DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HAERIS HARRISON 333
T\'here, before becoming assistant stage-manager
under Mapleson in London. He acted in various
pieces in London, and in 1S79 became lessee of
Drury Lane, producing the annual melodramas
and pantomimes which revived the vogue of
that tlieatre. The annual visits of the Carl
Kosa Company to Drury Lane, in 1883-87, gave
Harris his first experience in operatic manage-
ment, and in the latter year he started on his
own account as an impresario, giving ' ' Aida with
an amount of care in the production -which
surpassed everything hitherto seen on the
English operatic stage. He introduced ilanci-
nelli to English audiences, and the revivals of
' Lohengrin ' ' ' and Les Huguenots were among
his great successes ; the brothers de Reszke
(Jean making his first appearance in England
as a tenor) were the great attractions of the cast,
and lime. Nordica, JlUe. lUnnie Hank, Maurel,
and others, were members of the company.
In the following season, Harris began the enterprise
at Co vent Garden which brought back the
fashionable world to the opera as a regular
amusement. It is not necessary in this place to
enumerate all the distinguished singers whom
he brought forward, from Mme. Melba downwards.
His qualities as a manager were very
remarkable, he had all the astuteness of a keen
man of business, and did not scruple to profit
by the discoveries of other managers, whether
iu the matter of singers or of operas. He had a
certain amount of musical taste, and his artistic
conscience led him to present operas as far as
possible in accordance with their composers'
intentions. He also realised what seemed a
hopelessly impracticable ideal of giving operas
in different languages in the same season, presenting
every 0[iera in the tongue for which it
was written. More than all this, he liad the
wisdom to see that it is wise to give the public,
not the kind of entertainment tliat thej' are just
beginning to get tired of, but that which is a
little in advance of their taste. He knew what
the public woidd like iu a few weeks' time, and
therefore secured its success, instead of struggling
to preserve the popularity of what had begun to
get unfashionable. He did much for the cause
of 'Wagner's music in England, and the careful
mounting which was characteristic of his management
throughout, had something to say to the
lasting popularity even of the later "Wagnerian
music -dramas with the fashionable audience.
On occasions he managed a set of German performances
at Drury Lane during the season of
polyglot opera at Covent Garden. He revived
the fashion of public fancy-dress balls, and the
patronage of tlie wealthy classes was retained
for the opera until his death, which took place
at Folkestone on June 22, 1896. His career as
a theatrical manager apart from opera does not
concern a musical ilictionary. He was knighted
in 1891, having been sheriff of London in that
vear. M.
HARRIS, Joseph John, born in London in
1799, was chorister in the Chapel Royal under
John Stafford Smith. In 1823 he was apjiointed
organist of St. Olave's Church, Southwark. In
1827 he published 'A Selection of Psalm and
Hymn Tunes, adapted to the psalms and hymns
used in the Church of St. Olave, Southwark.'
In Feb. 182S he quitted Southwark to become
organist of Blackburn, Lancashire ; in 1831
was made 'lay precentor,' or choir master at
the collegiate church (now the catliedral) at
Jlanchester, deputy organist, and on March 25,
1848, organist. Harris composed sonre cathedral
nmsic and a few glees, songs, etc. He died at
Manchester, Feb. 10, 1869. vv. H. H.
HARRIS, Joseph M.vciionald, was born in
1789, and at an early age became a chorister of
"Westminster Abbey under Richard Guise. On
quitting the choir on the breaking of his voice,
he became a pupil of Robert Cooke, tlien or-
ganist of the Aljbey. Harris was eniplo3'ed as a
teacher, and occasional conductor at minor con-
certs. His compositions are songs, duets, trios,
and pianoforte ])ieces. He died insane in May
1860, aged seventy-one. w. H. H.
HARRIS, Rene, or Ren'Atu.s, is the most
celebrated member of tliis famil}' of English
organ-builders. His grandfather had built an
organ for iilagdalen College, Oxford ; but his
father, Thomas, appears to have emigrated to
France, for Dr. Burney says that Renatus came
to England with his father a few montlis after
Father Smith's arrival (1660). To Smith, Rena-
tus Harris became a formidable rival, especially
in the competition for building an organ in the
Temple Church. [Smith, Father.]
Thomas Harris of New Sarum in 1666 contracted
to build an organ for Worcester Cathedral.
Renatus Harris in 1690 agreed to imjirove and
enlarge his grandfather's organ in Magdalen
College, Oxford. Rimbault gives a list of thirtynine
organs built liy this eminent artist. He had
two sons Renatus, jun., who built an organ
for St. Dionis Backchurch, London, in 1724, and
John, who built most of Ids organs in conjunction
with his son-in law, John Byfield.
The firm of Harkis (John) & Byfield(Johx)
carried on business in Red Lion Street, Holborn.
In 1729 they built an organ for Shrewsbury,
and irr 1740 one for Doncaster, wdiich cost
£52S, besides several others. v. pe p.
HARRISON, J., a London music-publisher,
originally a bookseller in Fleet Street, where he
succeeded J. "Wenman and published plays,
novels, and essays. About the year 1779 he
removed to 1 8 Paternoster Row and commenced
the issue of musical works from engraved plates,
including the ballad operas of the day and reprints
of works by Handel, Arne, and Boyce, and
others. In 1784 the imprints give 'Harrison
& Co.,' and in 1788 they are in possession of an
'
' additional warehouse named Dr. Arne's Head
at 141 Cheapside. In 1796 they are issuing