Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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692 STEINWEG STEPHENS
corporation in 1907 are Charles H. Steinway
(son of Henry Steinway, born June 3, 1857),
president ; Frederick T. Steinway (son of Henry
Steinway, born Feb. 9, 1860), vice-president
Kahum Stetson, secretary ; Friedrioh Reidemeister,
treasurer. These gentlemen, together
with Henry Ziegler (grandson of the founder of
the house, born Oct. 30, 1857), constructor,
form the Board of Directors. Among the junior
members 'of the house are two sons of William
Steinway, Theodore E. and "William K. Steinway.
Nahum Stetson entered the service of
the corporation as salesman in 1876 ; Mr.
Keidemeister has been in the service of the house
since 1891. h. b. k.
STEINWEG, the original of Steinway
(Grotian, Helfferich, Schulz, Th. Steinwjbgs
Naohfolgbk). This finn of pianoforte-makers
in Brunswick succeeded, as the style implies,
to Mr. Theodor Steinweg or Steinway, when he
retired, in 1865, from the business founded by
his father, to join the New York firm of Steinway
& Sons, of which, being the eldest brother,
he became the senior partner. Soon after the
Steinway system of construction was brought
out in America, he introduced it in Germany,
and in the season of 1860-61 his concert instruments,
made on that principle, were publicly
used. His successors in Brunswick have maintained
the good reputation he founded for these
instruments, which are favoured with the preference
of some eminent pianists ; notably of
Madame Schumann, who from 1870 used them
exclusively in Germany for her public performances.
Although the present firm preserve
the Steinway model in the main, they claim
to have made deviations and alterations, particularly
in the action, that give the instruments
of
'
Th. Steiuwegs Nachfolger ' their own
cachet. A. j. H.
STENHOUSE, William, a writer on Scottish
music, was born in Roxburghshire, in
1773, and died Nov. 10, 1827. He was an
accountant in Edinburgh, and before 1817
conceived the idea of annotating Johnson's
Scots Musical Museum, with historical references
regardingboth words and music. He contributed
specimens of these notes to Blackwood's Magazine
for July 1817. For a republication of the
Scots Musical Museum, Stenhouse's notes were
printed in 1820, but laid aside for a considerable
period, being ultimately published in 1839
and again in 1853. Stenhouse's work has been
a bone of contention among musical antiquaries
since its publication.
There is undoubtedly a vast mass of interesting
and trustworthy information in the notes,
together with many careless and slipshod
references which have caused the whole work
to be condemned.
Stenhouse edited the musical portion of
James' Hogg's Jacobite Relics, 1819-21. F. K.
STEPHENS, Catherine, born in London,
Sept. 18, 1794 [the daughter of Edward
Stephens, a carver and gilder in Park Street],
having given early indications of aptitude for
music, was in 1807 placed under the instruction
of Gesualdo Lanza, whose pupil she remained
for five years. Early in 1812 she appeared in
subordinate parts at the Pantheon as a member
of an Italian Opera Company. Soon afterwards
her father, dissatisfied with the apparently
small progress she made under Lanza, placed
her under the tuition of Thomas Welsh. On
Sept. 23, 1813, she appeared anonymously at
Covent Garden as Mandane in ' Artaxerxes
with decided success. She repeated the part
on Sept. 28, as Miss ' Stevens,' and on Sept. 30,
under her proper name. On Oct. 22, she sang
Polly in 'The Beggar's Opera,' Rosetta in
'Love in a Village,' and afterwards Clara in
'The Duenna,' in each gaining ground in
public favour. In March 1814 she was engaged
at the Concert of Antient Music, and
later in the year she sang at the festivals at
Norwich and Birmingham. [She sang in
Edinburgh in 1814, and at Dublin in 1816,
1821, and 1825. Did. of Nat. Biog.] She
continued at Covent Garden from 1813 until
1822, when she broke with the managers on
a question of terms and transferred her
services to Drury Lane. She occupied the
principal position on the English operatic stage,
at the first concerts, and the festivals, until
1835, when she retired into private life. Her
voice was a pure soprano, rich, full, and powerful,
and of extensive compass, and her execution
neat, although not very remarkable for brilliancy.
She somewhat lacked dramatic instinct and
power, and her enunciation was very bad, but
she excelled in the expression of quiet devotional
feeling and simple pathos. In such songs as
Handel's ' Angels, ever bright and fair,' and
' If guiltless blood,' and in ballads like
' Auld
Robin Gray,' and Savoumeen ' Deelish,' she
captivated every hearer. On April 19, 1838,
she was married to the widowed octogenarian
Earl of Essex in his house No. 9 Belgrave
Square,! and on April 23, 1839, became his
widow. She survived him for nearly fortythree
years, dying in the house in which
she was married, Feb. 22, 1882. [A portrait
by John Jackson is in the National Portrait
Gallery.] w. H. H.
STEPHENS, Chaeles Edwaed, nephew of
the preceding, was born in Edgware Road,
March 18, 1821. Displaying early tokens of
musical organisation, he was placed under
1 In the Parish Eeglater o( St. Oeorge's, Hanover Square, the
marriage was oriEEinailr entered aa having been celebrated in the
'
Parish Church.' These last three words were, however*, subsequently
erased (in two places) with a sharp instrument, and ' 9 Belgrave
Square' written upon the erasures, but without any note, or
authentication of the alteration being made in the Register. The
original entry is proved bythe words the Parish Church 'remaining
unaltered in the certified copy of the Register at Somerset
House, until March 1882, when the discrepancy was pointed out by
the present writer, andmeosures taken for its correction. It is to
be hoped that this is a enlitary instance of so flagrant a violation
of the direcdons of tlie Act of Parliament as to the mode in which
erroneous entries in Registers are to be rectified.