Charles Lucas (musician)

Charles Lucas

Charles Lucas (28 July 1808 – 23 March 1869) was an English cellist, conductor, composer, publisher and from 1859 to 1866 third principal of the Royal Academy of Music.

Life and career

Lucas was born in Salisbury, the son of a music-seller.[1] After receiving a musical education as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral between 1815 and 1823 he attended the newly formed Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, where he studied the cello under Robert Lindley and composition under the principal, William Crotch.[2] While a student he won several prizes, became head boy and was made a sub-professor of composition in 1824.[1] Among those he taught was William Sterndale Bennett, who four decades later succeeded him as principal of the academy.[3] In later years Lucas taught two other musicians who eventually headed the RAM: George Macfarren and Alexander Mackenzie.[4] The latter recalled that Lucas had been an outstanding teacher of counterpoint.[5]

After leaving the academy in 1830 Lucas was appointed to Queen Adelaide's private band, and became music tutor to Prince George (later Duke) of Cambridge and the princes of Saxe-Weimar.[1] He performed in London orchestras, eventually succeeding Lindley as the leading cellist at Covent Garden and other ensembles. He was devoted to chamber music, and participated in the British premieres of chamber works including Beethoven's late string quartets.[2]

In 1832 Cipriani Potter, conductor of the orchestra at the RAM, succeeded Crotch as principal; Lucas was appointed to the post vacated by Potter.[1] In this capacity he directed two performances of Beethoven's Symphony No 9 in 1835 and 1836. The Times praised the performances and hoped that the academy's efforts would spur the Philharmonic Society into presenting the work at its concerts.[6] Lucas later conducted for the society and other concert promoters. He served as a director of the society from 1856 to 1869, during Bennett's term as conductor of its orchestra.[7]

In his history of the RAM (1922) Frederick Corder wrote: "In July [1858] Cipriani Potter resigned, on the plea of old age and infirmity. He was a good and conscientious man rather than an able one, loved by his subordinates, the best of whom, Charles Lucas, – who had served him faithfully and earnestly begged him not to retire – was elected Principal in his place."[8] Corder commented that Lucas

....may be said to have been Potter's favourite pupil, and was certainly devoted to his master", and that Lucas's career "was one of unobtrusive usefulness, never of distinction. … [H]is appointment to the principalship of the Royal Academy was, to put it bluntly, a mere job. The position … was not one to attract any outsider of independent mind; the pay was small and the opportunity for self-advertisement almost nil; but Lucas knew Potter's work and carried it on.[8]

The finances of the academy had been precarious from its inception, and did not improve during Lucas's seven years in office. His successor, Bennett, had to rescue the institution from imminent dissolution.[9] On the musical side, Corder describes Lucas's tenure as the least interesting period in the RAM's history,[10] but Lucas was well regarded to the extent that a fund was set up in his honour to endow an annual "Charles Lucas Medal", given to the RAM student judged to have written the best musical composition. Among its recipients have been Arnold Bax, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dora Bright, Edward German, Arthur Goring Thomas, Joseph Holbrooke, Emma Lomax and Stewart Macpherson.[11]

Ill health led Lucas to retire from the RAM in 1866. He died three years later at his home in Wandsworth, London, at the age of 60.[1]

Music

Lucas's compositions included three symphonies, string quartets, anthems, songs, and a cello concertino.[2] He also wrote an opera, The Regicide, to a libretto by Metastasio translated by Thomas Oliphant, the overture to which The Times described as "a spirited composition, very noisy and without any great originality".[2][12]

As editor Lucas prepared a performing version of Esther for the Handel Society. Several of his works were performed at concerts of the Philharmonic Society.[2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hadden, J. C., rev. Anne Pimlott Baker. "Lucas, Charles (1808–1869)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 27 November 2017 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bashford, Christina. "Lucas, Charles", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 November 2017 (subscription required)
  3. ↑ Bennett, p. 15
  4. ↑ "Charles Lucas Medal", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 November 2017 (subscription required)
  5. ↑ "The R.A.M. Centenary: Sir A. Mackenzie's Memories", The Observer, 11 June 1922, p. 9
  6. ↑ "Royal Academy of Music", The Times, 22 June 1835, p. 3
  7. ↑ Edwards, p. 381
  8. 1 2 Corder, p. 70
  9. ↑ Bennett, pp. 14 and 348
  10. ↑ Corder, p. 71
  11. ↑ "Prize boards" Charles Lucas Prize, Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 21 November 2017
  12. ↑ "Philharmonic Society", The Times, 1 June 1841, p. 5

Sources

  • Bennett, J R Sterndale (1907). A History of the Royal Academy of Music from 1822 to 1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 63021710.
  • Corder, Frederick (1922). The Life of William Sterndale Bennett. London: Anglo-French Music Company. OCLC 19019505.
  • Edwards, Frederic George (1903). "William Sterndale Bennett (1816–1875), Part 2 of 3". The Musical Times. 44 (724): 379–381. JSTOR 903249. (subscription required)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.