NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

musical dramatist, his arias are static, but nevertheless his output was
consistently workmanlike. The best that writers on opera seem to be able to say
of his music today is that during his fifteen years as composer in residence at
Covent Garden he kept the standard of music at a minimally acceptable level by
his extensive borrowings from Continental composers, sometimes
acknowledged, more often not. He is remembered today for the tune ‘The Saucy
Arethusa’ that Henry Wood included in his ‘Fantasia on British Sea Songs’ and
which has become standard fare at the last night of the Henry Wood Promenade
Concerts each year. But some of us may still choose to remember him on New
Year’s Eve when we join hands and sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
The man that was William Shield is captured on five sketches, which are all in
the National Portrait Gallery. Two are in the archive but the three I have seen
show him at the ages of fifty, seventy-five and seventy-nine years. In them we
see a prosperous, portly gentleman of declining years who has obviously enjoyed
life to the full. He has a kindly face and the appearance of a successful merchant
who would be more at home in the club smoking room than in the orchestra pit.
In pursuing his career he probably never forgot his humble beginnings and early
struggles and seized every opportunity that came his way in life. He successfully
worked his way into the leading musical circles of his day and concentrated on
what he did best. In modern parlance he ‘hit the jackpot’ with his ballad operas
and trivial afterpieces. He had plenty of opportunity to learn his trade playing for
many years in the pit at the Kings Theatre in London. He would have been only
too aware that English society of the time was more drawn to vocal than
instrumental entertainment and so gave them what they wanted. It seems ironic
that Avison, who dedicated himself to serious composition and his home town,
and did not go out of his way to court popular appeal reached no further than
local parish church organist in his lifetime and was buried without ceremony in
the local church yard, whereas Shield, who took the popular road to success
achieved wealth and status, became Master of the King’s Music and was laid to
rest in Westminster Abbey. But time appears to have redressed the balance and
whilst Shield and his popular entertainments (apart from a few song
arrangements by Benjamin Britten and Henry Wood ) are today of mere historical
interest, Avison, the man and his music, continue to demand attention. Both men
were very much of their time but Avison has that elusive quality that enables him,
through his words and his music, to communicate with us across the centuries.
21