Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie

Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie

Thomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie (born September 1, 1732 at Kellie Castle near Arncroach , † October 9, 1781 in Brussels ), was a Scottish violinist and composer of the pre-classical period.

Life

Thomas Erskine, who was nicknamed the musical Earl , was the eldest son of Alexander Erskine, 5th Earl of Kellie , whom he followed in 1756 as Earl of Kellie .

He learned to play the violin as a child. In his high school days in Edinburgh he had lessons from William McGibbon (1690-1756) and Francesco Barsanti , who was living in Scotland at the time. From 1752 he lived in Mannheim for four years , where he made further music studies in the vicinity of the Mannheim school around Johann Stamitz . He may then have lived in Paris for another year. At the beginning of the 1760s Erskine lived in London, where he contributed to the spread of the Mannheim orchestral style, before settling in Edinburgh in 1767. The last printed works appeared in 1769, but later works were widely used as manuscripts.

Erskine was considered a talented violinist and composer, Charles Burney commented on this ; Erskine has in-depth musical knowledge and composing is quick and easy . Erskine was the conductor of the St. Cecilia Society in Edinburgh for many years .

In the summer of 1781 Erskine, ill health, traveled to Spa on an unsuccessful drinking water cure , but died on the journey home in Brussels.

Works (selection)

Some of his works were not printed and are considered lost, as are several of his symphonies. Some of his chamber music was also unknown until the 1970s, before several trio sonatas and string quartets were discovered at Kilravock Castle in 1989 .

• Six Overtures op.1 (Edinburgh, 1761)
• Collection with Six Simphonies in Four Parts by J. Stamitz, and his Pupil the Earl of Kelly (London, ca.1765)
• 6 sonatas, violin or flute, violin and bc (London, 1769)
• 9 sonatas, 2 violins and bc
• 2 overtures to pasticcios, to Ezio (Little Haymarket, November 29, 1764) and The Maid of the Mill (Covent Garden, January 31, 1765)
• 20 minuets in various collections, such as Bremner's Collection of… Minuets (London, around 1765), The Favorite Minuets Perform'd at the Fête Champêtre (London, around 1775), Minuets Composed by Kelly (Edinburgh, 1836)

Sources and Links

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, 1980; ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Significant Scots - Thomas Alexander Erskine
• Sheet music and audio files by Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie in the International Music Score Library Project

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexander Erskine	Earl of Kellie 1756-1781	Archibald Erskine