francesco
Barsanti, Domenico Corri,
Nicolo Pasquali
and Giusto Tenducci.
Other musicians to arrive in Edinburgh were Johann
Schetky and Joseph Reinagle. An
unfortunate aspect of this influx of foreign musicians was that they
tended not to stay in Edinburgh for many years and most seemed to suffer
from a drying up of musical inspiration during their time there. A
possible reason for this is that most musicians in Edinburgh had to
either teach or perform – or perhaps do both – to earn a living. This
left them with very little time to focus on composing. The Edinburgh
Musical Society was founded in 1728, replacing the St Cecilia’s Society,
and provided musical concerts throughout the 18th Century to its
members.
Thomas Erskine joined the Edinburgh Musical Society aged 17 and
continued both his violin and general musical studies. He closely
studied contemporary orchestral composition, with works by
Barsanti a particular focus. Having eagerly
followed musical developments and advances in Europe, Erskine set out in
1752 on his grand tour and his intention was to take advantage of any
situation to develop his musical skills. He visited Mannheim, Germany,
where the court orchestra practiced revolutionary orchestral techniques
and resident composers wrote music that would be played by the
orchestra. The young Erskine was energetically enthused by what he had
discovered and, on meeting the Czech composer and violinist Johann
Stamitz, he began a few years of intensive
musical enlightenment – both instrumentally and in the art of
composition.
At this time he embraced the Mannheim techniques, such as sudden whole
orchestra crescendos and the separate treatment of the wind section, and
shut himself away to master his violin playing. All the while, he
absorbed as much as he could from Stamitz,
who contributed greatly to the development of Sonata Form and was to
later greatly influence both Mozart and Haydn. It was a great tribute to
Erskine that Stamitz dedicated his Six Grand
Orchestra Trios Opus 1 (1755) to 'The Right Honorable Lord
Pittenweem'.
Thomas Erskine’s concentrated musical advancement during four years at
Mannheim and, it is likely, a year in Paris with
Stamitz was to come to an abrupt end when his father died in
1756, which caused him to return to Scotland to assume the title of 6th
Earl of Kellie. The new earl's enthusiasm for the Mannheim tradition is
evident in his own Opus 1 – six overtures that are written in the style
of Stamitz and comprise three movements –
which was published by Robert Bremner of
Edinburgh & London in 1761. Written for strings, oboes and horns, with a
figured bass for harpsichord, they featured fast first and third
movements with a slower second movement that would become the symphonic
standard.
The Opus 1 overtures were probably the first written in the modern
symphonic style by a British composer and the British public were
unaccustomed to hearing these techniques, which were soon to become an
embedded feature of symphonic music. In November 1763,
Bremner published a collection of 'six
symphonies in four parts, proper for great or small concerts, composed
by Signor Stamitz, his pupil the Right
Honorable Earl of Kelly and others'. In 1763 there was a pasticcio
opera, Il Giacatore, produced in Edinburgh
with an overture composed by Kellie and two years later a very popular
comic opera The Maid of the Mill was produced at Covent Garden with an
overture composed by Kellie.
A young Mozart and his family arrived in London in 1778 and The Maid of
the Mill was one of the outstanding successes of that particular season.
Whether young Mozart heard a performance is unknown, but what can be
said is that Kellie’s use of contrasting motifs was later to become a
feature of Mozart’s compositions. What's more, JC Bach borrowed heavily
for his Symphony in B Flat Opus 9 from Kellie’s first movement of that
piece. Kellie’s Opus 2 was published in 1769 and comprised six sonatas
for two violins and a bass which reverted to an older musical form.
Kellie quickly established a reputation as a composer of note, with his
compositions often being heard at London concerts. When writing of life
in Edinburgh in August 1775, Tobias Smollett, the Scottish author, poet
and surgeon, commented, 'There is one nobleman whose compositions are
greatly admired' – referring, of course, to Kellie. Another critic wrote
that 'while others please and amuse, it is his province to rouse and
almost overset his hearer. Loudness, rapidity, and enthusiasm announce
the Earl of Kelly'. Unfortunately, the earl's reputation for gambling
and high living was also gathering notoriety.
He was unique and unmistakable; noted for the coarseness of his wit, he
was known for loudly making outrageous puns in his Fife accent at some
of the best restaurants in Edinburgh. His drunken and boorish behavior
was notorious, even in an era when such exhibitions of oafishness rarely
drew much comment. One of Kellie’s friends, James Boswell, the famed
diarist, wrote on Thursday 20 October 1762 that he had borrowed five
guineas from Kellie at the Kelso Races and noted 'the romantic conceit
of getting it from a gamester, a nobleman and a musical composer'. The
pair often dined together, even though Boswell was dismayed by Kellie’s
non-religious and anti-clerical statements. Boswell also noted in his
diary, on October 6 1764 from Cassel, Germany, that 'at six I went to
the Comedie. On entering the house I was
surprised to hear the Orchestre play one of
Lord Kelly’s concertos. They however played it very ill.'
The Maid of the Mill was performed in New York (1769), St. Petersburg
(1772) and Jamaica (1779), thus expanding Kellie’s reputation. However,
he had been criticized by some for relying too heavily on and even
copying European composers. In May 1775, Captain E
Topham wrote of 'Lord Kelly, whose admirable talents and genius
in this science have been corrupted and restrained by his poorly copying
the compositions of other masters'. Topham
went on to suggest that Erskine composed better when he was drunk, 'I
refer you to these wilder compositions, where his proper genius has
broken forth, where his imagination heated by wine, and his mind
unfettered by precept, and unbiased by example has indulged itself in
all of its native freedom.'
During the 1760s, Kellie appeared to have spent much of his time in
London. He had become a member, in the late 1750s, of an elite musical
society called ‘The Temple of Apollo’ which mainly consisted of Scots.
Other members included James Oswald, the Scottish cellist, composer and
publisher, Captain (later General) John Reid, who founded the Chair of
Music at Edinburgh University, and Dr Charles Burney, the English Music
Historian. It was while in London that Kellie became the fourth Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of the Ancients – a post he held for six
years. He also was the 24th Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland
between 1763 and 1765. Holding both posts simultaneously was something
of an honour and he is the only man to have
done so. Indeed, at the time there was a strong link between freemasonry
and the Edinburgh Musical Society.
Back in Scotland, Kellie also founded the
Capillaire Club, which was 'composed of all those who were
inclined to be witty or joyous' and whose only rule was that members
drank Capillaire – an infusion of maidenhair
fern flavored with orange flower water. He wrote a minuet dedicated to
the club called the Capillaire Minuet. A
copy can be found in Dundee’s Wighton Centre
in the Central Library, along with a volume of other dedicated minuets
written by Kellie for Lord Stanley’s Fête Champetre,
at The Oaks near Epsom, in 1774.
Lord Kellie was also a member of a libertine club called the Beggar’s
Benison of Anstruther, which was also active
in Edinburgh and eventually had a branch in St Petersburg. This unusual
society's full title was 'The Most Ancient and Puissant Order of the
Beggar's Benison and Merryland' – a name
derived from the story of a meeting between King James V of Scotland and
a young female beggar who gave him a benison (blessing). Whether the
story is true or not is open to debate and is discussed in the book The
Beggar’s Benison: Sex Clubs of Enlightenment Scotland (2001) by David
Stevenson.
The Beggar’s Benison practiced dubious sexual rituals and initiations.
Much eating, drinking and the singing of obscene songs were a feature.
In addition to his fondness of puns, Lord Kellie took great pleasure in
inventing toasts to bizarre causes and events. These toasts became a
feature of the Beggar’s Benison and, although it appears that many
contemporaries found him tiresome in his habitual toast proposals, King
George IV was reputed to possibly be a member.
Erskine's involvement with the Edinburgh Musical Society continued in
1756. He was director from 1757 to December 1765, when he possibly never
paid his subscription fees and was described as 'gone out of the
society'. Nevertheless, he was re-admitted in June 1767 and became
deputy governor from 1767 until his death in 1781.
Although professional musicians were available, he often played the
first violin part himself and his works were often placed at the end of
concerts because he was playing and thus was afforded the opportunity
for an encore. After his death, none of his chamber music was played at
concerts – probably because he had led the chamber group. Charles Burney
was to praise Kellie’s musical skills by saying, 'His ear was so
correct, and his perception so acute, that in the midst of a turbulent
and tumultuous movement of a symphony of twelve or fourteen parts, if
any instrument failed in either time or tune, though playing a difficult
part himself, he instantly prompted the erroneous player with his voice,
by singing his part without abandoning his own.'
The Edinburgh Musical Society built St Cecilia’s Hall, in
Niddry Street, in 1762. Robert
Mylne, a fellow freemason and an old school
friend of Kellie, was the architect and it seems likely that Kellie
played a part in the construction, as he was the director of the society
at the time. St Cecilia’s, with its oval shaped concert room, is the
oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland and the second to oldest
in Britain.
Due to his reckless lifestyle, Kellie fell into a mound of debt and had
to sell all his estates in 1769 – with the exception of the Kelly
mansion. At this time, his health was also suffering and he made various
trips to spas on the continent to find relief from his ailments. His
dissolute lifestyle had effect on his appearance and he developed a
particularly ruddy complexion. It was on his return from a continental
trip in November 1775 that he narrowly escaped death when his ship was
wrecked in the English Channel. His relative, well known lawyer, MP and
Lord Advocate of Scotland, Henry Erskine is thought to have composed the
following lines relating to the event:
In ancient story this I’ve found,
That no Musician e’er was
drown’d.
A harp was then, or I mistake it,
Much better than the best cork-jacket;
The Grecian harpers went abroad
The lockers well with liquor stor’d,
For harpers ever had a thirst,
Since harping was invented first;
They in the cabin sat a drinking,
Till the poor ship was almost sinking;
Then running nimbly to the poop,
They gave the scaly brood a whoop;
And sudden as they formed the wish,
For every harper came a fish;
Then o’er the briny billows scudding
They car’d for drowning not a pudding.
Methinks my Lord, with cheek of rose,
I see you mount your bottle-nose;
Or firmly holding by a whole fin
Ride dégagé upon your dolphin.
‘Twas thus the tuneful Peer of Kelly
Escap’d some whale’s enormous belly;
And safe in London, thinks no longer
He’ll prove a feast for shark or conger.
Kellie’s escape from the clutches of death, coupled with the passing of
his mother in June of the same year, appeared to have a sobering effect
upon him. Boswell noted that 'he was more sedate and well balanced, and
not like Mount Vesuvius, as my uncle the Doctor described him formerly'.
Kellie’s untimely death in 1881 occurred following a continental spa
visit. His obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine recorded that 'he was one of
the finest musical composers of the age, and esteemed by the cognoscenti
as the first man of taste in the musical line, of any British subject'.
Acknowledging his sizeable reputation as a devotee of Bacchus, it added
'he loved his bottle but was a worthy social character'. Despite his
fondness of the fairer sex, he never married nor had any children and
his title passed to his brother, the Honorable Major Archibald Erskine.
He was given a memorial concert by Edinburgh Musical Society on 21
December 1881 and for three weeks after the concerts ended with a
performance of one of his overtures.
In the years following his death, how often his compositions were
performed is uncertain. Certainly, from the Edinburgh Musical Society’s
performance plan books between 1782 and 1786, there were 70 performances
of his overtures or symphonies – the most popular being his Periodical
Overture No. 13 and his Overture No 4, but all the chamber works seemed
to be lost. Indeed, it is estimated that only around one sixth of his
music was published in his lifetime. There is only one surviving truly
Scottish piece, Largo, which is based on the ballad The Lowlands of
Holland.
One reason why a great part of his work is lost stems from the character
of the man. He was renowned for his ability to write music very quickly
and often took only a few hours to compose an elaborate piece. Thomas
Robertson said of Erskine that 'being always remarkably fond of wind
instruments, whenever he met with a good band of them, he was seized
with the fit of composition and wrote pieces in the moment, which he
gave away to the performers, and never saw again; and these, in his own
judgment, were the best he ever composed'.
In 1839, his minuets were republished with two of his songs and a
biographical note, but his music was largely forgotten by concert
programmers and music writers alike. It wasn’t until the publication of
Dr HG Farmer’s History of Music in Scotland (1947) that his
compositional qualities were discussed. David Johnson, the Scottish
composer and musicologist, further promoted the work of Kellie through
his doctoral research and, latterly, John Purser wrote of the earl in
his book Scotland's Music: A History of the Traditional and Classical
Music of Scotland from Early Times to the Present Day (2007).
A further advancement in the appreciation of Kellie’s work was made in
1989 when Kilravock Castle was sold. At this
time a manuscript, composed for the Rose family, from around 1770 was
found. It contained 19 works attributed to the Earl of Kellie, 16 of
which were assumed lost: six string quartets, nine trio sonatas and a
sonata for two violins. The discovery enabled the recording of some of
the earl's 'lost work'.
Henry Erskine summed up his relative thus: 'Still, it is certain, that
of all the boisterous free livers of the age, no-one was so free or so
boisterous as Lord Kellie. His rough good nature is said to have been
very attractive to men younger than himself; and to them his manner of
life was dangerous in a high degree, in an age when a coarse joviality
was apt to be looked upon as a sign of good fellowship.'
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