Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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144 KOSEINGRAVE EOSEINGKAVE
Chapter. ' Robert Hodge, it may be mentioned,
had previously, when organist of Wells Cathedral
(1688), been corrected and admonished for
breaking windows.
At Christ Church Cathedral Roseingrave
appears to have been equally combative. By
a Chapter Act in 1700 the Dean and Chapter,
on hearing the Petition of Daniel Roseingrave
complaining of assault by Mr. Thomas Finell,
'ordered on hearing the Petition of Daniel
Roseingrave and examination of several witnesses
that the said Daniel Roseingrave and Thomas
Finell be and are hereby suspended ab officio
et beneficio '
; and further ordered ' that from
henceforth no Vicar or Stipendiary of this
Church do wear a sword under the penalty of
expulsion.' This suspension was subsequently
removed on payment of 'mulcts' by the offending
parties.
By his will, dated Oct. 21, 1724, Daniel
Roseingrave left the house iu Peter Street,
Dublin, in which he then dwelt, to his ' second
son Ralph,' ' to whom he also left the residue
of his property, subject to his providing an
annuity of £20 for his (Daniel's) wife, the said
Ann Roseingrave. To his ' eldest sou Thomas
he only left five shillings. Daniel Roseingrave
died in 1727, at Golden Lane (the same street
where, fifty-five years later, John Field was born),
and was buried in the churchyard of St. Bride's
Church. His widow died in 1732-3, and was
buried in the old churchyard in St. Patrick's
Cathedral.
Although Daniel Roseingrave seems to have
written a great deal of church music, and is
highly spoken of as a composer by Burney and
Hawkins, very little of his music is now extant.
One of his anthems, ' Lord, Thou art become
gracious,' is preserved in manuscript in the
library of Christ Church, Oxford, and another,
'
Haste Thee," Lord,' in the Bodleian library.
Mr. J. S. Bumpus has autograph scores of four
other anthems of his.
By a Chapter Act of Christ Church, Dublin,
dated Dee. 15, 1699, it is ordered 'that the Proctor
do pay unto Mr. Daniel Roseingrave three
pounds as a gratuity for his writing three services
and two Creeds for the use of the Church. Unfortunately
all traces of these compositions have
long since disappeared. L. u'c. L. D.
ROSEINGRAVE, Thomas (1690 to 1766),
the second son of Daniel Roseingrave, was bom
at Winchester in 1690. At the age of seven
he came with his father to Dublin, and from
him received his early education in music.
Thomas Roseingrave entered Trinity College,
Dublin, in 1707, and his then age is given in
1 Although in his wUl Daniel describes Balph as his ' second son/
his eldest son was Dattibl BosBrKORAVE, JUHlOB, who was born at
Winchesterin 1685, entered Trinity College. Dublin, in 1702, obtained
a scholarship in 1705, and took out his B.A. degree in 1707. He
'
was, doubtless, the young Koseingrave ' who appears by the College
Register to have been appointed organist of Trinity College Chapel
in 1705, as in that year Thomas was only fourteen, and Batph still
younger. In 1707 he waa given leave of absence for one year, ' In
order to improve himself in music' He had probably died some
years before 1721, the date of his lather's wllL
the College Register as sixteen. He did not,
however, proceed to his degree in Arts.
In a Chapter Act of St. Patrick's Cathedral,
dated 14th December 1709, it is ordered by the
Dean and Chapter 'that whenever Thomas
Rosseingrave sonn of Daniell Roseingrave, the
present organist of the said Cathedrall, being
minded to travell beyond seas to improve
himself in the art of music, and that hereafter
he may be useful and serviceable to the said
Cathedrall, yt tenne guineas be by the Proctor
of the said Canonry given him as a guift from
the said Canonry towards bearing his charges.'
He went to Italy in 1710, and at Venice made •
the acquaintance of the Scarlattis, Alessandro
and Domenico. For the latter he appears to
have formed a great admiration. Burney
(History of Music, iv. p. 263) says, that he
'
followed him to Rome and Naples, and hardly
ever quitted him while he remained in Italy,
which was not till after the Peace of Utrecht,
[1713], as appears by an anthem which he
composed at Venice in 1713, "Arise, shine, for
thy light is come." ' The manuscript of this
anthem, which he wrote with orchestral accompaniment,
is preserved in the Tudway collection
(Harl. MS. 7342). Burney says of it, '
There
is much fire in the introductory symphony,
which is of a very modem cast.' How long
he continued abroad is not exactly known, but
in 1720 we find him in London, where he
produced, at the Haymarket Theatre, Domenico
Scarlatti's opera, 'Nareiso,' with two additional
songs and two duets of Roseingrave's own
composition.
As a composer and organist he appears to
have been held in high estimation, his powers
of reading at sight and of improvising being
especially dwelt on by his contemporaries.
Burney says
'
: In his younger days, when
he enjoyed the inens sana in corpore sano, he
was regarded as having a power of seizing the
parts and spirit of a score, and executing the
most difficult music at sight, beyond any
musician in Europe.'
In 1725 he was appointed the first organist
of St. George's, Hanover Square. There were
seven other competitors, all of whom had to
give a performance on the organ before Dr.
Greene, Dr. Pepusch, and Mr. Galliard, who
acted as judges. Burney says that Roseingrave's
performance of the set pieces was by no means
good, but that when he was asked to improvise
on given themes, he ' treated the subjects with
such science and dexterity, inverting the order
of notes, augmenting and diminishing their
value, introducing counter subjects, and treating
the themes to so many ingenious purposes, that
the judges were unanimous in declaring him the
victorious candidate.'
Archdeacon Coxe, in his Anecdotes of George
Frederick Handel and John Christopher Smith,
speaking of Roseingrave at this time, says
: