NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

Avison and began playing the violin in local concerts and theatres. On completion
of his apprenticeship he took up musical posts first in Scarborough and then in
Durham. His big opportunity came, however, when armed with a letter of
introduction from a prominent violinist he secured a position in the Italian Opera
Orchestra at the King’s Theatre in London. In the orchestra he attracted the
attention of Cramer, the leader (a common name in music but this was probably
William Cramer, who came to London in 1772 and was also leader of the
orchestras at the Pantheon Opera House and of the Ancient Concerts) and was
promoted to the rank of principal viola, a post he held for eighteen years. Later
he replaced Michael Arne (1740-1786), son of Thomas Arne, as house composer
to Covent Garden for which over the next thirty years he turned out numerous
operas, pantomimes and afterpieces. He established a long friendship with
Joseph Ritson, scholar-republican, which undoubtedly fanned his interest in
folksong and music of the people, which he collected and used in his
compositions. He travelled to Paris and Rome in his middle age and at around
this time (1790) became a member of the King’s Music. In 1817 he was
appointed Master of the King’s Music and on his death, in his eighties in 1829, he
was buried with due ceremony in the musician’s corner of Westminster Abbey.
He left his viola to George IV and his library of books to Ann Stokes, with whom
he had either entered into marriage or taken up residence in the late 1780s.
Shield composed from an early age but it was his stage works that brought
him fame in his lifetime although they are never performed today and mostly all
but forgotten. He established himself as an opera composer and wrote around 43
works for the stage, which are said to be workmanlike if not entirely original.
Nevertheless, this popular genre of the day brought him a certain fame. His
ballad opera ‘Rosina’ for example was premiered at Covent Garden on 31
December 1782 with immediate success and within five years it was being
performed in Dublin, Edinburgh, Montego Bay, New York and Philadelphia.
Shield was very interested in preserving musical heritages and used folk songs
extensively in his stage works including those from the Tyneside region, but this
approach did not meet with everyone’s approval. Isaac Bickerstaff for instance, a
natural comic librettist, who collaborated with Thomas Arne on his most
successful opera, ‘Thomas and Sally’ (1761), who was of Irish decent and hated
English music ( and later fled to France rather than face charges of
homosexuality ) regarded Shield’s efforts as a tasteless abomination. Shield
experimented with orchestration and exotic flavours in music (string trios with
movements in 5/4 time for example) but it was his operas with large doses of
middle brow glees, strophic songs and vaudeville finales that succeeded best
with Covent Garden audiences and established his fame.
As we have seen from the success of his opera ‘Rosina’ Shield achieved what
Avison did not and that was international fame. The following extract form ‘A
History of Popular Music in America’ by Sigmund Spaeth, gives an idea of
Shield’s popularity there as a song writer:
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