William Vincent Wallace

For other people named William Wallace, see William Wallace (disambiguation).
William Vincent Wallace

(William) Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and musician. He is mainly known as an opera composer, with key works such as Maritana (1845) and Lurline (1847/60), but he also wrote some virtuoso piano music that was much in vogue in the 19th century.

Early life

Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, Waterford, Ireland. Both of his parents were Irish;[1] his father, of County Mayo, one of four children born in Killala, County Mayo, in 1789 became a regimental bandmaster with the North Mayo Militia based in Ballina. William was born while the band was temporarily stationed for one year in Waterford. The family returned to Ballina some months later and Willam spent his formative years there, taking an active part in his father's band and already composing pieces by the age of nine for the band recitals.

The band, having a reputation for high standards, apart from regimental duties would have featured at social events in big houses in the area. Under the tuition of his father and uncle, he wrote pieces for the bands and orchestras of his native area. Wallace became accomplished in playing various band instruments before moving from Ballina to Dublin in 1823.[2]

Wallace learned to play several instruments as a boy, including the violin, bassoon, organ, and piano. In 1830, at the age of 18, he became organist of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Thurles, County Tipperary, and taught piano at the Ursuline Convent there. He fell in love with a pupil, Isabella Kelly, whose father consented to their marriage in 1831 on condition that Wallace become a Roman Catholic and take the name of Vincent. The couple soon moved to Dublin, where Wallace was employed as a violinist at the Theatre Royal.

Career and travels

An outdoor bust of a bearded man wearing a large patterned cap and a dicky bow tie. A plaque beneath reads: Vincent Wallace composer. Born Waterford 1812, died Pyrenees 1865. "In happy moments day by day, The sands of life may pass. In swift but tranquil tide away, From times inferring glass."
A bust of Wallace can be seen outside Waterford's Theatre Royal

Restless and adventurous as a young man, Wallace emigrated to Australia in 1835, together with his wife and infant son, his sister Elizabeth, a soprano, and his brother Wellington, a flautist. The family first went to Hobart, Tasmania, and then to Sydney, where in 1836 Wallace opened the first Australian music academy and became known as the "Australian Paganini". His sister Elizabeth married a well-known Australian singer, John Bushelle, with whom she gave many recitals. Wallace also imported pianos and gave recitals in Australia under the patronage of General Sir Richard Bourke.

In 1838, he separated from his wife leaving her, his son and around ₤2,000 of debt and began a roving career that took him around the globe. Wallace claimed that from Australia he went to New Zealand on a whaling-voyage in the South seas, visited most of the interior provinces of India and spent some time in tiger-hunting, and crossed the American continent visiting Chile, Argentina, Peru, Jamaica, and Cuba, giving concerts in the large cities of those countries. In 1841, he conducted a season of Italian opera in Mexico-City. Moving on to the United States, he stayed at New Orleans (1841), Philadelphia (1842) and Boston (1843), before reaching New York (1844).

Scene from Maritana (1845): The wedding of Don Cæsar and Maritana

He returned to London in 1845 and made various appearances as a pianist. In November of that year, his opera Maritana was performed at Drury Lane with great success,[2] and was later presented internationally, including Dublin (1846), Vienna, Austria (1848), and in Australia.[3] Wallace's sister, Elisabeth, appeared at Covent Garden in the title role in 1848. Maritana was followed by Matilda of Hungary (1847), Lurline (1847/60),[4] The Amber Witch (1861), Love's Triumph (1862) and The Desert Flower (1863) (based on the libretto of Halévy's Jaguarita l'Indienne). He also published numerous compositions for the piano.

Vincent Wallace was a cultivated man and an accomplished musician, whose work as an operatic composer, at a period by no means encouraging to music in England, has a distinct historical value. Like Michael William Balfe, he was born an Irishman, and his reputation as one of the few composers known beyond the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time is naturally coupled with Balfe's.[2]

Later life

A white marble headstone surrounded by many other gravestones
Wallace's grave at Kensal Green Cemetery, London, in 2014; visible behind it is Balfe's grave

In 1850, Wallace became an American citizen after a (most likely bigamous) marriage in New York with the German-born pianist Hélène Stoepel, sister of composer Robert Stoepel. In New York, he helped to found the New York Philharmonic Society. In later years he became almost blind, and he died in poor circumstances at the Château de Haget, Vieuzos, in the French Pyrenees, on 12 October 1865, leaving two widows, a son from his first marriage who died in 1909, and two sons by Hélène who both committed suicide. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London; his epitaph reads "Music is an art that knows no locality but heaven – Wm. V. Wallace".[1]

Selected compositions

Opera

Orchestral music

Songs for voice and piano

Piano music

Edition (with CD)

Recordings

Opera recordings

Other vocal recordings

Piano recordings

Bibliography

References

Attribution

External links


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