1822–1876 · United Kingdom · Romantic
Charles Edward Horsley was an English composer, born in London in 1822 and died in New York in 1876. He studied with his father William Horsley and Ignaz Moscheles, and in Leipzig with Felix Mendelssohn. He wrote oratorios, chamber and piano music, and songs. The site has his choral piece "All My Heart This Night Rejoices".
Charles Edward Horsley was born in London on 16 December 1822. His father William Horsley and his grandfather John Wall Callcott were both well-known musicians.
He had his first music lessons from his father and from Ignaz Moscheles. Felix Mendelssohn was a friend of the Horsley family and advised him to continue his studies in Germany.
From 1841 Horsley spent three years in Leipzig. His teachers in Germany included Moritz Hauptmann, and he also studied with Mendelssohn and stayed in touch with him and his circle.
It was in these years that he began composing, and among his first works was a symphony.
Once back in England, Horsley began teaching and went on writing music. In Liverpool, around 1850, he wrote two oratorios for the Philharmonic Society, plus the anthem "I was glad".
He came back to London in 1853 and held the organist's post at the church of St John the Evangelist in Notting Hill until 1857. William Sterndale Bennett invited him to be among the founders of the Bach Society.
Horsley took charge of the musical side of London's International Exhibition. In 1860 he wrote the oratorio Gideon for the opening Glasgow Festival.
Horsley left for Australia in 1861 and lived in Melbourne until 1872, working there as a conductor of choirs and orchestras.
Soon after arriving he finished a string quartet in C major, with a manuscript dated March 1861. It is probably the earliest work for such an ensemble composed in Australia.
Horsley took the post of organist at Christ Church, South Yarra, but left after six months, discouraged by Bishop Perry's bans on music. While he lived in Australia he was commissioned to write the ode Euterpe, setting a poem by Henry Kendall.
In 1872 Horsley crossed to America. Within three weeks of getting there he became organist at St John's Chapel in New York, earning £500 a year, and he kept the job until he died.
In America he wrote sentimental and patriotic songs, which kept appearing until the last year of his life. Horsley died in New York on 28 February 1876. His wife Georgina carried out his wishes and brought his body back to London, where he is buried near his family in Kensal Green Cemetery. After his death, in 1876, his textbook of harmony was published.
Mendelssohn's influence on Horsley's music is strong. His first works were chamber pieces: a number of sonatas for flute, violin and cello, plus trios, string quartets, piano quartets, and roughly forty pieces for piano.
Later, like T. A. Walmisley and Sterndale Bennett, who were a little older, he found that choral music was what people wanted from him. Among his oratorios are Gideon (1860), David (Op. 30, 1850) and Joseph (Op. 39, 1853). He also wrote music for John Milton's Comus, the ode Euterpe, four anthems and various songs.
For orchestra he wrote a symphony (Op. 9) and a piano concerto from 1848. His overtures are The Merry Wives of Windsor (1857) and Genoveva (1853). In 1849 he composed his Violin Concerto, Op. 29. His American songs were sentimental and patriotic.
The site has Horsley's choral piece "All My Heart This Night Rejoices", for mixed choir, at the level "Intermediate+". It is a good place to begin getting to know the composer.