Charles Edward Horn's Memoirs of his Father and Himself (review)

Charles Edward Horn (1786-1849), writing a brief résumé of his own career (pp. 77-9 in the present volume), seems to have thought of himself primarily as a singer. But today we remember him, if at all, as a prolific composer of theatre music whose only enduring gift was for the sentimental ballad, the best examples being 'Cherry ripe' and 'On the banks of Allen Water'.

That was how I treated him in New Grove (1980 and 2001), and I have no reason to change my view of him now. But Michael Kassler has uncovered a great deal of new information about him. A notebook kept by Horn and now held in the Nanki Collection in Tokyo forms the basis of this book. It begins with Horn's brief account of his father, a German immigrant musician who played a significant part in the Bach Revival. There follows a longer memoir of Horn's own life and career up to 1818, written at a much later date. Finally there are a few shorter narratives about the family, together with editorial summaries of letters that the younger Horn copied into the notebook.

Kassler presents a meticulous edition of these rather modest materials. His copious annotations take up about half the total space. He displays a sound knowledge of the general sources of information for this period of English musical history, coupled with a notable gift for rounding up evidence from little-used sources. He has demonstrated the same qualities in several other publications.

Horn wrote mainly about the immediate details of his work and personal life. Most of these are frankly unimportant. They increase the amount of raw data available to social historians of music; and, with the excellent index provided, they make the book a useful place to look if you are working on other musicians or musical topics from the period, especially if you don't happen to live in Tokyo.

But as a guide towards a deeper understanding of the musical life of the period, Horn's writings are not remotely comparable to the letters of Samuel Wesley, the journals of John Marsh or William Crotch, or even the published memoirs of Michael Kelly, William Thomas Parke, or the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. The limiting factor is Horn's own lack of education and intellectual capacity. He was not a talented writer, and he never stepped back to reflect, assess, or generalize.

He does tell a few amusing stories of a self- deprecating kind, occasionally throwing light on the condition of English opera from the musician's point of view. One of these is an account of his first appearance as a comic singer in 1809 (pp. 38-40). Another is the explanation of how and why he adapted parts of two Mozart symphonies to provide for a melodrama (p. 56). There are also some telling details of financial arrangements. It emerges that Horn's father was never paid the pension he expected after teaching George III's daughters for twenty-four years (pp. 89-90).

But the editor himself says nothing, in his introduction, about what he regards as interesting or significant in these materials, or indeed why he has published them. If Horn is a more important figure than we have realized, let's hope that Kassler will draw on this evidence to write a new appreciation.