Everything about Henry Fothergill Chorley totally explained
Henry Fothergill Chorley (
1808 –
16 February 1872) was an
English literary, art and
music critic and editor. He was also an author of
novels,
drama,
poetry and lyrics. He is best remembered today for his lyrics to "
The Long Day Closes," a part song set by
Arthur Sullivan in 1868.
Life and career
Chorley was a member of an old
Lancashire family. He began working in a merchant's office but soon took to musical
journalism. He began to write for the
Athenaeum in 1830 and remained its music critic for more than a generation. He also became music critic for
The Times. In these positions, he'd much influence. He had strongly conservative views and was a persistent opponent of innovation, but was a lively chronicler of London life.
In addition to musical criticism, Chorley wrote voluminously on
literature and
art. He also wrote novels, drama and verse, and various
librettos, including
The Amber Witch for composer
William Vincent Wallace,
The May Queen - A Pastoral (1858) for
William Sterndale Bennett, and two for his friend
Arthur Sullivan:
The Sapphire Necklace and
The Masque at Kenilworth. He published an English version of
Meyerbeer's
Dinorah, and wrote the words for several well-known songs, including
Gounod's
Nazareth,
Henry Russell's
The Brave Old Oak, Edward J Loder's
The Three Ages, the English form of the Bach-Gounod
Ave Maria, Sullivan's
The Long Day Closes, and the hymn
God, the Omnipotent!.
Chorley wrote the English libretto for Gounod's
Faust, for its first presentation in
London in 1863 (at
Her Majesty's Theatre). During rehearsals, it was found that the lines were unsingable. Both
Sims Reeves and
Charles Santley made strenuous and persistent complaints to Messrs.
Chappell's, and new translations were made secretly, since no-one dared to tell Chorley. The first he knew of it was at the first performance. Chorley, as reviewer, waited to make his comment until the final announced performance, of which he wrote that it was "seriously imperilled by a singular translation". Unfortunately for him, the final performance in question hadn't taken place, so the
Musical World was able to compliment him on his poetic imagination.
Chorley also published several books, including
Memorials of Mrs. Hemans (1836),
Music and Manners in France and Germany (1841),
Modern German Music (1854),
Handel Studies (1859),
Thirty Years' Musical Recollections (1862) and
The National Music of the World (1882).
Chorley died in
London in 1872, and is buried in
Brompton Cemetery.
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