Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

ROBINSON ROBINSON 113
;
'
inasmuch that crowds resorted to hear him '
Echo in Domenico Scarlatti's opera, 'Narciso.'
She afterwards sang in the pasticcio of Muzio
'
Scevola,' in Handel's 'Ottone,' ' Floridante,'
'
Flavio,' and Giulio ' Cesare ; in Buononcini's
'Crispo' and 'Griselda,'
'
and other operas.
Her salary was £1000 for the season, besides
a henefit-night. She possessed a fine voice of
extensive compass, but her intonation was uncertain.
She quitted the stage in 1724, having
two years previously been privately married to
the Earl of Peterborough, who did not avow
the marriage untU shortly before his death in
1735, although, according to one account, she
resided with him as mistress of the house, and
was received as such by the Earl's friends.
According to another account, she resided with
her mother in a house at Parson's Green, which
the Earl took for them, and never Uved under
the same roof with him, until she attended him
in a journey in search of health, a short time
before his death. She died at Bevis Mount,
Southampton, in April 1755, and was buried
at Bath Abbey. There is a fine portrait of her
by Faber after Bank, 1727.
Her younger sister, Elizabeth, intended for
a miniature painter, preferred being a singer.
She studied under Buononcini, and afterwards
at Paris under Rameau ; but though an excellent
singer, was said to have been prevented by
timidity from ever appearing in public.' A
fortunate marriage, however, relieved her from
the necessity of obtaining her own subsistence,
w. H. H. ; with additions from the Did.
of Nat. Biog.
ROBINSON, John, born 1682, was a
chorister of the Chapel Royal under Dr. Blow.
He became organist of St. Lawrence, Jewry, in
1710 and St. Magnus, London Bridge, in 1713.
Hawkins, in his History, describes him as ' a
very florid and elegant performer on the organ,
and elsewhere says : In parish churches the
voluntary between the Psalma and the first
Lesson was anciently a slow, solemn movement,
tending to compose the minds and excite sentiments
of piety and devotion. Mr. Robinson
introduced a different practice, calculated to
display the agility of his fingers in allegro
movements on the comet, trumpet, sesquialtera,
and other noisy stops, degrading the instrument,
and instead of the full and noble harmony with
which it was designed to gratify the ear, tickling
it with mere airs in two parts, in fact solos
for a flute and a baas.' On Sept. 30, 1727,
Robinson was appointed to succeed Dr. Croft
as organist of Westminster Abbey. He had an
extensive practice as a teacherof the harpsichord,
and will be long remembered by his double
chant in Eb. He died April 30, 1762, and was
buried. May 13, in the north aisle ofWestminster
Abbey. He married, Sept. 6, 1716, Ann,
1
A 'Mies RobiDflOn, Jun.,' appeared at nrury Lane, Jan. 2, 1729,
aa Ariel in ' The Tempert.' It is possible that this was Margaret
Bobinson.
VOL. IV
youngest daughter of William Turner, Mus.D.
She was a singer, and appeared at the King's
Theatre in 1720 in Domenico Scarlatti's opera
'Narciso,' being described as Mrs. Turner-
'
Robinson' to distinguish her from Anastasia
Robinson, who sang in the same opera. She
died Jan. 5, and was buiied Jan. 8, 1741, in
the west cloister of Westminster Abbey. Robinson
had a daughter, who was a contralto finger
and the original representative of Daniel in
Handel's oratorio ' Belshazzar,' 1745, and also
sang in others of his oratorios. w. H. H.
ROBINSON, Joseph,
was the youngest of
four brothers, born and resident in Dublin.
Their father Francis was an eminent professor
of music, and in 1810 was mainly instramental
in founding ' the Sons of Handel,' probably the
earliest societyestablished therefor the execution
of large works. His eldest son Francis, Mus. D.
born about 1799, had a tenor voice of great
beauty and sympathetic quality ; was a vicarchoral
of the two Dublin Cathedrals ; and, at
the Musical Festival in Westminster Abbey, in
June 1834, sang a principal part. He died
Oct. 31, 1872. Another son, WiUiam, had a
deep bass of exceptional volume ; while John,
born about 1812, died in 1844, the organist of
both Cathedrals and of Ti-inity College, had a
tenor ranging to the high D. 'The four brothers
formed an admirable vocal quartet, and were
the first to make known the German Part-songs
then rarely heard either in England or Ireland.
Joseph Robinson, born August 20, 1815,
was a chorister of St. Patrick's at the early age
of eight, and afterwards a member of all the
choirs, where his fine delivery of recitative
was always a striking feature. He also played
in the orchestra of the Dublin Philharmonic.
But it is as a conductor- that his reputation
is best established. In 1834 he founded the
*Antient Concert Society,' of which he was
conductor for twenty-nine years, and which
ceased to exist soon after his resignation. It
commenced its meetings in a private house,
then took a large room, now the Royal Irish
Academy of Antiquities, and in 1843 had made
such progress that it purchased and remodelled
the building since known as the Antient Concert
Rooms.' Amongst the last things '
written
by Mendelssohn was the instrumentation of his
'
Hear my Prayer ' (originally composed for
voices and organ only), expressly for Mr.
Robinson to produce at the ' Antients.' It did
not reach him till after the composer's death.
[See Mendelssohn, vol. iii. p. 145a, note 2.] In
1837 he became conductor of the 'University
Choral Society,' founded by the students. At
one of its concerts the music of Antigone ' ' was
given for the first time out of Germany. He
continued to conduct the Society for ten years.
[In 1849 he married Miss Fanny Arthur (see
below).] In 1852, at the opening of the Cork
Exhibition, Mr. Robinson conducted the music,
I
,