Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/87

Macfarren commissions to write two more works of a similar class; one, the 'Resurrection,' was produced at the Birmingham Festival in 1876, and met with a very enthusiastic reception (Monthly Musical Record, 1 Oct. 1876), though it has been rarely performed since; the other, 'Joseph,' was given at the Leeds Festival 21 Sept. 1877. 'Joseph,' if of academic value, was certainly not a popular success. Concessions were made to the popular taste by the 'introduction of two contralto songs, apropos of nothing; but for the rest, it is feared that the public will find the work dry, if not pedantic' (Monthly Mus. Rec. October 1877, p. 155). It is possible that the want of success was due to the badness of the libretto. Both these works were conducted by the composer's brother, W. C. Macfarren. They were quickly followed by a cantata, 'The Lady of the Lake,' which was written for and produced at the opening of the Glasgow Town-hall, 15 Nov. 1877;

In February 1875, on the death of Sir William Sterndale Bennett [q. v.], Macfarren was elected principal of the Royal Academy of Music, and in March, professor of music at Cambridge University. In April the degree of Mus. Doc., honoris causa, was conferred upon him at Cambridge, an example which was followed in 1876 by the university of Oxford, and in 1887 by Dublin University. In 1878 he was also created M.A. by Cambridge, and in 1883 knighthood was offered to him, and was, after much hesitation, accepted.

In November and December 1882 he composed the music for the performances of Sophocles's 'Ajax' in Greek at Cambridge, Stanford directing (Mus. Times, 1 Jan. 1883). In 1883 Macfarren wrote his fourth oratorio, 'King David,' which was performed at the Leeds Festival in October under Sir Arthur Sullivan. 'Its reception was most cordial, this result being no doubt aided by a very fine performance' (ib. November 1883, p. 605). For the opening of the International and Universal Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, April 1884, Macfarren wrote his 'St. George's Te Deum,' when it was performed by the Handel Festival orchestra under Mr. Manns. A curious feature of the performance was the use made of the bands of the Grenadier and Scots Guards, in addition to the ordinary orchestra; and the introduction of the National Hymns of a number of European countries lent the work a peculiar appropriateness. From this date Macfarren devoted most of his time to his duties at Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music, and though he wrote some music (sonatas for violin and piano in A and C; a piano sonata in G minor; six other similar works, and a quartet in G minor for strings, most of which are still in manuscript), none of it was in the operatic or oratorio form. After some months of failing health, he died suddenly on 31 Oct. 1887, at his house, 7 Hamilton Terrace, London. A requisition for his burial in Westminster Abbey was refused, but a memorial service took place in the abbey after the funeral at Hampstead cemetery on 5 Nov. (Sunday Review, January, 1888). Macfarren married, on 27 Sept. 1844, Clarina Thalia Andrae, a native of Lübeck, at Marylebone Church. Madame Macfarren made her début on the stage, in the part of the page in her husband's opera, 'Charles the Second,' 27 Oct. 1849. As principal of the Royal Academy of Music, Macfarren introduced many new customs; he founded the fortnightly meetings of the professors, which, however, now have 'virtually been merged in the meetings of the R.A.M. club, since established' (Life of Macfarren, 1892, p. 347). He also gave an address at the beginning of each academical year at the Academy, and during his lifetime delivered an immense number of lectures on almost every conceivable musical subject at Cambridge, London (Royal Institution 1867; City of London Institute 1866–67–68–70), and elsewhere. His talents were of a very high order, and he had an extraordinary capacity for work, and an indomitable courage in facing the misfortune of blindness; but he was not a genius, and his works, especially those in the larger forms, lack genuine inspiration. They are consummate masterpieces or ingenuity and of learning; they are admirably constructed; they are the results of incessant labour, and the natural outcome of an intellect trained to the utmost pitch of mechanical skill, but they bear the stamp of artificiality (cf. Musical Times, December 1887). As a composer he exercised little influence over his contemporaries, and none over his successors.

As a writer of theoretical works Macfarren will possibly be known to posterity after his compositions have been forgotten; but these, too, suffer by their dogmatical and one-sided tone. His lectures and his text-book of counterpoint will always be of interest, at least as a landmark in contemporary musical history.

Besides the orchestral and vocal compositions already enumerated, he composed: 1. Quartets for strings, in A, 1843; G minor, 1852; G, manuscript, 1878. 2. Quintet for piano and strings, in G minor, 1844. 3. Violin Concerto in G minor, written for Strauss, and produced at a Philharmonic concert in 1873. 4. Symphonies in D, 1858; and E minor, 1874,