Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/236

  [Obit. notice in the Art Union, quoted in Gent. Mag. 1841, new series, xvi. 101–2, and in Ann. Register, lxxxv. 181; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of Eng. School; Michaelis's Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, p. 148; Catalogue of National Gallery.] 

DAY, ALFRED (1810–1849), musical theorist, was born in London in January 1810. Though showing very strong musical tastes, in accordance with his father's wishes he studied medicine at London and Paris, and, after taking a medical degree at Heidelberg, settled in London in practice as a homœopathist. For several years he devoted himself during his leisure hours to maturing a plan which he had conceived for forming a complete and logical theory of harmony out of the existing mass of isolated and often inconsistent rules. The results of his study were given to the world in ‘A Treatise on Harmony,’ published in 1845. The work was unfavourably received, though its originality attracted even then the attention of a few scientific musicians. One of these, Sir George Macfarren [q. v.], subsequently adopted much of Day's theory, and mainly by his advocacy the work has become a recognised authority on many of the subjects of which it treats. ‘The speciality of the treatise is twofold: firstly, the standard laws of the ancient, strict, diatonic, artificial, or contrapuntal style are collected and systematically codified … and they are distinguished entirely from those of the modern, free, chromatic, natural, or harmonic style; secondly, though the natural chord of the dominant seventh had been more or less freely used for … three and a half centuries prior to the appearance of this book … no systematic principles of fundamental harmony had ever been deduced from the phenomena that bring that remarkable chord within the resources of the musician. … Day perceived that the acoustical laws of harmonic evolution were the genesis of all music; that the natural chords springing from the dominant were imitable by the appropriation of the chromatic element upon other notes in the key; and that these chromatic imitations of the dominant were identified with the key by their resolution upon, or progression into, other chords common to the same tonality’ (, Preface to Day's Treatise, 2nd edit.) In almost every branch of the scientific basis of music Day proposed some reform, and though many of his theories are open to attack, yet on the whole the work is one which no musician can neglect to study. Day died of heart disease, after a long illness, on 11 Feb. 1849.

[Day's theories are ably discussed by Mr. C. H. H. Parry in an article in Grove's Dictionary of Music, i. 436; Musical World, 17 Feb. 1849.] 

DAY, ANGELL (fl. 1586), miscellaneous writer, was the son of Thomas Day of London, parish clerk, and was bound apprentice to Thomas Duxsell, citizen and stationer of London, for twelve years from Christmas day 1563. He published in 1586 a curious and entertaining manual of epistolary correspondence, entitled ‘The English Secretorie, wherein is contayned a perfect method for the inditing of all manner of Epistles and familiar letters,’ black letter, 4to; reprinted in 1587, 1592, 1599, 1607, n.d. [1610?], 1614. His other works are: a pastoral romance entitled ‘Daphnis and Chloe. Excellently discribing the weight of affection, the simplicitie of loue, the purport of honest meaning, the resolution of men, and disposition of Fate,’ &c., 1587, black letter, 4to; a poem in six-line stanzas, ‘Vpon the Life and Death of the most worthy and thrice renowned Knight, Sir Phillip Sidney,’ &c., 4to, 6 leaves; and ‘Wonderfull Strange Sightes seene in the Element, ouer the Citie of London and other Places,’ n.d. (circ. 1585), 8vo. Some commendatory verses by Day are prefixed to Jones's ‘Nennio,’ 1595.

[Corser's Collectanea; Arber's Transcript of Stat. Reg. i. 228; Retrospective Review, new ser. i. 29–40; Hazlitt's Handbook.] 

DAY, DANIEL (1683–1767), founder of Fairlop Fair, was born in 1683 in the parish of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, where his father was a brewer. For many years Day was engaged in the trade of an engine, pump, and block maker in the parish of St. John, Wapping. Possessing a small estate near Fairlop Oak in Hainault Forest, he used to repair thither on the first Friday in every July in order to receive his rents. On these occasions it was his custom to invite some of his neighbours to accompany him, whom he entertained under the shade of the oak with a feast of beans and bacon. In the course of years the number of visitors to the oak on this particular day gradually increased, so that in 1725 the place began to exhibit all the appearances of a regular fair. Though it was no longer a private entertainment, Day continued annually to distribute a large quantity of beans and bacon underneath the shade of his favourite tree. For some years before his death the pump and block makers of Wapping yearly attended the fair in a boat covered with an awning and mounted on a carriage drawn by six horses. This procession is still continued, but the fair is no longer held, the