Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Bates, Mrs

Bates, Mrs., wife of Joah Bates, was a celebrated female singer. She was remarkable for her fine and clear articulation, which has been compared to that of Garrick in acting. She is said, by a professor of great reputation, to have possessed vast natural requisites for a singer, to which was added high cultivation. She studied Handel with that great judge and enthusiastic admirer of his compositions, the late Mr. Bates, her husband, and the Italian school with Sacchini. Her voice was full and rich, her shake brilliant and equal, and her expression, especially of Handel's pathetic airs, matchless. She was not confined to the soprano, for she sang the contralto songs, "He was despised," and "Re-turn, 0 God of hosts," with such feeling and expression as they had not received since the days of Mrs. Cibber. In the " Rosy Bowers " and " Mad Bess " of Purcell, she was inimitable.

BATES, JR., professor of music at Halifax, in Yorkshire, was an eminent performer on the violin. His brother was also eminent on the double bass.