William Vincent Wallace

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William Vincent Wallace

William Vincent Wallace (born March 11, 1812 in Waterford , Ireland , † October 12, 1865 in Sauveterre-de-Comminges , Haute-Garonne , France ) was a British composer and musician.

Life

Grave of William Vincent Wallace

William Wallace was the son of a Scottish military bandmaster and grew up in Ballina, Ireland . When he moved to Dublin in 1823 , he had already practiced various instruments in his father's chapel . In Dublin he learned to play the piano , played second violin in the Theater Royal and was also organist in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles . In 1831 he married, converted to Catholicism and changed his first name to Vincent. At the age of 22 he performed his first violin concerto . Together with his wife, child, sister and brother, he emigrated to Australia in 1835 , where they founded the first music school on the continent in Sydney . Wallace went into debt, separated from his family in 1838 and began an unsteady life as a musician, which initially led him to South America . In 1841 he stayed in Mexico City . In New York in 1842 he helped found the New York Philharmonic Society . He then worked in Germany and in 1844 in the Netherlands . On November 15, 1845, his opera Maritana premiered at the Drury Lane Theater in London . At this and other London venues he premiered five other operas, including the Loreley opera Lurline . Five operas were not performed. Wallace has composed over 50 vocal pieces and around seventy chamber music works. Many of his arias appeared as separate print editions.

In 1850 he married the pianist Helene Stoepel in the USA, with whom he had two children. He acquired US citizenship , but from 1858 resided mainly in Europe. For health reasons, he moved with his wife to the Pyrenees, where he died. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery , London. Helen Wallace died in New York in 1885.

Wallace was one of the first composers to incorporate elements of South American folk music into Western art music . Together with MW Balfe , who has also been forgotten , he is considered the most successful composer of English-language operas in the 19th century.

After his death in France he was transferred to London and buried in Kensal Green Cemetery .

Operas

  • Maritana , libretto: Edward Fitzball , world premiere: Drury Lane Theater, 1845
  • Matilda of Hungary , Alfred Bunn, Drury Lane Theater, 1847
  • Lurline , Edward Fitzball, Covent Garden , 1859
  • The Amber Witch , Henry Fothergill Chorley, Her Majesty's Theater , 1861
  • Love's Triumph , James Planché , Covent Garden, 1862
  • The Desert Flower , Augustus Glossop Harris / Thomas John Williams, Covent Garden, 1863

literature

  • Axel Klein: Wallace, William Vincent . In: Friedrich Blume (Ed.): MGG . tape 17 . Bärenreiter Verlag, 2007, Sp. 406-407 .
  • Kathleen Hellyar Myers: William Vincent Wallace: life and works . Ann Arbor, Mich. : University. Bryn Mawr College , 1980.

Web links

Commons : William Vincent Wallace  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Catherine Mackerras: William Vincent Wallace , Australian Dictionary of Biography
  2. a b c d e William Vincent Wallace , in: MGG, 17, 2007, Col. 406f